Alberty ladies "Cookie Bake"

Memories in the making...

the Alberty ladies have decided to put on an annual "Cookie Bake."  It is really just an excuse to have more time to hang with each other...and who doesn't love baking cookies??

Participants included:

• "Nanny" Ann
• Emma
• our newest female Alberty member- Evelyn (11 months old)
• our gracious host, Kelly
• Great-Grandmother Clarice (a spry 92 year old!)
• Claire
• and yours truly 

Four generations of Alberty ladies, spanning 81 years apart.  A small miracle in itself:-)  We made Candy Cane cookies, M&M Chocolate bars, Stamped Ginger cookies, Peanut Butter Blossoms, and Russian Tea cookies all before we ran out of steam.

Expert bakers: Emma and Claire

Candy cane cookies

Hershey kisses for the Peanut Butter Blossoms

Greatest cheerleaders...

 

Evelyn:-)

Clarice

What a blessing to be able to share this time with the family.  The boys spent some time with Uncle Patrick, who was here visiting from NYC.  Any thoughts of feeling sad from not being invited to the cookie bake were quickly dispelled by the invitation to spend the afternoon with Uncle Pat.  If only he could be here every year for this!

Anyway, a great time was had by all....Here's to next year!

Last day of school...and FIRST SNOW OF THE YEAR!!

What is better as a kid than having it snow on the last day of school before Christmas break?  It was a perfect snow...nice and wet but not sticking to the roads.  Here are some pics of the kids building a snow family.  They couldn't wait to get home and change into their snow clothes.  We started to lose some daylight, so not sure how great a job we actually did.  Sure had fun though!!

Claire Bear:-)

Brendan, our champion builder!

Owen, hamming it up (as usual!)

Emma, look at that smile:-)

The finished product!  Only were able to make the "standard American family" with two children, a mom and dad:-)  Not enough daylight (or patience!) to replicate the Alberty family!!

Our furry friends enjoyed their first snow as well...

Lilly and Elvis

Charlie

Owen lost a tooth!

Owen lost his first tooth!

I have a feeling the Tooth Fairy is going to be frequenting the Alberty household a lot in the upcoming weeks.  Owen lost his first tooth and is very close to losing a second tooth.  You can see in the picture that his permanent teeth were actually pretty much already in right behind the baby teeth.  We were starting to get close to resorting to primative methods...threatening plyers, tying string to tooth/door and slamming door, etc.  Finally he was bored enough while home with pneumonia that he just kept working on it.  Mom had to do the final honors but it came out with one pull!  Way to go Owen!

Check back for Claire's first tooth which I'm sure will be coming soon as well!!

New Camera

Well, I had to take a little hiatus due to the fact that my camera turned up broken.  Boo!  Not sure how that happened but found out unexpectedly when trying to take pics of our annual Christmas Tree farm visit.  So no pics of the hours of searching for the perfect tree, or of the blister Brendan got because he didn't wear the proper socks for his boots, or of the bees swarming the apple cidar because of the uncharacteristically warm after-Thanksgiving weather, or of Darran cutting down the tree-we-chose-because-we-lost-the-crowd, or of Darran tying the tree to the top of the mini-van.  Alas, my friends and family, maybe it is all for the best.  You'll have to use your imagination in order to chuckle at THIS family!

Anyway, the problem has hence been solved.  We decided to come into the 21st century and get a camera with HD video capabilities so that we might actually get a video of these children before they graduate high school.  I hope to figure out how to share those on this blog so that you can truly appreciate a moment in our crazy lives:-)

Stay tuned...

Halloween

Here are some pics from the Halloween parade at the kids' school....

Claire, our little flower fairy

Owen, a true Ninja at heart

Emma, the "Good" witch

"Sir" Brendan Alberty, esteemed artist

Sunshine...Moonlight...Good Times...Boogie Down

Not only was this the best song of the night (complete with motions!) but I also think it sums up the Williams-Lindsay wedding perfectly....

Sunshine:  What a gorgeous day for an outdoor wedding!  All four of the kids were asked to be in our friend Shelley's wedding in September.  Shelley began helping me with the triplets when they were probably not even walking yet.  She "graduated" to being our first (and only until she got married and moved away!) babysitter that wasn't family, except that she became family:-)  What an honor to have our four children in her wedding!

    

Moonlight: What started during the day carried over into the night.  My children were troupers.  They went to school in the morning, came home for a short nap, headed over for pictures, did their thing and danced all night!  The moon was shining bright when we left that night at 11pm and they were complaining of leaving too early!!

Good times:  I truly believe this will be a memory they have for a lifetime.  They talk about the wedding a lot and are often heard singing Michael Jackson's "Blame it on the Boogie."  This song sums up how fun their DJ was as well.  He taught everyone motions...Don't blame it on the sunshine (hands go up like the sun shining)...don't blame it on the moonlight (hands go down to the rear and give a little shake!)...don't blame it on the good times (give a little dance)...blame it on the boogie (point your finger and go high then low)!  Hilarious!

Here's a pic of the boys all serenading the bride:-)

Boogie Down:  The kids did not stop dancing all night, particularly Brendan and Claire.  My two "shy" children were boogie-ing with the bridesmaids and groomsmen all night and had to be dragged away!  Emma took a bit to warm up to dancing especially after Claire caught the bouquet, but she ended up having a great time as well.  Owen doesn't meet a stranger, so he was hamming it up with the groomsmen all night but no one was surprised about that!  Unfortunately I was too busy dancing with the kids to get any pictures of all the dancing...but here is a great pic of them all being silly before the wedding:-)

Congrats to Shelley and Jon!

Last, but not Least!

Owen celebrates turning SIX, Tae Kwon Do style. Hi-ya!

Well, surpisingly, Owen didn't want a big hoop-la for his birthday party. He also wanted to wait until he made a few friends at his new school, so our "birthday celebration" ended up being about a month after his actual birthday. Wanting to keep it small, he invited three friends, along with his three siblings. He also didn't want anyone singing to him or carrying on about it being his birthday. I know, right?? Not the Owen we know at all! He usually loves to be the center of attention! However, we embraced his idea of a low-key-non-birthday-type birthday celebration with a trip to the local Tae-Kwon-Do place. Here he could just be the "all-boy" we know and love. He got the opportunity to kick, as above....

....to fight with combat weapons

....to break boards with his bare hands

....to play dodge ball

...and to frost and eat cupcakes (as long as there was no singing!!)

So what seemed a bit out-of-character at first, ended up being the best birthday party Owen could ever ask for...an excuse to kick and hit everything in sight! :-)

Happy Birthday Owen!