Imperial Walker

Thanks Bumpa for the Imperial Walker! Luke and Daddy had a great time spending TWO DAYS putting it together!!!!

Christmas Morning

This is what our house looked like for Christmas, after Santa's visit. There is something so magical about the way the house looks on Christmas morning, first in the still and then as it comes bustling to life. I have my own childhood photographic memories of Christmas mornings in the Aphena house... sneaking out in the middle of the night, past the booby traps my parents had set, and into the living room to breathe it all in... awesome!

A Mouthy Milestone!!!

Luke lost his first tooth just in time for Christmas! The Tooth Fairy came for a visit and left 5 bucks- lucky guy!!!

The Packers

This fall, Luke played flag football for the first time, and loved it! He was on the Packers (and has since become a huge Packers fan), and his coach, Coach Mike Borda, was great! The practices consisted of lots of "keep away" type games, where kids would run with the football while the guy in the middle would try to rip flags.

Flag football is helping me to appreciate football even more, too. What was different about flag football from other sports? Everyone on the field has a different job- it's not like soccer where they're all chasing after the ball at this level. And it's not like baseball where you do a ton of waiting. Football is fast paced and interactive. Luke loved blocking and playing defense. He took this role very seriously. On offense, he got to be the center, which he also enjoyed.

As the Altenbergs always say, we can't wait for football season to come again!!

Fun with Frosting

Nate and I tried out this new craft when we hosted our TGIF this month! We made these Christmas trees out of ice cream cones, green frosting, and candy. This was a fun and easy project- and so yummy!!!!

Joy To The World

We're getting in the Christmas Spirit!!!!

Sleep Sack

Nate loves his sleep sack. From infancy he was zipped up in one for bedtime and naps, and when he outgrew the sack, he was not ready to part with it. Sleep Sack is a "she", and Nate prefers her cold. Often he will open the back door and carefully arrange her on the back step so she can drop her temperature by a few degrees. If this is not an option, he will rub her against his bedroom wall in an attempt to cool her down. Several times a day, he queries, "Mommy... Where is my Sleep Sack?" and I always know this means he wants some down time. A definite lovey, Sleep Sack goes in the car, takes Luke to school, plays in the backyard, and often watches Nate's favorite show, "Dinosaur Train", on the couch.

The Gingerbread House

The Gingerbread House is a tradition in our family. I'm surprised it even got made this year, with Daddy and Nate scarfing down all the gumdrops and tiny candy balls!

Christmas2010

Joy Dots Green Christmas

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View the entire collection of cards.

Risky Business

For several weeks, Nate has been extremely thrilled by the act of sliding across the wooden floor on his knees. He likes to wear his footie pajamas for this activity, so it is often difficult to get him dressed in the morning. He's a daredevil- and so hilarious!!

Sarah's Wedding

This is my ditty cousin Sarah on her wedding day, October 30, 2010, celebrating with one of her bridesmaids, Aunt Lindsey. They make a very silly pair! Both of my boys got to attend their very first wedding, and they were so lucky that the event was the joyous nuptials of cousin Sarah to her beloved Kevin! Slurp!! It was a beautiful outdoor affair, at a ranch near Pala. The kids danced on the dance floor, wrestled and rolled down a giant hill, and fed carrots to some goats and horses. Congratulations to Kevin and Sarah! May you soon add more cuzzies to our growing brood!

Mike Ciampa (aka Indian Jones) playing with Shyla, Kylie, Luke & Nic in the shade of the setting sun.

Nic, Kylie and Luke!

Rod, the Cookie Monster, with Nate, Luke, and Woobie.

What lovely flower girls!

Sarducci's

The kids at Sarducci's, checking out the trains. Thanks Slurping Cousin for hanging with the kids so I could enjoy a ditty, peaceful brunch!!
Luke tries on the Davy Crockett look at San Juan Capistrano Mission.

Nate explores the Lewis and Clark exhibit- and a tepee!

Explorer Luke!

Today we headed down to Sarducci's in San Juan Capistrano to celebrate my birthday with my family. Sarducci's is one of our favorite places because along with eating on their glorious patio, you can take in the trains, explore the mission, and pet the animals at Zoomar's. Today we were lucky enough to do all three!

Thanks to my great family- Sherry, Don, Lindsey, Rod, Jamie, Matty, Mom, Burt, Creepy Sue, Kylie, Shyla and Slurping Jenny- for the awesome birthday brunch! It was great!

Thanksgiving Crafts

Luke and I decided to make this turkey out of a basket today when he came home from school. It had been awhile since we had done a fun project together, and it felt good! The turkey now rests on our kitchen table, collecting slips of paper which tell what we are thankful for.

Luke wrote "I love Mom Dad Nate and Molly" and put it in the basket.

Nate's Renamed Friends

One of Nate's favorite plush toys is a giant stuffed Tigger given to him by Bumpa. Recently, when I referred to Tigger, he told me that his name was in fact NOT Tigger, but Kristin. And still, weeks later, he is pretty insistent.

Not long after this, he renamed this cuddly, white stuffed polar bear we had gotten at Sea World. Over the summer, the bear had been christened "Pola". For weeks now, it has been "Jamie".

Here's to hoping that when he decides to randomly name one of his stuffed animals after Lindsey and Heidi he doesn't pick Dracula Mickey or the googly eyed rabbit with the detachable head and tail. Let's keep our fingers crossed!!

Halloween at South Bay Preschool

This is Nate's first year of preschool and we decided to do a Co-op, where I attend with him 50% of the time. It's been great, because we have made some good friends in Meredith and Emmy Mabry. Teacher Laura, pictured below with Darth Vader (Nate), is very nice.  

  

Nate's favorite toy at preschool is this lawnmower, which he gravitates to every day. He is very possessive of his mower. At preschool he aslo enjoys painting and snacktime. He does not really enjoy the organized crafts at the centers in the room, preferring to build elaborate train sets on the rug.

These are our preschool friends:   

 But these are our favorite friends of all!

Halloween at Towers

 A very handsome Captain Rex takes in the Towers Costume Parade, and then poses with some other friends who will help save the world.

 

Moms Club Halloween Party

This year we got to host the Halloween party for Moms Club. Nate has never been more excited than he was when the bouncer arrived at our house. The potluck party was so fun, and culminated in a parade around our block, giving the kids a great chance to show off their costumes! Nate in the castle bouncer

Jason making Halloween shapes out of playdough.

Ninjas, Power Rangers,Lakers, princesses and Star Wars guys on parade!

It's getting hot in here!!!

More shots of our parade!

Grandpa Ted

My Grandpa, Grandpa Ted, passed away last week. This is the obituary that Bumpa wrote:

Theodore (Ted) Oliver Bolduc passed away October 21, 2010 at the age of 91

He died of natural causes at the Hale Nohea care home in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Ted was born on New Years Day in 1919 in Augusta, Maine to Michael and Jeanette Bolduc. He was their only son and grew up with two younger sisters, Violette and Anita. He graduated from Cony High School in 1938 where he excelled as both an athlete and student leader. Growing up during the Great Depression, Ted developed a very strong work ethic and appreciation for the value of a dollar. His drive and ambition earned him public recognition and a trip to Washington D.C. to meet President Hoover in 1931 at the age of twelve for building his paper route service from nothing to well over 100 customers during the Depression.

Early on, Ted demonstrated an uncanny sense of insight when it came to investing. Just weeks before the stock market crash, he withdrew his money from the local bank and saved what would have a been a total loss. When his father asked him how he knew to take this unusual step, he said he just had a feeling. Though always the fiscal conservative, from that point and for the rest of his life, he had an uncanny flair for doing the right thing at the right time.

Ted enlisted in the Navy at the start of World War II and served as an Aviation Photographer, assigned primarily to "Lighter Than Air" (blimp) squadrons in Georgia and Florida. He married Navy nurse Bernice Fournier, from Waterville, Maine, in 1946 and together they raised eight children. Ted and Bernice left Maine in 1952 and ventured west with their first three children, settling in the San Fernando Valley in California back when the Valley was mostly orchards. As the Valley grew, Ted recognized early on that a career in real estate would probably be a fruitful path to follow for himself and his growing family. After working for a number of brokerage firms, Ted passed the brokers' exam and founded his own real estate company, Valley College Realty. He opened two very successful offices operating in the 1960's before finally selling both his custom home and business to the same man and moving his family to Santa Barbara in 1967. He subsequently became an expert broker in the purchasing of post office buildings when those assets were passed to the private sector. It was this enterprise that launched him to impressive financial success.

A self made man with only a high school education, Ted amassed a sizable estate but always lived a humble life for himself. He was very instrumental in assisting his children and grandchildren in their educational pursuits.

From the 1970's and through the 90's, Ted traveled to the far reaches of the globe leaving no place for wanting. His final years were spent residing mostly in California and Hawaii.

Ted was a very generous donor to two favorite charities throughout his latter years, Boys Town and Saint Jude's Children's Hospital. Stemming from his Catholic upbringing, these two causes were dear to him representing his desire to help the helpless and to give them a fair chance in life.

Ted is survived by his sister Anita of Augusta ME, his son Michael (and wife Wendy of Temecula CA), his son David (and wife Melody of Rancho Santa Margarita CA), his son Steven (Encnitas CA), his daughter Julie (and husband John Lauritsen of Santa Barbara CA), his daughter Mary (and husband Mered Oren of Carlsbad CA), his son Gregory (and wife Joanne of Santa Barbara CA), his daughter Denise (and husband Larry Caster of Kaneohe HI), eighteen grandchildren and three great grandsons. He was predeceased by his oldest daughter Susan Coffey of Green Valley AZ.

A funeral mass service will be held at 11:00 AM Friday November 5, 2010 at Saint Augustine church in Augusta, Maine.

I am so glad that I had the chance to know my Grandpa. Not all people get the chance to know their grandparents, and I have had the lucky fortune of having all of mine in my life well into adulthood.

I always appreciated my Grandpa, both for his generosity, and for his spunk. It is he who contributed significantly to my college education, and then started a 529 plan for my boys college funds, as well. He loved to travel- a shared passion of ours- and all of my best memories of him somehow involved travel. I give him credit, in general, for much of my worldliness. He generously sent Jamie and I on a European Adventure for three weeks to celebrate our respective graduations. He took the entire family on a very fun trip to Cozymel, which allowed me to become closer to my cousins. Once, when he was flying through LAX via Japan, he stopped by my place on Reading Road. We went to dinner together, and he presented me with a beautiful Japanese scroll from his travels. He always made me feel he was proud of me. It wasn't hard for me to make him proud- we valued the same sort of things- our Catholicism, hard work, independence. He didn't get along well with most others in the family, and I understand that. I am grateful to my parents, though, for always encouraging me to have a relationship with him, despite their own flawed relationships with him. I am a better person for it, and they have my love and respect for their efforts and selflessness.

The first time Grandpa really entered my life is also my greatest memory of him, and it turned out to also be the greatest gift he ever gave me, even more important to me than the college education or other experiences. When I was 14, he flew my cousin Nichole and I to Hawaii to stay with him for a week. He lived in the Ilikai Hotel on Waikiki beach- does it get any cooler that that? I have so many fantastic memories of that trip- being bored out of our skulls at the Polynesian Cultural Center, going on his tour of hotel lobbies, eating only a Papaya and Orange every day for breakfast (I am not a fruit eater!), shopping at a mall in downtown Honolulu, going to Hula lessons, snorkeling, and hanging out on Waikiki Beach. He also gave Nic and me some room to breathe, so we would spend the evening unsupervised, trolling for boys on the shore(she was so much more assertive than I!) and laughing together as we made the kind of mischief young girls do in Hawaii. It was a great way to get to know my Grandpa. And it was the last quality time I spent with my cousin Nichole before she died in a car accident a few months later. So you see what a tremendous gift this trip was.

Thank you, Grandpa Ted. I love you and I will miss you.

Irvine Pumpkin Patch: Round 1

Little Cuzzies

Jamie and Baby Matt-u


Robot Bumpa and his lil' partner, Sheriff Natey

Nate and Mom enjoying the hayride!

What a great time we had at the Irvine Pumpkin Patch with Bumpa, Jamie, Matthew, Stephanie, and Allison! I hope you ejoyed these highlights from our adventure!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch

This Fall, Nate started attending the South Bay Adult School preschool program. This is a co-op, where I work on Tuesday mornings, and drop him off on Thursdays. We are lucky enough to be in this program with our friend Emy, and her mom Meredith.

Nate's favorite part of preschool is playing with the trains on the rug and pushing the toy lawnmower on the playground.

Teacher Laura recently planned a field trip for our class to Cottone and Sons Pumpkin Patch. This is the first year Nate is really aware of Halloween, and he LOVED the pumpkin patch- the monsters, the pumpkins, the bouncer- it was preschooler heaven!

Irvine Pumpkin Patch: Round 2

The Irvine Pumpkin Patch has become a family tradition, and once again we were lucky to experience it with our friends from Moms Club and Towers, as well as with our Bumpa! We always enjoy the train, the haunted house, the hay ride, and panning for gold!

 Luke, Cooper, Grant, Blake, and Nate at the entrance to the Hay Maze 

 Riding the Train...

 Best buddies searching for gold....

 and tractor racing....

 Emmy and Nate, and then the Mabrys on the train below!