Holidays 2011 Part I....and II

The holiday festivities were only improved by the addition of good food. Deciding to host Christmas Eve this year encouraged our family to focus on not only the beautification of the palace, but the quality of the items delivered to our guests. In that vain, Queen Wendy pulled out all the stops and made from scratch all sorts of goodies including Polish pierogis (Grandma Bulawa's recipe), babka (Grandma Bulawa's recipe again), borscht/beet soup (Grandma Bulawa's recipe once again) and our annual piles of cookies/candies including these delicious chocolate peanut butter balls. :)

  On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed the company of family and friends including Aunt Penny (aka: Betty Toothpicks) and our cousins. The kids ADORE Aunt Penny and really enjoyed being surrounded by family on this very special holiday.

 Abby also received a very special 'love note' from her classmate, Fritz...who also came by with a spectacular container filled with sugar cookies that he had made just for her. :) PRECIOUS!!

We made our annual trek to "Christmas Street" ( a street containing 20 houses-- ALL of which decorate to amazing degrees for the holidays. Out front of the first and most decorated was Santa and Mrs. Claus! The street takes the opportunity to give back to the community by collecting donations which go directly to local food pantries. It's an awesome Christmas Eve drive.

  Santa was EXTRA good to our kidlets this year--probably due to having Blue Fred around all month! They received new bikes and lots of special toys that truly made their holidays even more enjoyable! 

After opening their presents and exhausting themselves with play, we rallied the following day to join our very good friends, the Schmiedels, at the New England Aquarium.  This was a fabulous day-long adventure in Boston during which the kids spent most of their time hanging around the penguins--Aramis' favorite! 

 

All in all, a fantastic kick off to our 2011 holidays! :)

"Blue Fred...."

He's the newest member of the royal family, Blue Fred--a special elf sent by Santa Claus from the North Pole to our home, to keep an eye on our little ones and teach us more about Christmas.  We've officially adopted him and have enjoyed his presence since the day after Thanksgiving, when he arrived oh-so-casually and appeared on our piano. Unfortunately, this little guy has gone through the wringer already--and has been molested by two of the three royals. As such, he has lost his magic (thankfully restored by Santa Claus after receiving an apology and a plea from one of our twins to return Blue Fred's magic) and has visited the North Pole Hospital--but all in all--he's hanging in there! What's more, our newest family member is quite mischievous--very much like the three tiniest royals themselves. He gets into very precarious positions and we just wonder how Santa chose him for our home. He must have some very strict rules up on the North Pole, since when he's here with us--he's all about party, party, party!!!! :)

 He stole a banana from our fruit bowl....not sure why he chose that over an apple.....

We found him boozing it up and playing board games with Rudolph, Herbie, Frostie and several Star Wars PEZ friends recently as well....bad boy!!!

 In the potty with a toilet wipe....hmmmmm.....

 Hiding alongside Simon the Chipmunk and Rudolph in a light....c'mon....he could have melted! :(

And he was even ballsy enough to 'poof' one of our boys' construction vehicles to the top of our oven hood where it stuck for an entire 24 hours! On top of that, he kidnapped some gingerbread men. WHY oh WHY is he so mischievous?? We assume we'll find out on Christmas Eve. :)

To futher get into the Christmas spirit, we took the kidlets into Boston and visited the HUGE Faneuil Hall Christmas tree (see how tiny we all are in front of it?) and to do some holiday shopping and perusing around one of the most beautiful cities/waterfronts in America. Ahhhhh...we love our home!

Family photos

Thanks to Uncle Regis (www.PhotographybyRegis.net), lovely wife Laurie, and their super-fun son, R.J., we completed family photos this year--that YES, will adorn our holiday cards--so expect them in the mail this week! :)  Our family is growing up--so hard to believe that we once had three babies at once. Now, kidlets--and adorable ones at that! :)

Welcome holidays!!!!!.....

YEAH! The holiday season is finally upon us. The royals wasted NO time getting ready for the season, so the kingdom is lit to perfection inside and out, the halls are properly decked for company, and we've even added a new member to the royal family--Blue Fred (photos to come soon)   :)

 Each year, we purchase a special family ornament. The bears ornament is this year's addition to our annual collection--so chosen by the kidlets. :) Cute, hunh?

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...."

And the children specifically requested a BLUE tree. We have 5 trees in our home--a big one in the living room, another big one in the children's basement playroom, one each in their bedrooms and one in the foyer. That is a lot to decorate--and needless to say--this year's color of blue made it to 3 out of the 5 total trees. Wendy and Tony put their foot down and decorated the other two in reds, golds and green, since blue doesn't really show up as well on a very green tree. :( But, we succumb to the whims of our little ones as the holidays really ARE all for them. :)

 The kids decorating the living room tree with King Tony....

 Princess Abs really enjoyed doing her part this year....

 Everyone got in on the fun--as we had lots of trees to decorate--and it all needed to be done before the end of the Thanksgiving holiday! :)

 Alec took a break and had a snack, and interestingly, was wearing one of the newest creations from Auntie Wendy (www.chicboutiquecreations.com) who designed yet another fabulous holiday shirt for the kids to wear/show off. If you want something super creative that kids LOVE (personalized too), visit Chic Boutique. They are having a holiday sale now too!! Great Christmas gifts!!

 The kids and Tony head out to cut down our main Christmas tree. Tony asked, "Is this one big enough." Wendy said, 'um NO...it has to be TWICE your size. What are cathedral ceilings for anyway if not a gigantic Christmas tree?" :)  She got her wish....of course. :)

And, after a busy weekend of tree hunting, decorating, and Black Friday shopping, everyone was nestled snug in their beds....Let's see how long they stay that way! :)

All Hallows Even and more!

Halloween is a favorite holiday in our family. Sure, it takes a second seat behind Christmas, but Halloween comes at a time of year when we can all comfortably be outside, and do a ton of activities including Fall festivals, harvest events and farm visits.

We've been fortunate enough to become close friends with some absolutely amazing families in the area, and one in particular, the Lembos, host an awesome Pumpkin Carving Party each year. They fill their back yard with hay bales and super-scary cuisine, and the kids enjoy each other's company as they pull apart pumpkins and compete for a prize. It is one of the most enjoyable events we've ever attended, and we think our kids agree! Everyone got into the spirit of Halloween this year--carving pumpkins, playing dress up (in fact, our kids are still playing dress up with costumes and painting their faces daily), and just having a great time.

Sadly, Mother Nature 'stole' our Halloween this year. Well, she robbed us of it temporarily as the town moved it to the following weekend so that no one was disappointed. Our town suffered an early winter onslaught causing power loss for nearly a week to all residents, and tearing up the topography pretty severely. In the end however, the kids had their parties, their Halloween, and lots of fun with friends and family! :)

Alec makes candy apples with his BFF Bobby (and help from Miss Elin!)

YUMMY! Wait, where's Alec? Oh...he's behind the Super Why! face! :)

The royals on Halloween (our Halloween anyway)...Optimus Prime, Alabama Fan and 2 Firefighters. Speaking of firefighters, its probably a good idea to go VISIT the local fire station, right? Off we went....!

The North Andover Fire Department was SO gracious. They enjoyed chatting with the kids, gave them candy and even let them sit on the fire engine. Very cool!

Optimus got on, Abby was a little nervous, and our other firefighter, just bowed out. :)

No holiday is ever complete without visiting our FABULOUS neighbors and adopted grandparents, the Jacobsons. Dougie and Cami always put together super bags of goodies for the kids and love to have fun with them! We're so fortunate to have them in ours and the children's lives. They are unbelievable people...and SO photogenic!

The entire royal family dressed up this year for trick or treating and outdoor fun. The Cat in the Hat made an appearance too!

Look at this little man...he's definitely up for making the fireman's calendar. He's GORGEOUS!

CUTE!

By the end of the night, the kids had had so much fun and had spent all their energy. This is a photo captured by King Tony in the early evening hours after the children retired to their beds post-candy-infusion, of course.

AWWWWW...a memory/moment to treasure for a lifetime!

Twins...gotta love 'em!

Holy Cannolli....!!

Oh, Fall....how much we do love you so!

Pumpkin carving parties, apple picking, hay rides, hot apple cider, cinnamon donuts, jumping in leaves and sweaters! It's the most perfect time of year in New England...except...when unexpected HEAVY/WET snow comes our way.

Yes, what you see was the view from our front door a few short weeks ago, when snow appeared, mounded and destroyed the Northeast--even though just a measely 2-3 inches of the stuff actually fell! :(

The result?

Oh, nothing too major--just a power outage that lasted 5 days for us and 2 weeks for others in Connecticut. And, did we mention the sheer number of trees downed by this brief, small storm? We lost in the neighborhood of 15, and cleanup took two full weekends.

Pretty sad, actually.

However, thanks to good friends, the Schmiedels, (Paul 'THOR' and Jean 'Branchmaster Thigh' and Abby's BFF and Alec's new gal pal, Colleen), we cleaned up our yard, felled some majorly large tress and Tony 'Chainsaw' Agudelo made his serious debut! :)

As the men toiled, the kids enjoyed jumping in leaves and general kid lunacy....just the way we like it!

And after a hard day of working outside, we all settled in with our PJs, blankets and a good book, Charlotte's Web.

Pretty much turning a negative situation, into a positive one.

In the end, that's the Agudelo Family mantra! :)

October...a mad media month

In support of our children with special needs, those within the Kingdom often invest in philanthropy and causes--not only to honor our special royals--but to teach important lessons including empathy, support, awareness and inclusion.

One of the 'rules' in the Kingdom is "Labels do NOT define ability' and each day, we teach and learn from one another how this is a very true vision for our children. This month, we had the honor of building community awareness using media venues. Linked below are articles in which our children appear and incorporate powerful messages about inclusion and life successes.

A job well done by the Kingdom's 'trifecta,' right? :)

Bay State Parent - October 2011

http://http://www.baystateparent.com/features/stories/Travel-Dreams--for--Autistic-Children-Realized-130778768.html

Editor's Blog

http://www.baystateparent.com/blogs/editors-blog/Wings-for-Autism-Giving-Special-Needs-Children-a-Practice-Run-at-Air-Travel---130828518.html?blog=y

North Andover Citizen 10.14.2011

and..

Patch.com

http://northandover.patch.com/articles/walking-onward-abbys-unstopable-story