Winter Wonderland 2013......

Welcome snowfall! 

After driving through a terrifying blizzard en route to Tony's firm's annual ski trip in the mountains of New Hampshire, the sun finally emerged...as did one fantastic weekend away with the family.  We enjoyed the beauty and grandeur of an historic hotel, played in the snow, and Tony got his first snowmobile experience--ever! What a hoot! The kids got to swim and play with good friend Kailee, and we capped off the weekend with a trip to New England famous, Chutters candy shop. We'll let the pictures do the explaining. When we say ROWS and ROWS of every candy, fudge and treat available, we (and they) are NOT kidding.... :)

 Tony gets tips from his instructor...

You thought we were kidding about Chutters, right? Heck no!! This place had what felt like miles of candy in their own individual jars. Spaceships, jelly beans, bit-o-honey, M&Ms, Swedish fish, etc. were all available. It was freakin' incredible and it took nearly an hour for us to survey and select each of our individual bags of candy. Needless to say, it is one trip we'd do again and again...just because it was such an unexpected delight! WOW!!

The kids and Kailee--although they could care less about photos, they want their CANDY!! 

Our winter season wouldn't *really* be a winter season if we didn't amass enough snow to create our annual SNOW TUNNEL! Queen Wendy used to make these all the time when she was a kid herself, so it has become one of those 'must do' wintertime efforts that we sometimes wait all season to create. It takes several hours but at the end, we proudly unveil a combination tunnel/snow fort for play and snowball fights--at least until warmer temps or rain disintegrate it.  Here's our effort from this year... pretty awesome, eh? 

Agudelo Snow Tunnel 2013

Hoopla 2012-2013

Calling all gingerbread house designers! 

Before the holiday season ended, we took a trip to Boston to experience an annual gingerbread house competition that left us absolutely speechless. Using gingerbread, rice krispy treats, brownies, jello, and candy/frosting in every shape and color, we saw some of the most amazing works of art--that looked and smelled incredible, but of course, were a feast for the eyes only. It was very hard to keep our hands off--that was for sure!! 

While the holidays came and went rather quickly in 2012, we wanted to 'attack' the season a bit differently in an attempt to teach our kids philanthropy, community and service as it has been a big part of both Tony and Wendy's lives.  Given the ages of the kiddos however, we needed to do something small, but meaningful as we couldn't very well walk into a soup kitchen and begin to serve meals. Instead, we created our very own "Random Acts of Kindness" board, on which we placed all types of supportive deeds to help our community from Thanksgiving until Spring. The kids really seemed to enjoy doing things for others--especially when we got to leave behind our very own designed 'RAK'd' cards. It was a lovely way to start the process, if nothing more...

No winter would be complete without the Agudelo Winter Bucket List! A tradition we started in the Summer of 2011, our bucket lists are things our family wishes to accomplish before the end of a particular season. While we currently only do lists in Summer and Winter, we've quickly learned that it takes more than 6 months to complete all the items on our list. Those that don't get completed however, roll over to the next year/season's list. The activity has been great for the kids and Tony and Wendy, since it leaves us without any dull or boring moments. The second one of us says, "I'm bored," or "there's nothing to do," we pop on over to the bucket list for an idea or two and we're off! Let's see how we do with this massive list... :) 

Merry Christmas 2012...

We've been 'away' from our blog for quite some time--nearly a whole year. It wasn't our intent, but a couple of factors played into our absence including a very busy school and business year, as well as just general frustration with Blogger as a blog interface. Alas, we will try to do some catching up from time to time, and are jumping right to the 2012-2013 holiday time frame which was a brilliantly happy time for all of us.

 

Blue Fred, our resident Elf, was kind enough to return to Chez
Agudelo, even though the royal kidlets were quite overzealous. The season was riddled with mischief (Fred induced), but his mischief seemed to encourage similar actions from our kiddos, leading to him going on temporary strike. We celebrated his return with a Blue Fred Returns breakfast complete with snowballs...but as you'll note, his mischief was more aggressive this year. He held household friends hostage, kidnapped them, and even leveraged his magical graffiti skills on not just our walls and pictures, but the kids and Tony too! oh my!

Blue Fred marks up all our pictures...AND some of our faces!!  :( 

He holds Darth Vader and Yoda hostage via light saber..... and destroys the remaining pumpkins from Thanksgiving. We couldn't believe it...he was completely out of control.....

This year, we also visited the Methuen Festival of Trees. What an amazing event. Hundreds of holiday trees theme decorated. It was a wonderful treat for all of us to enjoy and really helped us kick up the holiday! 

Christmas Day was busy, as expected. Santa was very good to the kiddos, who are obsessed with Angry Birds, superheroes and Legos. In short, everyone felt truly blessed this year..in more ways than one.

Alec was the first to rise in the very early/wee hours of Christmas morning. We caught him checking out the haul....so cute!

Tony also celebrated another birthday...and the kids chose his birthday theme: Creeper (from Scooby Doo). And here he is...in all his zombiesque glory....

Tony extinguishes his candles...with a little help... 

We also capped off our year doing something we'd never done before --  tackle a gingerbread house. What seems an enjoyable activity for most, we felt we needed to wait on this given the size and type of candy, as well as our kids' preference for gingerbread. They LOVE it. So, we had to prep them in advance--to understand that the activity was for decorating, not eating. They figured it out quicker than we thought, and ended up doing a super-fantastic job (with a little help from mom...). Alec took on the roof, while Abby and Aramis handled the sides. First gingerbread house complete. 

Next year, we'll give them each one of their own. 

Voila!! Pretty awesome for a first try!!! :) 

Oh, and we almost forgot. We saw our first stage production of The Grinch!! The kids LOVED it--the costumes, the music, and the lovely lunch at Abby Lane (Jason Santos' newest dining venture). Given that its our daughter's namesake, we felt it only appropriate to eat there afterward. You can see just how 'happy' she is at the prospect of upscale dining....hmmm..."where's my hamburger??"

Welcome 2013!!