Welcome to 2011!!

Happy New Year!!

2011 came in with a blast! We had some friends over to help ring in the new year and at 8pm we counted down for the kids. The plan was to let them celebrate at 8pm, then tuck them into the bonus room for movies and hopefully sleep... however as suspected, they were all up till midnight to help the adults ring in the new year!

This is the 8pm count down complete with poppers and bubble wrap to run around on!

The adults still had a great time - we went old school and played some great beer pong... however my once sharp skills have gotten super rusty!

Bev gave Jen and I matching beautiful wine bottles (they were huge and delicious!)

And 2011 is here!

On new years day, I took the kids to see Tangled - what a cute movie and that just may be Kyle's first movie theater experience.

The kids are still loving the Wii and are looking forward to Grandma and Papa's arrival in the coming days so they can get some good competition on!

Riley has one last gymnastics class this session (hopefully I'll remember to get pix) She has enjoyed it, but an hour and a half is a lot after a full day of school. In addition, I'm exhausted trying to keep Kyle entertained as we wait... below he is chilling on the gym mat playing his leapster - this lasted about 5 minutes of the 90 we were there.

Since the last 2 days of school were snowed out before the holidays, we had a make up 'winter party' in Ri's kindergarten class after the 2 week break. I'm room mom this year and am happy this party is over (however I'm pretty sure the party was a success) The kids rotated through 4 stations (finger print art on a winter/kindergarten poem, decorate cookies & make home made applesauce, make pine cone bird feeders, and make an icicle ornament) Below is Ri with the finger print poem craft. She just LOVES school, her classmates, and her teacher. She already has all her sight words mastered and is reading at a 1st grade level.... we hope this love of school continues for a long time!

Kyle on the other hand would rather play with his cars! But, he does like school and is extremely well behaved for his teachers and catches on very quickly. No matter how you look at it, he'd still rather be kicking a ball! Last week Kyle asked me the following, "Mommy, did you know that both Santa and Jesus can see me all of the time?" I just love these thoughtful 3 year old questions! My response should have been, "better believe it buster, so watch out!" but instead all I could do was smile and praise him for such a thoughtful question:-)

The only other event of the week was our first call from Nurse Amy to come get Riley from school this past Friday. The poor little thing had a 101 temp and it kept her down all weekend:-( fortunately, nothing ever came of the fever and she was fever free on Sunday and back to school on Monday!

As mentioned above, Ri just loves school so I'm going to try to remember to take pix of her art work and school work more often (especially since I'm known to pitch anything in my line of sight when I want things clean!) Below is a free writing assignment they did in school (sorry for the lousy color - the paper is white, not brown!)

White Christmas

Merry Christmas!! Wow, what a week! The kids were snowed out of school the last two days before their 2 week vacation and then we got even more snow on Christmas day! So far, these snows have not been like last years snow, but still fun!


The 2 week break has been a blast! We have had playdates everyday, sometimes 2 in a day! And today Riley joined Addie at the movies to see Yogi Bear! However, Riley tells me everyday how much she misses school but she has had a lot of fun seeing her old friends from preschool this week!

We spent Christmas eve at Darcy's house feasting on Chinese food and opening presents with Grandma and Papa! We are now proud owners of our first gaming system, the Wii, and Kyle is OBSESSED!!! Riley is a great bowler and her over all goal is to beat Papa next time he is in town!

Eric tried to get a pix of the kids first view of the tree after Santa visited, however Kyle was moving way to fast and we only got a shot of Riley!

Look at the excitement!! And this is just over ear muffs!
This is Christmas Eve at Darcy's - Kyle makes a great "baby" for the girls.

Kyle is rockin out on Christmas eve with the new guitar that Lexa gave him!

Christmas morning (our kids never got dressed!) Grandma, Riley, and Bebe

Grandma got Taz a fake mouse (that looks very real!!) and he loves it!

Buster loved his new HUGE bone, but it was too big for one sitting so he brought it out back and buried it... right before it snowed 6 inches!

Kyle LOVES his new turtle pillow pet - good job Santa!

The Groovy Girl that Riley is holding is dressed as a Girl Scout and her name is, "Responsible Rilee"!! Sooo cute!! (Thanks Becky - great call!)

Riley loves her new Horse - she named her Cherry!! Thank you Bebe!

Kyle not only loves the Wii, he also loves his leapster - thanks Santa!

Santa also brought Kerplunk and Kyle and Papa had some serious games going on!

Tracy and Eric - very full from a Great Christmas Dinner at our house!

Holiday Houpla

The Surratt kids are loving the holiday season and with the big day upon us, I figured I should run though the last couple weeks of fun!

Riley got to make gingerbread houses in kindergarten right before the snow came in! What fun!! They used milk cartons and Ri, as always, was very meticulous and her house was beautiful! I got to go in and help the kids out and it was a blast. Ri's classmates are so cute and Mrs. Sullivan is wonderful! This was the second time I've gone into the class room (I was mystery reader before Thanksgiving - we read "The Ugly Pumpkin") and I'm officially, Ms. Riley's Mom. LOL

Santa came driving through the neighborhood Late one night on a fire truck again this year! Kyle is at the age where this experience just may be better than Christmas day itself! He spent 30 minutes running to the front door in anticipation and then was in awe when Santa final drove by! Notice below, the kids are both in "feetie" pjs... this is a requirement lately - feeties or bust!

Again feeties

Here is the monkey in a bucket - often, I just don't ask why:-)
Again this year, we went on our own tacky lights tour with hot chocolate and santa hats!

We also had a Mom's club holiday party - below is 'baby' Ben and Kyle. Can you see how filthy Kyle is? All from a single candy cane - it is amazing!

The Holidays are Here!

The house is decorated, presents purchased (and some even wrapped!) and Scout, our Christmas Elf is back! The kids wake up every morning ready to look for Scout and he is in a new and fun spot every day! And to top of the holiday season, now Santa has been seen as well! We attempted to go to Bass Pro, but Santa had not yet arrived and the wait was already 2 hours! Instead we tracked him down at Va Center and the kids had a nice long chat with Old St. Nick about how good they've been. Ri asked for new markers and Kyle would like more cars!

Last weekend we went to see a great production of the Velveteen Rabbit - the kids loved it (as did I!) You can see the set behind the kids below - beautiful show!

We have also been getting into the holiday spirit by making lots of goodies to share with our friends as well as cinnamon ornaments, which the kids are decorating below.

Riley is still loving gymnastics and Daisys! She looks forward to each weekly - and our group of Daisy's are wonderful! This past week we began our partnership with the Richmond Ronald McDonald House. A few of us moms had already visited to determine the best way our girls could help. This 1st visit for the girls consisted of a tour and a better understanding of what the RM House is there for, deliver of some of the RM House 'wish list' items, dumping of all the Pop Tops we've collected so far (please collect for us - the girls are soooo thrilled to bring as many as possible!) and a craft to leave at the house to help decorate the house for the holidays!

Our craft (finger print trees)!

We hope everyone is enjoying the season!

Thanksgiving Feast of Fun

Riley and Kyle want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving (a little late!)!
We had a wonderful day at Bebe's house and have tons to be thankful for, especially our wonderful families!

The kindergarten classes at Cool Spring celebrated Thanksgiving through various performances and then a thanksgiving feast! At a typical dinner, Riley is known to goggle up turkey, rolls, etc (NOT!), but it must have been the 9am feast that threw here and all she ate was pop corn! She may not have been a huge fan of the feast but she did GREAT in her performance! Riley had the "Mercy Me!" part and performed it in a huge way!

Below Riley is standing with 2 of her best buds - Addison also had the "mercy me" part and Carter got to yell "Freedom"! Too cute (I attempted to upload a video at the bottom of this entry... however our computer is on its last leg, so who knows... I've put in my plea to Santa...) Kyle also had his Thanksgiving Feast! Below he is sitting with Jacob and Madeline.

Riley had early release that day, so she and Addie came with Eric and I to Kyle's party!

Theres the boy sitting nicely on his circle:-) He LOVES his teachers (as to we!) And as always, after shopping bright and early, we decorated for xmas on Black Friday! Kyle was chompin at the bit all day to decorate the tree - this season is going to be a blast!

We also attempted Christmas card pix - this one got cut!

Riley's kindergarten thanksgiving day performance:

Great Wolf bound

We've had a busy and exciting couple weeks! This year we gave Ri the choice of a birthday party or Great Wolf Lodge and she picked a fun, fun time at Great Wolf!! Riley also lost her 1st legit tooth (meaning she didn't knock this one out accidentally!)! The tooth fairy left her a gold coin and fairy dust all over (her favorite part!)

We got to GW before dinner on Friday and played for a few hours in the water and then ate dinner in the room:

After dinner, we went to the lobby for story time, a magic show, and the big clock tower show:

Sooo tired, but still they stayed up till 10:30pm!

The next morning we were back at the park by 9am and stayed until nearly 3pm! The kids loved every minute! Riley couldn't get enough of all the water slide, Lexa loved the wave pool and the big water bucket, and Kyle loved it all (however after going down the big slides once each, he was done with the big slides!)

The big bucket - the girs are under all that water!



Riley is still loving school. Her teacher is wonderful and Ri looks forward to going to school each and every day! Her first report card was great and she is reading above expectations - every day we see huge leaps in what she is capable of reading - it is amazing! We've also gotten to know a bunch of the older kids that live near us b/c of the bus stop. Riley and Kyle both love the big kids and have a blast playing with them daily! Riley is now crossing the monkey bars easily and Kyle can pump his legs on the swing.

At the playground!