The Eich Family: November 2012

From the last couple weeks...

Leyla washing her hands at Connor's school. She wants so badly to go there herself!

Leyla frequently tries to get away with riding on Connor's lap rather than in her own carseat.

Two peas in a pod.

Our favorite pottery painting place- the little artists!

Helping me pump my gas.

At Jennette's son Landon's 2nd birthday party. Missing 2/3 of our kids in this picture!

Driving Miss Daisy.

Playdate with our (Tokyo friend!) Brendan. I had the boys make black cat cookies for Halloween.

Painting superheros at home.

Leyla's painting the bad guy.

A blurry picture but I love her sweet smile here.

Getting ready for guests (the Albinos). Disregard the Yankees shirt that Connor is wearing. It was in his drawer and he really wanted to wear it. It's not like we let him out in public in it or anything.

Andrew and Rob took Connor and James to the local nursery to pick out pumpkins to carve. While there they also got to paint some pumpkins (and have their faces painted too.)

The boys with the pumpkins they chose to carve.

Our jackolanterns!

More Halloween cookies. My boy really loves making cookies with me!

Spider cookies loosely based on the chocolate no bake cookies I make every Christmas, yum.

As anticipated, Sandy was a doozie. We did lose power as expected, but other than that and a damaged fence gate, we emerged relatively unscathed. Feeling extremely lucky!

Lots of pictures to share from our adventures over the last week...

After flickering on and off for the longest time (so we knew it was only a matter of time) our power went out for good around 6:30 on Monday night. This is what Leyla had to say about that.

So we got a nice big fire going.

Luckily we had just had this delivered the week before (picture taken week before last).

Our house is pretty much surrounded by trees, so to sleep that night we opted to pile everyone into Andrew's office on the first floor. There's few trees surrounding his office. The kids thought this was way fun. Here Andrew is telling them a bedtime story, I believe it was about how Superman came to be.

Come Tuesday morning, I had the big idea that since we were going to be stranded at home for several days, why not start potty training with Leyla (I think she's definitely ready). However I quickly realized that when things were peed on (and things were peed on) they were not able to be washed immediately (since we had no power) so that mission was quickly aborted. She sure did look cute in action though!

All roads around us were blocked so we certainly weren't going anywhere for awhile. Our neighbors stopped by in the morning (luckily since we installed a gas stove as part of our kitchen renovation our stove still worked so we could give them hot water). They told us to bring the kids over in their costumes for some trickortreating (which they loved and it gave us something fun to do). Snapped these cute pics as we headed out the door!

Side note, at one point I had the prettiest fall decorations on my doorstep. There used to be several pumpkins, jackolanterns, etc. on the hay, along with some pretty planters and mums. But the squirrels ate my pumpkins, the deer ate my mums and Sandy blew the rest to pieces. Better luck next year :)

So cute. They both love their costumes so much!

A hug fit for a princess.

This is what it looked like in just about every direction.

For at least four days the below picture was the only route to get into town. Andrew (and hundreds of other cars) were driving under this to get to and from work every day. Freaky.

Headed to the neighbor's house.

Our neighbor's driveway. Clearly they weren't going anywhere for awhile.

Our only storm damage (the tree took down the gate).Very lucky. We couldn't believe the size of some of the trees that were uprooted around our neighborhood.

Late afternoon light saber battle (they aren't actually making contact with each other, fyi).

Andrew already got the fallen tree down.

Pre-bedtime reading. I love that she chose to read her "Emergency Vehicles" book. Very fitting.

By Wednesday we were starting to get really cold so we decided to pack it in and head down to my Mom's in MD. Thankfully, they did not lose power down there! The kids were so great during the drive down there, and other than passing about 100 boom trucks headed north and seeing some seriously scary lines for gas along the Jersey turnpike (thank goodness Andrew filled up both our cars before the storm!) the drive was pretty uneventful.

All in all, given the circumstances, we had a really fun time down in MD. We arrived in time for trickortreating on Wednesday. On Thursday we laid low- hitting the grocery store and the gym (there's a local one with a daily drop in rate and great childcare!) The gym also had a kids climbing gym/bounce house which we visited several times during our MD stay, the kids loved it. Friday night the kids and I met up with my Dad for dinner on the eastern shore. Andrew arrived by train later that night. On Saturday we all went to Jessica and Chad's annual Oyster roast where I got to visit with all my high school buds and their families (we had actually planned to come down to MD for the party this weekend anyway). Saturday night Andrew and I met up with Shannon and Rob (Hoboken refugees staying with her parents in the Annapolis area). On Sunday my Mom watched the kids so that Andrew and I could have a "day date" (our favorite kind!) in downtown Annapolis before dropping Andrew off at the train. Sunday night the kids and I had dinner at Jackie's house. On Monday Ashley, her Mom, and Claire (more Jersey refugees!) stopped by for a visit on their way home from a field trip to DC. So we really got to see a ton of VIP's in a very short time!

The kids were so excited that we arrived in Annapolis in time for trickortreating!

My Grandmother has been living with my Mom and Gerry for a long time now. They finally were able to get her into the assisted living facility that they had been waiting for on Wednesday morning. While they love my Grandmother very much, they were practically giddy at the thought of having the house all to themselves again. Cue the arrival of the kids and I that same afternoon! They were happy to have us though (or so they claimed). On Saturday we brought Grandma back home so we could spend the day together. We played scrabble and she loved watching the kiddoes play. I love this picture of us!

Watching the kids dance (she loved this).

Leyla making friends at Jessica's party.

Took the kids to the play zone at the mall one morning. They both really love to play air hockey!

My Mom asked if I could bring the kids in their costumes by her office for her co-workers to see. Here's Snow White sitting at Mom's desk (with her glasses on too!) It was too cute- a mini Grandma.

My Mom turned their laundry room into a little nursery for Leyla (previously for Connor). She really loves it in there. She and Andrew before bedtime. I think they like each other.

Ashley, her Mom, and Claire during their visit. Connor took this picture, not bad!

Andrew called to let me know that the power came back on around 6:30pm on Monday- basically a week (to the minute!) since it went off. Let there be light! So the kids and I packed ourselves up and were on our way back home Tuesday morning, arriving back in town in time to vote. So happy to be home in our nice (finally) warm house, just in time for the next big storm- I believe that's arriving tonight? I'm definitely seeing a generator in our near future...

A SUPER HUGE thank you to my Mom (and Gerry too!) for housing our clan over the last several days. Not only were they great hosts, but my Mom was so unbelievably helpful with the kids. They just adore their Grandma and I am so thankful!!