A Sad Goodbye

Last month we said goodbye to my Grandma Ruth - my grandmother on my mom's side. At 93, she had lived a long full life, but it was still sad to say goodbye. On the bright side, she is probably up in heaven playing bridge with St. Peter and having a great time; plus her passing brought the Vosburgh clan together again. I'm just thankful that Molly did have a chance to meet her.

October 2011

We did have a great time getting together with all the family on my mom's side. Starting with Grandma Ruth as the matriarch, there are 4 daughters, 8 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren, plus assorted in-laws. It was quite the gathering.

The main event was the service for Grandma Ruth at her retirement home on Saturday afternoon. Everyone was in attendance and we managed pictures of each tier of her descendents. Plus there was some playing, laughing and eating.

the daughters circa 1952

the daughters circa 2012 (plus cousin Nancy)

the grandchildren

the great grandchildren. 13 in one pic - woohoo!

the Sanford contingent
(Molly found all this family very tiring)

Eliza the food and beverage mooch

ring-around-the-rosie is more fun with 2nd cousins!

just hanging out with family

We then all gathered at my mom's in the evening. There was a champagne toast to Grandma (she adored champagne) and special appetizers: tiny shrimp and caviar. Dinner wasn't exactly Grandma related (BBQ and chicken nuggets) but it was still tasty. We finished up the evening with a rousing game of Pounce. If you haven't played the game with the Vosburgh clan, then you are missing a key experience in the world of card games!

that's a lot of champagne!

caviar and tiny shrimp

to Mother! to Grandma!

The next morning, there were pancakes for everyone still around. After all the goodbyes had been made, the weekend just kept on giving. Over the weekend, one of the great-grandchildren had a stomach bug that got passed on to just about everyone. Patient zero was sick on Friday night and by Wed, at least 20 of the 32 people in attendance were sick. And since we were all spread out from coast to coast, who knows how far the pestilence was spread! HA!

enjoying pancakes before the stomach bug struck...

It was sad to say goodbye, but it was wonderful to see so much family. I guess that's the way life works. Goodbye Grandma Ruth, we'll miss you!

Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Don in Whispering Pines, 1970s sometime

Sugar and Spice

Despite having three little girls, I still haven't quite embraced all things "little girl." I never was one for girly-girly stuff growing up. As an adult, I am often overwhelmed by how much pink ends up in the laundry, and I'm calling for a moratorium on all princess-related gifts for a little bit. :) But this morning, I was turned into a big grinning cheeseball at the sight of Hayden as she dressed for her oh-so-traditional little girl activity of ballet class.

Isn't she adorable?!!!


And she had a great time! She asked to go TWICE a week, instead of just once. And said that a bun is her new favorite hairstyle. That's better than when she said that a ponytail was a mom hairstyle! Maybe we will be able to pull her hair back for school sometime this week.

A Week of Holiday Fun

Our official holiday time stretched from Thursday before Christmas to the Friday after Christmas and that time was full of presents, cousins and general shenanigans- not to mention hand, foot, mouth disease AND a trip to the emergency room! (Don't worry, everyone is fine.) We drove up to Ohio for Christmas weekend. Molly was amazing on her inaugural road trip - and the other two girls are pretty great travelers too. Then we had Christmas number two in Durham right after we returned. Here are a few pictures (and stories) from our week of holiday fun.

First, Christmas in Columbus...

The girl cousins had a blast dressing up playing in dress up. Grammy did a great job finding the right size for everyone!

One of the highlights of the trip for Hayden (besides that whole Christmas presents thing) was her first trip to the ballet to see the Nutcracker. She was very excited to wear her fancy clothes and see the ballerinas.

Crazy cousins in front of the tree, ready for Christmas Eve church.

Grammy and Granddad and all their grandchildren.

How many cousins can you fit in one tub? This is prior to turning the bath pink from all the soap they put into it. With all that soap in the water, I'm not sure if they got out of the tub cleaner or more dirty than when they got in.

Eliza playing with the train that Santa brought her.

One of Hayden's favorite presents.

Opening presents is awfully tiring.


She's shrieking, "Underwear!"

My favorite "present" this year.

The aftermath of Christmas morning. (and that's just one side of the family room!)

Everybody on the stairs. We've come quite a long ways from this holiday stair picture!


And now the Durham part of the holiday...

Christmas hugs


helping Popop open a present
All I want for Christmas is to eat my fingers...


Charlotte and Eliza with JT on one of our outings. Notice Eliza's band-aid. It's covering up the small cut on her cheek that she sustained from crashing into the edge of Hayden's bed. It necessitated a trip to the ER to get it glued shut. She is no worse for wear and was quite proud of the band-aid.

Sing with me - "Two girls in a little stroller..."

We walked on the Duke Cross Country trail while JT ran. The kids liked lining the path to give him high fives as he passed us. What excellent motivators they are!

More cousins.

Cousins make me tired.


Despite the craziness and whacked out schedules, the kids made it through the holidays with smiles on their faces.
Molly models one of her Christmas presents and shows off her 4 month old self. (Missed the traditional 4 month photo by one day due to family and the ER visit!)

One of my current favorite photos - if only Molly didn't look quite so stressed. Happy New Year!

Feliz Navidad

Yesterday was Hayden's last day of school before winter break. Her school had a little Christmas concert where all the classes were up on stage together to sing Christmas carols. She was really excited about it. She was thrilled to get to wear her special dress up skirt. Beforehand she told me, I can't wait till we are done so I can find you and smile at you. At the actual event, she managed to find me in the beginning and give a cute little wave. She did a great job and I tried to record some of the experience for Jason who couldn't make it. Turns out he didn't realize it was for parents, I'm not sure how that was his assumption, but it was. We're still learning I guess! I know I am since I learned that a preschool performance is one place you definitely should get there early for and take the front row for best seats for pictures and video!

The pictures didn't turn out too well, and the video isn't all that great, but it still shows you just a smidge of Hayden's debut performance!

can you find her? It's like a preschool version of Where's Waldo?!

Her class got to do "Away in a Manger" by themselves


Hayden and her class got the honor of playing the maracas for Feliz Navidad. I'm not sure why I tried panning the crowd, but you can see all the kids up on stage. Hayden loves singing this one this season. Sometimes I hear it coming out of her room at nap time which makes me laugh.



And to counteract the not-so-great quality of the pics and videos above here's one last festive Hayden picture from when we went to get our Christmas tree. She's really loving Christmas this year!

Parades and Trees

A couple weekends ago, we got our Christmas spirit going by picking out our Christmas tree and going to watch a local Christmas parade. Both Hayden and Eliza had a blast at these two activities. Hayden thought every tree at the lot was perfect, except for the one white pine (you know the one with a more pine-like, feathery branch.) Eliza just liked running around like a crazy person amongst the trees.
We were actually trying for a smaller tree this year but somehow ended up with one that was slightly too TALL for our nine foot ceilings. We did manage to pick a gorgeous tree and the girls had fun decorating it!


And if you wonder why it's so hard for us to get anything done around the house (like cleaning, or projects), it's because when you have something to do, this happens... PILE ON!

Then in the afternoon, we attended the Parkwood Christmas parade. It's apparently being going strong for a number of years, but was new to me. A good example of the new stuff I'm learning about Durham now that I've returned to my hometown. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was great! All kinds of things to look at, lots of candy thrown for the girls which they had a blast scrambling around to pick up, nice weather and easy access. We're definitely going next year!

The sirens on the firetrucks at the beginning were a little loud for Eliza.

I just thought this was funny. Who knew drug dealers needed boats in Durham County?Waving at the parade participants.

High-fiving Wool E. Bull.An Arabian princess. Because of course there should be one in the parade.

Scrambling for candy. Their favorite part of the parade.More scrambling, with their stash pile in view. One lady even dumped a batch of candy directly into their pile!

One of the high school bands.

There was even an appearance by Santa at the end but my camera battery died. We really did have a great time and will definitely try to go next year! Come join us!

Oh, and if you're wondering what Molly's been up to, while we've been working on Christmas spirit, she's been....

staring contemplatively at her dangly toys.
testing out the bumbo. (she's still not quite ready)
snuggling with Momma

and playing with her hands. They are quite fascinating and taste delicious!