Back Like A Bad Penny

I have no expectations for readers after my year sabbatical.  I am back mainly for my children's sake.  I keep no baby books.  You will find nary a photo album in my house.  This blog is the only record of their childhood outside of their own memories.  This and the 12,000 pictures on my external hard drive.  That brings us to this post.  2012 in review.  Get some hot tea and put your feet up.  You're going to be here a while.  

I spent 40 minutes putting these 175 pictures in a particular order.  Not the order you will see them in.   That is Blogger's welcome back gift to me.

2012

We begin, as we do every year, with Patrick's birthday.  I made his all time favorite dinner, chili cheese dogs with cole slaw.  The kids set the table.

Malcolm seems to begin every year with a dental issue.  This year, it's shark teeth.  Last year, he had to have a tooth pulled and a "robot tooth" installed.

Patrick continued to work at home.  Shaving and bathing became optional...  

unless he had to to a live lesson.

Ceci's continued to think only of felines.  Look at the last line of this sign in sheet at the Devil's Millhopper sinkhole:

The House of Kee does not seem to vary it's activities very widely from year to year.  We visit local parks and hiking thoroughfares. 

We stay informed on current events.  

Henry peruses the Times' coverage of the tsunami.

 I take a once a year trip somewhere without the children and Hubs.  

Off to Virginia for to surprise Aunt Stephie for her 50th!

Henry builds amazing things.

A castle he built for school.  Our first real big kid school project!

And he gets in character.

Ceci's cat obsession continues.

We cultivate warriors.

Malcolm falls asleep.

Henry builds more things.

Ceci poses.

As always, it is a hard knock life at the HoK.  

But we make up for it on the weekends.

As I have mentioned many times, I have no great love for children's birthday parties.  I was excited that the children were on board with the idea of going someplace fun instead of having a party this year.  Ceci chose Weeki Wachee, a place famous for it's live mermaid show and spring fed beach complete with concussion inducing water slides.  It is an Old Florida theme park in every sense of the word.  

Malcolm falls asleep.  Again.

Ceci's actual birthday.  Lucky number 7!

Ceci continues to be obsessed with cats.

As is customary at the HoK, we spent much time with friends.  Some old...

Some new...

We also had many visits with Farmor and Grandpa, the first at Easter.

We got a cat.

My name is Boca.  I talk a lot.

And Malcolm fell asleep.  Again.

We rode bikes out front.

And just did the usual...

Mother's Day Tea at Malcolm's school

For Henry's birthday, we decided to try out the newly opened Legoland park in Winter Haven with some good friends of ours.  Patrick and Clark made it a point to coordinate their outfits.

And of course, Henry got an awesome gadget for his birthday.

9 candles!

Continuing with the matching trend, we spent a weekend in Orlando with my brother, Dad and Linda, and my Grandfather.

And spent some raccoon free time in the Moyer's backyard.

Memorial Day brought us to St. Augustine just in time for Tropical Storm B--?  I don't remember the name.

Ceci had a shining moment lecturing on one of her favorite books, Socks.  About, you guessed it, a cat!

She also almost mastered roller skating.  She definitely mastered the fashion end of it.

Malcolm graduated from preschool.

And scored a leading role in his school end of year play.

Nailed it!

We decided to class up the place a bit with our long anticipated purchase of an above ground pool.  About a month into it, I looked out the window to see a blob of what I initially thought was Spanish moss floating in it.  Upon closer inspection, it was, in fact, a dead squirrel.

Then began the summer, with its car washing antics,

shoe matching,

museum exploring,

and annual trip to Ft. Myers.  Usually we do this Memorial Day, but this year is was bumped back due to excessive May travel on, well, everyone's part.

On the way to Sun Splash Family Water Park!

Back home to continue our summer activities, which wouldn't be complete without Malcolm falling asleep.

many trips to Westside Park,

And, of course, bowling.

As always, there was much pool time,

and summer bike rides.

We spent the 4th at the UF bandshell for Fanfares and Fireworks.

Apparently, Patrick wore only one t-shirt this past summer.

As is customary for GAinesville, we said goodbye to some good friends.

Mc Coy's Going Away Party
July 4th

And said goodbye again that weekend in Orlando...

Nana celebrated her birthday with the usual cast of characters.

The children tried out some new looks.

We played seemingly endless rounds of Apples to Apples and Monopoly

In case you don't know how A to A works, the players put down a red card that they think best describes the green card placed on the table.  In this case, the green card said "Old."  The red were the cards my children chose.  

and celebrated Christmas in July.

The House of Kee saved it's insane road trip for a September wedding and instead flew up to the Jerz for a mini family reunion of sorts.

more matching shoes

toward the end of our THREE HOUR delay.  We were supposed to get into Philly at 10:50.  Instead, we left Orlando at 11:15.  This is why we drive!

We spent the weekend in my hometown.

With a visit to Aunt Claire's in Ocean City.

This was Patrick and the kids' first time on the Jersey Shore.  I spent every summer there as a child, and I could not wait to bring them.  I wish we could go every summer!

We rented this little guy up there.  Even though they had to squish in the back, the kids LOVED it.  Here they are sad to say goodbye.

This is in the Philly Airport.  Don't ask me where.  We almost missed out flight trying to find it!

P.S. I'm made of Legos.

Back at home, what summer would be complete without at least one sweaty night at Satchel's?

We did take an August road trip to Chattanooga.  On the way, we spent a night at a B&B in Atlanta called The Social Goat.  It was awesome.  You need to stay there.

Once in the Noog, we crashed at a friend of a friend's river house.  It was some quality relaxation time with the Huffines trio (soon to be a quartet!).

Simon, fan of nose-honking.

the instant before impact

We arrived home just in time for the first day of school.

Fourth Grade!

Second Grade!

Kindergarden! (sniff, sniff)

 As it always does, Malcolm's birthday kicked off the school year. 

His destination of choice was... the bowling alley!

Much to Henry's relief, the fall brought up tree removal.

He was more than a little worried that the old, dead pine was going to come crashing down on our house.

We attended only one United Downtown event this fall but got face painted as usual.

September also brought our anniversary.

Thirteen years!

Farmor and Grandpa came to visit.  And buy a house.  It was a week after Farmor's birthday, so we had a belated celebration.

The weekend after, we attempted something that only crazy people do.  The kind of people who drive from North Dakota to Florida in three days.  

We drove to Pennsylvania and back.

In five days.

Yes, five.

Driving Day 1:

Old Sheldon Church Ruins

Driving, Day 2:

Dinosaur Land,
White Post, VA

Dinner, Day 2:

(in Pennsylvania)

Not Driving, Day 3:

Of course, we found a pretty park to hike in.

At my cousin's wedding, the whole reason we went.

Driving, Day 4:

didn't upload any

Driving, Day 5:

didn't take any

Back home, Malcolm and I began a weekly Wednesday date to Sweet Dreams while the other two are at chess club.

Malcolm is truly Patrick's mini-me.

You can blame my Blogger absence on my newest obsession, Pinterest.

Speaking of grandmas, here is one of ours holding Malcolm.  It only took 5 years, but he finally fell in the fountain outside Moe's.  We took him to the car to remove his wet clothes only to realize he wasn't wearing any underwear.  Luckily, Nana had this blanket in her car.

In September, Ceci demonstrated that she is following in her mother's footsteps and sharing embarrassing family stories.

"When I was a baby, I'd bite my mom's bobs."
Yes, this was hanging in her classroom.

 Not only is she honing her writing skills, she has begun developing her musical ones

as well as her athletic prowess.

Though it looks silly, synchronized swimming is not for the faint of heart!

Malcolm, in the meantime, honed his Jedi skills.

"Use the Force" they say.  As if it's that easy.

Henry continues to develop skills I didn't know he even had.

Malcolm continues to do chores while packin'

One can never be too careful, apparently.

 And we all continue to amuse ourselves in our various ways.

 

Still BFFin it

End of an INSANE semester.

Never a clean face

"Cat's Rock"

Squeezed in a St. Aug trip in Dec.

At the new indoor bounce house place, Bouncin' Big.

4 apples a day keeps the doctor away

That's about all I got in me right now.  I'll attempt a Christmas post some time soon.