Cousins on the flip side

Spring break in CT was a whirl wind - the kids were great, but not the focus - so here was their reward.  I night at Great wolf lodge in the poconos (PA)  Perfect on the drive back to VA.  We did only 3+ hours in the car and made it there at 1 in time to enjoy the water park ALL DAY.

My sister started her drive in Boston, so it was 5 hours to the water park.  The kids were thrilled to be released for some good fun!  Here is after the first water park shift.  At this point we cozied up the little guys in preparation for bedtime.

serious cuteness and I loved how Maddie and Drew palled up.

Chris and I took the big kids for time 2 at the waterpark.  We kept them swimming almost until closing.  The wave pool was the biggest hit.  It was exhausting just watching Shane, Nick and Riley take on wave after wave after wave - thankfully the waves gave them a break every 5 minutes.

The next morning we woke up to waterpark time again (9AM - at the doors!)  than showered up and headed on for the final 3.45 hour drive home.

A little in the car entertainment.

Phew - we made it to Northern Virginia!

Our townhome got a run for its money with 6 kids running around.  Nick would leave for school at 7:30 and than the rest of us were running for entertainment.  One day i planned to take the crew to a great family fun farm.  My sister and I had to dodge rain showers but everyone enjoyed it.  A little time in the corn pit.

Lunch time under cover.

the next night my sister and I managed to convince my mom to stay home with 5 kids while we got some Mexican Take out.  She was a SAINT and the margaritas were awesome!!

This is what my mother was doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6skv9CDbdU

A  little Frozen... too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8YKggUC6mE

Some light reading

Jackson loved all the exploring and boys stuff around - such a cute age - but so intense, gates, opening cabinets - all of that!) 

Lets see how this goes... 

we all got to celelbrate a little birthday time too!!  Lots to be thankful for! 

Just your average everyday breakfast time with 6 kids! 

No wonder we all need a nap! The cousins had a great time in the crazy full house (at one point EVERYONE napped for 2 hours - now THAT is success!!)

 Once they all rolled out on Thursday morning I sen my boys up for at least 5 minutes of alone quiet time....  Here is us enjoyed a post visit snack that my sister made (and forgot to take home with her!!)

Thanks for making it all possible Mom and Stosh, it was crazy, fun and family all at once!

Great buddies

When Diane heard we were headed to CT for spring break and our plan was to house hunt, talk finances and do all that 'adult stuff' she quickly offered to snag the boys for some fun kid time.  We would have totally taken Drew too - mostly because she is AMAZING - and that Blake needs a buddy - but I couldn't sleep well knowing Diane was juggling 6 kids!!  So she kept Nick and Shane for 2 nights and made it look super easy!

Night one - they went right to work making their own Pizzas

Nice photo bomb Eve!

Seriously - good old fashion play time - could I love this family anymore??

A little rainy day bounce house

post bounce house sleepy time

even a visit with the Easter Bunny

Craft and Mohawk time!

Diane I cannot thank you enough for loving my children like your own and having fun with them.  They loved every second and we did too!  Can't wait for more of this during the summer time.

The house hunt - hold on tight - here we go!

It was literally a whirl wind of activity - we hit the ground running on Sunday as my dad drove us through a few of his favorite spots after church.  We had an open house on Sunday and a quick meeting with a for sale by owner.  Monday was a family day and Tuesday was right back into it with a financial adviser.  Tuesday afternoon, back on the home tour - we traveled all through Simsbury and Avon with our AMAZING Realtor Tara (I used to babysit for her girls - hmmm just a few years ago...)  

The houses start to blurr after awhile, but here are the highlights - We found that we really wanted to be in Granby or Canton (smaller towns than Avon and Simsbury)  

We honestly LOVED this house in granby - the owner had her own yoga studio

beautiful sitting sunroom

Awesome rap around porch

so i am torturing myself with these photos as I doubt we will choose this home.  It wasn't fenced and had a pool and pond that we weren't wild about (we want Oma Sue and Goomba to have the 'wow factor' of a pool).  Plus, its a safety and maintenance concern that I wasn't ready to tackle.  

Our second favorite house had a horse barn and walking distance (along a bit of a busy road) to a winery...  awesome too - but no neighborhood and on too busy of a road for the kids...

But I will indulge myself with a few reminder photos

awesome kitchen for entertaining

Didn't come with horses - but isn't he cute??

Time for a break....

Dinner with 1 kid!  Easy when 4 adults are there.

So, the house we put a bid on is this one - mostly for the back yard - I mean how many football fields can you fit back there?!

4 Bidwell farm, Canton CT

I am trying to figure out which boy will let me keep this awesome PINK shag carpet in their room.

I have a feeling that window valance won't stick around long....

gotta leave this photo as its the powder room, but you can catch a glimpse of sweet Tara in the mirror snapping the photo for us (yesterday as we totally forgot what all the bathrooms looked like...)

See, more bathroom fun.

just what I always wanted, A SINK - haha

this photo cracks me up as its a great back yard, but Chris didn't like it as much due to its lack of privacy...  REALLY?  I mean the neighbors are way over there?!?!  Makes me want to snap a photo of our current backyard (its a muddy mess right now and I would saw a 20X20 patch!)

So this is the winner-- fenced in with a play yard too...  o.k, you are right honey.

Yup boys - its EXHAUSTING....and an emotional roller coaster that will continue for the next 6 months....  That is quite the ticket.

Hold on tight folks.
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Coming clean

Who was taking bets at how long the Leadbetters could stay put?? 3 years?? Maybe. We do have some awesome crazy suburbia going on. We have taken taken full advantage of the super proximity of the gym/restaraunts/grocery stores. Not to mention an awesome family of friends in walking distance. They have truly helped me and the boys enjoy these young years.

The crazy thing is--In January Chris's job got REALLY far away. Try Alexandria.... A 1 hour drive if there is no traffic (rare) and $8s in tolls (each way) no tolls is probably a 2 hour drive and mega stress...

With the kids young and Chris being such an awesome dad--this kind of set up was crummy for our family.

We saw this coming back in September. At that point it was time to make a decision, should he research and get another job? (To his credit, he did and received an awesome job opportunity with amazon. It would keep us here in ashburn--but is that even what he wanted??).

Nope

Over the passed years-Chris has experienced a significant amount of government contracting--good and bad leadership (sadly mostly the latter). Lots of time in big companies. He has had time to really appreciate and understand his own strengths. One of the biggest was creating and maintaining relationships and being able to get such different companies to work to mission completion. He quickly picked up knowledge in the IT world of bids, proposals and installation. Time to apply all of this an be more closely rewarded on a different scale for your efforts and talents.

So we are moving--to a very exciting career endeavor. Chris will be the first project manager and soon co-owner of C & H Fire sprinklers. His new boss and future business partner with over 30 years of success in the fire suppression field--Leslie Carlson.


We entertained these thoughts back in 2009--however the job offer from MC Dean to Germany forced entrepreneurship to take a back seat for a few years. Looking back you never know what really influences your decisions nor can you fully appreciate why-but I can now say the last 6 years brought Chris and our family so many lessons and experiences and friends! That we are forever thankful for that path.


Now-as we begin to switch gears--It's been so exciting to watch Chris and my father plan, set goals, have meetings. Things aren't complete yet-we plan to move to CT this summer (yes--that does mean spring break was a house hunting/business trip). We are hoping to live in Canton or Granby CT and will grab a house in due time.

In the meantime we are trying to check the blocks where we can, enjoy the days here that we have and do our best to plan and prepare for something rather unknown for the family of 5.




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Cousin time

We are about an hour away from Wyland and Shannon in Quantico VA and with cousins at a close age it's great to take advantage of simple afternoons together. However--who has simple afternoons?? I applaud Wyland for texting Chris on Saturday to see if he could golf. I am thankful Shannon was excited to open her home to the rest of us to enjoy the afternoon together.

 The boys loved it. I must admit, the girls did too. We enjoyed catching up on so many aspects of life.

Wyland took Nick and Shane on tours of the muddy back yard trails and Robbie educated Drew on train tracks.  Shannon even managed to clear out the tramploine for a moment for this guy

We had a great family hamburger dinner

I wanted to snap a photo of these 2 cousins together as i feel they look so similar

Here the the whole crew - bathed and ready for a sleepy car ride home.

Thanks Shannon and Wyland for a great family day!  

HUGS!

School projects

At some point I will enjoy these-I may never--but I hope they become less labor intensive for the parent.... Kids do love their time in the spotlight- thankfully we had superhero bingo to attend for the class pet. Shane was the first one (of our crew) to get a bingo. So proud of him for running up there to cash in on his winnings..

We had an exhausting weekend and never actually took the class pet with us for fear we would lose him-so nick was excited to capture this photo at the end of the chaos safely in bed with his doggie

In the meantime this was my class project--sometimes u just need a change and I do love linens.