Topsail Beach Family Vacation

We're back at Topsail Isle for another family vacation almost exactly one year later. This time we will be here for a whole week. It's already been two days and it feels like time is passing by so quickly. We've had a great time both days at the beach but unfortunately we have been chased away in the early afternoons by thunderstorms both days. Oh well. At least we're at the beach!

A few pictures of our beach adventures so far:

A family vacation at last!  Topsail Island saw the Motyka family come and go last week.  We enjoyed the 95+ weather every day.  Thank goodness for the breeze and waves at the beach or we would not have made it.  And at night when all was calm at last, Shawn and I enjoyed the breeze, some awesome salsa and some cool drinks while sitting on the porch.  We got to see the sun set every night and even watched some Evening Glories (flowers) open up at sunset one night.  What a beautiful view!

Maddie had a ball at the beach. She doesn't remember much about visiting the beach the last two summers but this time she was amazing to watch. She had no fear unlike her brother at this age. Maddie went bodysurfing over and over again. She didn't allow being tossed again and again by the waves to stop her. She also rode on her daddy's boogie board, jumped over the waves with her mommy, built sandcastles and made lots of "gloppy" mud with her brother.

 Alex's favorite part of the beach this time was bodysurfing. After 3 years of trying to get him used to all the rough waves and all the mess sand makes, he finally loves the beach!  He loves jumping right into the ocean, bodysurfing, making sand structures and teaching his sister how to make "gloppy" mud (just sand and water mixed together).  He also took after his mom with his love of reading to relax quite often while at the beach.

 

 

The kids also made a few new friends while at the beach. It was quite adorable to see Maddie and Alex interacting with other kids around their age.  They woke up every morning and yelled "Hello there" to the neighbors or at night they yelled "Goodnight.  See you tomorrow."

Overall, it was an awesome family vacation with all the main components...family time, relaxation and lots of great memories plus a pet or two.  Yes, we now have not one but two hermit crabs to add to our family pet list.  Alex picked out a large hermit crab in a shiny blue shell and named him "Blue Boy" (original don't you think).  Maddie picked out a tiny hermit crab and since she kept saying "Kermit Crab" for hermit crab when asked what she wanted to name her hermit crab, her response was "Kermie."  Can't wait to see what the next family vacation holds for us...Watch out Disney World!  The Motyka family will be stopping by soon.

The Motyka Family Christmas Letter

As you can see we have gone digital this year.  Too much to do and not enough time to do it all with two very active kids.  So here it goes:

Happy Holidays!  As 2010 comes to an end, we take time to reflect on our many blessings this year.  We hope this letter finds you and your loved ones as lucky and blessed as we are this holiday season. 

Our year has been a busy one...starting school, growing up, starting a new job, soccer games and two very active children draining us of any energy we may have.  We've also taken a week long trip to Disney World, visited many museums and participated in Lindsay & Steve's Wedding in DC, spent long weekends at Lake Gaston visiting Alicia's parents, took a long weekend trip to the beach in October and celebrating Alex's 5th Birthday and Maddie's soon to be 2nd Birthday.

Alex is now 5 and was able to start Kindergarten in August (a year before the county thinks he should have started).  Since his birthday is exactly 7 days after the August 31st Kindergarten cutoff, we had a lot to do to get Alex into Kindergarten.  In April, he was assessed for gifted and talented abilities.  He did wonderful just as we knew he would but we were pleasantly surprised to hear that he was reading on an early 2nd grade level and performing math on a 1st grade level.  After putting together an extensive portfolio of Alex's work/evidence of his academic abilities and a visit to a Kindergarten classroom to be observed for 1 day, he was accepted as an early entry Kindergartner.  We were ecstatic since this meant no private school tuition and no more carpool in our daily lives.  Alex has adjusted to the life of being a Kindergartener and going to school every day.  It's not exactly his favorite thing to do since he now has homework every day and much less time with mom.  He constantly shocks us with his thoughts and academic abilities.  He continues to read ALL the time even when he's supposed to be going to sleep (he likes to sneak a flashlight and a book into bed).  Alex enjoys chapter books and nonfiction books on science topics and spends A LOT of time writing in notebooks on daily basis.  He has also taken an interest in history and geography and amazes us with his memory of continents, states & capitals, and presidents.  Alex enjoyed another year of playing soccer and has actually begun to run after the ball and kick it every once in awhile.  He's not a gross motor kid but he tries any way.  

Maddie will be 2 next week!  Where in the world have the last 2 years gone?   Maddie has changed the most dramatically this year.  She began the year by crawling and quickly learning to walk.  Once she was mobile and learned to run, she never slowed down and has kept us on our toes ever since.  She has really begun to show us her personality.  We never know if she's going to be happy, excited, mad or grumpy on any given day.  She has a way of giving you that "Daddy, I love you" and a big smile when she's in time out.  Sure makes it hard to discipline her but we still do.  Maddie loves to dance, play with her baby dolls and play in her playhouse all the time.  I think she must have music playing in her head 24/7 since she easily shakes her hips and dances around the room at any given moment.  Since she loves dancing so much, we signed her up for a KinderTots dance class for 2 year olds.  There won't be much involved other than dancing around the room a bit and learning about numbers, colors and shapes but she'll look so cute doing it in a tutu.  Maddie spends her week going to her playgroup where she has made four good friends, going to her WeeTots class where she runs around the gym having a blast, spending time with her big brother at the bus stop and spending the rest of her day with mom reading, playing, and testing every bit of patience we have.  Maddie is following in her brother's footsteps these days.  She is speaking in complete sentences and is speaking very clearly now.  We're always amazed when she bursts out with a "Thank you very much" or "No!  I not want to clean up."  Maddie has also began to sit a bit and enjoys being read to which makes her mom so proud.  She's even filling in words in books as we read to her or finishing words in songs that we sing to her every night.  She understands routines so much better now that she corrects her WeeTots teacher if she does things out of order.  Maddie's favorite activity is to "dress up" in many different things from tutus and crowns to hats and her favorite "red and shiny" dress shoes (a must wear necessity every day).  She is becoming quite the fashionista and diva all at once.  We can only wonder what next year and the terrible twos will hold for us.

Shawn continues to work at BASF Plant Science.  He was recently promoted to be in charge of a 5 person lab and has discovered the wonders of dealing with many personalities and balancing multiple jobs at once (while he taught a coworker his old job).  His fashion sense has changed along with his promotion.  Long are the days of jeans and t-shirts.  His days are now filled with dress shirts and dress pants and meetings most of the time he is at work.  Shawn continues to be the head chef at home.  Although his culinary skills have been underutilized due to a very active and very needy little girl.  Quick meals like mac and cheese have begun to take over our family dinners.  You have to give up on flavor when it comes to getting everything done with two kids before their 7:30 bed time. 

Alicia continues the challenging but rewarding task of being a stay-at-home mom.   There are many days she wonders why she chose this profession but knows that it will be short lived and she will miss these days very soon.  She has begun to use her teaching skills in Maddie's playgroup twice a month.  She tries to add some preschool skills into their playgroup time to help them learn new skills.  They read books, talk about animals and sounds, and do fun art activities like fingerpainting and creating handprint turkeys and Christmas trees for the holidays.  Alicia has also continues as a Stampin’ Up Demonstrator and truly enjoys the group of 8 ladies who come monthly to create many paper wonders.  Stampin' Up has allowed her to have a creative outlet and has become a personal therapy for her.  Alicia has also started selling Thirty-One products for a bit.  It was meant to be a discount on holiday gifts but has turned into a bit of a business.  She will continue to do it as long as she has customers.  Nothing like making money and getting free items, too.  So the New Year's resolution of posting to our family blog at least once a month went like most resolutions do.  Alicia has spent more time on her Stampin' Up blog and business than she has expected.  She even visited Salt Lake City, Utah for the Stampin' Up! Convention this past July.  Life has become busy on all fronts...mom, SU demonstrator, friend and now Thirty One consultant.  Maybe 2011 will be kind to Alicia and give her more time and patience for all the things she needs to get done in her 28 hour days.  

For now enjoy this Christmas Letter on our family blog with hopes of seeing more kid posts throughout the year.  Maybe we will finally get around to changing our answering machine to adding Maddie to the list.  Only time will tell.  We wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and may your 2011 be as exciting and blessed as our year has been.  

Happy Holidays from the Motyka house to yours,

                Shawn, Alicia, Alex, Maddie 

Halloween Sweets and Treats

Our Halloween Sweets dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi and Minnie Mouse.  Alex refused to be Darth Vader after trying on the costume and hating the fact that he would have to wear a mask.  So his second choice was Obi Wan Kenobi (still in the Star Wars theme) since he wouldn't have to wear a mask.  We were down to the wire with this one.  He's been looking for another costume for 2 weeks and finally found this one (of course, with no mask or head dress of any kind) exactly 1 week before the big day.  Maddie is so much easier to deal with and to please.  She loves to dress up all the time so when she saw Minnie Mouse, we knew we were done.  She loves Tinkerbell and probably would have dressed up as Tinkerbell any day but we know she can be Tinkerbell any other Halloween so we went with Minnie Mouse.  We think they both look adorable and have become our Halloween Sweets this year!

As for Halloween treats, the kids got plenty of those.  Candy of many shapes, sizes and types filled both of their bags.  The night was full of fun and laughter.  Of course, there were a few screams or hiding behind mom and dad when they got scared.  It is Halloween after all.  The Motyka family hopes you enjoyed your Halloween Sweets and Treats this year.

Alex's 1st Day of Kindergarten

1st Day of Kindergarten
Today was Alex's 1st Day of Kindergarten!  The day started with Alex running into our room, dressed and ready to go at 7am after hearing Shawn's alarm clock.  He thought it was his alarm clock so he had gotten up right away and got ready for the day.  He was bouncing all around then finally took some time to cuddle with mom and talk about all the things he will do at school today.

On his way down the stairs, this sign greeted him.  And another sign and some balloons to celebrate his big day.  We are so proud of him!  For those of you who may not know the story here it goes:

Alex's birthday is exactly 7 days past the Kindergarten cut off date of August 31st.  But he's been ready for quite awhile to start school.   So we shelled out $675 to go through all the educational and psychological testing by a private psychologist.  Of course, Alex did an awesome job!  He scored on a first grade level for math and a second grade level for reading.  Alicia knew what his reading level was since she's a former reading specialist and Alex was reading chapter books like they were going to disappear in his hands.  After all the testing, we still had to put together a portfolio of Alex's work which showed his various academic skills.  We also had to get 2 recommendations from teachers, pediatrician or anyone who was able to testify to the fact that Alex was ready emotionally, socially and academically for Kindergarten.  Then the waiting game began.  The board of education had to review his testing scores and decide if the portfolio should be moved onto the principal of his potential elementary school.  Luckily, it was passed on but we waited a long 3 weeks to hear anything.  After 3 weeks, we took things into our own hands and began to email the principal and the board representative about a decision.  Keep in mind that school had already started for 3/4 of the school.  Finally, we heard the good news that Alex could come in for a day of assessments and observations.  This would be the first day that my baby went to school all day and I missed it!  I was traveling to Salt Lake City for a Stampin' Up! Convention.  I am happy to say that Shawn and my mom were able to handle the first day of school and Alex.  We got a wonderful call the following morning that let us know that Alex would be starting Kindergarten.  We are so proud of our little man!  We never doubted his abilities but we just weren't sure what others would think and what decisions they would make. 

Alex has waited for years to ride on the big yellow bus.  He was so excited that the day had finally come!  Here are a few pictures of Alex waiting for the bus with his friends:

  

After Alex got on the bus, we went to meet him at his school.  Here are a few pictures of Alex on his 1st day of Kindergarten:

 

There were no tears from us or our Kindergartner.  Just two proud parents who were so excited for our little man Alex! 

Maddie missed her brother all day and kept asking me, "Where's daddy?"  "At work."  "Where's brober (as she says it)?"  "At school."  Then she would give a little sigh.  I only heard these questions about a million times today.  The picture below shows her waiting for her big brother at the bus stop.  And Alex getting off the bus with the biggest smile in the world...he's just beaming from excitement that he is finally a Kindergartener and can ride the yellow bus with the big kids in the neighborhood!

 

 











A special afterschool snack...fresh baked cookies for my Kindergartner and his little sister.

 

A picture is worth a thousand words...This is truly how Alex felt about his 1st day of Kindergarten.  Happy and excited with a big smile on his face all day (morning to night).  So proud!

 Maddie has a big day herself while big brother was in school.  She used the potty all by herself.  For those that may not know, Maddie has been potty training herself in the last few days.  She's been telling us when she has to go potty and does a pretty good job of it.  We weren't ready to even think about potty training her yet but she just wants to be like her big brother.  We are such proud parents of two wonderful kids!

DC Wedding

May 1, 2010

Lindsay and Steve's Wedding in Washington, D.C. at the DC War Memorial.  All family members were an important part of the wedding.  Alex was the Ring Bearer.  Maddie was the Flower Girl.  Alicia was the Matron of Honor for her sister, Lindsay, and Shawn videotaped the ceremony.  It was a great day for a wedding!

Alex did a great job as the Ring Bearer.  He led the way up the walkway and went up the stairs all by himself with a smile on his face.  We were so proud!  He was such an adorable "Little Man" in his suit and tie.  Maddie did a great job as the Flower Girl, too.  She walked with Alicia holding onto her bright pink sandpail with flower petals.  She looked adorable in her beautiful white dress and sandals and bright pink flower barrettes.  It was so cute!  We are just so happy that Maddie had finally learned how to walk on her own before the wedding.

Fortunately, we all survived the day with 90 degree temperatures, a shuttle with broken AC and no naps for Maddie.  She did a great job all day and there were no meltdowns!  For anyone who is a parent, you know how important this little feat is for such an important day.  We were so happy to spend the day with the newly wed McCords!