Thanksgiving, Ritchie Style!

With the advent of Thanksgiving 2011, we started a new Ritchie family tradition - an annual quickie family getaway retreat.  And where else would we do our first Ritchie Family Annual Quickie Thanksgiving Getaway Retreat (we'll have to think of a shorter name for that, eh?) but our FAVORITE regional hotel, the ROXBURY!!!  I've documented a couple of our stays here before (see here and here), though we've been many more times than just these three.  Anyway, it's a fabulous little hotel in the Catskills and each room is a theme from the '60s and '70s era of TV & movies, but not in a tacky way.  Some of the rooms are definitely over the top (over the top AMAZINGNESS!!), but you won't find a cleaner or more luxuriously appointed hotel (in terms of textiles, bedding, bathroom amenities) anywhere.  It's owned, operated and decorated by former Broadway set artists, so there ya go.  Awesomeness.

Here's their new addition - isn't it great?

 

More cuteness.  I could NOT love this limey-apple-green and black and white color combination MORE.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to paint our front door this same color come spring, I love it so much.  Fortunately, the rest of our house is already black and white.  Yes!!

Gloriousness!

So, here we are in the Genie's Bottle room.  Helloooooo color!  (and Mark)

Other side of the front area (notice Shelby & Noah already on the couch waiting to watch TV - little junkies):

And look at this - flowers that Mark had ordered ahead of time to be waiting in the room for me.  Cue the "awwwwwwwwwws" now.  Yep, gotta be thankful for my Markli.  :)

Bedroom one, invaded.  (note to self: clean your camera lens!!! Sheesh!)  Ordinarily I don't EVER stay in a hotel unless it has white bed covers (you know what stains hide on those colored ones, right???  ewwwwww), but the Roxbury is my ONLY exception because they're fabulous and I trust them to be clean.

Bedroom two, which is where the kids were transferred after I decided I wanted bedroom one.  And here my little kid gang is, doing what they love most in hotels (aside from jumping on the beds, which they are NOT supposed to be doing) - watching TV in bed, the ultimate luxury, since we don't allow TVs in bedrooms.

Back to bedroom one, with ME enjoying watching TV in bed.  Gosh, that IS a nice luxury.  We'll need to rethink that no-TVs-in-bedrooms-rule, Mark.

The glorious bathroom, shaped round like you're INSIDE a bottle!  (Genie's Bottle, remember?)

I must admit, this was my first encounter with a tub like this.  Have you ever seen one of these?

ALERT!  ALERT!  A BLOG FIRST:  Me in the bathtub!!!!  Yessirree!  See my hand in the mirror waving?  So, I just sat perfectly upright in this strange little tub and read a book.  I'm not sure what else to say, other than it was...different.  And the kids refused to go near it, fearing it was too deep for them.  Which, of course, it wasn't, but I suspect they just didn't want to waste their valuable and rare watching-TV-in-bed-in-a-hotel-time with something as mundane as a bath.

And here's the cool thing - the bathroom was a pass-through bathroom, connecting both bedrooms, so I could hang out in MY room but still keep an eye on the kid gang.  VERY convenient.

This whole trip was Mark's idea (another FIRST!) and he wanted us to decide on three goals each (or as we called them in the Genie room, wishes) for 2012.  Each of us had time in the "throne" seat while Mark wrote down our goals, since HE is supposed to keep track of them and make sure we're doing something about them in 2012.  I'm not sure how that will turn out, so if you see Mark around, ASK HIM and REMIND him that he's supposed to be doing this!

Noah's turn:

1. Go to China  (Noah is obsessed with China, we have no idea why)
2. Go to Africa  (that's reasonable)
3. Play baseball  (the first we've heard of this, it came out of left field.  BWA HA HA, pun intended!!!)

Here's Connor usurping the throne from King Noah:

Now it's Connor's turn:

1. Learn French (because dabbling in 15 other languages isn't enough for him!)
2. Go to Seaworld  (works for me)
3. Go to another country, even it's just Canada (again, works for me, especially if we can go to the rumored hotel made of ice in Toronto??)

Shelby's turn (photobombed by King Noah, hoping to return to his rule soon), even though she didn't have to specify any goals.  Her only job is to be cute.  :)

Queen Mommy (with assistance from Princess Shelby):

1. Get the house completely simplified and organized.  (Hey, it *could* happen. But I'll have to go back on caffeine in a big way.  And get a couple of nannies.  And get a $5,000 gift card to The Container Store - my mother ship, my Mecca)
2. Get in shape and get healthy (yawn, I know)
3. Get a bigger vehicle (keep in mind we were fresh off a 3.5 hour drive with 3 kids smashed all together in the back seat of a small SUV - my main thoughts during that time were ^#^!&#@&^ WHY DIDN'T WE GET A @#@&#*($&*@(&$ BIGGER CAR??!?!??)

And of course, what fun would a Ritchie family getaway be without playing our favorite family game, The Adventurers!   (sooo thankful my kids never liked Candyland)

Unfortunately, Noah's adventurer was smashed to death in the exit corridor by a rolling boulder.  Here's how he took that news:

And after that he continued to tantrum, and hit his chin on the edge of the table, thereby necessitating a chin Angry Birds bandaid:

And here's Connor in timeout for laughing at Noah dying and then cutting open his chin.  We found that doing timeouts outside in bare feet worked QUITE well - after all, no one likes cold, wet feet.  (another note to self: Move time-out chair to our front porch in the winter)

We didn't do our actual Thanksgiving dinner at the Roxbury, but came back to have dinner at home.  Here we are, and yes, we ARE still in our pajamas, thanks for noticing:

Oh, yes, you also noticed that our Thanksgiving table had no turkey, and are those…..chicken wings?!?!?  What kind of Thanksgiving is THAT!??!?  Well, a few years ago, Mark and I realized that no one really liked any of the traditional Thanksgiving foods (except Mark, who will eat anything except jalapenos), so why bother going to all that hassle?  So, instead, everyone chooses one or two favorite dishes for which we are VERY thankful, and we eat and share those. 

Here's thankful Mark with his pork ribs stew concoction (and he's thankful he didn't have to share because no one else wanted any of THAT!):

Connor is thankful for ravioli this year:

Shelby is thankful for macaroni and cheese (with a side of Honey Nut Cheerios) - AGAIN (same in 2010):

Noah is thankful for pizza (and has been every Thanksgiving of his life):

And it's no secret to anyone that knows me how thankful I am for Angie's famous hot wings!  Mark complained that this was the third year in a row that I wanted these for Thanksgiving.   He also has to make them for Mothers Day and my birthday.  And a few times inbetween.  But I really really love them and I am really and truly thankful for them.  And I'm thankful that I do NOT have to eat turkey or cranberries or sweet potatoes or pie - none of which I like.

To finish off our Thanksgiving 2011, after dinner we went to Lights on the Lake, Syracuse's annual 2-mile drive along Onondaga Lake with…well, lots of Christmas lights!  It's fabulous!  And yup, we STILL didn't change out of our pajamas (I specifically told Mark I wanted a Pajama Thanksgiving, meaning we didn't go anywhere that required real clothes, and darnit, I made it happen!).

We always let the kids sit in the back of car, free to roam (and fight). That's Noah getting comfortable here.

As they get bigger, it's getting too crowded back there.  YES, we definitely need a bigger car.

It didn't take long for the boys to remember our summer drives up the gravel roads to my parents house in the mountains of southern Idaho where I let them hang out the sunroof, and indeed, whaddya know - worked great for Lights on the Lake, too!  Of course, it's also been unseasonably warm here this fall.  Which I am EXTREMELY crabby about.  I am NOT thankful for this CRUMMY WARM weather.  Bah humbug!

Our Thanksgiving weekend grand finale was getting our tree up early (complete with bad cat on bottom who keeps batting ornaments off).  Joy to the world!  Something done EARLY.  I'm thankful for that, for sure. (Unless we put it up TOO early and it starts drying out and dropping needles everywhere.  Then I'll be grouchy about that, too, in addition to the lack of cold and snow.)

 

Footnote:  I know you're all ogling my BEAUTIFUL red sideboard table next to the tree.  As a matter of fact, if I saw it on YOUR blog I would immediately email you and ask where you bought it and/or BEG you to sell it to me.  Anyway, I am the supremely and eternally THANKFUL owner of an original Vintage Charm piece by the uber-talented Darice.  My sideboard's name is Olivia, and is she the very definition of *glorious* or what??  :)

All the Ritchies were Kung-Fu fighting…

If there's one blog entry I always seem to get down, it's our annual Halloween shenanigans.   We dig Halloween.  Probably mostly it's me, but I seem to have rubbed off on my family, in a Halloween way.  Woo-hoo!  And I know this post is a couple of weeks late and everyone now has turkey on their minds (well, not us, but that's another blog entry), but since *I* still have vinyl decal bats still stuck all over my front door and garage door that I can't get off, we're still feeling Halloween here at our house.

Every year we do a family theme in which to go to parties and to our church's Trunk or Treat (where you hand out candy from your cars in the church's parking lot - which, when I write it down like that sounds awfully lame, eh?).  Granted, we do a *leeeetle* more than most people do for Trunk or Treat, but it's actually a lot of fun.  Read on for proof...

Anyway, this year our family theme was up to Noah and he wanted a Ninja family! ROCK ON, little No! Excellent choice!  Our outfits weren't QUITE as ferociously Ninja as I'd envisioned, thinking that black clothes and Japanese-looking headbands would be quite enough.  But at least Mark and Connor had their karate gi (yes, gi, it's a karate thing that I had to learn because Connor and his Kyoshi became upset every time I referred to it as an outfit), so those two look a little more officially Ninja.  I think.  Well, except if you look closely, you'll see that Connor's headband is actually his Halloween necktie.

Talkin' the talk, walkin' the walk…(and please ignore the spaghetti stain on Mark's outfit, I mean gi)

We don't plan it this way on purpose, but we get Grandma (my mom) out to visit us regularly almost every October, so we dress her up, too (at least we didn't dress you up as the Emperor from Star Wars this time, Mom!)!  Here's Grandma Ninja with the ninja grandcherubs.  (blow this photo up by clicking on it and check out Shelby's face looking at Noah - she is so NOT impressed with his Ninja-ness)

Okay, back to the Trunk or Treat (remember, the weird church thing where the kiddies trick or treat out of cars).  As weird as Trunk or Treat may sound to some of you, I  LOVE Trunk or Treat and am our family's architect/producer/puppeteer. And fortunately, I have an awesome husband with NO shyness (no shame??) who is always recruited to be my entertainment, doing things *I* would NEVER do.  Ha ha! 

Here's our tricked-out Ritchie crew, blocking the view of our awesomely tricked-out car (is it tricked-out or tripped-out?  Do I sound completely ridiculous?):

We had "Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting" (of course, what else?) blaring from our speakers (over and over, apologies again to Jamie W sitting in the car next to ours, who will now forever hate that song), giving Mark a fabulous opportunity to show off his moves - VIDEO!!!  (click to play)  Who says university professors are boring old fuddy-duddies?  MINE is pretty awesome, eh?

Here's a better view of our decorated trunk, along with Mark fighting off another family's ferocious and very tenacious Ninja.  Mark had to defend his "Temple of Candy" against Joshua for pretty much the whole evening. It's a tough crew out Trunk or Treating, you know!

I know this next one is blurry, but this illustrates the perils of Trunk or Treating in late October in New York State - VERY COLD trick or treaters.  Look at my little shivering Ninja Noah!  And it was only after much whining that I finally let Shelby put on her coat - kids, we live in New York and we trick or treat so ya better toughen up!!!  Of course, the cold didn't seem to be stopping Connor from eating all of his collected candy right then and there... 

As much as I love Halloween and like to plan the stuff and the show and the decorations, I'm a little lazy with costumes and try to hobnob them together on the cheap.  However, NOBODY does costumes like my beloved Rich & Angie Bailey:

Need I say more?  These guys are my costume IDOLS.  Seriously, guys, those outfits deserve their own party (because wearing them only once in front of a limited audience is cheating the WORLD of your awesomeness).  I'm still figuring out how to plan a party for LDS folk (Mormons) and telling them the theme is PIMPIN'.  When I figure that out, we'll PAR-TAY, my friends!

Back on the homefront, on the actual 31st of October, we finally relax and chill.  Grandma and Shelby were the tag-team for answering our door this year.  Mark was taking the bigger Ninjas around the block gathering more candy (since the Trunk or Treat candy from 2 days prior was long gone).  As for me, I was relaxing and eating…..ummmm…….carrots!!   Yeah, carrots.  For sure.

Next year's 2012 Halloween theme is up to Shelby and as soon as the words "My Little Pony" and "Unicorns" were uttered from her mouth, Connor began screaming protests.  Sooooooo, stay tuned next year to see what happens there, 'cause THAT should be VERY interesting…

' Tis the season...

For monsters!!!!

VVVVVVelcome to the monster room! (Dracula accent included for you)

Actually, we finished this monster room for Noah a few months ago, but October seemed like a good month to post about it.  Okay, fine, I'm just now getting around to it.  Anyway, a couple of my sharp-eyed blog readers spotted a photo of the monster headboard in one of my past blog entries and wanted to know more.  So, finally, here is MORE!

Noah wanted a "happy monster" room - nothing scary at all.  Well, to be honest, at first he wanted a dinosaur room.  Which was cool, but THEN I spotted that monster bedding at GarnetHill.com and immediately talked Noah into a monster room.  LOOK at it!  Isn't it cute??  I didn't have quite the same budget that I had for Connor's Egyptian room (http://markandestelle.blogspot.com/2010/02/sleepin-like-egyptian.html) but I think we did all right.

Of course, the WOW factor belongs to the headboard.  The inspiration is from the monster duvet that started it all.  It's just a piece of plywood cut and painted, and the arms are painted directly onto the wall.  Is he a happy guy or what?  I love looking at that cute little monster face every day (and Noah's face, too).

I'm not loving the car rug in there, BUT it's Shelby's favorite thing in the house to play with (she carries Hot Wheels cars in her girly pink Vera Bradley purse - toooooo cute!), and that rug simply could NOT go in her cute little pink and flowery girly room.

My mom was enlisted to help (isn't she always??) and even made Noah a cute little red monster to live on the bed, along with the purple monster body pillow.  And NO, our fish tank is NOT that grody - it's just the green wall coming through the glass (I think).  Eeeeep, but it DOES look awful.  And don't even ask about the fish tank decor inside - it's a mix of contributions from every kid and it's quite ridiculous, hence the fish tank living in Noah's room and not somewhere more public.

You know, last time I sat down to write a blog entry, I wasn't really feelin' it, but I got going and had myself a good time.  I assumed that would happen this time, but I am feeling completely uninspired.  However, I am high on Dayquil thanks to a lovely rotten cold (and Mark is gone again, OF COURSE!!!!) and I'm feeling quite grody myself.

Closet doors.  What can I say about this?  *thinking of something clever, coming up totally blank*

I found this cool light that I thought looked like a 4-eyed googley-eyed monster, and painted it teal to match the headboard and curtain rod.  I tried gluing on googley eyes to the light bulbs themselves to make the light look even cooler, but YEAH, epic fail there.  They kept falling off when the lightbulbs got hot.  Duh!  Y'think, Estelle??  I wasn't high on Dayquil that day, so I have no good excuse for THAT.  So then I colored them on with a permanent black marker but the heat burned off the marker, too!   Anyway, it's now a pupil-less 4-eyed googley-eyed monster, okay?
 

Noah conveniently already had monster slippers from the past Christmas, so those came out of the closet, so to speak.  And check out the cute little homemade drawer knobs.

And HERE is my favorite piece, The Striped Amelia!  Is this not the most glorious thing you've ever seen?  One thing you should know about me, is that I love whimsical art and I have a Firefox bookmark folder named "GLORIOUS Things to Buy" and I dream of owning a shop called "The Shop of Glorious Things" and even on Pinterest I have a "Glorious" category board.  Anyway, equally glorious is ETSY!!!  Where else could you find cool things like The Striped Amelia??

Ahhhh, yes, here we have Chicken Chair revisited - please review Chicken Chair's history here - http://markandestelle.blogspot.com/2010/03/christmas-chicken-chair-update-2.html.  Anyway, for lack of a better place to keep Chicken Chair and because I REFUSE to get rid of it, I modified it into MONSTER CHICKEN CHAIR.  He blends, right??  However, Noah did NOT care one little bit for it eating his other stuffed animal friends, and those victims have since been rescued from the grips of Chicken Chair.

*cue HGTV music *  The Big Reveal!  Noah's face says it all.  *glee!*

Another satisfied customer...

And finally, the monster room actually in use, with Grandma and Noah doing a sleepover in the GLORIOUS and happy monster room!  Noah's room doubles as our guest bedroom, aka Grandma's room - someday we'll have an extra bedroom to turn into an elegant guest retreat, but for now, Ritchie guests stay in unique style!