Tuesday, December 31, 2013

New Year's Fun

This is how we spent our New Year's Eve.  At home with the kiddos having a movie night.  Absolutely no place that I would rather be!  It was a double feature this night - Despicable Me 1 and 2.  And popcorn, of course.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Lucky Duck

Over Christmas break we decided to take the kids to Andy B's while Nana and Grandpa were visiting so we could use up some game cards that we had left over from a party we attended there quite some time ago.  The kids were having a great time and one particular game was a favorite of Micah's.  It was a pure luck kind of game.  You spin a big wheel and whatever it lands on, you get those tickets.  Well, right towards the end of our time there, this lucky little dude landed on 1000 and won 1000 tickets.  Seriously.  He is so lucky!

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas 2013

We had a great Christmas this year, as always.  We are all so blessed with lots of wonderful things but also great family and friends to celebrate with.

Here are some pictures of our Christmas.







Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Nutcracker

Mark was able to get two tickets (for free!) for Maddie and I to see the Nutcracker.  She LOVES the ballet and can watch patiently for a really long time.  I'm not quite as fond of it as she is, but I love spending time with her so it is worth it to me.  And thankfully, I have seen it enough times now that I actually understand what is going on so it was really pretty enjoyable this year.  And the seats we had were very, very good seats so that makes it nice when you are so close!

I love my sweet girl.  She's growing up too quick but thankfully she still seems to enjoying hanging out with her mama.


Thursday, December 19, 2013

Micah's Class Christmas Party

Here are some cute pics from Micah's class party.  It was funny . . . the girl that Micah sits by on the carpet for group time had left early that day.  So Mason sat down next to Micah and joined in their story time.  After they read a story, they sat down to decorate a cookie and it turns out that the same girl sits right across from Micah.  So Mason plopped himself down in the girl's seat and proceeded to pretend to be a Kindergartner.  They had plenty of cookies and supplies so he got to decorate a cookie with them.  Micah had a fun time at his party (and Mason did too)!

Listening to Miss Gentry read a story at carpet time 




Micah and his buddy Trenton 

Mason reading some books in the class

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Run, Run, as Fast as You Can . . .

One of our traditions is to do gingerbread houses.  To simplify things, I usually always buy pre-made houses that come with candy.  It is cost effective and simple to do it that way.  This year, when looking for the houses, I saw these cute Gingerbread men that also came with the candy to decorate them.  It came in a pack of three Gingerbread men so I decided that would be perfect for my crew.  I also bought one house for them to decorate together.




The boys were much more interested in eating the Gingerbread men, as you can see in the pictures.  Mason's is obviously missing an ear :)

After we finished the Gingerbread men, we moved on to the house.  The boys were done at this point so Maddie and I did the house together without their help, which was nice in a certain way.  Ha ha.



Friday, December 6, 2013

Snow Day!!

Well actually, it was 3 snow days.  They say we are going to have a very cold and wet winter and if the start of it is any indication, they are right.  We got a pretty thick layer of sleet with a couple of inches of snow on top of it and it was quite enough to close school.  Mason got to experience his first time in the snow and he loved it.  The big kids loved it too, of course.  Mama didn't love it so much because the play in the snow equaled tons of laundry and changes of clothes.  But they had a good time so I won't complain too much.











Poor Mason had no boots to wear in the snow, so I just put him in his regular tennis shoes and put ziploc baggies over his feet.  He looked ridiculous, but his feet stayed dry so I guess I did okay!  We will be investing in some boots for him soon.


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Ouch

It is never a good thing when you see the number of the school pop up on your caller id in the middle of the day while the kids are at school.  After my relief that it was not the principal (had that call before too) I was sad to hear that it was the school nurse calling to tell me that Micah had accidentally poked himself in the hand with a pencil and that the graphite was stuck in his hand.  She said we could take him to the doctor or wait for it to work itself out.  Because it was in the palm of his hand, I was pretty certain that it would be quite painful for the doctor to remove it so we opted to let it work itself out.  And it did - a long soak in the bathtub did the trick and he is now mostly as good as new.  He still has a small hole in his hand but I think that it will go away with time.



Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Kindergarten Stuff

Each week in Kindergarten, one student is chosen to be the "Spartan of the Week".  They make a poster about themselves, get to do some special stuff in the classroom, and get to bring a special snack to class.  Here is Micah with his poster from his turn at Spartan of the Week.



Also in Micah's class, they gave them piece of cardstock with a turkey on it and told them that the turkey was afraid of being eaten for Thanksgiving dinner and that they should disguise the turkey.  Micah wanted to disguise his turkey like Batman and this is what we came up with:


One more fun Kindergarten thing is Old McDonald Day.  This is a day where they can dress up like a farmer, cowboy, or farm animal and then they play lots of fun games.  Parents aren't invited to come watch so I only have a picture of him from before school.  He said it was a fun day.


Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween 2013

Halloween this year was very fun.  The big kids are pros at the whole Halloween thing by now, and Mason had no trouble catching on! We actually got two uses out of our costumes this year because we had a neighborhood party that we went to the weekend before Halloween.  The party was lots of fun - hayride, Jupiter Jumps, and a costume contest.

Halloween night itself was fun too.  We first stopped at Mimi and Papa's, which is our usual thing.  After we leave there, the kids already have a full basket of candy, so we could technically stop right there and be just fine.  However, our neighborhood is just perfect for trick or treating so we were off!  We had already made plans to trick or treat with some friends from the neighborhood so that made it even more fun.  Mason and I went along for a few streets and then we headed home to hand out candy but the big kids stayed out a little longer with their friends (and Daddy of course).







After we were finished with trick or treating, Mason had a little bit of candy.  Or maybe a lot of candy.  Or maybe even a sucker for each hand.  All in all, we had a great night!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Pumpkin Season

This year we painted pumpkins (just small pie pumpkins) and carved them.  The painting was a huge hit with all three kids.  It kept them entertained much longer than I anticipated and was less messy than I thought as well.  Maddie did an awesome job on hers but the boys' painted pumpkins were not the cutest.  They had fun though so that was all that mattered!






Now onto the carving . . . next year, only Maddie gets to carve a pumpkin.  She can basically do most of it herself and did a great job.  Micah is physically able to do lots of the work, but he doesn't have the attention span to stick with it.  So he basically just bugged Mason the whole time which was quite counterproductive to getting the pumpkins carved.  Maddie did her own, I did Micah's, and Mark did Mason's.  They turned out good but not exactly the process I had hoped for.