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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.