Better Late Than Never

Through all the craziness that is 2010 it took us almost 2 weeks into December to do it, but we finally managed to deck the halls. I am one happy mommy. I really could do Christmas decorations all year long.

*sigh*

A JOYous Christmas

We had a Joy School Christmas party. A party which I somehow completely spaced helping in the planning of. It's something I didn't even realize until I was sitting on the couch pre-performance and after a few minutes realized that I was the only mom waiting, the rest were in the back room prepping the kids in costumes and such. Sleep deprivation does wonders for me sometimes.

Anyway, the kids were taught three songs and also acted out the nativity story.

That was darling, really it was, but my favorite part of the night was when their true colors came out during the singing of 'Jingle Bells'.

Going...

going ...

gone! 

Is this series of pictures as funny to you as it is to me? These kiddos crack me up.

And my proud moment is when William very willingly brought and donated a remote control monster truck to Toys for Tots. Each child brought a gift to donate. William has been asking for a remote control monster truck for Christmas for months. He didn't even bat an eye when I brought it home from the store and told him what it was for. So proud of my sweet boy!

Thanks, ladies, for pulling off a wonderful party/performance. Next time, feel free to pull me out of the fog and get my help.

Pancakes, Pancakes

William adores pancakes for breakfast. He's a boy after my own heart.

I saw this book, Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle, at the library and knew it would be a hit here at our house.

In the book the boy eats his pancakes at the end with strawberry jam. After reading it William was quick to request strawberry jam on his pancakes, "Just like Jack does." I was surprised. He is a syrup boy all the way. I wasn't surprised when he asked for syrup to dip after a few bites. The next time we had pancakes William informed me that we had to have pancakes with chocolate chip eyes and chocolate syrup smiles and eyebrows "like it is on (cover of) the book." (Did you follow the link above? The cover of the book is pictured, take a look.) Yes, sir!

Marie assisted me in drawing her smile.

The face was 100% William's creation.

The teacher in me loves it when my kiddos are able to apply what they see in books into their own lives. It's fantastic and fun and a really good excuse to have chocolate for breakfast.

Gobble, Gobble

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I had Joy School at my house. We made edible turkeys, as you can see. Can I tell you how much JoY this little group of kids brings me? I had no idea, going into this year, how much I would grow to love the kids I would be teaching. I love watching them interact and learn and grow and giggle and joke and smile and sing. I love learning more about who they are and how they tick. I love that they keep me on my toes, finding the best way to help them interact and as I teach them I learn so much about how I should interact. What a fabulous, fabulous group of kiddos. They will do great things in their lives, no doubt about it.

Among many, many other blessings, teaching these children is certainly one of the top on my list.

Old Favorites

Right after Marie's first Christmas we made the decision to switch her to formula and in a matter of days she gained 5 pounds. Previous to that she was only up 1.5 pounds from her birth weight. Her weight gain continued and within a few weeks she skipped from 0-3 months to 6-9 months and never looked back.

The weight gain was wonderful, excluding one thing; because of it she grew out of this dress after only getting to wear it twice.

Marie Noelle : December 2007, 2 months

This was her first Christmas dress and the first dress I ever made for my own daughter. A very special dress. So, naturally, I was excited to have another daughter to get some more use out of it.That being said, you would think I would have remembered to pull it out of the closet before Anne was 4 months old.

Anne Kinslee : November 2010, 4 months

Thankfully Anne had a  slow growth period from 2-4 months so it still fit just fine. Naturally she looks darling in it and apparently silk brocade is tasty stuff. By the end of the day she had pretty much soaked the entire front from sucking on it. 

I love this dress and love having two beautiful girls that have been able to wear it.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. -- inspired by Jill and SouleMama

Advent

The kids and I jumped up and down to "Sleigh Ride" tonight. The kids  had their very own jingle bells to shake and even Anne joined in on the fun in her Jumperoo. 

It was my effort to work off some of the energy that is not being used up due to the weather outside. (So much work to get them ready to go outside! No I'm not lazy, I have a baby that sleeps in 2-3 hour increments from about 2 in the morning on. It's disgusting how tired I am in the mornings.)

Suddenly a Christmas advent idea was born. A song a day until Christmas! I planned on making a chain tonight with a song on each one. That will happen tomorrow. Tonight, I did push-ups instead and updated the layout on my blog and bought a Wii game for the kids and watched a little Jazz basketball and ... I'll stop.

Back to the task at hand, if you're curious what choruses will be echoing through our house this month check out my sidebar.

K. Goodnight!

P.S. A bit of detail on "Sleigh Ride." I pulled up the Boston Pops version and Brandon wanted one with the lyrics, so we did both. Andrew Sisters provided the vocal version for us.