Christmas

We were mean parents this year.  We aren't an early bird family, and church was a nine so we weren't going to wake up early just to open presents.  Buddy says he woke up at six and saw the clock but we didn't hear any kids up until 7:30 or 7:45.  We slowly got up, ate a normal breakfast and got dressed for church.  Had church been the normal three hours, we might have been nice and opened presents before, but church was only one hour today so we figured they could wait.  They got to pull one thing out of their stocking before they went out the door. 

An hour of church that was actually really nice, lots of singing, even with Buddy bouncing excitedly next to me wanting it to be over.  Then we hurried home and back into PJs so we could recreate Christmas morning like we'd just woken up.  The kids sat at the top of the stairs and drank a glass of orange juice waiting for us to tell them they could come down.

And then chaos (or as Princess Sparkley says, "CH-A-Ose") ensued.

To sum it all up: Legos, more Legos, movies, more movies, Star Wars guys, Rapunzel people, doll bunkbeds (made my Grandpa M), doll bedding (made by Grandma M), books, camping supplies, cooking gadgets, sleeping bags, clothes, candy, more Legos, more candy, strange food requests (Buddy: baloney, Little Guy: Cheese balls, and PS, so she wasn't left out of the weird food from Santa, syrup to make Strawberry milk) and some puzzles. 

Christmas Eve

The kids spent all day staring at presents under the tree, debating which one they would open first, bargaining with their siblings ("I'll open your present first if you open mine first,"etc.), and if you were Little Guy, declaring "I'm opening all of my presents first."  Around 1:45PM, Buddy declared it the most annoying day ever because it should be 4PM and it wasn't even two yet!!  And finally the day turned dark and the festivities could begin.

We started by eating out at a Chinese restaurant across town.  This is our third year going there on Christmas Eve and I think it was the first time we haven't been the only customers.  There was an older couple at the table next to us who complimented us on how well behaved our kids were when they left.  That was nice of them.

After dinner, we came home, read the Christmas story from the Bible and opened family presents.  Typically we would open all non-Santa presents on Christmas Eve.  This year we restricted it to just immediate family presents so Christmas Day would have most of the presents.  We mixed it up a bit this year too by starting with the youngest, having each person hand out the presents they got for everyone.  I liked doing it this way I think.

Then off to bed, making sure to leave a plate of cookies for Santa (as long as the Elf on a Shelf that Princess Sparkley made didn't eat them all first).

Gingerbread House

Princess Sparkley made this Gingerbread house at Girl Scouts this week.  (And cookie sales have started!  Let us know if you want any!)

Snake

I was sitting inside yesterday afternoon when Princess Sparkley came running up from downstairs yelling that she needed the camera.  Why?  There was a snake outside.  What?  I looked out the window and was surprised to find B outside holding a tiny snake.  Yuck!  Afterwards he said he couldn't remember how many years it had been since he'd held a snake.  Me.  Never.  So we hurried out with the camera and snapped some pictures before he carried the snake to the grassy "alley" behind our house and let it go.  Hopefully he slithered into someone else's yard.  We think it's just a garter snake.  Correct us if we're wrong... or maybe don't, in case it was super poisonous or something.

Holiday Photo Shoot

 B thought it would be funny to have Little Guy lounging across the coffee table in the middle of the picture.  Each of the big kids needed a turn as well.

Holiday picture photo shoot one.  I didn't realize until we were done that I'd taped the Santa hat ball on backwards. Argh!

Tooth

top tooth on the right

Maybe 1 1/2- 2 months ago Little Guy, standing on the edge of the bottom bunk and holding onto the rail of the top bunk, slipped, fell and hit his face on the dresser (I think).  He was all bloody, tooth and lip but the tooth never got wiggly.  After a few days it started getting bruised.  I called to make a dental appointment for him, it was busy, life got in the way and I never called back.  Stupid of me.  I read about it some online and found out the tooth can get bruised and will slowly heal and return back to its normal color.  And that's exactly what his tooth started doing.  By the time he went in to get it checked out two weeks ago, it was almost normal again.  His dentist informed me that the tooth had an abscess and would have to be removed.  She requested X-rays, but never even looked at them before making a final decision.  She then told me she could do it right then, or if I wanted to come back I could make an appointment for later that week or I could take him to a pediatric specialist if I wanted.  ?? It's a dental facility for kids, I assumed they were pediatric specialists, I guess not.  Anyway, I tracked down his insurance, found a pediatric dentist that would see him and took him in on Tuesday.  This dentist looked at the tooth, saw that it wasn't wiggly, looked at all the X-rays very carefully and said he was very optimistic that he could save it.  He said he couldn't guarantee it would work, or how long it would last, but he thought it was worth giving a try.  I mean, Little Guy is about to turn 4... he wouldn't grow a new front tooth for 3-4 more years!  I was on board.  We went back on Thursday.  I saw with Little Guy while they numbed him up... maybe 15 minutes.  Then they had me wait in the waiting room and 10 minutes later the doctor came out.  He'd performed a baby root canal and capped the tooth.  A couple minutes later, Little Guy walked out with the nurse, gauze in his mouth and a handful of stickers.  He got a Slurpee on the way home.  What a champ!  Buddy doesn't even like getting his teeth cleaned and throws a huge fit about it.  Little Guy= brave!

In the pictures, he's bundled up so much because he was shivering after the Slurpee.

And, while we're on the subject of Little Guy, here he is cuddling with Daddy playing mindsweeper a few days ago.

Hot Chocolate Art

The kids decorated these mugs the other day and wrote something about winter or cold weather on the back.  Princess Sparkley helped Little Guy by writing "Tomorrow I start with a Clean Blanket" which is a quote from Charlie Brown since in real life, Little Guy's hot chocolate cup is Charlie Brown cartoon that I believe says, "Happiness is a clean blanket."

Merry Christmas!

 

click to enlarge

Baby Genius!

We like to declare our kids baby geniuses at various points of their babyhood.  And granted, Little Guy is nearly four and not quite a baby anymore, but I like Baby Genius better than Child Genius or Child Prodigy.  Although all are fitting.  :)

We checked out these Bob books from the library a few months ago.  He already knew all the sounds the letters make thanks to this video.  B sat down with him and the first few times, Little Guy would sound out the word but was unable to put the sounds together to read the word.  If B sounded it out, he could figure out the word.  Eventually he's gotten to where he sounds out the letters and then knows the word.  He's worked his way through the Bob books mostly and the other day started reading some of our K12 Kindergarten phonics books with B.  This video is the first time he's ever read this particular story.  He read the title and the first line and then B ran and got the camera.  We have some earlier footage of him reading the Bob books, but it looks as though B uploaded them to his computer, and his computer isn't home right now. 

Our little reader:
http://youtu.be/A-fExDb84fg

Winter Art

Snowglobe (idea from here)

If I lived in a snow globe... I would make hot chocolate and go sledding every day. I would also play with my Husky!

If I lived in a snowglobe... it would snow all day and I would probably build snowmans.

If I lived in a snowglobe... I would drink lots of hot chocolate because it snows every day in there. I would also play in the snow a lot. I would probably make a HUGE sledding hill.

Snowmen from a different perspective (idea from here)

by Princess Sparkley

by Buddy

by Little Guy

We had some homeschool friends over for a low key

Christmas party when we made the above snowmen. 

 

And I had the kids draw a roof top scene from The Night Before Christmas. (idea from my brain)

by Princess Sparkley

by Little Guy (he didn't have room for reindeer so he drew an engine on his sled. And Santa is throwing snowballs.)

by Buddy

Next week we're doing this and drinking hot chocolate.

Little Guy's Frown

I was trying to capture Little Guy's sticky out lower lip the other day but he just erupted in giggles so I captured a variety of that instead.

Sidenote:  His top, front, left (his left) front tooth got banged awhile back.  Bruised to a tannish color and has slowly made its way back to normal.  It never got wiggly.  He only said it hurt for the first few days.  He went to the dentist yesterday and she said it's develped an abscess in the gums above it and the only thing to do is take out the tooth!  My poor little three year old is going to be toothless for YEARS!  I am so not happy about this.  It seemed like it had healed and was such a minor injury.  Argh.

Nativity

Our Fisher Price nativity scene has repeatedly been taken over by plastic frogs.

Airplane Birthday Party

Little Guy went to a friend's birthday party last Saturday.  The party was airplane themed and when Princess Sparkley and I arrived to pick him up, we got to see 8 or 9 little boys sitting in these airplane boxes watching a flight simulation.  So cute!  And each boy got to bring his airplane home and his gift bag had "aviator glasses," binoculars, and a little plastic tool set so they could work on their plane.  Which Little Guy did, all day.  PS and Buddy even joined in and tried to fit in Little Guy's plane.

Christmas in Town

Via friends on Facebook I found out that Santa would be riding to town on the VRE last Friday night and lighting the city Christmas tree.  The city parade would be the next morning (we skipped it this year). 
We saw a bunch of trains roll into town (mostly carrying commuters).  It was crowded.  Finally through whispers and shouts in the crowd we realized Santa had gotten off the train and was making his way toward a tractor drawn hayride to head towards the tree lighting.  I was able to lift the two older kids enough that they could spot Mr. and Mrs. Santa's heads.  B had Little Guy.

Then we ran into our friends the Js and walked over to the tree lighting with them and their three little ones.  Afterwards, they came over to help finish up the pumpkin squares I had leftover from book club the night before. 

Christmas Decorating

I'm not usually in the habit of decorating so soon after Thanksgiving*, but I'm hosting book club at my house on Thursday, so for Family Home Evening last night we decorated (everything but the tree). 

I got to hang up my stockings board you'll remember from here.  And, I created a Christmas countdown all on my own, sort of... I got help from  this and this. 

Here's a zoom in on my countdown.  Behind each number (which I'll upgrade as soon as I decide what I really want them to look like) is an activity such as: drink hot chocolate, warm PJs in dryer before bedtime, drive around to see Christmas lights, bake cookies, etc.)  The kids helped paint or cover the clothes pins, come up with activities, and colored the numbers for me.

*Last year, we went to Ohio for Thanksgiving and I was hosting book club at my house just a day or two after we got home, so we actually decorated before we left town, BEFORE Thanksgiving.  That's given Princess Sparkley some crazy ideas.

Little Guy's Turkey

The turkey is in the middle.  I can't remember what he told me the other two are.  He also drew an excellent Sponge Bob Square Pants on this trip that I need to take a picture of.

Thanksgiving Plays

Saturday night we went and saw a local children's theatre group perform Annie, complete with a Golden Doodle as Sandy, and a Golden Doodle puppy being raffled off.  (The cousins, sadly, did not win.)

Sunday we had our own plays to perform.  The kids informed us when we showed up that there were to be three Thanksgiving plays.  The Grandparents, the parents and the kids.  Road show style. 

The Grandparents went first.

Followed by the parents, but we were in the play, so I have no pictures.

The players.  Their play was Turkeys vs. Human.  Cousin S was a human and the rest were turkeys.

The kids had two backgrounds, props and costumes. 

Science Museum of Virginia

I didn't manage to take any pictures of any of the Thanksgiving prep or Thanksgiving.  My sister-in-law did, she owes me pictures.  It was yummy.  We all ate too much.  That about sums up everyone's Thanksgiving, right?

On Friday we went and saw the movie Hugo with the cousins, the aunt and the uncle.  Little Guy stayed home with B and the grandparents.  I had read The Invention of Hugo Cabret several years ago when the book came out and Aunt H told us about the movie when they visited a couple months ago so we hurried and read it with the kids before this trip.  The movie was in 3D and was pretty cool.

On Saturday  we went to the Science Museum of Virginia with everyone using Grandma and Grandpa's recipricol grandparent membership to a museum they go to in Ohio.  The rotating display was toy trains.  Perfect for all the boys and Grandpa!

Buddy (and Little Guy) especially loved the giant Lego set up a scout troop had done. 

The museum used to be the train station in Richmond, so we went outside and ate a picnic lunch next to the train tracks and toured a caboose.  The train tracks were a hit with the boys.  Buddy, Little Guy and cousin S spent most of the time going up and down the train tracks and I know Buddy and Little Guy were both pretending to be trains because I heard all their train noises.  :)

I like these pictures of Buddy because he's so happy that he's been able to spend the last 30 minutes being a train he can hardly contain a normal smile.

We saw rats play basketball and all of the kids pet a rat.  The kids "solved" a crime. 

We saw some science stuff and some optical illusions.

Aunt H, Little Guy and I pretended to be astronauts.  Little Guy and Uncle G pretended to be under attack by a pteradactyl.

Thanksgiving Week: Turkey Cupcakes

We left early Wednesday morning (but not nearly as early as I thought we were planning on leaving) and arrived in Richmond to Aunt H and Uncle G's right before lunch time.  We were also lucky enough that we convinced Grandma and Grandpa M to come out here to our two families rather than our two families (the only of the M families) traveling to Ohio (9 people) vs. them (2 people).  They were nice and obliged our request.

Our first night, Aunt H had exactly five left over cupcakes from a classroom party, which is exactly how many kids we had at Thanksgiving.

The cupcake is next to its creator.

Little Guy also made this Play Doh ice cream cone.

Sad Art

For my dad:

We've been going through all the kids art this week.  B came across this in one of Buddy's notebooks.  It looks like a depiction of the ball rolling through the legs of Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series.  A sad, sad day in the life of Red Sox fans.  (Notice the NY Met in the background.)  He questioned Buddy and Buddy replied, "Yeah, that's what it looks like, huh?"  So, he doesn't specifically remember drawing this picture, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that this is what he was trying to draw.



Leaves

This is why we have too many leaves in our tree-less yard.

Lefty Little Guy

This is his new thing.  He points at something and wants to make sure you see exactly where he's pointing, so he turns his head and uses his dominant eye (the left eye) and lines it up exactly with what he's trying to show you.