Merry, Merry

Christmas was good to us. Soft new snow, listening to Christmas music and eating our body weight in sugary sweets. Here are a few shots of our Christmas day:

The girl was thrilled to open her new horse stable. Her current grouping of equines were seriously neglected, so she's relieved to have a suitable shelter for them complete with mucking-out equipment as well as a new mare and foal to house there.

My youngster is frequently opposed to having his photo taken, which creates the appearance of general dissatisfaction with his new firehouse. He is, in fact, super excited about it. As a matter of fact, we're not surprised that he reported to his teacher today in church that we had suffered a serious house fire and he saved the day by notifying the fire department. His teacher approached E to inquire about our misfortune.

Wonderboy's new laser tag set led to a lot of running in the house, which I'm generally opposed to, but in the spirit of Christmas, I let . it . go. Yay me. A certain exuberant player (E) gouged the white door frame pictured here. I didn't freak out. Again, yay me.

E amazed us all by employing his recently developed wood working skills to build gifts for the kids. He built this doll bed for Miss S's American Girl doll. I made up some bedding and it's pretty stinking cute, truth be told.

He built Bubs a toy box deserving of its own zip code.


And for Wonderboy an adjustable set of stilts, which he is already quite adept at tottering around on.

I stupidly gave E a RC gyro helicopter. I haven't snapped any pictures of it, because when he's using it, I find myself fully occupied cringing and covering my head with my arms. Somehow, when I ordered it for him, the torment I would suffer didn't occur to me.

Lots of books, games, Legos, doll clothes, sweaters, a little jewelry here and there, grandma's thumbprint cookies delivered here and there, fudge, and plenty of Tabernacle Choir in the background. It was a very good day.

Merry Christmas!

Because, as he put it...

You just don't see a pirate who has crocheted his own eye patch every day.

Maybe a review of Luke 2 is in order

As church let out today, Bubs' teacher flagged me down. She explained that having brought a nativity set with the individual figures wrapped in paper, she asked the children to each choose and unwrap a figure and then explain what role the figure played in the birth of Jesus.

As Bubs unwrapped his nativity figure to reveal the wise man that happened to be depicted with darker skin than the others, his teacher asked who the man was.

Bubs shrugged and simply answered, "Obama".

. . .

And now (completely unrelated) for Grandpa and Grandma J, a photo of the girl in her new dress. It's good to have a grandma who has a fondness for Strasburg dresses.

Squeaky Clean

Bath time and then a few minutes on the fluff cycle and he's ready for the day.

A (late) Halloween recap

Even without trick-or-treating on Sunday, the kids brought home enough sugar to chart their haul in bar graphs. Daddy is so proud of his burgeoning economist.

Schools parties, church shin-digs, and candy handing-out kept us busy. We had masses of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, of which only about 5% were actually from our neighborhood, under the age of 14, and English-speaking. Very odd. And that's all I'm going to say about that. But while we managed the throngs (that began coming at 4:00!) we hunkered down and watched the first Harry Potter movie.

Mommy - Daughter Manis

We had a little girly fun today.

It's my birt-day. And I like yours shess.

Today is my sweet Bubs' birthday. He's four. And that's big, in case you're wondering.

Yesterday at preschool, he was excited to donate his favorite book (Goodnight Moon) to the classroom to celebrate his birthday. I was invited to spend the afternoon with him in class, something I've been really looking forward to. He carefully took me by the hand and guided me to his classroom where he busied himself with backpack hanging, hand washing, snack stashing among other arrival rituals.

Throughout the afternoon, he took such care to be sure I understood where to go, when to sit, and what to play with. He was a fine example as he picked up after himself, cleaned up his snack and treated the other children with kindness and respect. I couldn't have been prouder of him, and in my pride I began to imagine how admired I must be by his teachers. What a model of maternal success I represented.

We sat down for circle time. Miss H reminded the children of their previous discussions about compliments...what constitutes a compliment and how to respond when complimented. It was sweet Sahasra's turn to receive compliments. She sat in front of the other children in her pink skirt and white, sequined top as the children offered up their compliments in turn. Mrs. S. recorded the compliments on a page to be saved and sent home with the student. One child liked her shoes, another admired her hair. Thank you, thank you, she replied with Miss H's gentle prompts. Then Miss H turned to my birthday boy and asked for his compliment.

"I like yours shess," he said, quite simply.
"You like her dress, Finn?" Miss H questioned.
"No, I like hers shess." he corrected.
silence...
"You like her shirt?" I asked.
"I like her shess." he offered, a little more loudly, a subtle note of frustration in his voice this time.
"What is it Finn?" Miss H asked again, still not understanding.
"Oh, you like her sparkly top?" I asked, hoping, but fighting unsuccessfully against the heat I could feel rising.
"No! I like hers shess!!" He blurted out in frustration as he thrust up his shirt to his chin and pointed at his own chest, "THESE...I LIKE HERS SHESS!"

silence

"Well, I don't think we ought to write that down." Miss H whispered to Mrs. S.

* * *

Pumpkin Pickin'

This was us last year picking pumpkins and eating cider doughnuts at Honey Hill Farm:

It was CHILLY. Loads of fun, but so freezy. See how I'm not really smiling, but mostly grimacing? My face was frozen.

Yesterday we went a pumpkin pickin' again. It was 89 degrees. This Midwest weather certainly keeps things interesting.

We rode the tractor wagon out to pick pumpkins and gourds with Max - a black lab. I think he pretty much spends the day riding the wagon back and forth. There was also Beau, the Bloodhound, but dang he was fast. Too fast for me and my camera.

We played a little in the hay bale maze, checked out all the farm critters, and ate our bellies full and distended of fresh cider doughnuts.

On our way back home Eric and the kids checked out a small military air museum. I didn't much see the point in paying 8 bucks per adult to see a dozen old planes, so I waited in the car. I'm cheap like that. Besides my view from the parking lot was just fine. But the kids loved seeing the planes, and miss Fia declared it to be the best day ever. (She does that a lot)

Daisy. 16.33 hours

Status: Vigilant

For the last 45 minutes all I've seen of Daisy as I pass by E's office, is her fanny. I just investigated to discover her waiting, very still, for a fly to make his move with an intensity we don't often see from her.

I don't have the heart to tell her the fly is very much dead.

Firsts

First day of first grade, and third grade...

first day of preschool (and he has been waiting for this FOR.EVER.)
(he picked out his backpack and it seems ever so apropos)


...first day of soccer for this girl, and we may have a soccer pro on our hands...

And First prize for most awesome swim trunks on a man of maturity ever. Spotted yesterday on another trip to the beach. Almost makes me think I'm reclining in Rio.