Merry Christmas, everyone!

"As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same."
– Donald E. Westlake

Before we could start the Christmas festivities, there were several things we needed to do.  The first was to make gingerbread houses.  Technically, it was a gingerbread train, house, and tree.  Isla needed a little help with the tree, which turned out to be the most complicated of the three, but the other kids were able to manage theirs fairly well.  It became a constant challenge to keep them from eating them afterwards.

The second thing we needed to do was go to Six Flags for Holiday in the Park.  The weather was nice, and the kids had fun sledding, going on rides, and seeing at all the lights. 

The last things we had to do was wrap the presents and bake cookies for Santa.  Even the Elf on the Shelf got involved in the fun when the kids woke up to find her ready to start the baking process.  She got her own cookie on Christmas Eve.

After all the work, Christmas Eve finally arrived.  The kids got dressed up, then we took some pictures and headed to church and the annual dinner at Joe T. Garcia’s.  After we got back home, the kids got to put on their Christmas pajamas, put out cookies and milk for Santa, and then tried to get to sleep so Santa could deliver presents.  “Tried” being the key word thanks to some large and sugar filled cookies provided to the kids by Papa after dinner.

Christmas finally arrived.  As kids are required to do, they ran down stairs and started digging into presents before we could even get the camera ready.  We were able to restore a semblance of order and the kids settled into the first of three Christmas activities.  Spoiled much?

The next stop on the Christmas tour was at Nina and Papa’s, where the kids got to open yet more presents and play with their cousins.  They also got to video chat with their Georgia cousins, which they thought was fun.

The final stop on the tour was at Grandma and Grampa’s house for more presents and dinner.  I would have thought the kids would have been worn out by this point, but they must have had energy reserved because they were just as crazy here as the other two places.

Another Christmas is in the books, filled with food, toys, candy, games, and excitement.  Thanks everyone for making this another special Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

A climber, a robot, and a hamster…

"The world's tragedy is that men love women, women love children, and children love hamsters."
-Joanna Trollope

Isla is a climber.  She likes to play on top of bookshelves, help cook by climbing on top of the kitchen island, and brush her teeth from on top of the bathroom counter.  She has a rather strong sense of balance and coordination for a child her age, but it still makes us nervous.

The kids took a trip to the library and came back with a programmable robot.  Needless to say each of them had a lot of fun taking turns building things with it.  They learned how to make it go forward, backward, follow their hands, and run away from their hands.  Unfortunately they couldn’t figure out how to program it to pick up all the mess afterwards.

In more unfortunate news, our pet frog died this week.  Ashlyn was sad, James was curious, and Isla didn’t seem to have an opinion on the matter.  There was a deep and moving ceremony as the frog was buried in the garden and then the sadness was quickly turned into smiles with the purchase of a new pet hamster.  Her name is Cinnamon.  Yay, more pets!

We had visits from three different grandparents this week, although we only got pictures from two of them.  Nina came by during the week to watch the kids while Mommy met with some friends at work.  Grandma came by while we went to the new Star Wars movie, and Pepa came by for breakfast and to play some soccer with Isla. 

Only one more week until Christmas!

Tomatoes, bubbles, and skates…

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad."
-Brian O'Driscoll

Our tomatoes went a little crazy as the weather cooled.  With the first freeze expected soon, the tomatoes needed to be picked, and as you can see from the pictures we now have a LOT of tomatoes.  Isla was excited about it.

Ashlyn learned how to make bubbles using a bottle and soap, and the result was three messy kids.  They were smiling kids though, so that’s nice.

Ashlyn and James were invited to a skating party for one of their friends this weekend, and James put his recent skating lesson to good use.  It’s always fun to watch the kids have fun together, they don’t always do that at the house.

Balloons, parades, and a swing…

"Then I became a mother and it just fills every space, that isn't filled with something else important. It's just like this incredible balloon that blows up and fills life up."
-Thandie Newton

Why is it that children only become helpful when helping is fun or when they think they can make a mess.  When it comes to making dinner, both things can be true.  Oh well, at least their helping.

Despite a house filled with toys, the simple things always bring the most excitement.  This week it was blowing up balloons which resulted in a balloon party in the living room.  If only it were always that easy.

Isla has a strange way of eating pizza.  When we ate some this weekend, she started by taking off all the pepperoni.  Then she ate all the pepperoni.  Then she took off all the cheese.  Then she went to the drawer, got a spoon, and proceeded to scrape off and eat all the pizza sauce.  Only then did she actually eat the crust.  James ate his pizza the old fashioned way, which I couldn’t get a picture of because he hid under the table every time the camera pointed his way.

Pepa came over this weekend for breakfast and to help us replace the two person swing on our backyard playset with a regular swing.  While I got ready, Ashlyn showed off her monkey bar skills and of course Isla wanted to do the same thing.  After we got the swing in, the kids gave it a whirl.  Finally, three kids swinging with no fighting!

Ashlyn’s cheerleading team was invited to walk in the Euless Christmas parade this year.  The highlight of the parade, other than Ashlyn’s team of course, was a Euless dump truck covered in Christmas lights.  How this even did not get national TV coverage like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade will forever be a mystery to me.

It’s been a busy week for the kids and it must have been a long week for the cat as well based on how Nala took over Isla’s bed.