Jacob, Sliding

Cousin Jacob is here to spend a couple of days with Wayne, Cole, and Heather before the big "Christmas" party on Saturday.  They spent a good part of this afternoon sliding.

 Jacob shared a big sled with Cole.

 Wayne went solo.

 Jacob and Cole ended up in the prickle bushes.

 The hard way up

 The easy way up.

Merry Christmas

Hope Santa brought you everything you wanted.

Good night!

Heather is 4! And the Kids Meet Santa!

It's been a whirlwind weekend. There's tons of photos and not much time for me to be online, so here's a quick recap of recent events in our household.

On Thursday we had a little birthday party for Heather. This poor quality photo is the only one I managed to squeeze out of my dying camera batteries. On the left is Heather's friend Anya, from up the road.  They will eventually enter kindergarten together. Cameron is in the center, and of course there's Heather.  Missing from the photo is Gavyn who preferred playing the electric keyboard in the basement to dressing up in costumes.

On Satruday, Glover Recreation had our annual Santa on a Fire Engine event. Guess who got roped into being Santa this year.  The kids always knew that it wasn't the real Santa on the fire engine.  In the past it was always Frank D. and they recognized his voice.  They got a big kick out of seeing Daddy in a Santa costume.

At the fire station there were some simple crafts and activity pages to keep kids busy while they waited their turn to ride the fire engine with "Santa."  There's Spencer (the boy I took care of last year) and his mom, Cathy.

The kids ride on top of the engine. Sorry for the poor photo below, but you can sort of see a group of people and "Santa" up there as it departs.  It looks kind of scary but it's actually safer than it looks.  Santa asks the kids what they want for Christmas and there is some singing of carols. The engine drives very slowly through the village and people come out of their houses and wave at the children.  It's all very sweet.

Wayne and Cole during their ride. Heather was sitting on my lap beside them so I couldn't get her picture.

Earlier on Saturday, we were busy decorating the tree.

It's a disaster, I know.

Also on Saturday, we worked on gingerbread houses. Cole's was a gingerbread Monster House.

Heather made a castle.

Wayne made a gingerbread Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.

The finished products: The Millenium Falcon,

Monster House,

the castle.

Sunday at the gingerbread contest, sponsored by the library, Wayne and Cole do some origami.

There was music with puppets.

Sophia played the violin and also sang a little.  She has a beautiful voice.

All children who enter the gingerbread contest get little stockings filled with goodies, but both Heather and Cole won real prizes. Wayne's ears turned bright red when he heard their names called.  I had to remind him that he won the pie contest last summer and they did not.  Heather won a gift certificate to Parker Pie and Cole won a large bottle of maple syrup from Waltzing Bear.

The birthday girl in an outfit from Martha. She's working on an activity that Cameron gave her for her birthday. It kept her busy while she was getting impatient for presents, cake and ice cream.

Opening gifts.

Blowing out candles.

Another event that happened this week and escaped my camera: Martha dressed as Laura Ingalls Wilder and came to Wayne's thrid grade class.  They've been reading the books and learning all about life during that time period.  I heard a lot of glowing feedback from the kids and the teacher, so Martha, you may have to do this again when Cole and then Heather reach 3rd grade.  Thank you Martha, I know everyone enjoyed you very much.

Thanks to everyone who sent cards, emails, gifts, and phone calls for Heather's birthday. She had a great day.

Letters to Santa

Last night after getting ready for bed, the kids wrote letters to Santa.

Wayne had his in an envelope ready to mail before I had a chance to take a picture of it, but he asked for some big kid toys like a DSI and a wii  and some Star Wars stuff.

This is Heather's letter, as transcribed by Cole. It says, "a doll, a baby with a stroller, a sticker book, a paddle ball." Heather wrote the big "from Heather" herself.

I didn't know that Cole wrote a letter of his own last night. I thought he spent the whole time helping Heather with hers, but this morning I found this on the floor by his bed. 

It looks like he wrote 20 dollars at the top of the list, but then tried to erase it.

 It says, " Dear Santa, I want new shoes, a better Darth Vader (costume, I think he means), a spring action saber (light saber), a watch, a real star fish, a robot, a wish, no more homework, a DSI."

I've been feeling like quite a Grinch lately, but these letters are beginning to give even me the Christmas spirit.

The Beginning of Winter Fun

Going down fast.

Coming up slow.

 Into the prickle bushes.

Wayne's on a snowboard.

 Spike loves when the kids are home.

 Dog or freight train?

Fall Harvest Concert and New Friends

Last week Wayne and Cole had their school concert.

Above, pumpkins singing "Harvest Time."

I didn't take any videos, but in the photo below, the first grade is singing a song about a runaway pancake. There were some dance moves involved, and in addition to singing, each student had a speaking line. In the song, the pancake makes its way to the White House. Cole's line had him speaking as President Obama, "I LOVE pancakes. Let's make them national heros." He did a great job. He spoke loudly and clearly into the microphone.  He was the best. I will add this disclaimer: when I sent him off to meet up with his classmates and music teacher, his tie was straight and his shirt was tucked in. I don't know what happened in the meatime to cause this dishevelment, but I still think he's the most handsome. Look at him, cool as a cucumber. Zephyr, back there in the bow tie, is also quite dapper.

Wayne and his third grade class sang a haunting Navajo song.  Wayne looks handsome as can be too.

Earlier in the evening, before we left for the concert, posing with this year's Thanksgiving Tree.

This is one of Heather's Thankful leaves.  It says, "I'm thankful for my new friend, Cameron."

 This morning, Cameron and his sister Grace came over for a playdate.

They had snacks and played foosball.

 This is Grace.  She's just about the cutest thing ever.

 That brings us pretty much up to date. We're all looking forward to the Thanksgiving break and having Thanksgiving dinner at Joanie's house.  Yum!