Merry Christmas!!

Christmas eve was spent at my parents' house having Chinese take out and opening a few pressies. As usual, it was completely chaotic and the kids got more presents than they knew what to do with!

It was questionable whether or not Santa would visit our house this year as we have had a couple of misbehaved children recently. Somehow, in the two weeks before Christmas, they managed to pull it together- Santa did come, and, much to our surprise, the only coal left in the stockings was that of the candy variety!! The kids were actually very well behaved in the days leading up to Christmas... all must have been forgiven.

Later on in the day we had my parents, sister Kristen and Dan over for dinner. Nick cooked a feast and we all had a lovely day!

Some (not so great) pictures from Christmas Day:

The Tree Christmas cookies

The cookies that Annabelle decorated! The mince pies
opening presents
sledding with some friends trying out the new scooter
Geotrax planeKaraoke performances!!
Will 2009 be the year Nick hides those tv wires?

...And The Fun That Followed The Storm!

And Then There Was The Storm

Calm Before The Storm

It is 8:30 am, we are expecting a big snow storm this afternoon and school has been canceled. It is not snowing yet. The kids are very excited about the impending snow, very excited. They have dressed themselves in all of their snow gear (over their pajamas); coats, hats, mittens, scarves, snow pants, boots. They are currently in the back yard... Waiting for the snow.

The Polar Express

The kids and I took a ride to the North Pole on the Polar Express this evening!

One of the local commuter rail stations decorated a train and had a special Polar Express themed train ride. It was very cute... On the way up to the North Pole each train car had a person reading the book, The Polar Express, and, just as in the film, there was a train conductor who went around and punched everyone's tickets, and little elves who served up hot chocolate and cookies.

Once we arrived at the North Pole we had a special visit from Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty, and also a winter fairy who gave the kids magical fairy dust! They even each got a magical bell to take home!

On the way back from the North Pole there was a man playing guitar and singing Christmas tunes for/with all the kiddies.

The kids had a great time... They are already asking to go again next year!!

Conversation Between Two Monkeys

Annabelle: Jack, when are you going to get rid of that binky?

Jack: When I'm four.

Annabelle: If you get rid of your binky you can get a prize!! Don't you WANT to get a prize, NOW?

Jack: I do, but, I can't get rid of binky yet... It's part of the family.

Gingerbread House

The end result- 3:35pm

Annabelle discovers a gumdrop

Super happy-she's usually not allowed to chew gum

The house begins to crumble
The real end result- 3:37 pm

The Santa Picture

Teddy's first Santa picture!

December 9, 2008

Little Artist

Annabelle loves to draw. She is getting pretty good at it too! Lately she has been wanting to sit at my drawing table in the basement. She is so funny when she does this, so serious and professional... Very unlike her every day personality!

No Baby!

We were at the playground yesterday and poor Jack was being followed around by three toddlers. They were very cute, and just wanted to be with Jack, but for some reason Jack is very anti-"baby" at the moment so this was really annoying him.

He was very good about it at first though; he kept moving away from them, going from play structure to play structure, but he just couldn't shake the babies. Finally he had had enough. He stood up, turned to the toddlers, and with his little finger waving in the air, shouted, "argh, not the babies again!... you babies need to play over there!" When they didn't budge he started in on the Moms!!! He was like, "HEY, you Mommy's, you take those babies away, OK!" "YOU TWO MOMMY'S, those babies need to play OVER THERE!"

*Sounds obnoxious but he was actually being very cute... And also quite amusing!!!

First Dentist Visit

The little mishap with Annabelle's tooth prompted a visit to the Dentist. It was the first time for both of them! (I have been meaning to take them for ages)

All in all, the visit went very well- definitely not as traumatic as they had imagined!

Jack picks his nose, then offers the Dentist a bogey.

Surprisingly, the Dentist didn't take him up on the offer.

They took some X-rays of Annabelle's teeth. The Dentist thought that her permanent teeth looked OK after the fall, but that we need to keep an eye on the loose tooth... It should tighten up within a couple of weeks, but if it starts to get discolored it could indicate nerve damage, in which case they would need to remove the tooth. So we wait. So far she seems fine.

Damaged Goods

Last night, just as we were heading upstairs for bed, Annabelle wiped out on the hardwood floor and landed flat on her face, knocking her front tooth loose! At first, we thought the tooth might have actually fallen out, but once the bleeding stopped we could see that it had just been loosened and were able to push it back into place. It is still pretty wobbly; it's any body's guess whether or not it will fall out, but we are hoping that it sticks around for another couple of years!

Friendship Feast 2008

Once again, the preschool had it's annual "friendship feast", which is sort of a mock Thanksgiving with entertainment. Each class got up on stage and did a performance - Jack's class sang a "turkey dinner" song, Annabelle's class sang a very similar "turkey dinner" song... both to the tune of Frere Jaqua! Funny, that.

During the performance Jack looked a little nervous, a touch of stage fright if you will, but he did a great job just the same. He sang a bit, but mostly he just stood there and looked cute.

Annabelle, as usual, was in her element... The girl is a born performer. She knew every word to her "turkey dinner" song (and Jack's), and sang with gusto. She just loves being up on that stage!

After the songfest was the feast: Turkey, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce, rolls, apple juice, cookies, and brownies... Lots of food for little people.

Before they sat down to eat Annabelle warned me that NO ONE better try to put stuffing on her plate. I was curious to see what would happen if they did, but having to divide myself between her table and Jack's, I missed out on the actual doling out of the food. I didn't notice any stuffing on her plate though. Jack, on the other hand, didn't say a word about what he was willing to accept on his plate. Instead he just discarded the items he didn't like, putting them onto his classmate's plate when he wasn't looking!

In the end the kids had a great time. We got to keep the lovely flower centerpiece that Jack made, and also a cutom laminated placemat with his hand prints on it. Annabelle MacGyver-ed a turkey centerpiece out of a pumpkin, pipecleaner, and some feathers, which we also got to take home. Although, Turkey Pumpkin has since lost it's head...

Girls Have Cooties

When I picked Jack up from school yesterday he ran out of his classroom with a huge smile on his face and gave me a giant hug. Two seconds later, he handed me one [of the two] cars he had brought to school with him that morning, then asked me to smell it... And then he came out with, "I don't want this one- it smells like Molly."

Further prying revealed that his classmate, Molly, had handled the car at some point during the day, and now it was, "in need of a wash."

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween morning the kids had a performance and costume parade at school. Jack wore his pirate costume, Annabelle opted to wear her fairy costume for this event, a last minute decision. It was funny to see Jack up on stage for the first time... He looks like he has stage fright (and bed head)!

Annabelle's class sang, "five little pumpkins" and Jack's did two songs, neither of which I could understand a word of. I know one of the songs Jack's class did was about little goblins because he had been singing it at home, only substituting "Annabelle" or "baby" for the word goblin. I was waiting to see if he would do that at the performance... but I don't think he actually sang at all!

In the evening we went out trick-or-treating with the kids on the street, then went back to the neighbors for cocktails and pizza. As expected, the kids pretty much just loaded up on sugar...

School Field Trip

Jack's first school field trip... Awwww.

Both Jack and Annabelle's classes took a field trip to a local farm, which has a petting zoo, hay ride, pony ride, pumpkin patch and corn maze. It was very cute, and a lot of fun for them, but it was a little tricky for me-

First off, it was freezing! But aside from that, both kids wanted to stay with their own classes and I was torn as to who to stay with! At first, I was trying to keep the kids together but their classes were doing different activities at different times; Annabelle's class was on the hay ride while Jack's was petting animals, Annabelle's class was doing pony rides while Jack's was in the corn maze, etc... Jack wanted to stay with his class and Annabelle wanted to stay with hers- Ack!

I was running back and forth for a while but in the end, I just stayed with Jack's class for the day. He seemed to be the one that actually wanted me there with him. Annabelle just latched on to her friends and their moms, and every once in a while some mother would hand me one of Annabelle's mittens or something. She is always so busy, I don't think she even noticed I wasn't with her class.

Apart from my initial stress of needing to split myself in two, we had a nice day!

Above is a picture of Jack and his class (minus two) and to the left are a few of Annabelle's friends, all of whom have siblings in Jack's class!

Trick-Or-Treat- Round One

Last friday was the annual trick-or-treat in the square. When I have driven through on this day in the past, I've thought that it all seemed a bit crazy; chaotic, crowded, and just plain old MADNESS.

This being our first year in attendance, my suspicions were confirmed. It was all I had imagined and more... And the kids loved every minute of it!

Super Slide

Those Monkeys were up and down this slide so many times, they slept for hours when they got home!

You Know It's Time To Start Using Your Kid's Real Names When...

You're trying to ask you daughter if she would like a banana and the conversation goes something exactly like this:

Banana?
What?
Banana?
What?
Banana?
What is it?
A Banana.
Banana?
What is it Mommy?
Do you want a banana?
Oh, no thanks.

*I sometimes call Annabelle, Anna-banana

Leaf Sleeper

Yesterday the kids and I we were raking up leaves and jumping in the pile. When it started to get dark, Annabelle decided that the leaf pile was as good a place as any to have a snooze. Shortly after this photo was taken, Annabelle ran inside and grabbed a blanket and a few stuffed friends. She was genuinely upset when I told her that she would not be allowed to spend the night there!