School performances

The boys each had winter celebrations at school recently, and we enjoyed the performances at both!

First, at ELDC, we had a potluck dinner with all of the families and teachers before the kids sang a few winter songs for us. Nate has been practicing his singing quite a bit, particularly Winter Wonderland. And Simon went ahead and jumped right in to sing with the group, I don't think it even crossed his mind that this isn't actually his school anymore. Thankfully the teachers didn't seem to mind!

And at Simon's new school, Young Child Academy, we were invited to spend an hour in the classroom with his Pre-K 2 class. When we got there they were playing Pin the Carrot on the Snowman (FYI: 5 years olds ALL cheat at this game). Then their music teacher came in and led them through a few songs that they had practiced. Then the big performance started--their teacher, Sarah, read the book A Silly Snowy Day, and the kids acted it out in costumes they had made. And guess what? Simon was the "lead" character, Shelly the turtle! 

Settle in, this one is over 6 minutes long. And keep an eye (and ear) out for the extra special contribution Simon made to the performance at about 4 minutes in. 

Merry Christmas! 

25 Days of Christmas, part 2

Continuing on...

On Day 7 we put up our tree! Since Simon had the honor last year, Nate got to put the star on.

On Days 8 through 12, I had to travel to VA for a bunch of work meetings, and Matt was in charge of the drawers and activities. We don't have a lot of pictures since Matt was more than a little busy, but the three boys had a lot of fun together. The checked out Google Earth to see where Santa lives and how he travels across the world on Christmas eve; they watched Rudolph and made JiffyPop on the stove; they had fancy hot chocolate and finally, made snowflakes and a sign to welcome me home, which I loved.

Day 12 marked the arrival of Kennedy the Elf, for his third season with our family. The boys were amused to find that he had apparently snuck here in my suitcase!

Day 13, we headed out to Bellevue to see the Garden D'lights, a really cool light display that we first learned about last year. The boys loved it!

Day 14 we did a really cool craft--acorn jewels! We also headed to Crate and Barrel to pick up this year's special new ornaments, and for the first time, the boys chose their own. Simon picked a cool nutcracker and Nate chose a felt bird.

We are halfway there...stay tuned!

25 Days of Christmas, part 1

We have been doing our 25 Days of Christmas again this year and having a lot of fun...here are some highlights from the first part of the month.

The boys love waking up every morning to see what's in the drawer for the day...

Day 1 was the perennial favorite, the Christmas Bath, including ornaments, trees and trains to decorate on the wall, green water that was scented with peppermint and vanilla and cranberries added for color.

Day 1 hint:

On Day 2, the hint was a small ornament hanging from the drawer, so we painted ornaments! And while we were working, Simon shared some news he had learned about astronauts.

Day 3 was a new book called The Snowy Day, so the hint was very snowy too!

On Day 5, we roasted marshmallows in the fireplace and watched The Grinch. The hint was fun, they had to figure out who would have green hair, hands and feet!

Day 6 was one that is always highly anticipated...seeing SANTA!! Both boys had a great time with him this year, no tears in sight!

The professional picture came out great!

Stay tuned, there's lots more to come!!

Nate's third birthday!

I know it's been a while, but between Christmas prep and a big work trip I recently had, this past month has flown by! So this is a little belated, but here's how we celebrated Nate's third birthday.

First, we celebrated on his actual birthday with a small cake and candles, yum! His present from us was his long-desired Seahawks helmet! And he clearly really enjoyed his cake, as you can see from the background of the video below, which also features Simon's explanation of how to delete an app from an Apple device.

Then, we had his very first kiddie birthday party, at the Dragon Room at the local community center. It's a room that's used for preschool during the week and has lots of great spaces and fun activities for kids this age. We had snacks, played a lot, did a craft and, of course, had cupcakes and sang happy birthday. Nate had a great time!!