Monday:
The kids had school, clubs, gymnastics, etc. ;o)
Chris and Emily worked on putting up some more Christmas lights.
Haha, she really thought she was helping out there.
They also got the tree put up! And then they sat around having beyblade battles.
Tuesday:
Evie had to cheer at a basketball game, so she was all dressed up in her uniform for school. :o)
Emily saw us taking pictures, so she ran over to be in it too, hehe.
So sweet! :o)
I was working on the blog when she started playing peek-a-boo with me.
She suddenly thought it was just so funny to shout "Boo!" at me over and over, hehe.
And then she did it laying on the floor.
Boo Momma!
And then she put that blanket over her head...
And walked right into the closet door! Ahahaha! I know, I really shouldn't laugh so hard at her, but it's so funny! :oD
Matthew brought home a folder full of graded school work covered in 100's, just like he does every Tuesday.
:o)
I really liked his work on this "Determining Importance" worksheet that they did.
They read the book "An Angel for Solomon Singer" and Matthew's conclusion reads:
The most important thing I learned from this book is that you can dream what you want to dream, no matter what it is about. Because Solomon dreamed about what he loved.
:o) The illustrations are pretty cute too. Great job Matt-dog!
The kids have been taking turns changing our "Days 'Til Christmas" board. They've also decided that whoever changes the days can also change the adjective describing Christmas too. And although I meant to take a picture of it each day, this is the only one I have, lol, oh well.
Quick dinner pic after church class.
We love grilled cheese! :o)
Wednesday:
Evie's been wearing her pretty Christmas earrings every day.
These are little white ones that say "MERRY". I took a close-up pic of them, but it was too blurry to share. :o)
Emily kept me entertained.
Yeah, she found an old microphone and walked around singing and shaking that maraca all day.
I told her to say cheese, so she turned her baby around so she could pose for the picture too.
So happy to see E-ee! Because yes, that's what she calls Evelyn now,
E-ee. :o)
Evie's game wasn't until later, so we ran home, got her all ready, then went back up to the school.
Go Eagles!
Because the sun sets so early, our walk back to the house after her game was in the dark, but that gave us the chance to look at all the pretty Christmas lights along the way.
And look! We finally finished putting ours up! And I remembered to plug them in before we left for Evie's game. Woohoo!
:o)
Thursday:
Early morning pic sporting her kitty-cat shirt, pants, and hair band.
Joshua and Evelyn have had sooo much work lately for school.
So Matthew has stepped up as the big brother and kept Emily quite occupied (and out of our hair!) so I can check homework and study with the other midgets. :o)
Evie was up kinda late working on her Figurative Language book. She had to make up and quote lots of examples from books, and provide pictures for them all! Luckily, she worked really hard all week so that night wasn't as bad as it could have been. :oP
And Joshua put the finishing touches on his Vasco da Gama power point research project.
Love those hard-working midgets! :o)
Friday:
Oooh - love the reindeer earrings!
And since I already had the camera out.
:o)
Matthew's class did an in-school field trip with the Posh Paint Pub.
The paint people brought all the 2nd graders pottery ornaments to paint, and us parents were invited too.
Matthew chose a Christmas tree and a bell to decorate, and he had soooo much fun doing it!
And I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Matthew has some color-blindness. It usually doesn't affect him at all, but he had a little bit of trouble choosing his paint colors because the paints weren't true shades of the colors. They were very light-colored because they will darken after they're all baked up.
But no worries, I only mention it because we were both laughing a lot as he tried to paint his tree all brown because he thought it was green, and the trunk red because he thought it was brown, haha! It made for an interesting time, and he was very happy that I was there to help him. :oD
Lol, it was pretty loud in the cafeteria with all those excited 2nd graders, so I guess she was just trying to stay sane or something. Hehe. ;o)
Great job Matthew! We can't wait to see them after they've been baked!
:o)
When the kids got out of school, we put off their weekend school work and let them play outside for a while instead. :o) Oh - and I forgot to mention - we started reading The Hobbit together! Every evening we sit for 20-30 minutes, whatever amount of time we can squeeze in, and we read it out loud. It's going really well, we've only missed a couple of nights, and the kids are sooo into the story, seriously! Isn't that awesome?! We're currently on page 110 of 300 pages, so we won't be finished before the new movie comes out, but we think (and hope!) we can complete it while we're visiting for Christmas, so then maybe we can go see the movie. :o)
Saturday:
Matthew thought he was a pirate for a while that morning.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrr!
We had a very Christmas-y day.
The kids watched intently as Evelyn tried to put together a puzzle cube made of erasers, haha. Then we went to an early morning Mass to celebrate Mary, and both the big kids got to altar serve.
And then it snowed.
Lol, okay, no it didn't snow, but they set up a Snow Day at the Exchange store on base, and we got to go!
I don't think Emily remembers snow. She just kept watching the kids run out on it, trying to figure out what it was, so I walked her out to the middle so she could see.
And she very quickly made for the sidewalk, lol!
But after about 15 minutes of watching the kids run around and throw snowballs at each other, she finally just went for it.
And she kept saying, "Cold, hands cold!" Hehe.
The big kids ran around like mad men, laughing and throwing snow at everybody. :o)
Then Evie made the mistake of showing Emily how to make and throw a snowball.
And it was on!
She kept grabbing it and throwing it at the kids, laughing hysterically every time she got them, hahaha!
And if they ran out of her range, she would call for them until they came back (which they always did) so she could throw snow at them again.
Lol, too much fun!
Then we went inside the store where they had craft stations set up for the kids to make stuff.
They all made beaded bracelets.
And then they all decorated stockings.
Evie was in glitter heaven, hehe.
And then we went and stood in line to get a picture with Santa.
Sorry I didn't get a better pic - I even cut off Emily's stocking and didn't even notice! (It had a kitty-cat on it.)
And after waiting in line for 30 minutes we get back to where Santa was, and Emily took one look at him and burst into tears! So yeah, then I got to be in the picture too.
Lol, oh well, at least it was free! ;o)
Quick pic of their bracelets when we got home.
They're actually pretty neat. Good job kids!
Evelyn had a big "Change Over Time" research project about the history of books due the next Tuesday, and she decided it would be best to get it done over the weekend (and I really couldn't disagree with her about that!) So she got down to work.
The boys went outside and got a baseball game going with their friends. See how they used the trees for bases? Purdy cool.
Earlier that day, we talked about decorating the tree that night, and the kids said that to make it "extra-Christmas-y" we had to have hot cocoa. ("Pleeease Mommy!")
So we picked some up.
And it was so yummy!
And so much more Christmas-y! ;o)
:o)
Best cocoa ever!
"Oh - you want me to stop drinking this and take a picture??
Not a chance." Lol!
Yeah, she didn't technically have "hot cocoa", just chocolate milk.
But she loved it!
And then it was time to decorate that naked tree!
All the kids had fun and did a really great job.
And they all helped Emily out now and again when her ornament wouldn't stay on the tree, hehe.
Joshua the Jester! :o)
"And this one goes here."
And while Joshua could easily reach the top of the tree...
Evelyn and Matthew had to get a little more creative.
So Evie balanced on the tops of her tippy-toes while Matthew balanced on the arm of the couch, haha!
Emily really got into it this year, running back and forth for more ornaments.
"Hi Daddy! Tree!"
:o)
We had sooo many ornaments!
"This is awesome!"
Hey Matthew, I think you're doing it wrong!
Joshua hanging up his "My First Christmas" ornament. :o)
We even had a Jedi helping us decorate.
And check us out!
Emily absolutely loves my* nutcracker!!!
*Yes, it's mine. And now Emily thinks it's hers... So yeah, y'all are never getting it back. :oD
They did such a great job, but it wasn't until we got to the bottom of the box that we realized the angel was missing! (Along with a couple of nutcrackers and the tree skirt!) So yeah, we had to hunt for a missing box the next day, but for tonight, our tree was done!
Lol! :o)
Sunday:
Pics of the munchkins admiring their handiwork before church.
What a cutie!
Evelyn even squeezed in a few minutes to work on her project.
After Mass, we ran to Walmart to pick up a few things (including a new nose-piece for Matthew's glasses because "Emily broke it off.") But first, we made a pit-stop at the hats.
Lol! Silly puppy-girl.
And I love these!!
Angry Evie! Haha!
And not to be left out...
Daddy Claus! Hehehe. :oD
Then it was back to the house where the boys played outside while Evie worked (and worked and worked!) on her project.
Oh - and we found the last Christmas box! And the singing Jingle Bell snowman and puppy-dog was in there!
And Emily lost her mind and pushed that button over and over and over!
Kisses for the puppy-dog.
"Emily's really crazy Mommy."
"I know honey, it's okay." ;o)
We also found the angel for the tree and the rest of the nutcrackers.
"I am the leader of the midget nutcrackers!"
And Evelyn finally finished her paper and poster for her project!!
She did such a great job. :o)
And since her E-ee was posing...
She had to pose too. :o)
And that was our week! Man, those kids worked so hard. I'm so happy that they were able to get everything done, but yeah, they are really looking forward to a very well-deserved break. Only 8 more days of school! We've still been pretty busy, so we haven't put the angel on the tree just yet, but she'll make it up there eventually, no worries. But we got our Christmas cards mailed out today! Yay! Only a couple more weeks to go until Christmas, but with all the activities and decorations just everywhere right now, it kinda feels like we're already celebrating, and that's a cool feeling. :oD Hope everyone's having a great week!
Laters!
