December 2010 Archives

New Year's Eve Party

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Lots of shots of Henry because I can't get over how cute he is in his tie! The TV in the background is playing our party music.


We each had a skewer with 12 grapes (Henry had blueberries) to represent each month of the year. Some months in 2011 will be sweet and others might be sour!


She didn't want me to take her picture so she's saying, "Nooooo!"

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Anna & Sarah wanted to do "the exact same thing we did last year!" for our New Year's party. So we had a dress-up hors d'ouevres party again. This year was more fun though because Henry got to more actively participate in the fun. The kids loved their champagne glasses, the balloons, and the confetti. They weren't happy when we started vacuuming up the confetti but then we had fun making "balloon confetti." I love these kids!

Oatmeal

Henry can now feed himself oatmeal! It is still a messy process but he loves using his spoon and fork at mealtimes.

Zoo

We had a great visit to the zoo this morning. Henry definitely "got" the animals this time. The monkeys were active and noisy, we got to watch the leopard and panther eating their meat, and we even got to hear and see the male lion roar. Very fun!

Butter

No, we didn't let her keep all of that butter on the waffle.

Art Time


Henry is signing "hot" because the dough was still warm here.

Thank You Notes


I gave Sarah some tracing sheets with her name on it so she could practice for her thank you notes.


Anna getting to work on hers.


I dotted the S and the R for her to trace but Sarah can write an A and an H! This is the first I knew about it!

Merry Christmas!

I don't know how Sarah fell asleep last night because she was so super duper excited about Santa coming in the night! Sarah is the early-bird in our family but Anna was the first up. Their alarm clocks glow green when it's "OK" to get up in the morning. Sarah's glows at 6:20 and Anna's glows at 6:40 (Sarah would be up much earlier many days without that 6:20 time so it's a compromise time. Anna's is at 6:40 because that's what time she needs to be up when she takes the bus to school although she'd sleep until 7:30-8 if she was allowed.) Back to the story! Anna woke up first and saw that Sarah's alarm wasn't green yet so she waited in Sarah's room with her. It's not clear where she waited if it was in bed with Sarah or on the floor with the animal bag. At 6:20 they both came downstairs to get us (even though we told them they could get their stockings and anything Santa might have left on the hearth without us). They were excited about their Santa gifts although I know there was some disappointment on Anna's part that she didn't get a star that walks or real magic. (They got chocolates, stationery stuff, and a walking dinosaur for Sarah and a purple unicorn for Anna; Henry got chocolates, a few car books, and a wooden car; Craig & I got chocolates.) Henry woke up relatively early for him since the girls were probably a bit noisy! He got his stocking, we had breakfast, and then the gift un-wrapping began. Henry was, of course, surprised by the whole situation and loved it all.

The Nutcracker

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The girls loved going to the Nutcracker today. Sarah was a little wiggly as I had anticipated but she did really well on my lap. We are planning to go to Sleeping Beauty in March since this was so much fun!

Pin-punching

The girls wanted to make paper lanterns for our driveway for Christmas Eve so I set them to work punching some designs in the paper bags with pins while we waited for it to finally be time to go to the Nutcracker.

Lights


A house draped in lights near us.


Our house.

The girls are constantly asking if we can make our house more like the "awesome" house down the road from us. It is fun to drive around looking at the lights with the kids as it is something we missed out on the last couple of years.

Bike-Date

I hired a babysitter (one of the girls favorites!) for the afternoon so she could play with the girls while Henry napped and Craig & I went on long bike ride. We biked to lunch, stopped at the bike shop to get me a new helmet (my old one was made in September 1994 and my new one was made in October 2010!), and then took a longer ride home. It is much easier to bike without a trailer and two kids behind me.

Playdate

Anna had Rane over to play again today. Rane lives really close to us so her mom brought her bike over when she dropped her off and then Anna, Rane, & I rode our bikes over to Rane's house at the end of the play date. Anna was super excited to have her friend over again and I was hopeful that since Rane's mom didn't stay this time that maybe Anna would talk to Rane but not today. She did talk in front of her and I could tell that Anna is really comfortable with her though so that is great!

Perfect Storm

Sarah was in heaven when her macaroni & cheese came in a dinosaur bowl today at the bagel shop. Craig & Anna biked but Sarah, Henry, & I drove. Sarah didn't want to ride in the trailer and I didn't want to listen to complaining for 40 minutes so she won that round!

Quick Visit

Grandma & Grandpa came in today to see Anna's Nutcracker performance. The kids were super excited to have them here even though it was too short of a visit! Anna was thrilled that they came to see her and Henry enjoyed having someone else to discuss trucks and trains with. My dad & Craig knocked down the ugly shade thing we had in our back yard, too, which was the highlight for me! Sarah thought it was pretty cool when she said, "I can see Nana in my head" to my dad as he was unbuckling her from her carseat and then we all said that we could all see Nana in our heads now!

First Performance

Craig took Anna to her performance tonight. She was so excited! Craig said that Anna did a great job again and the auditorium was full (the show is at a Jr. High school auditorium).

Sarah was a bit jealous and had a few solo dance performances on the step-down after Anna left. I will take Sarah to tomorrow's matinee performance.

Gingerbread Saturday


Sarah's side.


Anna's side.

We assembled a gingerbread house and make gingerbread cookies today. The girls had a ton of fun cutting out cookies and decorating the house and the cookies. Henry wanted to eat every single gumdrop off of the house!

Nutcracker Rehearsal


She was so thrilled to wear make up! We were told to put it on in a way that you would never wear it on the street. It was very difficult for me to do it this way.


I took this one so she could see what her eyeshadow looked like.

When we found out that Anna's ballet school would put on the Nutcracker this fall, Anna did not want to do it. The past week or so I have asked her several times if she is more nervous or excited and she always answers: "I'm only excited!" She did a great job in the rehearsal. The girls in her group are "the little girls at the party." They skip across the stage, Anna and four others shake their presents, and then the larger group does a dance. Anna & I stayed to watch the whole rehearsal since the girls won't get to watch tomorrow night or Sunday afternoon during the performances.

Another School Party

Sarah, Henry, & I stopped at Anna's school party today. I think Sarah was a little overwhelmed and Henry, again, wanted to get his hands on everything in the classroom. Everyone is very excited for winter break to start!

School Party / Decorations

Sarah, Henry, & I went to Sarah's school party today. Sarah didn't want to go at first but ended up having a good time in the end. Henry had fun, too, but I was glad when they said we could play outside on the playground because he was trying to check out all of the things in the room that he doesn't normally have time to investigate when we drop of Sarah in the mornings.

Cookies & Boxes

Sarah loved her task of peeling the wrappers off of Hershey's Kisses for the Peanut Blossom cookies we made today. And then we were surprised by the giant stack of boxes waiting at the door for us when we were done!

Play Date

Anna had Ela over today. Henry, Sarah, & I stayed for about thirty minutes and then left so Anna could have time with Ela on her own. Ela's mom is allergic to cats so her dad came and Craig got to visit with him. The girls had a great time and we hope to do it again during the winter break.

Cookies So Far

Sarah & I made caramel corn on Friday and yesterday I made whoopie pies. They are both amazing! I had the cookies out today for Anna's playdate.

Ice Skating

Craig took the girls ice skating while Henry & I ran some errands. This was a much more successful outing than last year in Korea! The walkers were awesome and Sarah's double-bladed strap-over-your-own-shoes skates were a hit.

Decor

Sarah took some time to decorate the tree on her night stand.

Finally Fall


This boy goes to Anna's school and his dad is working on a project with our neighbor so he's been coming over to play dome afternoons. Anna has started talking to him a little bit but mostly just in front of him.


This is Sarah.

The kids are having a ton of fun in the afternoons now that the weather is so nice.

Fannie

Sarah sat at the piano for a while and sang a song for her longhorn, Fannie.

Russian Tea Cakes

Anna got to help with the final rolling in the powdered sugar when she got home from school. I got the America's Test Kitchen holiday cookies magazine yesterday and this has renewed Sarah's & my spirit for trying new recipes. These cookies are delicious and will be on the annual cookie list.

Spritz

I convinced Sarah to make more cookies today by busting out the cookie press for spritz cookies.

Forward


Henry is now facing forward in the car!


Henry & Sarah loved driving this car-cart at the store close to Anna's ballet today. The ones at our regular store are slightly different and they love those, too.

Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies! The girls had a ton of fun cutting out the cookies and decorating.

Cinnamon Stars

Anna was super excited to get to help with today's cookies: cinnamon stars. This was another Martha recipe that I was un-impressed with. Tomorrow we'll make something from our standards list to help offset the disappointment of two lame cookies in a row!

Spirals & Bullseyes

Sarah was super excited to make spirals and bullseye cookies today. This was a new recipe from Martha Stewart and I wasn't very impressed. This one won't get added to our annual list but Sarah & I had fun making them anyway.

Beautifulest

I often find Sarah staring at our Christmas tree and she comes to me and says, "We have the most beautifulest tree in the whole world!"

Tea & Zamp

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We had tea on Thursday today with our vanilla pretzels and some store-bought treats. The girls loved Zamp's hiding place today (he is the "Elf on the Shelf" we got last year). Henry doesn't really care about Zamp or the Christmas tree which is fine by me!

Cookie #1

Sarah had a ton of fun helping me make the vanilla pretzels today. Amazingly she never asked to taste the dough. When we were all done I finally offered her the last of the scraps that would not be made into cookies. I may regret that tomorrow!

Fall Weather

List-Maker


She is painting some Christmas-themed suncatchers.

Sarah & I made a gigantic list of cookies we want to make this month. We will do our baking in the afternoons when Henry is napping and Anna is at school. We'll also do some on the weekends so Anna can help with a few. Sarah got a little annoyed at how long my list is to give away cookies. She is very concerned that we won't get to eat any cookies!

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This page is an archive of entries from December 2010 listed from newest to oldest.

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