The Rest of Winter Break

Happy 2015!!  I found a few more pictures to wrap up 2014, and I realized that I sort of skipped over Thanksgiving.  We celebrated with friends (read - lots of kids) with a tasty meal, and one of them graciously took our family picture. :)

After Thanksgiving, I took Owen to do one of those kid-friendly projects at Home Depot, and guess who was there?  Santa!  Incidentally, this ended up being the only photo with the big red guy we took this year. We had a really nice mom-and-son morning with the HD project, painting at the art museum, and a scavenger hunt downtown.  On the drive home, he told me, "I didn't know today was going to be so special!"  Melts my heart.

And here's a classic shot of Hadley:

Owen loves to make faces at himself in the mirror.  Oma sent some cards and heart stickers, and the siblings had a field day making faces for the camera.  Here are the highlights:

Owen's pre-school also did a Christmas program.  He was so excited to sing the songs for us, as you can see in this "before" shot.

He's in the middle-ish in the black argyle sweater.  They had so many hand motions to go with the songs, and he did pretty great with the whole thing.  We have some video too, but I'll spare posting it on the blog.  :)

I mentioned the snow we got on Christmas.  Well, it kept falling for the next two days. The kids had a blast sledding, building a snowman, and playing in the white stuff.  Here's our backyard with several inches accumulated and our dinky little snowman.  I need to take some lessons on working with dry snow!  We've seen some snowmen in the neighborhood over 5 feet tall, but I have no idea how to pack dry fluff.  I even added water, but it was still only about 2 feet tall.  Sad snowman.

The morning after Christmas, the kids were in their matching PJs again.  They still fit a year later!  (Hadley refused to wear hers on Christmas, which is why they didn't match for those pictures.)

Hadley really likes to sing, even though she doesn't really know any songs!  (except part of Kindermusik songs) Occasionally, I will hear her singing her own song in the back of the car to her own tune, about who knows what.  Over the holidays though, she learned "Jingle Bells", so here's her rendition with Owen's after.  I might have to sing "Jingle Bells Away" from now on.  :)

Finally, a few pictures of post-Christmas gifts and play...  It might take a few more years for the chopsticks to be a viable option for eating.  :)

Hadley has a Big Mickey, Little Mickey, and a Tiny Mickey.  She likes to take them for strolls. Below are Big and Little sharing a ride.

Thanks Great Aunt Kathy for the DIY ornaments!  The kids had fun making them!