It's the Holiday Season

I put that title because it's a phrase that Hadley pocketed from all of the Christmas music we've been listening to.  She breaks it out at random times in a low Andy Williams voice, and it cracks me up. She is always singing something: "Skinnamarink", the Alphabet song, "Away In a Manger", or "Jingle Bells", even if she forgets the words sometimes.

The kids both had Christmas programs at their schools, on the same day, at the same time.  We parents had to divide and conquer, but both kids did fine.  Owen memorized a couple of lines from 'Twas the Night Before Christmas', which he had no trouble doing.

And Hadley rehearsed at home a lot, but she did clam up a little for the actual show.

Although much of the country had a warmer Christmas, we have been getting snow all week. Owen has been getting in lots of shoveling time, and we even shoveled for some neighbors a couple of times since they were out of town.

Hadley discovered that it didn't make for good scooter conditions.

But we did make use of some sledding time!  It is kind of fun to have a real, white Christmas!

We took in the museum's annual Christmas display, including nativities and gingerbread houses,

And were inspired to try making our own.  The kids loved it!  Only a few pieces of candy detoured into their mouths...

Owen and I took in the city's new Festival of Lights, which is a big, drive-thru light show/horse-drawn carriage ride/Santa extravaganza. Hadley and Dad would have joined, but Hadley fell asleep during a time-out right before we were leaving. I forgot about the horse-drawn carriage, so Owen and I didn't have the right winter gear to survive a 20-degree ride, and we just did the drive-thru. I was impressed that Owen had memorized almost all of the 'Night Before Christmas' just from listening to his class rehearsals. (He recited it for me to go along with one of the light displays.)

The kids participated in the church's nativity re-enactment on Christmas Eve.  Hadley was an angel, and Owen was a wiseman. Hadley was excited to wear her Christmas dress again and took her role very seriously.

And finally Christmas! Much to Owen's disappointment, Hadley insisted on eating breakfast and getting dressed before heading downstairs for stockings and presents.

Our theme this year was building stuff: Legos, forts, sculptures, sticker scenes, more Legos.

Oh, and we tentatively tested out the princess waters by giving Hadley a dress-up gown. (In my defense, she puts on this tiara during quiet time to read books in her chair and loved spinning around in her Christmas dress.) She was reluctant to put it on and declared, "It's itchy! Can I take it off now?" So, we may not have to deal with all that princess-y stuff for a while!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Mr. 6

Owen had a birthday last week!  Six used to be what he would say about movies or other things to put off until he was older: "Maybe when I'm 6...", he'd say.  Now it's moved up to "maybe when I'm 10..."  Sigh...  Anyway, he had a great birthday and is very excited to be six.  Let's be clear about that people, he's six now, not five.  Make no mistake.  He will definitely correct you.  :)

He had a fun gymnastics party with his friends and their siblings.  One sibling in particular enjoyed it very much!

It might not have been his first choice, but we won the party at a fundraising auction, so he was easily persuaded to celebrate there.  He was so sweaty and red by the end, and I had to keep rounding him up because after each phase (eating, gifts, cupcakes), he had snuck back down to play more when I was trying to do them all consecutively.

Plus, you can't beat a padded room when a bunch of five and six-year old boys get together. I didn't get many pictures of the birthday boy because they were all blurry messes of bodies rolling on the floor, running, or jumping. Here's Owen in the grey shirt. 

Notables for the past year:
1. He's learned to whistle.  It's great and all, but he only knows one pitch and sounds like a broken record or a bird that hasn't learned the whole song. He does it all the time, too, so Hadley and I often have to ask him to take a break.
2. He now says he wants to grow up to be a scientist!
3. He loves playing indoor soccer with his friends.  At the last game, he scored 3 goals! I think the team total was 6 or 7. :)
4. His favorite food is steamed dumplings (aka pot stickers), which he requested for his birthday dinner.  I love that he loves an "adult" food. In fact, when we have playdates at fast food play places, he'll ask if I can pack a lunch for him because he doesn't like hamburgers, chicken nuggets (unless they are from Chick-Fil-A) or french fries.

It's That Season Again!

For us that means a birthday celebration, school parties and programs, church commitments, holiday festivities, charitable activities, and end-of-year stuff.  Oh December... why are you so stressful when you are supposed to be a time of peace and joy?  The short answer is that there is joy - you just have to remember to stop and see it! Here's some of our joy. Let's start with our un-professional family pics this year, some from playing around with our camera's timer function. :)

To get in the holiday spirit, we go to the annual Festival of Trees, which is held before Thanksgiving!  They have lots of beautifully decorated trees and wreaths, live holiday music, Santa, and a scavenger hunt for the kids. With a little encouragement, both kids wrote a brief letter to Santa, but neither wanted to sit on his lap, which is fine with me.

More holiday traditions: house lights, decorating the Christmas tree, and the Nutcracker ballet. Owen wanted to go again this year, and I love that he likes it! It's also fun for him to see his friend, Abigail, up on stage.

The snow has come and gone in waves, but you know we have an eager shoveler under our roof! Hadley will join on occasion, but she doesn't have his passion! :)

Just like last year, one of our playgroups gathered and sorted goodies into individual care packages for a local shelter. I was impressed with Hadley's desire to help; she refused to stop and play with the rest of the kids when there was still work to be done!

 And in other news, we are still very into playing!

Hadley has really been enjoying school and mimicking Owen's homework time with work of her own.  She's starting to write all the letters, and can write her own name legibly!

Both kids seem to be outgrowing naps finally (and unfortunately), but we still enforce an hour of "quiet time" in their rooms each day for reading or rest. Every third or fourth day results in a nap from one or the other. This is Hadley's standard practice when I announce that it's time to head to their rooms. It's a big hit, as you can tell!

Denver Thanks Given

This time of year always flies by.  It's been nearly a month since my last post!  Anyway, for Thanksgiving we headed to Denver to celebrate with family.  The kids were so excited for the journey.  We decided to do the 10+ hours over two days, so that we could take our time and drive during daylight for safer conditions.  Most of the roads were clear, but there were patches of ice and it was frigid, so I'm glad we did that.  Wyoming is a pretty desolate, but beautiful drive.

Most of the trip was just about covering distance, but we did pull over for a brewery pitstop in Ft. Collins at Odell Brewing Company.  It felt great to be out of the car, and the kids had a blast dancing on the patio stage while we had some refreshments.

We had so much fun, in fact, that we stuck around until the next brewery tour. Milestone: kids' first brewery tour!  Haha! The safety glasses were way too big, but they seemed to enjoy smelling/tasting the raw materials and seeing the bottling operations.

Soon after, we arrived at Aunt Loni and Uncle Lampe's house and convened with Oma and Papa, too. The next morning we took the dogs for a brisk walk to the duck pond and a fun playground across the street.

Later that morning, we all headed to the Children's Museum. Luckily, only half of Denver had the same idea!  We started out at the fire engine...

but quickly moved on to the bubble room, where there were all sorts of bubble-making devices, including one your could stand inside as you made a giant rectangular bubble around yourself.

The market was also a big hit.  Hadley enjoyed food shopping with Aunt Loni, while Owen preferred to bake some apples in the brick oven.

One of their favorite exhibits was the rocket launch. The kids were starting to design their own, but I pointed out all of the used rockets at the bottom of the chamber. That's H's head sticking through the retrieval window! They got pretty savvy about reusing them and loved the pneumatic launch buttons.

And next door was a wind tunnel where they could test out different wing shapes.

By the time we made it outside, H was pretty "hangry" and needed to have a snack inside. But Owen braved the chilly temps and found a huge sandpit (he could have stayed here for hours!),

drove an apple truck on the farm,

and sailed down the zip line a few times with a huge grin on his face.

That night we had three birthdays and one graduation to celebrate.  It was so nice to do that together with family!

Speaking of family, we had lots of good quality family time on Thanksgiving!  

The meal itself was delicious and bountiful. I didn't get any pictures of it, so you'll just have to take my word.  (Hadley helped to tear the bread for stuffing.)

Of course, there were also cut-out cookies to be made, a family tradition. They were delicious, even if the shortcut dough didn't really stay true to the cookie cutters.  We iced and ate them anyway! 

I also have to mention that Owen has a thing for Jeeps, and Uncle Lampe was gracious enough to take Owen for a spin around the block in his. Made his day!

Oh, let's not forget about the dogs!  The kids loved them, especially Tex, who was so patient and calm.  Hadley enjoyed giving them orders, sigh...  And Emma and Owen played a long game of chase one night.

The day after Thanksgiving, several of the group went to the Wings Over the Rockies museum. I can't comment much, since I didn't go, but the kids thought it was "awesome" and they had a near-full-scale X-wing for those interested parties.

We really enjoyed our visit!  Hopefully it's not our last, and maybe the next one can be made in one long travel day instead of two.  :)