Christmas

We had a wonderful blur of a Christmas weekend. There were four family parties that kept us going and having fun for several days. Nothing like having the festivities stretched out over many days, makes it last longer!!

As if there was any doubt, Santa was good to the kiddos. Iain was very pleased and surprised to get a bat that he's been wanting. For anyone wondering, it was not the $250 bat he's been pining away for, but another he loved "almost" as much. After trying it out, he says it's "just as good"! :-) Glad to hear it!

Sean received the Spy Watch that he's been wanting. Not so sure Santa was thinking about the big picture with that gift! I have since been spied on and been "secretly" recorded several times!

Leapster Explorer was Santa's gift for Miss Sara. She is loving it! As soon as she saw it, she sat on the couch and started playing. We had to remind her she had more presents! She's very into writing right now, so the letter writing game is preferred.

Christmas Eve

Iain did not like his haircut. He says he looks like a "french dude". The kid cracks us up! Right after I took this picture he remembered about his hair so...this is the next one! It's been fun to call him Pierre! He has since decided he likes it.

Putting cookies out for Santa

Remembering again about his French Hair!

Thanking each other for gifts

Loving her Pillow Pet. It has been named Gaby, as has every other gift she received for Christmas. (Gaby is her Preschool teacher from last year)

Chocolate football

Real football

Cardless (picture overload)

I have a confession. I made a conscious decision to not send Christmas cards this year. The past few weeks have been so busy, something had to give. It was either my sanity or my to do list, so... a few things went on the chopping block. I'm fairly sure Iain would say a bit of my sanity was sacrificed as well.

We did have good intentions. Thanksgiving week we took the kids for a make shift photo session. It didn't go well. The wind was blowing Mach 10 or however fast it blows here in So Cal. You can see, it started out pretty good. The smiles weren't overly authentic but other than being windblown, not too bad.

Once we started losing Sara, the boys soon followed!

Channeling a pigeon??

Not quite what I had in mind for a Christmas card!

We're getting there...

Cute! Brotherly love!

Channeling a cat this time?!!?!?

The smile I was looking for

Merry Christmas

Playing Catch up - Sara

{Sara - Four Years 11 months}

Doing the math here, my littlest chick is almost 5 years old! Wow.

Sara's catching up is also filled with some fun events! Two weeks ago Sara said good bye to her training wheels! We tried a few months back and she didn't quite have the balance. When we tried this time, she was off and riding! Her bike is waaay too small but with Christmas coming and a birthday 10 days later, fairly certain it can be worked in soon!

Sara's other fun fact, she just received her first trophy! Her first soccer season came to an end. I will add that by the end, she was loving it! Running up and down the field.even.kicking.the.ball. WOW! At the last pizza party the kids were presented with trophies. She was beyond excited! After watching her brothers get trophies for the past (almost) 5 years, it was her turn! Yay Sara!

This is the next morning. She carried it around while eating breakfast, getting dressed and even took it to school to show her teachers. (Yes, this is how we dress for school in December!)

Disneyland! She had a blast! As I've mentioned before, she is a Teacups gal. She just loves to spin. She isn't a big daredevil but I have a feeling when she gets older she may like the faster rides. In the meantime I'm happy to spin away with her, over and over and over and... I will fess up to a SMALL parental faux pas that was made. We took her on the Haunted Mansion. Yes, yes, yes, admittedly not the best choice. Our thought process was that all you do is sit in the little chair and it takes you through. Some parts are a bit spooky but if I remember correctly it's not overly scary. Well, apparently around Christmas, they deck it all out in Nightmare Before Christmas decor. She has since been fairly clear that she doesn't want to go on that ride again! (For the record Iain T didn't like it either, but Sean did. Odd.)

I love these pictures. The top one is from our first It's a Small World adventure this trip. She is holding Iain's hand. Love. The one on the bottom is from our second time going. I just love how her little hands are folded on her lap. There is so much to see, she was still as can be taking it all in.

From Small World Take 2.

Trying to be the next Queen of the Round Table

Playing Catch up - Sean

Sean's turn!

Remember this cute as heck town kid from last year? Well, another year and another wonderful Christmas play! This year's was Arrest ye Merry Gentlemen. Sean was a shepherd. He had more lines than last year and even had a singing solo. He loved it! They have practiced once and sometimes twice a week since the beginning of October. It was quite a commitment! Over the past two weeks, they had 3 plays. He loved each one! Last night on the way home from the last performance, he said he couldn't wait until next year. :-) We may be looking into other plays that are local so he doesn't have to wait a full year!

Watching him up on stage is so amazing. First because this little boy has worked on his speech and articulation for many years. He was in speech therapy for 4 years. Yes, 4! He worked hard to get to where he is today! Now to see him up on stage, speaking and singing in front of a group of about 100...not sure there are words for it! The second reason we enjoy it so much is, Sean made the decision to join this group on his own. Last year, he didn't know anyone who was doing it. He enjoys baseball (or soccer...or insert your favorite sport here) but he has many friends who also play. This is an activity he chose because he wanted to do it. Not because anyone else wanted to. Thirdly, that smile. The smile he gets when on stage is enough to melt me.


Here's another shout out to Disneyland. Like I said in Iain's post, Sean is a Small World kind of a guy. Another little tidbit, he has a very sensitive equilibrium. He gets bothered in elevators, in high buildings, but he loves the Teacups! Funny.

The highlight of Disneyland for Sean was being a Jedi. They have a Jedi Warrior Training Camp where a few kids are chosen to go onstage and "fight" either Darth Vader or Darth Mal. Sean was chosen! He was a very good warrior if I do say so myself! :-)

Playing Catch up - Iain

{The next three posts will be child specific. All three have been so busy, participating in so many fun new things. It's just too much to cram into one post!}

Iain has been one busy 10 year old! A few weeks ago he was invited to play for a local Travel Ball team. It's a baseball team comprised of 10 year olds who have a real desire to play...and all bragging aside, real talent. The rules are a bit more serious and so is the play. It is a big compliment for Iain to be asked! He had a great game! They did invite him to join the team but unfortunately we had to turn it down. It's about $150 per month, a BIT too much for one child to play baseball! Yikes!

Another fun event for him, he was George Washington in his 5th grade play about the American Revolution. He has never been involved in anything theatrical before so this was a new experience for him! It was so fun to watch! He did wonderful! The kids all had handmade costumes...even powdered wigs made from cotton balls! (See Iain's picture below)

Next on the list...The Happiest Place on Earth. Yes, last week we ventured into the Magic Kingdom. Living less than 20 minutes away, we still don't visit very often. At $68 per child...it is quite out of our recreation budget! BUT, last year we participated in a program that gave free tickets for community work. We gave a day and got a day! This past week was when we redeemed our day! The kids had a blast! (So did Iain and I!) Iain is getting to the point where he likes the "scary" rides. Sean and Sara do not! I can say with confidence that I don't think Sean ever will! If we sat on It's a Small World all day he would be happy as a clam! :-) Anyway, we split up to go on a few rides, Iain wanted to try Space Mountain, Matterhorn and Splash Mtn. He loved them all! I may have screamed louder than him on Splash Mtn...shhhhh!

Places please!

Sara is very into writing these days. She carries a pad a paper with her everywhere and will jot down letters, numbers or just designs. Her newest idea is to sound out words and write down the first letter to that word. Iain asked her if she would like to make place cards for Thanksgiving. She loved the idea! She did an amazing job!

The first step was to write the names. Iain told her each letter and she wrote each name herself.

Then she decorated each card. She laid out each decoration in the "correct" place and Iain glued them on. She may be good but hot glue is a bit much! She decorated a total of 14 cards.

I forgot to include this on yesterdays post. I loved the shot of the cookies in front of this picture. Iain T painted it about a year ago.

More cookies and Turkey Day

Today is turning out to be a catch up day. After some midnight Black Friday shopping, followed up today with a few more stores, I'm not feeling very energetic. I'm finding myself piddling around the house. Trying to accomplish a few things while sitting down for extended periods in between. :-)

I do have some pictures of the past couple of days. Back to the cookies of the other day.

Sara was very creative in her cookie cutter choices. We have pumpkins, bats, stars, bunnies and of course her favorite, a butterfly.

The finished product

My Budding Chef

These next two are from Thanksgiving.

The boys were dressed in their favorite shirts for their favorite team. Unfortunately, they fell a bit short in the last 30 seconds. Darn it!

Guess what I'm thankful for this year?

Enjoyable

Today was a great day. Alright...I guess being honest here, it had a few road bumps. But now at the end of the day with two sweet little cuddlies sound asleep in their beds, I can say it was a great day. Iain, Iain and I went Christmas shopping this morning. Just walking around the stores while Iain T gave his insight on what he thought his brother and sister would like, was fun for us. He brought his wallet and picked out something for each of them. It's very important for him to have something to give each member of the family. It's also very important that it's from HIM. In years past when he hasn't had the money to buy gifts, he has made gifts. We tried to encourage that again this year, but he has been saving his money for this very reason. His heart is sweet.

After shopping Iain had a friend over and Sean went to a friend's house. That's when Sara and I made sugar cookies. We mixed and tasted and stirred and tasted. Yum. Then we started homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Yum. The evening was rounded out with family movie night with popcorn and hot chocolate. Yum. I'm not sure Underdog would've been my first choice of the movie but it was good family entertainment. I challenge ANYONE to find a movie that can entertain a 5th grader and a preschooler at the same time. :-)

The first time she held the mixer. Actually the first time she stayed in the kitchen while the mixer was on and didn't cover her ears.

In classic Sara Style, cleaning the counters. The girl loves to clean! Not sure where she got that. NO REALLY, not sure where she got that!!

Night night!

Don't Blink

Today the boys came home from school with their class pictures. They look so cute. So big. Iain's really struck me. This is his last year at our Elementary School. Next year he will once again be little fish in the big pond but this time in the pond of middle schoolers. Right now, he is really enjoying being the big fish!! I know he will more than succeed in Middle School and I know he has another 7 and a half months until he is even finished with 5th grade. I guess it hit me that this was his last class picture from this school! When he started there 5 years ago, I remember thinking that he would be there for soooo long. 5 years, that's an eternity! Nope, it went by so fast. So fast.

It's been so fun to watch him go from a sweet, timid little 5 year old to an amazing sweet, confident 10 year old.

Kindergarten picture September 2005

5th grade picture September 2010

(We are cracking up at the difference in skin color. I was pregnant the summer before he started Kindergarten. Maybe I didn't like the beach as much??? Not sure!! :')

Cookies, Pumpkins and Costumes

Decorating cookies

Carving pumpkins

Dress up

Oh My!!!