Snow day

Brady didn't have school today, because of all the snow...don't you see it in the picture? We didn't see a single flake today in our end of the county! It was wonderful to have a day off though. The boys slept in (until 9:45). Then we had Candy, Jacob, and Logan over for some craft time. Candy and Logan had to head home for naptime, but Jacob stayed and Trent and Drew joined us too. We had an afternoon of tinkertoy battles, cookie decorating, playing outside, hot chocolate, and legoes.

Santa Brunch

We took the boys to a breakfast with Santa on Sunday. They got to talk to Santa and tell him their wish lists (razor scooter and a ramp; 2-wheeled scooter and a zoo).

They also got to hang out with several of their neighborhood buddies:
Matthew, Alexa John, Santa, Lily, Sam, Anya, Brady, Reagan, Jackson, Rudy

We even got a Christmas-card-worthy picture of the family!

Enchilada Song

Duet, performed by Rudy & Mexico

Mexico is one of the more recently named stuffed animals in Rudy's collection. Brady never showed a bit of interest in stuffed animals, but Rudy loves them. He has named nearly all of them and loves to carry them around the house, make homes for them, tuck them in at night...

Others in the collection are Rainbow the bear, Slide the dog, Simba the lion, Mooshky the cat, Tigery the tiger, Quacker the duck, and Elf the Santa dog. Funny how original some of the names are...

Here is Rudy and Mexico, playing the piano:

Puppet Show

Rudy has had it in his head for a few weeks that he wants to do a puppet show, but he could only ever find one acceptable puppet - a pink pig finger puppet, which he insists is a mouse.

Today, James brought up the puppet theater (a TV box!) and made Rudy a finger puppet rat to go with the "mouse". We've been watching puppet shows all day!

Hanukkah Lesson

Miss Shar came over yesterday to give the kids a lesson about Hanukkah. She had their rapt attention for at least an hour, which is quite impressive considering there were 9 rambunctious boys (+1 Reagan, always the only girl) in the group!

Hanukkah snacks and story:

Dreidel:

Lighting the menorah:

TAG field trip

Brady and I went on the TAG field trip yesterday to see The Wizard of Oz. I love seeing him around his friends! It was a small group, so I think the kids felt pretty special to be going on their own field trip.

With his classmate, Aidan:

Brady with Aidan, Jimmi, Evan, and a little girl I don't know...

Need a little chapstick?

Wreath making

Kathy and I went to a wreath making workshop this morning, and I'm quite proud of our hard work! I'm loving my wreath and want to go make a dozen more!

Brady's Christmas Timeline

Brady had a school project to create a timeline of his life. He wanted to do it so that each picture was taken at the same time of year, so we settled on Christmas. He picked each picture and wrote a few sentences on each page.

Sneaky Elves

The elves came back again this year! This year, they showed up on Saturday afternoon with PJs and coloring books, but they also left something else: a poem about two reindeer to keep an eye on the kids:

You wanted an Elf on the Shelf this year,
Or at least that’s what I hear.
Well for almost seven years it’s been a big secret
But I’ll let you know if you promise to keep it…

I’ve had someone to watch you for many years now,
And I guess I can tell you how:
A little reindeer has been in your house
Watching you but keeping quiet as a mouse.

Ever year at holiday time I send her to you
To watch and report on all that you do
She’s told me that you’re usually quite good
Doing the things that you know you should.

My elves are so busy I don’t have any to spare
Since you’ve asked for an elf I found a small reindeer to share.
You must find them tonight let’s make it a game.
And then you must give each a name.

They’ll come back to me each night
To let me know if you behaved or not quite…
Were you helpful kind and polite?
Or were you rude and trying to fight?

After they’ve told me all that they know,
Back to you from the North Pole they’ll go.
They like to hide the same as the elves
You’ll need to look on furniture and shelves

After Christmas they’ll come home to me
But I’ll send them in summer to check in and see
If you’re still being good while the weather is hot
And if you should be back on the good list or not

So welcome them in and give them a name
It can be silly or cool but nothing too lame.
Merry Christmas to all dear Brady and Ru
Be good to your Brother and mom and Dad too!

Captain Underpants and Mr. Pajama Head

Birthday Card

Rudy made this card for Ben's birthday party yesterday:

The scanned version is a little hard to read. It says:

i LVBRTHDAYS

BEN YOU

RMI BEST

FREND.

RUdY

They really are best buddies!

Gingerbread Houses

We had some family fun at Oma and Papa's house making candy necklaces and gingerbread houses. Of course, the kids were more interested in eating that constructing, but I suppose that's part of the fun!

Oma with her boys :

Snuggling

SL-double-E-P-over

Both kids had their first sleepovers Saturday night. Brady's friend Jacob came here to spend the night and Rudy went to Ben's house. All four of them had a blast, and I think we have officially entered the sleepover phase!

Brady's sleepover included pizza and a movie, Easy Bake Oven cakes, legoes late into the night, chocolate chip pancakes, and even some sledding in the morning!

Christmas Card Dilemma - Solved!

Everyone knows how much I love Shutterfly photobooks. I can't get enough of them; I love having them to commemorate vacations or special occasions and have made many of them over the years!

In the past, I've also used Shutterfly photo cards to create a custom holiday invitation:

I've created custom birthday cards as a great way to share our family portraits:

Possibly my favorite card project so far has been this card featuring the boys' artwork. We've been using it as a thank you note:

I've been a bit at a loss this year as to what to do for our annual Christmas card. Since we've been married, James and I have always done a Christmas letter with several snapshots from throughout the year. I think family and friends have come to expect this from us, but it's definitely a time consuming process: selecting, editing, and cropping the pictures; composing the narration; and then trying to get it all together in Word without the whole file blowing up.

I think I've found my solution this year! I received an email about the new picture cards now available at Shutterfly. There are several that allow you to put numerous pictures on the card in addition to a fair amount of text. Check these out:

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year card:

The Many Memories card is also in the running:


I think this Tree of Hope card is my current favorite. Eight pictures, room for lots of text, plus it's for a good cause:

Problem solved, as far as I'm concerned! Based on my past experiences with Shutterfly, I know I'll get a professional quality product, and the card will still feature our annual letter with some pictures!

Now, I just have to decide on which card and, possibly more challenging, get all four of us plus the dog together for a good holiday picture.

Note: This post is part of Shutterfly's Christmas card promotion.

Popcorn Garland

Growing up, my family used to string popcorn for the tree every year. James *hates* this job, so we haven't kept it up with our trees. I did manage to entice the boys to work on a few strands this week though - all I had to do was add some gummy candy to the mix!

Captain Underpants!

This is how Rudy came sprinting downstairs last weekend, after we asked him to go up and put on his PJs...