Snow Day, Part 2 (Already!)

We actually had snow for the two snow days at the end of the week! The boys had a great time sledding with their friends (and I can't say that I didn't do some sledding too!)

Virginia Beach Christmas, contd

It took a full day to open presents. The kids kept wanting to play with their new toys, so we were getting sidetracked!

Lila, showing her help sign as in, "Help me get out my new doll baby!"

I think she likes it!

Rudy, very excited with his zoo!

Christmas in Virginia Beach

We celebrated Christmas a bit early with my family in Virginia Beach.

Lila got a new chair to keep at Oma and Papa's house. It was pretty funny to watch her try to get in and out of it!

And a new shopping cart (and accompanying food). I love how the doll baby is riding in the cart...

Rudy, playing with Brady's new castle...

Papa with his new puzzles...

Rudy's snuggie:

Lila so wanted to play castle with the boys. They were less than patient but finally came around and decided to share!

Opening the family gift from Grandma...

It's a candy crane!!!

Jailbird?

Oma with her present from Ru:

All those new toys, and they're playing with cups...

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: