Character Matters

Preston's class play, "Character Matters," was held in his school lunchroom on December 18th. Since Preston was a rat, I volunteered (sort of!) to make 8 rat costumes for he and the other vermin. It was more work than I thought it would be, but they turned out better than I hoped. Preston was one of the two Lead Rats and had a small speaking part, which he delivered very well! Nana and Papa were even able to attend, despite some yucky weather earlier in the day, and he was thrilled that he had some extra family in the audience! Afterwards, we loaded up on yummy refreshments that the parents had brought in before heading home.

checking the fit
our two rats! :)

7th from left

with the Pied Piper

Kids' Christmas Party

Our annual neighborhood Kids' Christmas Party was held on December 14th. We started off by playing a little Pin-the-Carrot-on-the-Snowman, followed by a pizza dinner, then cookie decorating. We finished up with a gift exchange. The kids had a great time and Breckyn was thrilled to get the Hannah Montana wig that she has been dying for!

Party Bus!

On December 12th, our neighbors rented the Party Bus to look at Christmas lights. It was so much fun! The bus came right to our street to pick us up, and had regular and perimeter seating, as well as rope lighting and plenty of Christmas tunes. They allowed us to bring food and drinks, so there were lots of Christmas goodies being passed around! Our driver was a retired firefighter who was really sweet and took us to some really well-decorated locations. After our 2-hour ride, we went to Chris and Aimee's house to watch Christmas Vacation while the kids destroyed their basement. It was definitely a great way to get in the spirit of things!

A visit with Santa

On December 11th, we attended Andover Hometown Christmas and had a nice visit with Santa, followed by some delicious donuts, cookies, popcorn, and hot chocolate. The kids loved sitting on Santa's lap and letting him know what they "needed" this year!

First snow of the season - December 10th

A day in the life of Breckyn

It occurred to me that I was forever telling people about Breckyn's obsession with changing outfits at least a dozen times a day. I thought it might be fun to have a little "visual evidence" of her habit, so yesterday I snapped pics of her every time she came out wearing a new outfit. I can promise you that I in no way encouraged her or helped her pick out these get-ups (I did, however, help her get dressed in her winter gear to play outside). Surprisingly, her ACTUAL dress-up clothes never even made an appearance. All in all, this was a really mild day, comparatively. One reason was that I told her at 12pm that she could go out to play in the snow when Preston got home at 4pm, so she spent nearly the whole 4 hours in her snow bibs, waiting (very) impatiently! I also didn't have a chance to get a picture of her in her morning jammies as she had already changed into the leotard before I even got out of bed! I should have done this little experiment today - it's only 1pm and she's already changed 7 times!!

It's snowing. . .

. . . for the first time this winter. Quite a change in the weather! Yesterday it was over 60 - right now it's in the 20's and snowing. Not sure if it will stick much as the ground is still so warm, but the kids sure were excited this morning!

The progress continues. . .

Paul has been plugging away in the basement! He took Friday off to finish painting and is basically done, except for a few touch-ups here and there. Saturday we were blessed with a really nice day, so he was able to take the trim boards outside to spray them with stain. That afternoon, he started applying the first coat of polyurethane. More of the same on Sunday, then he took today off to keep working, and was able to finish the polyurethane by this afternoon. Now he's shimming doors into place as I type. Our goal is to be laying carpet by Preston's birthday towards the end of January, and at this rate, it looks like that shouldn't be a problem! (And if you're wondering - YES, he does wear these nasty, stinky, ratty, stained work clothes every single day - but it sure cuts down on my laundry!!)

Dashing Thru the Parking Lot in a One Horse Open Carriage

Last Friday night, Gram went with us to Bradley Fair to take a ride in the horse-drawn carriage. While we were waiting in line, we ran into our sister-in-law Stephanie, our niece and nephew, and Stephanie's folks. We had a nice time chatting and taking pictures of each other in front of the huge, beautiful tree while we waited. The ride was very nice (and free!) and we were provided with warm and cozy lap blankets to keep the chill off. After our ride, Gram took the kids home and kept them while Paul and I had a yummy dinner at Panera and then finished off our Christmas shopping. Gram even stayed the night and stayed up late to wrap all our gifts - which is the best "gift" she could have given me this Christmas! :)

If you've ever wanted to know what the inside of a cow's eye looked like. . .

. . . just ask Preston! Friday, Paul had taken the day off to work on the basement, so he took a little break in the afternoon to go to the kids' school. First, he had lunch with Preston in the cafeteria which Pres was thrilled about! When they got back to the classroom, the kids dissected cow's eyes with the help of Paul and a couple other parents. Apparently no one threw-up, but a couple kids were less-than-thrilled about their little hands-on foray into science!