Little Star

Staley has been taking an acting class every Monday night since September called "Stage Kids".  It culminated in a 2 night performance of "A Charlie Brown Christmas."  Staley's role was one of the twins.  She sang and danced and said her 2 lines with power and projection.  You could tell she was having a great time on stage.  As one of just two 5 year olds in the cast, Staley loved making "big kid friends."  As the oldest in our house, I often think of Staley as the big kid, but she looked so small on stage with all the older kids.  (The cast ranged in age from 5 to about 16 years old.)  Although now sometimes shy around new people or in new situations, Staley's confidence on stage is always amazing to me.  She truly shines!  I was so proud of her!

Staley and her "twin"

(Must be fraternal.)

Bedtime Prayer

This was Adelie's bedtime prayer tonight:

"Dear Jesus.  Thank you for Mommy and Daddy and all the people in the whole world and even the people in Mexican and pray that they won't have bad dreams.  And I wish that all the people with broken legs would not have broken legs at Christmas.  Amen."

#lovethisgirl

#godblessmexican

#nomorebrokenlegs

Family Game Night

You know those visions you have of family game night where everyone is sitting around a table, laughing, bantering, building memories of togetherness fun.  Yeah.  That's not really how it happens at our house.

Tonight we were having family game night.  We were all sitting on the floor, playing Tumbling Monkeys together.  Except Briggs kept trying to steal the monkeys and knock over the game with his trucks.  And Adelie kept marching around the room while blowing a whistle in between her turns.  Staley was so focused on making a score sheet and keeping score that she always had to be prompted to actually take her turn.  Two out of our three kids cried at some point.  I'm not sure what the final score was, but it felt like we were all losing tonight.

Question of the Day

How is it that with only 2 feet to choose from she still manages to get her shoes on the wrong feet at least 75% of the time?

Christmas Season

Yes, it's only December 5, but our Christmas celebration is already in full swing around here.

We picked out our tree and followed up our tree picking with a trip to the Festival of Lights.

We decorated our tree.  The girls have also already done their Christmas shopping, wrapped their gifts, and put them under the tree.  This has been a little difficult for Adelie as she asks me every day if it's Christmas yet and time to open the presents.

We went to a Christmas Pajama Party fundraiser at Adelie's pre-school.  She loved seeing her teacher, Mrs. Ferguson.  The kids had the best time listening to Christmas stories, decorating their own cookie (and eating it), and meeting Santa.

Staley performed in the Christmas musical at church.  She auditioned for a speaking role, and was so excited to have her own lines.  She eagerly attended 3 hour rehearsals every Sunday for the past 6 weeks.  She memorized her lines (and songs and dances) and did a great job performing on stage. 

Although not yet old enough to be in the church musical, Adelie did get to do some performing of her own when she sang a few little Christmas songs at church.  She knew her songs and motions and sang out proudly.

Staley also sang in her Christmas concert at school.  All the Kindergarteners made their own reindeer shirts, which was so cute!

And although not yet old enough to do any performing, Briggs has thoroughly enjoyed looking at the tree, opening the advent calendar (although is never quite satisfied with just opening one door each day), and seeing all the Christmas lights.

What a fun start we've had to this Christmas season.  As is evidenced by Staley's card, we are already busy wishing Jesus a happy birthday!

Those moments

Ever have one of those moments?

You know, the kind of moments when your kids are having the best time taking a long, morning bubble bath to warm up after playing outside...and then your older child asks why it smells bad...and then you realize that your younger child has pooped in the tub...but since there are so many bubbles, you didn't notice when it happened so you're not really sure how long your children have been soaking in a poop bath...so you whisk everyone out of the tub and take them downstairs to scrub them off in the shower...and the fun turns to screaming since your son, apparently, really doesn't like showers...and then you spend the next 30 minutes cleaning and sanitizing the tub and throwing away tub toys and doing laundry.

Yeah.  Those moments aren't my favorite either.

Snowy Day

Briggs may have seen snow last year, but he doesn't remember it and he never played in it.  Well, let's add another first to Briggy's ever growing list of firsts.  Today he enjoyed his first fun-in-the-snow day.

Briggs was enthralled by watching the snow come down yesterday.  He kept talking about it and looking out the window.

And he was all smiles when we bundled up to play outside this morning after dropping Staley off at school.

We built snowmen.

And did some sledding in the backyard, although Briggs kept calling it a "boat."

Adelie and Briggs took turns pulling each other around on the sled.

Briggs and Adelie played and played and played until I finally made them go inside.  Since Briggs doesn't have boots or snowpants or waterproof mittens, I knew his hands and feet would have to be getting cold.  They were!

Snow much fun!!