Monday, December 21, 2015

Christmas at the Zoo

 The day after our Christmas party, we headed to the zoo for some fun.  We literally stumbled upon Santa reading The Polar Express.
 Again, only Izzy was willing to sit on his lap.
The was the funniest thing I have seen in awhile.  All of the animals in the jungle were given Christmas presents.  The lemurs had a Christmas feast set up on a table.  What a hoot to watch them dine on the selections.

Chirstmas Party

Last year I held a Christmas party with Santa which was a success.  Izzy asked if we were doing the same thing this year.  And so we did.  This has made the task of finding Santa for present request much simpler.  We invited several of our favorite school friends and condo courtyard neighbors.
Our neighbor Margaret.  Victoria and Margaret hit it off.  When Victoria saw Margaret's wings, she promptly needed hers on as well.
 Izzy's friends from school; Zoe, Izzy, Siri, Bonnie and Valentina.
 Izzy and the girls sat on the stairs outside our door waiting for Santa to come.  When he did, there was nothing but screaming.  I wish I had a camcorder at that moment.  All of the adults were laughing so hard.  A neighbor at the end of the courtyard said she heard them all the way down there.
 He is here!!!!
 Santa certainly entertained old and young at the party.


 Though interested, Micah & Victoria hung back safely away from Santa near our upstairs neighbor Michelle and her son Judah.
 Izzy loved telling Santa what she wanted... real cooking things.  She was also a great big sister telling him what Micah & Victoria wanted.  Neither sat on his lap but they did shout towards the end what they wanted.  We are making progress.
 No so sure about Santa but tolerating being this close for a picture.
 The older kids creating a spot for themselves.
 Proudly showing what Santa brought us.
The play kitchen always is a hit for the younger ones.  Four tried to get in at one point but that was a bit crowded.

Church Christmas Pageant

 This past Sunday was our church's children's Christmas Pageant.  This was a special event as Izzy played Mary.  Here she is with Joseph.
 One of the 3 wise men took an interest in Victoria.  And she didn't mind someone who wanted to play with her and the doll house.
 Pastor Butler leading the introduction.



 After church I tried to get a family picture of us in front of the tree.  This about sums up our attempts!


Our Elf on the Shelf

Meet our Elf on the Shelf... Percy.
 
Percy joined us last year.  He was fun but many days the kids simply didn't care if he was found or not.  This year, however, they are all about finding him.  That created a very mischievous elf!
 
One day Percy was missing.  Victoria has a knack of playing with him much to Izzy's frustration (she knows the story says not to touch him).  The next day I discovered him stuffed into the trunk of Barbie's car.  As I couldn't find him the whole day, right before going to bed I asked Izzy if she knew where he was.  Her answer.... he was already off to the North Pole to talk with Santa.  LOVE her magical mind.  She BELIEVES!
 Being a ladies man.
 
 Enjoying a good game of Jenga.
 
 He even tried to help Victoria be brave to use her potty.  But to no avail.
 
 Date night with Barbie under the Christmas lights.
 
Losing at a sack race.  At least he won against Ken who beat him in Jenga.  Payback!
 
It snowed!


Saturday, December 12, 2015

We are READY for Disney!

For Christmas this year, we will be heading to Disney... an exciting treat!  As the time draws near, the kids talk more and more about it.  Put that on top of Victoria's love of talking / signing, you get to hear songs nonstop.
To view this video, please visit the main blog, 3goofballs.blogspot.com


Project of Love

 This has become somewhat a tradition.  Each year, my department participates in the Salvation Arym's 'Project of Love'.  They provide teddy bears to children who are removed from their homes as a help with this transition.  We get the fun part in dressing them up.  We headed to Build-A-Bear.  Everyone picked out what they wanted their bear to wear.  My favorite was that Micah's bear needed glasses too.  I'm so proud that my kids had fun doing this and there wasn't one single complaint when I had to return them.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Showing off our Thanksgiving decorations we made in Sunday School.
 I was lucky spend time with the Dieckman's, though short, for Thanksgiving.  One night the ladies got their hair done... Audrey fixed mommy's hair, Avery fixed my hair and Amelia fixed Oma's hair.  Here is the final product!

Audrey worked REALLY hard on this flower for mommy.

Fall Fun

Izzy's pre-K class reunited for bowling fun.  Izzy with one of her BFFs, Mia.  It was fun watching all of them attempt to bowl.  When all was over, a trophy was awarded to the one with the highest score.  Shockingly, it was Izzy!  She was so excited at how well she did.


 To kick off the holiday season, Brookline has their annual 'First Light'.  This is the first night that the town really gets into the holiday spirit.  Many of the local businesses have free fun activities for families.  We were lucky in that the weather allowed us to be outside to enjoy this time.  Izzy was able to get her face painted, finally!  In other years the line was so long we weren't able to have this done.  A fun thing we stumbled upon was a gentleman in the middle of carving an ice sculpture.