Christmas Tree

This year our tree was up but not decorated for over a week, and Zoe and Ella were very eager to get it 'fancy'.  So while I was cleaning up after dinner one night they started sorting ornaments, which was very entertaining just to listen to.  They had a 'santa' pile, a 'skinny santa' pile, a 'reindeer ornament' pile, a 'pictures of us' pile, a 'broken things' pile and a 'something' pile (for those ornaments they couldn't find adjectives for), an 'old' pile (for ornaments they colored last year) and a 'make noise' pile.

Then they started to add the ornaments to the tree, filling it fully as high as they could reach ....

... and after getting a chair they added the rest of the ornaments to the upper part of the tree ....

The final result was pretty awesome.

I loved how they chose to group their ornaments and where they put them on the tree.  Each one was placed in a specific spot for a specific reason, like Buzzy the Bumble that Tom bought to help when they get shots -- they thought it should go close to Santa's pants:



Or their current picture with Santa should go towards the top of the tree:



Most interesting to me was how they grouped all the ornaments that were similar or the same, together in the same areas.  Like these paper-colored ornaments from last year:

Or their two angel ornaments:

Or their two Santa Bears along with a mini-Santa:

The same for their Little Ballerinas:

And their Raggedy Anns:

I was happy to see the silly monster face guy made an appearance again from last year ....

.... and so did the hand-drawn and colored with crayons rudolph:

But the ornament that made me laugh each time I saw it was this one:



Santa's Hat.  Which was supposed to be with his jacket and pants but instead was placed by itself, sticking straight out from a branch of the tree.  I just love it.

The little things really can make me very very happy : )

Christmas Happenings (edited with Gingerbread House Fun)

We got our Christmas card photo taken (downtown Minneapolis, outside of the courthouse), and got them in the mail (though I didn't keep good track of who I sent them to and it feels like I missed quite a few people):

The girls drew pictures and wrote letters to Santa:

They visited with Santa (he's the real one, Zoe asked and that's what he told her) ....

.... and they sat on his lap for pictures:

The girls also decorated a few gingerbread houses over the past few weeks.  They made a big one with Grama and Grampa and had so much fun, but the next day Zoe didn't feel well and didn't feel like even a taste any of the candy, frosting or gingerbread.  She did eat a popsicle though, but did not want her picture taken -- her red mustache and grumpy face were too funny to me not to photograph though, which of course made her face even more grumpy (and made me smile a lot) ....

Ella, however, was feeling good and was very eager to try some of the candy, and her focus and determination also made me smile a lot too ....

They also decorated mini-gingerbread houses with their kindergarten class, and Tom texted me these pics so I could enjoy the fun, even though I wasn't able to join them because I was teaching my kindergarten class at the time .... 

Tom also took care of wrapping most of our presents this year after I told him how stressed I was feeling trying to get everything done.  He also told me about a conversation he heard on Minnesota Public Radio that talked about how beautifully wrapped gifts can be a let-down once unwrapped, so he kept the wrapping of our gifts simple so no one would be disappointed.  Ha!  Love that he was helpful AND made me laugh : ) 

It always feels so good to cross things off the list AND have fun while doing them!!

Up next, The Christmas Tree.

Christmas Happenings

We got our Christmas card photo taken (downtown Minneapolis, outside of the courthouse), and got them in the mail (though I didn't keep good track of who I sent them to and it feels like I missed quite a few people):

The girls drew pictures and wrote letters to Santa:

They visited with Santa (he's the real one, Zoe asked and that's what he told her) ....

.... and they sat on his lap for pictures:

Tom even took care of wrapping most of our presents this year after I told him how stressed I was feeling trying to get everything done.  He also told me about a conversation he heard on Minnesota Public Radio that talked about how beautifully wrapped gifts can be a let-down once unwrapped, so he kept the wrapping of our gifts simple so no one would be disappointed.  Ha!  Love that he was helpful AND made me laugh : ) 

It always feels so good to cross things off the list AND have fun while doing them!!

Up next, The Christmas Tree.

Lasts and Firsts

Last jumps on the trampoline, before we took it down for the winter ....  SUPER fun!!

First Christmas Cookies of the Season -- and yes, they are pink and purple, two colors that are still favorites of the five-year olds in our family .....

First field trip I was able to attend with Ella and Zoe, and their Kindergarten Class -- The Children's Theatre's AMAZING presentation of The Wizard of Oz!!

Zoe drawing sketches of the characters from the Wizard of Oz, before the play started .....

Ella drawing sketches ....

The whole production was brilliant.  Each of the main characters were our favorites for different reasons (photos taken from the Children's Theatre Facebook page -- cameras were not allowed during the performance):

The ruby slippers, oh my!!

But the colorful munchkins were our favorite favorite ....

... and of course the Good Witch Glinda, her glittering gown, and how she floated in the air was truly magical ....

.... but maybe the funnest surprise was that Toto was a real dog -- we all really liked that part : )

During intermission Ella told me she had a headache and didn't feel well (you can tell she was starting to feel punky in this photo):

She sat on my lap during the bus ride home and around 11:30 that night started to throw up -- a lot, on and off for most of the night.  The girls had the next day off from school and Tom had taken the day off too, but Ella had a rough day (it was very, very hard to leave her in the morning -- only way I was able to do it was knowing they were with their dad), lots of vomiting, diarrhea and a high fever.  When I got home from work she was just waking from a long nap and felt (and looked) even worse.  Our doctor had us bring her to the ER at the Children's Hospital where we spent a very long night and she was treated for dehydration; and after quite a few tests, blood draws, shots and an IV we were told she had a bacterial infection.  The next day she had to get two more BIG shots in her legs -- you would have thought the world was ending.  But she got through it, and so did Tom and I (I really thought shots were supposed to get easier as kids got older -- NOT).

First hospital visit in a long time -- first IV in a long time too.

Not fun at all.  Zoe was a very supportive and loving sister (she was on the 'support team' again) and Ella, despite going through the ringer, was truly a trooper.  She didn't complain once (except for when she screamed louder than I thought was possible when she found out she needed to get two more big shots, when she got her big shots and whenever she would think about when she got her big shots).

Four days later when she started to feel a little better, she even smiled for me while eating her starcicle : )

And that's all for now .....  I continue to be behind in everything ....  but I feel such joy in my heart for so many different reasons -- healthy girls that are happy, smart, fun, funny, silly, liking Kindergarten and doing well in school are two big reasons.  Having a husband that understands (though he, along with me, still wishes we had more 'us' time these days), and is super helpful with the girls (their hair even looks cute when he does it) and around the house (he has become a fabulous vacuumer .....) is another big reason.  I also have THE BEST family (love, love, love my parents, my sister, brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephews and have so much fun with them), my friends are rock stars (even though I rarely see them these days, they are the kind of girls we can pick up where ever we left off) and for my blogger friends -- I still stop by your blogs as often as I can but my lack of time cuts into how often I comment.  So even though it doesn't seem like it I still feel in the loop : )  And the comments left here always mean SO much to me : )

More later ....  lots of fun updates ready to be written up!!