Catching up through Christmas

Trying to catch up through Christmas so I can start blogging for our new year...

If you click on each collage it will open up the picture in a new tab and make the picture bigger.

Had a good Christmas, the kids stayed home the whole day, had Michael's parents Christmas eve and Christmas day. The kids had a great day, they stayed in their pajamas until about 3:00 in the afternoon, to which they changed clothes just for dinner and got in their new American girl pajamas for bed. At least I made them all brush their teeth before they went downstairs to open presents.

Three days before Christmas the kids made the annual Gingerbread house or in this case Gingerbread Village. Everyone had a house to decorate and lots of candy to eat. We almost attempted to make our own gingerbread but we couldn't add another thing to our already packed schedule.
And just for good measure, we went to the Great Wolf Lodge the week before Christmas. They have a homeschool discount that is almost less than half what it would cost per night. They do it a few times a year, Feb, Sept and Dec. So basically for the price of one night at the regular rate, we stayed for two. If you get the chance, take advantage, even if you have to take a day or two off from school. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of the room, but if you click on the sight, it's the wolf den room, it was perfect for our family of 6.

We all had a great time and we loved it, we're hoping to do it again, but this time we will will know, swimming in the pool all day plus partying at night, does not make for some happy children, even with a mid day rest. Lesson for all.....all fun in moderation.....but I still would do it again.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went to the 4:00 service at our church which was packed, I'm glad we went early so we had seats. The church sits 900 and there were people standing in aisles and out in the lobby, but it let out at 4:45 so we were able to make our dinner reservations with my-in-laws afterward. It was a nice quiet evening and after we came home the kids got to open the presents they bought for each other. They each picked one name out of a hat and had to buy a present for that child.

Before Church.

Jaden was starving and of course eating goldfish, while trying to smile.

After we got home but before the present mayhem. I don't even remember who got who but they had a great time!


Jaden got trucks, Jordan got Spy Gear (she likes to play spies), Madison got Tinkerbell and Kaleigh got Barbie's her favorite.

Christmas Show

This year I had the privilege of working on one of our co-op's fine arts unit. They decided to put on a Christmas play. Since I was only working with 3 to 6th graders, I didn't get to work with Kaleigh but her grades K-2 did a great job with Away in a manger. Who knew there were more than 3 stanza's to the song.

Jordan's group both 4th and 6th graders got to do what they called an Adventurous Christmas which was a musical based on the Advent Wreath.

The Gift Wrappers (they had to rap their song..cute).

Jordan was the candle of Love for the Advent Wreath.

She had to recite John 3:16, pretty long, luckily it was a verse she is very familiar with. She did such a good job, it was clear slow and right on, a guy sitting in front of me whispered AAWWW it was great! Poor thing had strep throat too and she still was a trooper and did a fantastic job.
The 3rd and 5th graders did a musical called From Our Herd to Your Herd about cowboys on the night before Christmas, talking about how Jesus was a shepherd.


Loved the cow ears, considering I had to make 17 they didn't take as long as I thought.


All the kids did a great job and I still have candle costumes and cow ears if they ever needed to do it again. Fun stuff.

Ice Skating

Our Tuesday TNT co-op had its annual Christmas party and apparently they do it every year at the ice skating rink. Since it is only open to us during the day during this time, it was empty, except for the 100 kids of TNT. It was great and the kids loved it, even Jaden got to skate (without skates of course only on the ice in his crocs...of course I didn't get a picture of that), but the girls immediately wanted to know when can we go again. Unfortunately all the open ice skate times are very crowded and would make it a little difficult taking all four kids skating with out some extra help. Oh well there's always next year.

A little anxious before the ice skating.

A little more petrified trying to skate on her own.

Holding both of Madison's hand until she could get used to the ice under her feet.

Helping my friend Heather's son Elijah while she watched Jaden off the ice.

This girl needed practically no help at all. Fifteen minutes into skating she let go of the wall and just started skating on her own and she didn't care if she fell or not ...which she did quite often, but got back up and started doing it again. I wish I had her athleticism.
This is how he spent his time off the ice...pretending to play video games.




Love the smile that was across her face when she finally got the hang of ice skating it was so precious.

Picture with Santa

We did our annual picture with Santa and although Jaden wasn't afraid, he didn't bother to smile. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Jaden posing with his Christmas suit and spikey hair!

Thanksgiving

Went to NY for Thanksgiving this year and had a really great time. We got to see family although I didn't take a lot of pictures, kind of sad, but at least I have my memories.

On the Friday before we left we got to go to the New York Botanical Gardens, there they had this train show that they had artist build buildings entirely out of plant material..ie bark, leaves etc. It was absolutely beautiful and the kids loved looking at all the trains.