A Late Christmas Recap

Over a month later, it's probably long past time to recap Christmas, but it's better to do it now than let more time slip by.

In December I helped Aric's class on two separate occasions.  The first was with gingerbread houses.  The kids had a great time creating their own.  Aric was slightly heartbroken that we wouldn't let him eat his house when he brought it home a week later.  After spending a week in the library for all of the school to see, and becoming as hard as a rock, there was no way we would allow anyone to eat it.

The second time I heled Aric's class was with their Christmas party.  It was slightly crazy with 19 kids on a sugar and Christmas high, but it's fun to witness Aric interact with his classmates. 

The weekend before Christmas we took a family excursion to a local church to watch their live music light show.  It was neat to watch minus the two crabby children who wanted to view something more exciting.

Christmas snuck up on me.  I was busy the majority of the month working on Etsy orders and Christmas gifts.  That meant that decorating our house, baking cookies, and wrapping presents was all last minute.

 We still made Christmas exciting for the kids despite the craziness.

We enjoyed having Aric on break and home with us.  It was fun to have him around, and if truth be told, I enjoyed not having to pack lunches everyday and run him to school.

Visiting Santa

I'm not quite sure where the photo went, but last year I had to be in the Santa picture with the kids because Kellyn was too scared.

This year I didn't have to be anywhere near Santa.  Kellyn was so excited to visit Santa she was jumping up and down in the line and could not contain her excitement.

The excitement makes for a much better picture.

Neon Day

Last Friday was Neon Day.  Grandma was in town and helped me find something for Aric to wear.  There were no doubt about whether he was wearing neon or not.

Ryan put on his neon shirt just to meet Aric's bus when he came home from school.  He's a good dad.  And I have a break from school spirit this week, I think...

Veteran's Days

It all started with a turkey.  Aric's class read the story, 'Twas the Night before Thanksgiving.  Aric had to bring in a turkey in some sort of disguise.  The only requirement was that we needed to use things around the house.  We weren't allowed to purchase anything for the turkey.

At first we had planned on using camoflage to turn the turkey into a hunter, but Aric quickly changed his mind and wanted an Army turkey.

Last Monday Aric brought home something for Ryan from school.

Ryan seemed touched and a bit embarrassed by their appreciation.

Their thankfulness didn't end there.  The kids had another school project to make a pilgrim and find something to be thankful for.  Aric's teacher told me to check them out while I was at Aric's school last week.

Notice the similarities between Ryan and Aric's turkey.  I love kindergarten spelling.

One of Aric's classmates was thankful for Ryan, too.

I think it's great that Ryan will stand in front of a tank to keep all of us safe.

This week Aric is Star of the Week in his class.  Ryan, Kellyn and I are supposed to go in on Friday to visit the class.  I told Ryan he should keep his uniform on, because all of the kids will be really impressed by it.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Things Heard Around Here

Kellyn: Mommy, I'm using my imagination to pretend these cars don't talk.

I like that she's using her imagination to pretend her cars aren't talking.  However, I'm a bit concerned that she thinks she has to pretend cars don't talk.  Do cars talk to her?

Crazy Hair Day

After missing the memo on Pajama Day, I have been careful to pay attention to all of the silly days at school and allow Aric to participate.  He wore silly socks, brought a stuffed animal, and yesterday was Crazy Hair Day. 

Laura was happy to help me spike Aric's hair straight up.  I'm not sure how long it stayed that way.  By the time Aric got off the bus in the afternoon his hair had gone from crazy hair to messy hair.  He liked having it spiky and crazy for a day.

Next Friday is neon day.  I'm not sure what we will do for that since the only thing neon in the house is this shirt:

...which happens to be a bit too big for Aric.

Go State

On Saturday we went to our first football game of the season.  We usually stay home; Ryan watches the game and I sew while the kids play.  We have some wonderful friends who invited us to join their tailgate.  They even procured extra tickets for us, allowing Ryan and the kids to go inside and watch the game.  I neglected to take any photos of their "party bus", but I think I had the best seat in the house.  The bus is clean, has a bathroom, food, no crowds, and four TVs allowing anyone to watch the game from inside or outside of the bus.  I'll watch a game like that any time.

On the way to the game, Ryan allowed the kids to bring some Halloween candy as a snack.  If you are ever driving down the road and you hear, "I'm going to pretend a tissue is a napkin.", turn around and look.

We could not have asked for a better day or better friends to share the day with.  They always make us feel welcome and our children are genuinely loved.

Ryan and I were able to sneak off and see the new stadium.  It was quite impressive.  We returned to find our children sitting in the middle of the parking lot eating cake for lunch.

I've already been informed by several sources that it's my job to make sure the kids eat healthy, while it's other people's job to make sure the kids have fun. 

Ryan and Aric watched half of the game inside the stadium.  They had a pretty good view.

Kellyn watched the game day activities and part of the first quarter and then she was done.

There's no better place to act like a wildcat than inside stadium.

We left at the end of the third quarter.  We wanted to beat the traffic and get the kids back home. 

It was a fun day, and it made me glad to not live there anymore and deal with game days.