Merry Christmas!

Here's some of our Christmas morning photos.

Christmas Eve

Sophia has to be at church at 4:00 for practice for the 5:00 service. She's singing with the cherub choir tonight and she's really excited. Last Sunday they sang at the 8:30 service and wore their robes. That was great fun for her.

Here we are getting ready to leave.

Cookies for Santa

This morning we made and decorate cookies for Santa. Boy did the recipe make a lot of cookies. It's a good thing we're going to a Christmas Eve party tonight and can take most of them with us because I don't think Santa or Mrs. Claus could eat them all. These are only half of them and the kids got sick of decorating them after only doing about 5 cookies each.

Build a Bear

Last week when I took the girls to the mall to see Santa we went to Build a Bear to look around for a while. Lilly actually pulled this car off the shelf and climbed in. It's made for the stuffed animals! Ha ha ha.

Lilly's holiday party

Sophia has been off from school all week, but Lilly had to go both days (Mon & Wed). On Wed she had her holiday party and parents were invited so Sophia and I went to it. It was cute. They sang a few songs then had a spread of food to share. I dressed the girls in red and white to celebrate the season. Look how cute they looked on their way out the door.

I forgot to take my camera to the party, but I did try to snap a few on my phone. They all seem to be blurry. Take a look.

Carriage Ride

A shopping center near our house called The Shops at Hilltop had free horse drawn carriage rides today so we went. It was a lot of fun. The horse, Fancy, pulled us around the parking lot for about 5 minutes in an old-time carriage. The girls loved it. Sophia asked where the windows were because it was completely open in the carriage except for a roof. She thought that was funny.

Sophia's school holiday program

Lilly has been sick all week with a terrible cold so she was out sick from school on Monday and Wednesday. Her holiday program was on Wednesday and we all had to miss it. I thought about just taking her in for the program, but wouldn't do that to the other kids. Doesn't she look miserable here?

Sophia's holiday show was also held on Wed. She sang and grooved along to the music a bit, but didn't seem to really be into it. Each class sang a few songs and then did a couple of group ones at the end.

Here are a few videos:

This is the one of her walking in:



Here's a video of a song:



Jingle Bells....and who knows why she was playing with her mouth. Gross.

2 hour delay

Since Sophia's school is on a two hour delay today, we decided to make Christmas cupcakes. Basically this means that she will be in school for an hour, but believe me, she's going! Actually I'm glad she had school today because we need to give our Christmas presents to her teachers.

She was up extra early at 6am so we've had lots of time to kill this morning. Sophia did all the sprinkles (and didn't make too much of a mess). Don't they look yummy?

What is going on?

In the past week it has snowed two times and it's been in the 30's all week. It's snowing right now, in fact. Sophia is outside in her rain boots and snow jacket. Lilly went out for about 2 minutes and then decided she was done. I have a feeling Sophia and Sadie will be outside for a while. Sophia loves the snow! I guess Lilly is like me...she doesn't like to be out in the cold. We're supposed to get between 1 and 3 inches. Yuck!

I finally found snow pants for both girls so when we head up to Northern VA and PA they'll be able to play outside. I even bought a round Dora sled for them to share. Perhaps I should have bought two?

Anyway, here's a quick video I just took:

Gingerbread House

It's a good thing I took these photos right away because 1/2 of the roof slid off right after I took the them.

Heading out for Sophia's church show

Here's a photo of the girls from Sunday. I thought they looked so adorable hugging each other.

Sophia's holiday show at church

Sophia was a sheep in the show. She had been practicing the songs along to the CD the music director provided for weeks. She knew almost every word. It was so funny to watch her in the show because she sang along to everything even though her part only required her to sing the refrain of each song.

Here are a few videos for you to watch. The last one is the best because she's singing directly into the microphone, but it's very shaky. Once she moved to the opposite side of the stage, I didn't have a good view of her anymore and gave Will the camera. He was holding Lilly and trying to tape so you can understand why it's a bit shaky...

Enter the stage.

Part 2



Another one

Riley's holiday party

On Tuesday afternoon we went over to Riley's (our neighbor) house for a holiday party. The girls decorated an ornament that looked like a Christmas present. Then they decorated sugar cookies. They had a blast. Take a look at the pictures.

Garden on Lights

We went to the Botanical Garden last weekend with some of the girls' friends (Haley, Carlie, Cameron, Trip and Addie) for their Polar Express program. It was cute. They had hot chocolate and cookies for everyone. We strung bells and beads on pieces of ribbon to create necklaces. Then the kids listened to the Polar Express story. After that we all headed outside to the tram for an drive through their Garden of Lights. It was magnificent.

It was so cold so in addition to wearing our warmest clothes we also bundled up with three blankets.

Sophia was literally shouting and screaming in delight at each exhibit. She was completely mesmerized at the beauty of the lights.

The flash was a little too bright for Lilly. (smile)

Pretty ballerinas

There's nothing wrong with dressing yourself...

Flu and version 2.0 and 3.0

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at Don and Cynthia's last week. Dinner was fantastic and the company was even better. Christina and I went to bed early because we wanted to get up at 4am and hit a few of the black Friday sales. We were successfully out the door at 4. We quickly realized that Starbucks doesn't open until 5:30am!

After our shopping spree we picked up Sophia and Grancy and went to the Vienna craft fair. Sophia choose her ornament of the year. It's a cat.

On Saturday evening I was overtaken with extreme fatigue and eventually got sick (let's call this Flu 1.0). I actually felt better by morning, but over night Lilly ended up getting sick too. She and I slept together that night and boy is she a snuggler!

On Sunday Will woke up and felt like he was run over by a truck. I thought he had what I had, but as it turns out, he had Flu version 2.0. He slept all day because if he was awake he felt like he was going to be sick. He never ended up getting sick though.

I ended up getting version 3.0 on Monday at the exact time that Will began to feel better. I'm calling it version 3.0 because I kept getting sick over and over again and couldn't keep any food down at all AND I felt like I was run over by a truck.

We're all nice and healthy again as of this afternoon! Believe me, now I'm on a frantic dash to sanitize the whole house.

Happy Turkey Day!

Lilly's Thanksgiving Dinner/Show

Kids of Grace, Lilly's school, did a potluck Thanksgiving dinner for all the families of the school last week. Will ended up in Boston that evening so Sophia and I went by ourselves. We even got pretty decent seats for showing up on time. Little did I know that people would get there an hour early and save seats. Thank goodness it was only the two of us because if Will was along we would never have found seats together. Luckily Sophia and I found two in the front. It was so much fun sitting with her and chatting while we waited for Lilly's class to line up in front of the audience.

I forgot my camera so I had to use my cell phone for the blurry pictures and they certainly don't compare to the adorable live version that Sophia and I saw. Actually it was quite funny. Lilly walked in with the rest of her class and then simply froze in one spot. She did wave to me twice when she saw me waving at her. Occasionally she would turn around to look at the kids singing behind her, but for the most part she looked like a deer caught in headlights.

All of the two year olds were asked to wear orange. The other classes each had to wear red, yellow and brown. You can see her front and center in the crowd. She has on a bright orange sweater dress with a cream shirt under it.

After the kids performed three songs, it was time to eat. Sophia wanted nothing to do with the potluck, buffet food and Lilly was just happy to finally eat. I tried a few things, but I have to admit that my very own dish was by far the best one that I tasted. I made Cynthia's sweet potato casserole recipe which is perfect for this time of year. Yum. There wasn't a morsel left in the dish either.

Hmmm....

Looks like they're up to no good.

Paper dolls

This fierce foursome is the product of our third set of paper dolls. The first set was probably a little too old for her since it was literally a set of paper dolls...you know, delicate paper that you have to punch out, fold at the edges back, etc.

The second set was three Disney princesses that were supposed to be magnetic and somehow none of the magnets would stick to them. It seemed like all the pieces were too heavy for the magnet strength and as soon as you stood the dolls up all the clothes and accessories fell off. This really frustrated Sophia. I showed her how to play with them laying flat and that seemed to work for a few days. Then she lost interest.

The third set. The one in the picture. This set was magical. The beauty of this set was that it was constructed of sturdy material and the pieces were all glued on. Sophia still had to punch out all the pieces, but each doll came in it's own special wrapper with individual accessories just for her outfit so that made it even more fun. Each one also came with a before, a 1/2 way done and an after picture which Sophia had to follow in order to make outfit her dolls properly. It took a lot of time for her to complete all four dolls. She was very serious about it too. But look at the marvelous job she did!

Gobble Fest

Last week Lilly and I skipped Kindermusik and went to the Gobble Fest at the rec center. The program was cute. When we arrived each kid was asked to go on a scavenger hunt in the search of a turkey. There were tons of them taped all over the walls and the floor and you wouldn't believe how many kids just walked right by them. Even Lilly. Once she found a turkey she got to exchange it for a goodie bag which literally contained a bunch of junk and 2 pieces of candy. Great, just what we need, 2 more pieces of candy!

There were a few tables set up with Thanksgiving color pages set out for the kids to color. Lilly sat down a few times to color a bit.

The very first thing she wanted to do was get her face painted. I gave her a few options of what to get and she picked a turkey. Gobble gobble.

After we got back from the restroom...we had to go so she could see the turkey on her cheek in the mirror... When we returned Lilly played a few games of corn hole by herself, bounced a bit in both bounce houses, and then got really excited when she saw one of her favorite friends from school. Evan!

She talks about Evan all the time. We usually see him in the parking lot and she always says THERE'S EVAN, MAMA. I guess we run on the same schedule. She doesn't talk about any girls in her class or any other boys for that matter. It seems like Evan is her favorite. He's really shy and doesn't talk in class, but neither does Lilly if you can believe that! (I just got a report today that she came out of her shell during circle time! Yay, Lilly!)

I've asked her before who are her friends and she usually repeats me and says MY FRIENDS with a big grin on her face. Then I start naming the ones that I know. Evan, Grace, Quinn, Sophia, Maddie, Hawkin (and I think there are 3 more)

Anyway, back to the Gobble Fest. I think the last thing Lilly did before we had to leave to pick Sophia up from school was pin-the-feather on the turkey. She peeked the whole time. (smile)

Queen for a Day

Sophia got to be Queen for a Day last week at school. Her class just finished up a unit on castles, dragons, unicorns, kings, queens, etc. and they had a party to celebrate.

At the beginning of the unit, Sophia came home from school and said that she wanted to be the queen and her friend, Paige, was going to be the princess at the party. We didn't have a queen costume so I quickly went to my new favorite store, ebay.com, and found the perfect one. She looked so regal in it. When I dropped her off at school the day of the party I noticed that most, if not all, of the girls were wearing Disney princess costumes. Sophia definitely stood out...and she looked awesome! See the front view and the back.

Mrs. Peeler and Mrs. Rogers definitely overdid themselves with decorations. They had a perfectly prepared table complete with a princess hat and wand for each little girl, red water goblets, and place settings for 17 kids. So cute.



Next month the class will study holidays - Christmas and Hanukkah.

Strike a pose

Yes, we're going to get rid of Lilly's paci...just as soon as we buy her a big girl bed. She'll be 2 1/2 on Saturday. Sophia was exactly 2 1/2 when we took her pacifiers away. So, I guess we better get on the ball and find her a bed! I think we'll have to look next weekend and see if there's something we can live with.

We've been telling Lilly for a few months now that she's going to have to give up her paci. We told her the Paci Fairy is going to give them to baby Jonas. She knows and acts as if she'll be ok with it, but somehow I don't think it's going to be a total piece of cake. We'll see.

More fun with paint

The girls love to do crafts. I think painting is their favorite because they get soooo messy.