Christmas 2011

 A Magical Christmas!

Beautiful Grammie and Maddie

Feeding the reindeer with Uncle Johnny

Who's sad on Christmas Morning? 

Still sad...

That's better! 

Santa came!

Pop Pop explaining things

Uncle Johnny for the win with crazy remote controlled balloons! 

Grammie got run over by a reindeer

What a blessed Christmas!

Holiday Party at Bowen

 

Sitting with Santa

 

Lego contest

 

The kids created a holiday scene for the Lego Magazine contest!

Hockey is a Workout!

 He's giving it every last bit of effort!

Tree Time

One of my favorite traditions, heading out to a Christmas Tree Farm to find the perfect tree!

 

Quite a Night

From finding a large "stuffed animal" in Gabriel's bin to sirens and the ladder truck at our neighbors, it was quite a night! Thankfully, everything was okay next door.

The Enchanted Village

A local furniture store, Jordan's, puts on a fabulous 28 scene Victorian Christmas display complete with snow in the last room. It was a such fun! 

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

 

We headed up to Maine to visit the Atris at their house in York. 

Sortorama

 A boy and his jars

Theo's Castle

 Flair with blocks!

Trying for that perfect leaf shot

 A yard full of leaves, kids who like to jump in them, let's get that perfect fall shot! Well, 35 photographs later over two days and these were the two winners. 

Superhero Explores Nature

 A gorgeous fall day requires a hike amongst the trees. Thank goodness Super Gabriel and Theo were there to lead us. 

Block City

A friend gave us an enormous box of wooden blocks to add to our little collection. It came in a huge plastic bin. It's so many blocks we became a bit overwhelmed. There has been much building of intricate structures (not shown). I also love the leaves through the windows. There's a few days each year where our street is blazing yellow. Our new neighbors just cut down one of their sidewalk trees which affected me so intensely I still can't look out the window without moaning. I even care for trees that I didn't know. Like the huge oak that used to be in our front side yard saddling our neighbors yard. It was gone long before me and yet I still mourn it. (I don't even know what it looked like - that's called crazy.)

Block Structures

 Love our awesome collection of blocks. 

Hair Raising

We went a long time between boys' haircuts this time. Theo loves it when his hair touches his eyebrows and wanted a picture to remember it by (really it does touch just when he raises his brows). We go see John at Salvi's Barber. After many terrible haircuts and a husband who hasn't a clue of where to go, I finally decided, eureka!, take them to an actual barber. So I headed to the Italian section of Newton and found John. Gabriel screamed for the first year of his cuts and had to sit on my lap. Now he pops up without a peep. Gabriel also loudly said that the man reflected in the mirror sitting in the barber seat  resembled a monster. I think he resembles a mafia boss of some sort. I quickly quieted Gabriel down. (And no, there are no rumblings of mafia in Newton, and no, I wouldn't take my sons to a barber where the mafia might frequent, no matter how good.)

How to Work a Party

The Brownies earned their Manners try it badge. It was a fun exercise on learning how to act in different situations. They really cracked up at the "how to greet people from different countries" portion of the badge. One of the tasks we did was to host a party for the library volunteers. The girls planned the party including invitations, menu, guests, decor and appropriate party talk. I was so impressed with questions they came up with for mingling: "When you aren't at the library, what do you like to do?" "What are some of your favorite books?" "What did you like to do as a child?" I told them if they continue to think up thoughtful interesting questions, they will be quite the desired hostesses or guests.

Nature Lesson

Gabriel watching the hawk on the left side of the roof. 

Coming home from Bowen, we start to turn left into our driveway when all of a sudden a large red tail hawk swoops down in front of our car with a morning snack in his claws. Startled, he drops his snack in our front yard and flies up to our neighbor's roof. Picking our jaws up, we hurry inside to watch the hawk. The hawk patiently waits for about an hour and half before determining that the snack is in too dangerous a position to fetch. She flies away leaving a large headless rabbit to be disposed of - gross.

Kicking Back

Gabriel has taken to resting wherever and whenever he pleases. The baseball diamond during Maddie's soccer game, fine. While we are walking to school in the middle of the sidewalk, not fine.

Happy Halloween!

The force was with us this year! Nathan immersed the boys into Star Wars. I've stood firm and not allowed them to watch the movies yet. But, it is a relentless pursuit to make me change my mind. Maddie refused Princess Lea and opted for a Native American.

It was a busy day of classroom Halloween parties. The kindergartners were thrilled to see us and so good! We had story time, freeze dance, snack and then four stations of crafts and games. They loved it! 

I wore my purple hair and hat. And the kids were just not sure if it was real or what. There was a lot of talk about a magic wand and special hair on Halloween. Of course, I'd conveniently forgotten my magic wand at home. I loved their confusion and innocence. Four days later, the kids are still coming up to me wondering about my hair! 

Now the 3rd graders, on the other hand, hardly gave me a glance. Maddie's in a class with 14 boys! It's, to say the least, intense. I feel for the teacher. We had one craft and an outdoor scavenger hunt for bones. Enthusiasm just not the unbridled joy of the five/six year olds. Sniff. (Can you believe the snow on the ground?)

Party time continued at the Woolberts for chili and fun before trick or treating. It was a fantastic way to end the day. Bijan and Theo were both Darth Vader, Maddie and Avery were Native Americans. And Maddie steeled herself to walk through the haunted house (the one where the man in the gorilla suit chased her down the street when she was in kindergarten). She was so proud to make it this year! We spent time trick or treating on their side of Beacon before getting a police escort across Beacon (by chance) to our side. The kids were thrilled - lights, sirens, the whole shebang!

Theo wasn't pleased that Gabriel put his arm around Davis. He said, "That's not his brother."

The candy tally

The Sanders' Pumps

(Maddie, Theo, Erin, Gabriel and Nathan)

Can you see the "code" in Nathan's pumpkin? 

Hint: There is an E, M, T and G

Hmmm, does he look like me? 

Happy Halloween!

(I was quite exhausted on November 1!)