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Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving Recap

I will say that I warned you there would be lots of pictures.  We had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend.  I think I will just do a weekend/week recap in pictures.

What a difference a few months makes at the lake. 
                             

Can you believe this is a good hair day for Sara Wells?  She sleeps on her knees and forehead and rubs her forehead back and forth while she sleeps, making lots and lots of knots!  This is why a bow is a necessity!
 Luxuries of vacation, Hot Chocolate every morning.
 Marshmallow counting is an exact art
 And Sprite everyday...
 Yes, I did take my sewing machine with me and Ella was my big helper, getting all the pins in the right place.  Since we were going to be there for several days, I thought I would take advantage of my time.
 Reading with Papa
 Lots and Lots of chase!
 Off for a Gruffalo hunt (and trash run).  The Gruffalo is one of Ella and Miller's favorite books!
 chasing him through the woods...
 Even Sara Wells was in on the hunt.
 Don't worry, we got the Gruffalo with our laser (Buzz Lightyear style).
 Thanksgiving Preparations
 Sara Wells was right there helping out with all of the cooking.
 Friday afternoon we went to the Alabama Auburn game.  Very cold!  The first half was awesome!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving Program

So, I am a few days behind in blogging.  Hopefully in the next couple of days I will catch up.  But hold on, because I have a lot of pictures!

Last Friday was Ella and Miller's Thanksgiving Program.  Ella was the cutest little pilgrim and Miller the most handsome turkey.  They have been practicing for weeks at school (and at home).  Usually in her programs, Ella shines, singing loudly and motions exaggerated.  But last spring Ella could not find us in the audience and barely sang.  She spent the entire time her class was on the stage scanning the audience for Murray and me.  So, Friday morning I had a little pep talk with Miller and Ella.  I reminded them and even if they could not find us we would be there.  So, sing loud and smile.  

Ella spotted us right as she entered the sanctuary.  She started the program out giving Daddy a high five, very confident!
    
 Ella was the sweetest pilgrim ever!  She did not miss a word or motion.

Next up, Miller.  We had no idea how Miller would do.  Honestly, I thought he might not sing a word.  As surprising as it may be, Miller tends to get quiet and even shy in bigger crowds.  When he marched out, we did not know what to expect.
 He spotted me right away, pointing out "there is my mommy!"
Then the music began...  Miller blew everyone away!  He screamed at the top of lungs, "gobble, gobble gobble says the bird!"
He continued to belt out the rest of the song, stomping his feet and flapping his wings.  The second song he was very upset because he could not come down and give me a hug and a kiss.  But he came back for the third song with gusto singing loudly, "God our Father...."

After the program we went to Miller's classroom
 and then Ella's.
Miller's teachers were just as much in shock as we were at his performance (I had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard).  He overheard the conversation.  Miss Asha told me they never saw that coming, Miller had never sang like that in practice.  Miller looked right at me and said, "Mommy, you told me to sing loud."   Now I know that he does listen.

And sweet Sara Wells was just right there with us the entire time.  In Ella's class she found the perfect chewing toy as was as pleased as punch!
 After a long day of performing and partying, nothing is better than relaxing in daddy's arms.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Football

Murray and I took the kids to the Alabama game this past Thursday night.  Alabama played Georgia State.  We knew it would be the perfect game to take the kids to because it would not  matter if we had to leave at the end of the 1st quarter.  Thank goodness we made it longer than the first quarter!  Ella and Miller had a blast!  We were running a little late which left no time for the kids to meander to the stadium.  We started off with Murray carrying both kids, but quickly convinced Ella to race us to the stadium.  She ran almost the whole way!   In this picture Ella is showing Miller the lights of the stadium.

I love this picture.  I took it right after we got to our seats.  Miller is facing me but cannot take his eyes off of the football players.  He was still in awe at the point.  You could just see his little mind turning trying to figure out what was really going on.  He had only seen the football games on TV and now he is seeing the players in real life.  
Because we were cutting it very close, we had to feed the kids at the stadium.  As soon as we got there we got the kids hot dogs, nachos and these giant cookies (yes, very healthy I know!)  After all that they were still hungry so we got them another hot dog from one of the vendors walking through the stadium.  Our seats are right on the aisle and at the top of a section.  So, every vendor walks by our seats and usually pauses while people come up to him.  The hardest part of the evening was explaining to Ella that we could not just have something from everyone that walked by.  You can understand how confusing that would be to a four year old, that man is walking by asking if I want cotton candy.  "Yes, I would like some cotton candy, yes please."  It was pretty cute.  Next time we will have to come up with a better plan about snacks at the game.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Watch out Michael Kors, we have got a new trendsetter in the making!  Miller loves to pick out his clothes!  If I would let him, he would wear Toy Story clothes everyday (big surprise there).  Now I know that he can only wear what I put in his closet (what I buy him), but this shirt was given to him my mom.  Of course, the tackiest shirt he has is the one he wants to wear everyday!  

I don't know what it has been like where you are, but the first part of the week was RAINY!  To be stuck inside for 3 days with a hyper little boy is not the most fun.  But I discovered a new activity that the kids love!  They love to paint.  I bought some paint (washable of course!) last week for Christmas presents and they worked like magic to help pass the time.  Ella and Miller spent hours painting Sunday and Monday.
 Here are just a few of their creations...
Don't be fooled though, just because we had a few hours that were occupied by painting the rest of the time went just as well.  The picture below is what Miller did in about 5 minutes.  Pulled out all the books from his bottom three shelves.  If I want to do something with the kids that has any prep time or clean up time, I can pretty much count on the whole day being devoted to that one activity.  We had to wait to paint until Sara Wells took her nap because there is no way I can even think about doing something that involved with her awake.  She is very busy these days.  While she was awake, I tried to get everything as close to ready as I could without Sara Wells eating something or playing in the toilet.  I cleaned up from breakfast, got all the paints out and tried to cover the table as best as possible.  While I was busy, I noticed Miller was very quiet.  I tried to take advantage of him not hanging all over me complaining or fighting with Ella knowing in the back of my mind he was probably into some mischief.  Ella came running in the kitchen saying, "Mommy, you have got to come and see this."  So, Miller and I spent the next 20 minutes cleaning up the books.  Isn't that how it always goes.  I spend 10 minutes cleaning up one thing only to spend the next 30 cleaning up the mess that the kids have made while I was cleaning up a previous mess.  At least this happened early enough in the day that I could laugh about it.

Since we are in the theme of fun things to entertain the kids, we made these really cute pilgrims hats yesterday for Ella and Miller's school program.  They are easy and made with chocolate and marshmallows so of course the kids love them.  The hardest part was limiting the number of marshmallows they ate.  If your kids are out of school next week and you need something to do, this is perfect!
 All you need is:
Stripped Shortbread Cookies
Marshmallows
Chocolate Chips
Yellow Piping Icing
 Place cookies chocolate side up
Melt chocolate in a double broiler.  You don't have to have a fancy double broiler, just one pot on top of the other.
 Can you tell I melt a lot of chocolate in the pot?
 Put marshmallows on toothpicks (this was the kids job).
 Coat the marshmallows in chocolate.
  Place chocolate covered marshmallows on cookies.  Put in fridge for chocolate to harden.
Pipe buckle on marshmallow.
    
 Enjoy!