Madeline's Christmas *UPDATED

These are just snippets from Dave's phone.  This year Dave's firm had a really fun Christmas event where we went to the Dallas Children's Theatre, had lunch, watched the play Madeline's Christmas, had dessert during intermission, and then after the play received a copy of the book and had the entire cast sign it.  Our girls had such a ball.  They dressed in their Sunday best and felt very special.  

*UPDATED -- Here are some pictures that were taken at the event.  Jane was the only one brave enough to visit that very real looking Santa.

Christmas Decor

So, my tree was having issues this year.  But I fixed it.  It is no longer "pre-lit."  Problem solved.  

When I took this picture it was in the low 70s outside.  Today (Dec 5th) is actually our first freeze, but only at night.  During the day it was chilly, but still in the 40s.  I was going to get a wreath that had that snow-covered look, but then I thought that would look ridiculous and out of place.  The evergreens look a little out of place too, but I still like it.  Nothing cutsy and homemade for me this year.  I thought about adding something to it, just to make it more "original," but really?  I think it's lovely the way it is.  (Besides, it was 50% off.)

I know it looks a little silly up there on that table, but it's just high enough that Claire can't take the ornaments off.  Speaking of ornaments, I don't really have any . . . any fun ornament traditions you want to share?  I thought about getting one for each child every year, and then one that represents something big that happened that year (like this year we bought our first house, so maybe a little house one would be nice).

(Eeeh, now that I look at this picture, the lights are a little bunched up there in the middle.  I could pretend I'm   going to fix that, but I'm not.)

Thanksgiving 2011

Stephen (Dave's oldest brother) and his family came to hang out with us over Thanksgiving, and we were SO glad they did!  The kids had a ball playing with each other and there were lots of people to enjoy all the food I made!  :)

The turkey was a HUGE success (and carved so perfectly by Dave).  

After seeing these pictures I'm craving that entire meal over again.

A lot of Guitar Hero was played.  So much so that the girls kept a "Rock Star" theme going in all of their play that weekend.  They drew designs for their own guitars and rock star outfits.  It was adorable and a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving Tree 2011

This is the first try = total fail.  It kept falling down and looked ugly (then again, all of the others before it were pretty ugly also).

We tried again and it looks MUCH better.  I bought a huge wardrobe box and did a proper tree, reinforced it and nailed it up.  We'll use it again next year.  

As for the things we're thankful for, which are written on each leaf, it's all the usual stuff, taken down by the usual method.  Each girl hands me a leaf and tells me what she's thankful for.  I write it down and stick it up.  Audrey says some good things for about 10 leafs, but then she starts repeating those 10 things, and every time it's Jane's turn, she just says what Audrey said.  So, I came up with most of them as the girls handed me leaves.  Mermaids, fairies, and itching showed up on there this year.  There are always some really good ones.  

Just Stuff

Jane showing Claire how to make "crafts."  She colored a picture, then put tape on the front.  Really anything in which scissors and adhesive (glue OR tape) is involved is a craft. 

On Halloween night, Jane ran her face into the sidewalk.  Well, recently she did it again on the way home from getting Audrey from school.  Same forehead bruise, same nose and lip scrape.  Poor thing.  It's brutal to witness, too!  It just looks so painful!  If I had done something like that, I'm sure I would be out of commission for a week.  She was fine by the time we got home.

"No dogs ulaood."  

My new haircut . . . after I had a ponytail in and need to shower.  It looks the same except now I have bangs.  I like it!

This was taken the day Jane said all those fun things while pretending with the nativity.  She plays with it for long stretches every day, and it's impossible to write down all the funny things she says while playing with it. 

This is my baby.  I think she was either just crying before I took this, or she was having allergies or a cold.  Possibly both.  

The Jane Hunt Show: Christmas Special

I've decided.  My favorite thing about being a mom is overhearing their imaginative play scenarios.  Jane was playing with the nativity just now.  I overheard her pretending the voices like this:

Wise Men:  C 'mon!  It's this way!
Angel: NO!  You're going the wrong way!  It's THIS way!
Wise Men: Are you sure?
Angel: (Exasperated sigh) . . . Yeah!  See the STAR up there?!

Joseph: (in a manly voice) Hi, I'm Joseph.
Shepherd: I look like a Joseph too, but I'm just a shepherd.
Joseph: We look like girls.

Mary: Where's the baby Jesus!?
Joseph:  I don't know.  Maybe the angel can help you find him.

Sheep:  Baaaa
Camel: I know you're a sheep.  You don't have to say baaa.
Sheep:  But I like to say baaa.  Cuz I'm a sheep.

Mary:  C 'mon, everyone!  Let's look at the baby Jesus Christ!  . . . . Awe, isn't he cute.

Skillz

One thing I really love is when my kids are genuinely impressed with the things that I can do.

"Wow, Mom!  You're a good color-er!"

"Woah!  You can cut things out really good!"

"Mom!  How do you read so fast!?"

"I wish I could tie my shoes that good!"

"You're really good at sweeping, Mom!"  (Jane said this to me just today.)

I suppose I really do have a lot going for me, huh.  I just wish they could stay this enchanted with my abilities forever.  We all know that one day my speed and dexterity at gross motor skills will be completely overlooked . . . as well as my ability to cook, clean, and care for everyone living under our roof . . .

Until then, I'll let Jane keep telling me how much she likes my outfits and let Audrey keep telling me that I'm the BEST at putting puzzles together.  :)

* As a side note, Audrey thinks I'm the worst at spelling things.  Tea is spelled "te" because everyone knows there is no such thing as a silent "a."  And it's a "Draff"  NOT a "giraffe" -- in Audrey the "d" makes a "j" sound, so that means that the "j" (or "g") sound in giraffe is really a "d."  Oh, and the "a" in giraffe doesn't say it's own name, so there is no silent "e" at the end.  She's totally kicking the English language's butt.  Oh, and she would know, too, because she is fluent in English AND English (as in British English).  And Spanish, too, supposedly.

HOW TO COOK A THANKSGIVING TURKEY

By Mrs. Wood’s Class

Get a turkey from Kroger. Cook the 

turkey in the oven. Then eat it. 

Bake for 11 minutes in a hot oven at 

100 degrees.

By Holland

Get the turkey from a barn. Then we 

chase it. Then we cook it on the 

stove. Bake for 5 minutes on 

medium temperature at 5 degrees.

By Trevor

Get a turkey from Walmart. Cook it 

at my house. Then go to sleep 

because you are tired from cooking.

Bake for 16 minutes in a cold oven at 

8 degrees

By Lorena

Get the turkey from a carnival. Bring 

it home. Cook it in the oven, then 

eat it. Bake on a little hot, about 5 

degrees for 10 minutes

By Matthew

Get a turkey from the farm. Put it in 

the oven. Then you eat it.

Bake for 30 degrees for 40 minutes

By Hailey

You chase the turkey. You put in the 

stove. Then you put it in the freezer. 

Bake at 35 degrees for 35 minutes

By Owen

Get the turkey from Costco. Put it in 

the water. Then cook it in the oven. 

Then it gets boiled. It soaks up the 

turkey. Bake for 4 minutes on 

100 degrees

By Austin

I don’t know where you get a turkey 

from. You put it in the oven. When 

it’s done you take it out. Put some 

seasoning on it then you eat it I 

think. Bake at 2 degrees 

for 10 minutes.

By Elisha

My mom bakes it with an oven. 

Sometimes she makes it in the fire. 

Maybe I should bake it in the oven.

Bake on medium temperature for 10 

seconds.

By Daly

Get a turkey from Wal-mart and put 

it in the oven. Cook it and then 

steam it. Cook it very hot at 92 

degrees for 30 minutes.

By: Ryan

Get from the store that has food. 

Put it in the oven. Turn on the oven 

on hot for a long time. Then you eat 

it. Bake it for 30 minutes on 9 

degrees. 

By: Malachi

Get a turkey from Costco and put it 

in the oven. Bake it. Then eat it. Set 

the temperature really hot at 100 

degrees and cook it for 10 minutes.

By: Maryn

Get a turkey from outside from the 

forest. Go home, put it in a pan and 

cook it in the oven. Set the oven hot 

at 0 degrees and cook for 1 minute.

By: Courtney

First you get a turkey from the store. 

Then you put it on the stove. Then 

cook it. Then when it’s ready, put it 

on the table. Bake at 6 degrees for 

20 minutes.

By Madison

Get a turkey from the barn. Put it in 

the oven. Cook it for 20 minutes  on 

15 degrees then take it out to eat.

By: Cody 

Get the turkey from Grandpa. You 

cook it and eat it. Bake it for 1 

minute on 2 degrees.

By: Zion

Get turkey from Walmart. Cook it in 

the oven for 0 minutes on 0 degrees. 

By: Mia

Get the turkey from the turkey 

store. Go home and put it on the 

stove and cook it. When it’s done, 

put it on the table. Bake for 6 

minutes on a quiet temperature 

with heat at 7 degrees.

By: Audrey

Get a turkey from the turkey hunt. 

Then you buy it. Take care of it, feed 

him and eat pie at Thanksgiving.

By: Levi (Audrey's little crush)

Get a turkey a barn, take it home 

and cook it in the oven, then eat it. 

Bake it at 10 degrees for 5 minutes.

By: Hart

Get a turkey from the farm. Put it in 

the oven. Take it out and eat it. I’m 

not sure of the temperature but hot 

at maybe 10 degrees for 10 minutes.

By: Alexa

Get a turkey from the pantry. When 

it’s done, put some sugar on it. Cook 

it for 24 hours on hot at 6 degrees.

By: Gideon (Audrey's other little crush)

Primary Program: Thumbs up!

Today was the primary program.  I'm the primary chorister, so this was a big day for me.  As the new girl, and getting thrown in right at the last minute, I was a little more stressed than was probably necessary.  Anyway, everything went well except Audrey was being a pill and did the exact opposite of what I told the kids to do.  When I led them to stand, she sat, and when I gestured for them to sit after a song, she stood up, and when I gave them a thumbs up for singing so well during a song or after a song, she'd hold up a very obvious thumbs down.  I don't think she was doing it because she was in a bad mood.  I think it was more because she was bored.  Lucky for me no one else noticed except her teacher, and she just ignored it.  We all thought it was actually kinda funny.  It's stuff like that that makes primary programs so fun to watch.  There's always a kid or two being entertaining.  


Oh, I should mention, though, that Audrey did say her part perfectly (from memory even!)--never mind that she covered her mouth while she said it and turned red as a beet.  And I did see her singing all the words to the songs.  


I'll take what I can get.


There is one thing that I will definitely give a thumbs down to.  Tonight Jane and Audrey ran away . . . while the adults and younger kids (Dave's sister and brother-in-law from Alaska are in town for a few days.  Yay!!) were playing upstairs and talking, they just left and went outside in the night and played with some neighbor kids across the street.  Next on our to-do list: extra lock for the front door.


At least they were both wearing clothes this time.  Only don't ask me what kind of clothes they were wearing . . . let's see, Jane had on a pair of pants under a small pink leotard and somehow still had a dress under that, bunched up around her shoulders and armpits.  Audrey had on tights, socks, bloomers, a shirt, a dress, a ballet skirt, a scarf, and a sparkly pink dress-up dress over top of that.  It actually looked a little bit crazier than it sounds.  

Sweet Jane

All of these pictures are totally candid.

Dave had just gotten home from work.  Jane snuggled up and put her face to his.  She was telling him what color his eyes are.

She was thoroughly enjoying her two favorite things (besides fairies): cuddling and Daddy.

Now that Audrey is at school, Claire and Jane have been bonding much more.  She had put down a little blanket or something in the bottom of this basket so it would be soft, then she helped Claire get in (that alone was ridiculously cute).  Then she set her up with a coloring book and some colored pencils.   

So, before I begin telling about another way that my kids are adorable, I beg you: please, please don't judge me because of the state of my kitchen.  Uh, or the shabbiness of my kids.  :D

Anyway, in the mornings I send the kids downstairs while I get dressed.  This is what I found:  Jane was feeding Claire her sucker from last night.  Claire was really enjoying it.  Jane said, "Mom, she REALLY likes the part in the middle."

She would give her big bites of the tootsie insides, then suck on the red part that was left, then go back to giving Claire a bite until the whole thing was gone.

P.S.  Claire's favorite place to be is on our table.  But she has a hard time getting down, so after she's done playing up there she'll yell "STUCK!  STUCK!" until someone (usually Audrey) helps her get down.

Halloween

So, this is the sweet pumpkin I made.  The girls, of course, loved it.  And it looked so cute sitting out at our front door all lit up.  And NO ONE SAID ANYTHING ABOUT IT!  It's like they didn't even see it or something.  Lame.  I was pretty proud of myself.

Jane isn't exactly the same thing she was last year.  This year we've added wings to the ensemble.  She's a fairy ballerina.  You can see the wings a teeny bit better in the picture below.  They were a bit floppy.

Audrey changed her mind a million times, so her costume was decided the day before Halloween.  She originally wanted to be a chihuahua (don't ask, but she is obsessed with them, and yet completely terrified of ALL dogs).  I'm glad she moved on to something else because I had no idea how I was going to do a chihuahua.  The costume she ended up with is a bat.  Lots of people thought she was a cat, but since I warned her that that might happen, she was able to not get hysterical about it.  

Claire's costumed changed a bit too.  First she was a little puppy dog (ADORABLE, but unfortunately no pictures), but she totally hated that.  She ended up being Dorthy . . . with a lion instead of a little dog.  I don't think a single person noticed.  She was too cute.  

LOTS of candy was collected between the Ward truck-or-treat and actual trick-or-treating.  Halloween night Claire and I stayed home and had a little party--we passed out candy to trick-or-treaters, I turned on some Halloween music (thank you, Pandora), and gave Claire a Sugar Daddy.  She was thrilled.  Every time a person came to the door, she'd run to it and smile and wave at them while they cooed over how cute she was.  

Oh, right, about this picture of Jane . . . she got a little bit excited while trick-or-treating and face-planted into the sidewalk pretty hard.  David said she was a trooper and didn't cry long.  I guess the prospect of large amounts of candy helped to fortify her so she could go on.

About the candy.  After putting Claire to bed, we dumped ALL candy in the middle of the living room floor.  Dave and I removed all the good candy (chocolate), which we set aside for ourselves.  The rest of the heap was all for the girls--we let them eat as much as they wanted while we all watched a movie.  It was fun!  They kept asking "what are these?!" about candies like Skittles and Starbursts and candy that ALL kids know about.  It was kinda funny.  It felt like their first real Halloween.  And their first real introduction to candy!  After that night, all the lame candy (the "vintage" gross candy) got tossed  along with the half-eaten stuff and the wrapers, then the rest went into the treasure box.  The previously mentioned chocolate was divided between Dave and I -- he took his loot to work and I kept mine at home in a secret place.  Don't worry, we both ended up sharing with others.  ;)  It's only a matter of time before we can't do that with them any more . . . 

All teeth were brushed extra well and we sent them to bed way past their bedtime.  I think it was a success.  Minimal damage was done.  Now on to bigger and better holidays! 

A wish for wings that work

Right now Jane is supposed to be asleep.  I just noticed, however, that Jane has been quietly sneaking back and forth between her room and the play room, trying not to let me catch her.  I stopped her just now and had her come in here to talk to me.  She was decked out in dress-ups (even little high heels).  She told me Audrey was asleep and that she was just taking her a special little gift.  She is pretending to be the tooth fairy.  Jane said she touched her tooth and "she didn't even wake up!  But I was just pretending to take it out of her mouth.  I didn't really pull it out."


You have to understand something about Jane.  She wants, more than anything in the universe, to be a real fairy.  She gets that look in her eyes and that sound in her voice when she sees a fairy in a movie or a book.  She wants to wear wings at all times.  The fact that she is staying up at night after everyone is asleep, sneaking around in the dark, pretending to be a real fairy is just too darn cute to stand.  

The 70's and Boys

Not many pictures lately since my camera battery is dead and I keep forgetting to charge it.  But never fear, I'll take pictures of Halloween costumes.

Audrey had "70's Day" at school this week.  All morning Audrey was like, "What's 70's??"  I sent her off to school figuring that she'd at least learn about what the 70's were, more or less.  No.  After school, the first thing she asked was "What's 70's??"  The only thing I could think of to explain what the 70's were all about was to have her listen to disco music.  So, we fired up Pandora and had a dance party.  One of our funnest.  Audrey's verdict:  "I LIKE the 70's!!"

Audrey was sitting at the table eating a snack while Jane played upstairs and Claire took a rare second nap.

A: Mom, what's Despicable Me?
M: It's a movie.
A: What is it about?
M: A bad guy who's really a good guy but who wants to be bad, but he meets some good little girls who help him be good.  There are little yellow helper guys and a rocket in it.
. . .
A: Have you seen that movie?
M: Yeah.
A: Where?
M: Here on our TV.  (At this point I'm feeling a little guilty for apparently watching a kids movie without my kids!)
. . .
M: Do the kids at school talk about watching that movie?
A: Levi likes that movie.  He has it.
(Levi is my friend's little boy.  They go to church with us.  He and Audrey sit at the same table.)
M: Are you friends with Levi?
A: He's craaaazzy at school.  (smiling)
M: Does he get in trouble sometimes?
A: Yeah.  (said somewhat in admiration)
M: Well, he's still a nice boy . . .
A:  Aaaaagh.  I want to marry him.  (shyly)
. . .
M:  Is Gideon your friend too?
(Gideon is another one of my friends' kids.  Also in Audrey's primary class.)
A:  (Even bigger smile)  I want to marry him too.

I decided not to ask about all the boys in her class.  Someone's a little boy crazy I think.

P.S.   Headbands?  Major fail.    Those teeny tiny clear hair elastics?  Winner!

Pumpkin Patch

So, we totally copied the Price family and checked out this pumpkin patch near their house.  It was admittedly an odd place to find a little farm/pumpkin patch, but fun* for the gang nonetheless.
*Let's just see how many times I can use the word "fun" in this post, shall we?

We went with some of our good friends and their two little girls. 

Notice my kids' crazy hair.

We were all having fun.  Claire, not so much.

One thing Claire did like, however, was freedom.  The prospect of roaming free outdoors with so many things to touch and see was almost overwhelming.

Almost.  She took full advantage of the opportunity and explored her little heart out.  That alone was worth the drive.

So, it's admittedly a very odd place to find a pumpkin patch.  We thought we were at the wrong place when we pulled into the neighborhood.

It sufficed.  Fun was had.

"Hayrides."  :)

 Who is that tall skinny girl??  Seriously, she looks so grown up in this picture.

There's Claire, running off with some boy.

The girls picked out their pumpkins then painted them with paint markers.

Claire got one too, but she wasn't as interested in painting hers.

Perfect weather.  So much fun to spend time with our friends.  It was fun to finally feel like it was fall and not summer anymore.  And finishing off with lunch at Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth, also perfect.