Preschool Holiday Party

We attended our last preschool holiday party this month.  As in previous years (Here is 2012, I don't think we were able to make it last year), Santa brought Mrs Claus with him to talk to the children and then the kids sang some songs.  It was the usual fun chaos!  Annelee was super excited about the singing, practicing incessantly at home beforehand.  The girl on her left in the video is her best friend Kelcie, by the way.

Merry Christmas & a wonderful 2015!

With Santa and Mrs Claus

Waiting to go up and sing

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. Click here if you can't see the video below.

Gingerbread Houses 2014

Every year, there is an activity to build gingerbread houses in the advent calendar.  This year was no exception.  Just like all the other years, Rowan came over to build one, too.  This year, Annelee was my helper when I pre-assembled and "glued" the houses while Rowan and Vivian were at school.  She also opened up all the candy packages and put them on plates, ready to go.  The houses were decorated pretty much without my help (I did help Annelee with the icing a bit, but that was minimal).  What a change from previous years (here's the first time in 2010).  Apparently, I have been taking pictures, but not posting them in previous years (shocking, I know), so I'm adding the other ones to this post as well.

2014

2013

2012 - color-coordinated in purple

2011 - click for full post

Seven!

So, the blog hasn't quite been revived (but I also haven't given up on it yet), but at least the birthday posts have to continue.

Vivian is seven today!

She's loving school.  She's reading independently, learning Spanish, enjoying music.  Vivian has a bunch of friends at school that she plays with.  She and I started flute lessons together, which is a lot of fun. And she is still very much into drawing, doodling, coloring, writing.  No piece of paper is safe from her.  At least these days, she asks "Mommy, can I write on that?" before she uses it!

Rowan is still her best friend ever, and their play and games are still all about their imagination.  These days, it all revolves around animals instead of princesses, but that's really the only change.

I can't wait to see what next year brings.

Happy birthday, my big girl!

As usual, below is the year in pictures.  Previous years can be found by clicking on the links:  2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.

December 2013

January 2014

February 2014

March 2014

April 2014

May 2014

June 2014

July 2014

August 2014

September 2014

October 2014

November 2014

Annelee is Four!!!!

There is no better reason to resurrect a severely neglected blog than a birthday.  I'm hoping this will bring me back into the groove.  Because time does indeed fly.  I mean, how can Annelee be 4!  I still remember this day 4 years ago where I texted Katie about the playdate that we had planned and said "Yes, I'm still coming.  There's no way I'm having a baby today."  Famous last words ...  shortly before 11pm that evening, Annelee had arrived.

The strong-headed temper tantrums Annelee has had for part of this year have (hopefully) stopped.  She's grown so much more verbal and expressive and funny, she's a joy to be around.  I went out to breakfast with her this morning, just the two of us, and we both had a great time.  I can't wait to see what 4 will bring.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Here are the previous posts:   3, 2, 1

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013

December 2013

January 2014

February 2014

March 2014

April 2014

May 2014

June 2014

July 2014

A visit from Clifford

Clifford the big red dog has long been a favorite character in our house.  So, imagine Vivian's delight when she finally got to bring home the Clifford-bag from school.  The assignment was to do some activities with Clifford and then add photos and a story to Clifford's travel book.  Double bonus for me, because I got to help Vivian with her homework and got photos for another blog post at the same time.  So, here are Vivian and Clifford in action.  They had a fun weekend!

Playing with playmobil

Reading a story to Annelee and Clifford

Flying high!

Dinner

Planting veggies at church

Playing with Rowan

Cuddling with Annelee

Stylin', waiting for the dentist

Snow

Ironically, today is a warm (by comparison to the winter we've had), spring-like day and everyone's out and about (including the sun) and smiling, and here I am posting some snow pictures from last month that I just came across.  Always a little slow.

Annelee and Vivian have been very busy "shoveling" snow.  Mostly on the lawn, unfortunately, and not our driveway, where it was needed, but, maybe we'll teach them that next year. In any case, they've had fun!

We've been sledding, both in our backyard and on the hills by the pool and the school. I can't believe we didn't build a snowman this year, though.  But maybe we still get a chance (I hope not!)

Anyways, here are some pictures of the girls enjoying the white stuff.

Posing in the snow

More posing (and yes, the hat needs to be handed down to Annelee)

Hard at work

Hello Kitty!

Annelee's Picture Day 2014

Preschool tried something different for picture day this time around, and brought in a company that also brought in lots of dressy & dress up clothes for the kids.  Here's our little diva in her chosen outfit!

Lost!

For a few weeks, Vivian has had a couple of loose bottom teeth.  She kept wiggling and moving them, but they weren't budging.  Jokingly, Will tried to pull them out several times ... until one of them actually came out!  We've got our first lost tooth and have had the first visit from the tooth-fairy.  Tooth #2 seems to be determined to hang on a bit longer, so for now, we'll wait and watch.  It'll be gone sooner or later :)