Olivia's Christmas party

Olivia's teacher, Mr. franklin, goes crazy for Christmas.  He starts a few days before the last day of school.  The first part of the celebration is embroidering their initials on a scarf he gave them. That was fun!  I was able to teach the kids how to use the needle and thread.  Then we made about 500 sugar cookies.  Really we made that many!!!  The kids just kept rolling and cutting.  Everyone had a great time.  Here is Olivia with Bryan.

On the day of the actual Christmas party we had stations for the kids to make 6 different items.  We had a bell station which is what Chloë is doing, there was a snowman station (which is sitting on top of all the cookies), a game station, a chocolate sled... well you get the idea.  It was a crazy, wonderful, happy day.  I am glad I could stay for the fun.

Yummy, yummy

Here is Sam's tongue after his Christmas party!

Olivia had a gift exchange with her classmates.  Her secret Snowman was Matthew.  He is a great kid.

Sam's winter Party

Today Sam had his winter sing and Christmas party.  He was such a good singer and loved every minute of the show.  Every time he saw me he had to wave. 

After the sing, we met the kids back in Mrs. Sherman's room for an art project and more singing.   

For some reason the girls started washing cups?? 

Gingerbread Train

This year we decided to make a gingerbread train.  The kids had just as much fun as last year, but there never seems to be enough candy for the kids!

Poor Lu, she just wants more candy.  She was so cute to watch.  Here is our train.

It's my Birthday! Well...

Yesterday was my birthday.  I was volunteering at the Creche exhibit at the LDS church in Palo Alto.  So Daniel decided to celebrate my birthday tonight- after some encouragment from me!

The cake was the most popular part of the evening.  We loved the mini ice cream cones and I love the frozen icing.

Why a doughnut?

I have alluded to this earlier...but here is the whole story.  You might be wondering why Cloe is holding a doughnut.  Well for the past couple of YEARS, yes years Chloë has told me her tummy hurts.  I just thought it was a way for her to get attention.  Before last summer started I decided to listen to her and go get some test taken.  The other reason why I wanted some test taken was because she is a very lathargic child.  Well, the only thing the tests said was that she had mono.  The doctor said that explained her lathargicness, but I still don't buy that.
After a few months of Chloë still complaining about her tummy I decided to do a little testing of my own.  I decided I was going to see if she was allergic to soy or wheat or milk or eggs, ect.  I figured milk was the easiest to eliminate.  Well, after 2 days of oatmeal and no milk she stopped telling me her tummy hurt.  So we went to the doctor and did some blood work, sure enough she is allergic to milk- not just the lactose.
Anyway a few months of no milk and things are better, but she still says her tummy hurts. So we have an appointment with an allergist in a few weeks and a GI doctor.  So we will get down to the bottom of the matter at some point.
So why the doughnut...well I took the three older kids to the dentist this morning and everyone else got a milkshake for being good at the dentist.  But Chloë had to wait for her treat...a treat that doesn't have milk!

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...

I can do magic!

Happy Thanksgiving

It make look Sunny, but boy was it cold.  We woke up bright and early so we would be one time for the turkey bowl.  It was mostly the EQ playing football, but there was a small group of moms, kids, and dad playing their own football game.

After some fun on the field we moved to the swings and hang out as a family.  Sam was pretty quiet all morning, until I brought him his sun glasses.  Then we perked up.  His eyes are SO SUPER sensitive to the sun.

While Daniel entertained the kids at the park I went home to work on my Beehive lesson and get a few things straightened up for our small Thanksgiving feast.  But before our feast.....

We drove to the Santa Cruz mountains and found our Christmas tree.  It was colder than freezing cold.  Luckily we have the best Christmas tree picker-outer ever!  Bob just has a way with the trees.  We wondered around for a little while, before deciding we wanted a fat little tree.  We thought this would be good for the kids if there were a lot of low branches for the kids to hang the ornaments from. 

And here it is.  Daniel said his hands were killing him after he cut it down!  It was so cold!

One exciting part about the Christmas tree ranch is the little cart they lend out for carrying the tree back to one's car!  Everyone had a turn pulling the tree.  Ever Lu tried.

Another favorite part about today was this tire swing.  Bob pushed them WAY TOO high.  I am sure the kids would have broken something had they fallen.  But boy were they having fun.  I have a video that is hard to see, but you can hear the fun in their voices!

After bring our tree home we enjoyed a yummy Thankgiving meal with all the trimmings! I brought out the china, processed cranberry jelly, stuffing, real mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, homemade rolls, pomagrannits, gravey (from a mix :()and Martinelles.  (except I bought a small Costco chicken instead of cooking my  own turkey)  We had a great time at dinner... together...just us!

But the best part of the dinner was the.... See's Chocolate Turkeys!!  This is Lu's third Thanksgiving in her WHOLE life.  I can't believe she is so excited for the choclate turkeys.  Look at the smile and these kids.

I believe this borders on lusting tukeys.  Bob on the other hand is eating his pumpkin pie so quickly the fork is blurry in the picture.

  I love him!

Bubb Thanksgiving

 

Kindergarten had there own Thanksgiving Feast.  Sam (with turkey hat) in front of the boy facing the camera with the red sweater on. 

Here is Sam's teacher Mrs. Sherman.  I admit I did not like her at the beginning of the year, but from what I have seen as I visit the other classrooms, she is GREAT.  She has a great handle on the kids in class and has the progressing nicely. 

After Sam's Thanksgiving feast, I went to Mr. Franklin's classroom to visit Olivia.  Mr. Franklin had some parents bring make a real Thanksgiving feast.  I made the Mashed potatoes and other parents brought other items.  Besides one pie and my mashers, ever other part of the meal was pre-made from the grocery store...bummer.  But I was grateful that Olivia did have a nice Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a fun day at school for the kids.

Here's my girl with her Thanksgiving Feast!  and that is the "greenware".  Yes it is made out of recylced garbage and we wash it and reuse it.  I am not a fan, but this teacher is so green it makes me sick!

contrast

I decided I liked the black hair, so I am leaving it dark for the winter months!

lu

I would have to say silence is not always a good things while I am cooking dinner.  Most times I find silence leads to disasters.  But sometimes it means the kids are deep into play.   Tonight I finished cooking dinner and found Lu outside playing by herself. (near Sam)  She set this whole "table" up with the cloth and piggy bank, then crawled inside to play.  So cute!

Gutter Sundae

After our Beehive scavenger hunt the girls made a rain gutter ice cream sundae.  It was like heaven.  The girls we so happy and crazed with sugar.  It was a great idea, Hilary.  I don't think I have seen a yummier sundae. Hey...what happened to the bananas?  I think they got voted off by the Oreos, caramel, and whipped cream. 

Cable Cars in the City

We had Veteran's Day off at school, so Sophie's dad, Mike, and I arranged to take our kids up the city and ride a cable car...well, mostly my kids--Sophie is an only child. Their was a LONG line, but the kids did not mind waiting.

Off we went.

Once we reached the end of the line, we found someplace to eat and window shopped our way to the end of a different cable car line.  

You guessed it!  Olivia got new sun glasses.  Look out Hollywood!  Once again we had to wait about an hour for a seat on the car. 

Olivia and Sophie love just hanging out talking and swinging.  They are good friends.  We had a great (long) day.

10.5 years

Ten and a half years ago Daniel asked me to marry him.  That weekend was Veteran's Day, so we took a train up to the city and just got to know each other.  Our train ride home was memorable ;)... we ran into one of Daniel's high school buddies and THEY talked the whole way home!  

 And here we are 10.5 years later- beautiful roses in an old broken down house with a broken fence (just to name one item), and bank owned home next door! But we really do have a wonderful life full of good health and stability.  Above the roses you can see a cute, happy little bee made by our daughter!   What a life.

Natural Bridges Park, Santa Cruz

Olivia scored both ways on the bus.  On the way to the park she got the very back seat and on the way home she got the first seat.  It was a lot of fun to go with Olivia and her class.  She loved having me with her.  That made me feel good. 

Natural Bridges is a Monarch Butterfly reserve.  There were hundreds of butterflies to see.  We found an injured one by the path.  

After a quick lecture from the park ranger and a quick walk through the reserve we had lunch and spent most of the time playing on the beach.  Mr. Franklin is a fun teacher.  I can see why all the kids love him.  He loves to play WITH them.

i love my calling

I took a picture to give my Beehives.  I wish I had a picture of the girls in my Beehive class when I was a Beehive.

Happy Halloween

Halloween began with a bang at a party with our music class for Lu and Chloë.  We sang songs, and had treats and playtime.  Here is Chloë in her chick costume.  She loved the beak!

Daniel looked super in his Super Golden Boy costume.  Of course, he won a prize at work.

Olivia looked Beautiful at school.  A few days ago I pulled out my old Halloween costumes (thanks mom) and Olivia just loved the poodle skirt!

This was the best picture I could find of Sam.  Bubb has a parade every year with all this kids and their costumes.  We had fun watching all the kids walk by.

That night our ward had their Halloween party.  It was a dinner, trunk o treat and a dance.  Olivia, Chloë and I had fun dancing.  Lu did not want to wear her lamb costume all night, but she did look cute!