Christmas Catchup - the trees

First it was time to decorate the big tree. It was another great IKEA tree and it is wonderful and full! No theme this year, but we decorated the whole tree not just the top half (note- this only makes sense if you have toddlers). I consider that progress. Maybe by the time they are teenagers I will have that perfect tree that could be in a Pottery Barn catalogue. I can dream right?

Anyway, try to get a serious picture of three young children and you know you are asking for trouble. This day was not an exception. Silly Billies.

Each kid has their own little tree for their rooms. They loved decorating them. We got in our jammies and listened to Christmas music and they did their little trees up just so. Totally sweet and lovely.

Christmas Catchup - Nativity Scenes and Advent Calendars

I am ending radio silence with some getting-ready-for-Christmas updates. The shopping is 90% done, the decorations are finally up and my 3 weeks of working full time are almost over. Now I have a bit of time to blog and show you what we have been up to.

First off we have not one but 3 nativity scenes in our house. One we got as a wedding gift (got married in Dec), one is a Veggie Tales set the kids got a few years ago, and the latest purchase is a playmobil nativity. They love it. In fact pieces of it keep turning up all over the house!

I also bought them really cool advent calendars. L's is a fairy Playmobil calendar. Each day she gets a little fairy or their accessories. She plays with it a ton. And sometimes the playmobil wise men come to visit the enchanted forest, and they chat about baby Jesus :^)

The boys got... you guessed it LEGO calendars! The pieces are everywhere already but it's ok, they are really loving it as they work on it day by day and that's good enough for me.

We did have one of those reusable calendars with little fabric pockets. I love it and wanted to use it somehow too. So I combined that with the idea for them to memorize part of Luke 2 (the Christmas story - inspired by my Auntie Marjie would did this with her boys a long time ago). Each pocket has a verse and they learn one each day before they open their toy calendars.

R is doing great, really great. His mind is like a sponge. K has a few verses totally down pat but I think I am going to focus with him on just the shepherds/ angels part. That might be the amount he can handle! L just likes to listen and pretend she knows them too.

Snowy snowball fight!

Around here even a small snowfall can lead to big excitement. Traffic disasters, meager attempts at snowmen and sledding. Hey there was hardly any last year so it's been a while since the white stuff came to visit.

I fully admit to not being a fan. Don't like snow at all and would be happy never to see it again. And all those people who say it's so pretty? I like the green trees just fine, thank you very much.

Finally my kids are getting into snow. We have some videos of their first few times in the snow where they were really not enjoying it! But they were thrilled at the prospect of a snowball fight when they looked outside this morning. So out we went. Even though it was pretty mild, there was still a fair bit of whining about cold hands, but overall there was a lot of laughter.

Snowball fights!

Snow baseball?

What do you think?

Naughty or nice?

Random Cuteness

Scenes from the playground.

If it is sunny, we tend to hang out at the school playground a bit longer after school. Sometimes a lot longer, if the weather (and the kids) cooperate. The longer we stay, the higher the chance of Kobes shouting "take my picture Mom!" Here are a few recent pics from our school playground.

There is a big container of emergency supplies next to the playground. That's the backdrop in these first pictures.

A boy who got an award for his hard work and a girl who thinks she is a monkey-superstar.

Halloween

Here are the pictures of the actual day. We had tons of fun and now have tons of candy to show for it!

Someone is grossed out by pumpkin guts, and basically nothing else in the world!

R designed all the faces and daddy carved them.

Some with a knife, some with a drill. It was very quick!

Vader, Yoda and Belle

Hanging out with buddies.

R's little friend Dracula and the princess cousins.

The cousins at the very end of the night.

Working our way up to Halloween

A 2 part prequel to the actual Halloween photos coming next week.

Today was costume day at school and preschool. A little Halloween preview, a dress rehearsal for the big night. I found out that Darth Vader is prone to wedgies, and Belle's dress is a bit too long, and of course that cheap green face paint goes on like it's cheap. All good to know for this coming Sunday. Anyway, they loved dressing up for school, just take a look...

3 cute cousins at preschool. Not supposed to have masks, that's why Darth has face paint!

Leia and Darth Vader make peace.

My hair is a rolled up t shirt glue gunned to a hairband.

Totally cheesey but I think it's awesome!

Darth gets into the olympic spirit.

There's Yoda walking behind Mario.

Yoda up close.

Ears knit by Auntie N. Cloak sewed from a crop cloth.

Too cute RyGuy.

It is a bit tricky to do holidays with two shift working parents. The years I have been on Mat Leave it has been a bit simpler with only one random schedule to work around. Ok, his schedule isn't completely random, it does repeat every 12 weeks!

But this year we had to do a few of our traditions apart from each other, like getting the pumpkin at the "patch" near our old house. So we called Grandad and he joined in the little tradition as Daddy was at work all week. Mummy works this weekend so it looks like the carving will be all up to him! Here are the kiddies picking out "Orangey".

Aren't they the cutest pumpkins ever?