Barrington
These two spent all our time after school whispering secrets. I would love to know what big plans they are dreaming.
This dog has a rough life.
The coolest book and working on it with the most appropriate person.
Wade has been taking the boys to Judo, but tonight I tagged along. Teague often gets a case of the giggles and Alex screams and laughs really loud, but it’s awesome to see them actually participating and learning.
Teague:
Alex:
Ever since moving into our house, we’ve seen signs for an Auto Museum down the road. We decided it was time to check it out – especially with B in town. The place was huge and had all kinds of cars from classics to military vehicles to movie stunt cars. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it.
These two love to play house (and market and vet). Today’s setup included a pretend hurt ankle – which is very, very Leah.
But really cute ones – in tutus. (Their teacher is a saint.)
Hard life lessons (if only she didn’t enjoy cleaning so much).
Alex’s latest creation on the 3D printer – a working Pokemon ball.
These two..
Birthday season is upon us and we start with Wade’s birthday! We had Rendezvous ribs for dinner – Thank you Judy and Jerry! Then we sang Happy Birthday to Wade as he blew candles out of his apple crisp. Happy Birthday Wade!
The boys were off school today, but Kaitlyn still had her morning dance class. We got dressed and ready to go when realized our driveway was a solid sheet of ice. Instead we stayed home and danced with bubbles in her bedroom.
Teague loves to bake and I love to bake with him. The same is true of Kaitlyn. Baking with two children creates a little too much chaos for me, but that’s how it worked out today. I finally decided to let Teague be in charge (he’s good enough now to read the recipe and get all the ingredients) and see what happened. Overall it went pretty smoothly and we ended up with some yummy cookies!
Kaitlyn is now experimenting with the Goth lifestyle – or maybe she’s trying to eat the markers. You never know.
For this first time this school year, the boys returned to jumping on the rock after school. (I think we are all missing the sledding we normally would be doing.)
Kaitlyn is becoming ver independent these days. She was adamant that she could pour her own cereal. (You see how that turned out.) We clean most of it up and then shared a little with Madison.
Someone got a new umbrella for Christmas.
Kaitlyn had her new bag packed and was all dressed for dance class the minute she woke up. I think she’s a little excited about the backpack!
Kaitlyn added a little something to her church clothes today. Something is happening to me because I actually let her wear them to Sunday School.
Santa brought the boys a new sled for Christmas. We’ve had nothing but warm temperatures and rain. Teague and Kaitlyn have spent hours enjoying the sled inside.
Mary called and invited us on an outing to Funtopia World. I had never heard of it, but after looking it up, I couldn’t wait to go. Unfortunately everybody was out of school so most of the activities were booked, but we bought time in the soft play area. Once we were there and saw the climbing area, I can’t wait to go back. It looks amazing and I want to know why I didn’t have this place growing up!?
Kaitlyn was determined to snuggle with her baby on the baby’s bed. Amazingly, she fit – kind of.
Our Christmas celebrations in Chicago are winding down. Everybody (us included) leaves tomorrow. Today we hung out, played, and generally had a good time.
The kids were awake and ready for Santa at 7 am. Judy and Jerry arrived minutes after the kids made it down the stairs. We opened packaging, played with toys, and read books until it was time to get ready for church.
We all took nice long naps and then played some more before opening the stockings Judy brought. Definitely a successful Christmas!!
(In case you are wondering, Kaitlyn is sitting in front of the 3D printer the boys got for Christmas. They were nice enough to make me a frog for the first print. Then it was on to cars and Pokemon.)
We decided to switch things up this year and have most of our nominal Christmas Day activities on Christmas Eve. We started with the last basket present, then a big breakfast, and moved on to games and cookie making.
After an early dinner, we got to the presents! Before we knew it, it was time to put cookies out for Santa and get the kids in bed.
My favorite funny moment of the day – I got new dishtowels for Christmas (a lot of them) and asked Kaitlyn to go put them in the drawer. After everyone was in bed, this is what I found.
Kaitlyn loves the idea of Santa. She talks about him all the time. Before seeing him she agrees to sit in his lap. The minute she actually sees him she freaks out! I thought I had taken care of that today by promising fruit snacks, but that first glance still proved to be her undoing. I finally convinced her to stand by Teague and hold his hand. Teague would happily crawl into his lap, but that boy just loves hugs.
Teague had some friends from school over to decorate cookies this morning. (Of course it was 95% playing and 5% cookie decorating, but that was expected.) The kids had a lot of fun and the mess was minimal.
(And funny story of the day: Wade and I both woke up about 7 am as our power went out. We aren’t quite sure what happened but it evidently affected about 450 people and took about 5 hours to fix. Thankfully I had baked the cookies yesterday and the house was warm enough we just carried on with no power.)
Both Kaitlyn and Teague had Christmas programs at school for the parents today. Wade and I loved seeing the kids with their friends and they all did a great job!
Give this boy a platter of cheese and he’s in heaven!
Yesterday Kailtyn only wanted to drink from the “house” cup. (Thankfully I speak Kaitlyn and knew exactly what she wanted.) Thanks to Granny we have three of these mugs (one for each child) and Kailtyn used them all today. We’ll see how long this lasts.
Our neighborhood had “Santa at the Beach” today. Our neighbor is in charge of all kid activities and set the entire thing up. She asked Wade to play Santa and he was a great sport. We let the boys in on the secret and drove Daddy to the fire station a little before the event. The firemen let the boys ride in the firetruck too and I hurried to the beach.
Kaitlyn wants nothing to do with Santa – even when it’s Wade dressed as Santa. She watched him get dressed but as soon as he had the beard on she wouldn’t go near him. I have a single picture of him holding her in the fire station and I think she just hadn’t realized what was going on yet.
You see that chocolate covered mouth?
Look what happened next.
We moved our tabletop Pac-Man game outside for the Halloween party. It was moved back inside and into the playroom. (This was supposed to be temporary but it’s still here.) The boys have decided it works nicely as a place to play and charge iPads. Teague has a reading program from school that he does a few days a week and he likes to sit beside my desk while he reads.
The boys were giving Kaitlyn some grief at breakfast and then she decided she didn’t want to eat. I asked her if she’d rather eat by herself in the other room. She jumped at the idea and moved her plate, cup, and chair all by herself.
About a week ago, I took the kids to have pj pictures made with a local photographer. Emily Hernandez did a great job!
Our after school playdates don’t end when it gets cold or snowy. We just bring our sleds and make sure we have winter gear!
Snow days are my favorite!
Kaitlyn has discovered a real love of sledding. When she hears the word she begs for snow pants. Today she learned to push. She couldn’t wait to help me down the hill.
Our preschool puts on a “Cookies with Santa” every year. This year there was no carriage ride, but there were reindeer on the front lawn. Each room had fun crafts and games for the children. I think everyone’s favorite was the room with graham crackers and marshmallows. (This is before we got to the official Cookie part of the morning).
Tonight Kaitlyn pitched a mini-tantrum because I wouldn’t let her have the yogurt-covered craisins in her hand. Just to explain, I was literally putting dinner on the table as she asked.
I brought this doll back from our last visit to Paducah. It was obviously mine as a child (though I don’t remember it) and was in decent shape. I washed her dress and she still had her shoes. Kaitlyn has taken it everywhere and wanted to sleep with it since she saw it. (A quick note that it is a hard plastic baby so sleeping with it is a little tough.) Today she wanted to take Baby sledding and I said that was fine if her dress and shoes stayed home.
(I may be the only one this bothers, but her matching hat and gloves haven’t arrived yet. Today we went with everything that doesn’t match.)
Kaitlyn really wanted to go out in the shop with Dad. I told her she needed her coat and shoes. This is what she came back wearing. (Wade thought it was so cute he let her try to walk outside and into the shop with those shoes.)
Wade and I prefer to get our tree before Thanksgiving. Then everything is ready for Christmas when we get home from visiting family. The problem around here is finding a Christmas Tree Farm open before Thanksgiving. We finally gave up this year and decided to wait till today. Of course snow is predicted – in all of our years in Milwaukee we have never gotten a Christmas tree in the snow. It was beautiful, cold, and a little uncomfortable for Wade (who has to lay on the ground to cut the tree).
Then we got home to find our neighbors sledding down our front yard. Of course we immediately joined in!
Kaitlyn finished her first 24 piece puzzle all by herself today. She’s been doing them for a while but required some kind of input from an adult. Today she worked it all “myself.”
We keep telling Kaitlyn not to stand on the back of the chair. So far it hasn’t worked.
When I take the boys to Awana on Monday nights, they get name tags. Imagine my surprise when Teague said he still had his from last night. Then he showed me where he had been keeping it.
The boys’ room took almost a year to finish. They were in our spare bedroom from day one. First we took away their walk-in closet to make an upstairs laundry room. Then Wade had to build them a new closet, remove some built-ins try to hide some AC ductwork, and update the fixtures. They are finally moved in and all the pictures are hung!
Teague’s school had their Thanksgiving feast today.
We started decorating for Christmas today and Rudolph showed up.
We’ve been working really hard lately on some house projects. Kaitlyn’s room is now painted and has a new light fixture. (Her closets still need to be reworked, but that will be a bigger job for later.)