Christmas Party! (Eli’s, that is)

Today was Eli’s Christmas party at school, and he had a lot of fun! Matea stayed with my Dad so I could get one-on-one time with Eli and help him with his crafts during the party without having to chase Matea around the room. I’m so thankful for that! Eli and I had a nice time together, and I could even help a few other children whose parents couldn’t make it.

We had five stations of craft/activities, but Eli’s favorite by far was when he got to make a bag of hot chocolate mix to take home and load it up with marshmallows, chocolate chips, and peppermints. We also made an ornament, a snowman magnet, and strung a bracelet (which Eli and I decided to make in to a candy cane ornament instead). :) After picking up Matea we headed home and made the hot chocolate (nummy nummy) and played games together while Matea napped. Eli, the Candy Land master, continued his dominance, and we had a great afternoon of crafts, food, and fun!

Listening to our instructions on the story mat.

Ornament time! Eli made his a face with trees for eyes.

Being silly. What a ham. :)

Studiously stringing beads.

The finished snowman magnet! Eli did everything but draw the mouth and tie the scarf!

First Christmas Program!

Wednesday was Eli’s first Christmas program for school! His first EVER! We were quite excited for the occasion around here and couldn’t wait to hear him sing his songs. I wasn’t sure how good the songs were going to turn out since school had been cancelled so much the previous week, but they actually turned out really well and were very cute. Eli actually sang and did the motions, and has been singing non-stop at home. After the program there was punch and cookies, and Eli got to show Lexi and Tori and Maya his classroom (which I think was the highlight for him, he kept racing around and jumping all over the place). Eli’s first school Christmas program is in the books! :)

The opening act warming up the crowd.

All lined up!

Doing cheesy smiles so all the parents can get pictures.

Eli’s favorite – Jingle Bells!

The closing song – We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Finished and happy. :)

Being squeezed by my adoring public.

Showing the girls my classroom makes me happy.

My baby’s gone . . .

And now I have a big boy! Eli got his hair cut today and looks like such a boy. He even requested hair gel.  My toddler disappeared and left quite the looker in his place. :)

Oh yeah, I’m a good-lookin’ dude now.

“Get a shot of my spikes, Mommy!”

He’s still the same silly crazy boy though . . . 

Pigtails. Cute. Mine. :)

Children in boxes.

We were decorating yesterday and the kids decided to play in two boxes together . . . for over an hour. Climbing in and out, laying down in them, and eating pretzels together in their boxes. Eli asked to sleep in his box, but as that could be construed as child neglect I said no. Plus, I realized that I might want to actually save the boxes and put the little trees that came in them BACK in them, so the child-on-box violence needed to come to an end. It was fun while it lasted, right kids? :)

Climbing in our boxes.

Eating in our boxes . . . and smiling. :)

Singing in my box.

Looking super-cute in my box!

November Recap

Looking over my pictures from November I realized I 1) Took almost no pictures and 2) Our month looked pretty boring in the pictures I did take. However, I know we were busy, and we were sick, so there you go. Even on the trips we did take (Ohio for a weekend and then Thanksgiving) I took one picture. COMBINED. What?!? I must have been having an out-of-body experience for the whole month. Don’t know what I was doing, but being a shutterbug I was not. Oh well. 

Anyway, here’s a recap of our November, based upon my pictures since I have no memory of the things we actually did.  :)

Matea found Eli’s old sunglasses and wore them around the house for almost an entire day. I had forgotten that, but hey, I have a picture of it!

Hollywood here I come! 

Matea was sick after our visit to Ohio (I’m not sure what it was but she had a high temp and was clearly miserable but only for about 4 days and then was fine). She wanted to lay around all day . . . and really liked to lay on a pillow with Eli. Or just on Eli if he’d let her, which he did. He was super sweet to Matea while she wasn’t feeling well. Awwww.

We built forts . . . which we do a lot (I love making forts!). But for some reason I decided to take pictures only once, and then of the smallest fort we built. Go figure.

Matea enjoyed wrecking the forts, much to Eli’s consternation (and yes, this was taken the last day Matea was sick . . . obviously she’s starting to feel better).

Matea started wearing her hair down more, instead of in her trademark “whale spout.” Momentous people, momentous. I took a picture so obviously I cared about it. :)

For Thanksgiving we made a really fun craft with the kids . . . making turkeys out of Styrofoam cups. The kids LOVED painting the cups and then the feathers and then gluing it all together. Best craft ever . . . seriously.  I loved that they could do most of the steps themselves and I could make some turkeys too.

Eli’s turkeys! He had help with the “M”s and the football wings, but the rest he did himself.

We also made turkey cupcakes. A whole flock. :)

And this is my only picture from Thanksgiving . . . seriously, I don’t know where I was or what I was doing. I must have been off being thankful . . . yeah, that sounds good.

Mommy must have been super-thankful for me, because I’m the only thing she took a picture of!

There you have it folks . . . our exciting November. I didn’t even take pictures of my house decorated for fall (which I’ll regret next year when I try to remember where I put things). Hopefully December will get more screen time than November! :)