A Little Holiday Cheer

If you are like me, then after the events of the past couple of days you are feeling...dazed, sad and really like the Christmas spirit has been kicked right out of you. Well, if that's the case for you, here is the kids holiday sing-a-long from Thursday morning.

Beckett is up first with his wonderful reditions of Jingle Bells and Mary Had A Baby. Then Grant is up with Up On The Rooftop and Mele Kalikimaka. Then both come together for a couple more. For the last few seconds of the concert I panned over to show you what our favorite, Sebastian, was up to for most of the concert. :-)

Jolly Days

Today we went to the Children's Museum. We hadn't been in quite awhile because the weather has been so nice. But today was foggy, rainy and cold. Roger and I were fully expecting insanity, but luckily it wasn't too bad. The holiday exhibit area was crowded, but once we left there and headed to our regular stops the crowds thinned considerably.

We also went to see their free holiday play about a magical snowman. Grant chose seats right down front. So the actors interacted with both the kids - couldn't tell if they liked it or thought it was a little scary. This is the second play that we have seen at the museum and the kids LOVE them. I love looking at their faces, especially Grant's, and see his wonder and amazement. It's awesome. :-)

Here's a run down of the video:

Pt 1 - From Thanksgiving to New Years the museum covers their staircase with a giant slide.
Pt 2 - In the holiday area, the museum puts more of the slide material on the floor to try and duplicate ice skating.
Pt 3 - There was a "snowball" fight on the ice skating rink. Beckett was in a "mood" and didn't want to participate. But as you will see, Grant was definitely into it. :-)
Pt 4 - Beckett, our animal lover, caring for one of Santa's reindeer.

 Grant listening to the rules for the snowball fight.

 Beck peeking out from the snow castle.

 Grant's catch of the day from ice fishing

 Creating a hot wheels car by tracing different designs - Grant loves this.

 Beckett prefers to drive the car

 Beckett's catch of the day

Grant and I on the carousel.

Our Little Tree

After last Christmas, both Roger and I decided that we needed a bigger tree. So I sold ours thinking...we are going to buy a 9 footer. Well, then we decided since we are heading to Florida and won't be here for Christmas, why spend $200 now when it will be so much cheaper after Christmas?? I was planning to make one out of felt for the kids to "decorate" on the wall, but then Roger found one on super sale.

So here is our little tree. I don't think it even 6 feet tall. The kids had a great time decorating it and that's all that matters. As I was putting up the little snowflake garland, Grant started singing this little song. So I hurried to finish and luckily caught some of it on video...

 We also made salt dough ornaments.

Christmas is coming! :-)

Santa - Where Are You?

Today I told the kids that I had received an email from Santa letting me know that he was going to be in Fishers. So we jumped in the van and went on a Santa search.

On the way into town, I had the kids keep an eye out for him. Luckily there was a sign near our turn with a picture of Santa and an arrow. Grant cried out "Mom! Santa! Turn now!" So we headed to town hall. We all jumped out of the van and Beckett ran up the sidewalk exclaiming "Santa, where are you?"

We entered the town hall and there he was at the top of the stairs. The kids were excited, and a bit shy. Luckily there wasn't a line around so they just walked up. After some doing on my part, both of them sat next to him on the bench. It was such a fun trip - and no lines! How does it get any better than that? :-)

 You can just see the excitement on their little faces. :-)

 I love this one!

Beckett with candy cane all over his face. He not only polished off his own, but half of Grant's and a cookie. He had candy cane in his hair, eyebrows and all up his cheeks. When we got home he laid on the couch sans pants for about 1/2 an hour because his stomach hurt. :-) What a great day!

Turkeys and Pilgrims!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 Beckett and I at Grant's Thanksgiving performance

 Our little pilgrim after his grand debut.

 Beckett enjoying the "feast" of cookies and more cookies and lemonaide. Don't you just love his shirt? Roger found it on the clearance rack at Target. :-)

 Our Thanksgiving breakfast and my little turkey helper. Quiche pots and pecan cinnamon rolls. Let the eating begin! :-)

It was an exceptionally warm day and we needed milk. So when we found out that our CVS was open on Thanksgiving, we donned our hats, grabbed some baked goodies and headed down with the wagon. The kids were quite the hit!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving began Tuesday with a Thanksgiving celebration with Grant's class. We were all invited to the chapel for the performance and then shared all sorts of goodies afterward. I grabbed Beckett from his classroom so he could join in the fun. I think that you can probably hear him singing along to one of the songs.

Crazy Crazy Weather

Our weather has been so topsy turvy this fall - one day it feels like summer (78 and sunny) and the next day we wake up to rain that turns into snow. NUTS! Grant keeps trying to go outside in his crocs and t-shirt.

We have been struggling with Beckett and his sleep patterns. He was napping for about 2 hours a day and then not going to sleep until 9ish and waking up way too early - one morning it was 4:30 am. Granted, that was the morning that we "fell back an hour," but still. It was a LONG LONG day. So, we decided to try no naps. They are going to sleep around 7 and then waking at various times in the morning. It's been about a week so we are still waiting to see if it's going to work. The kids are exhausted by the end of the day - it's nice to have them go to sleep right away at night.

We also had parent teacher conferences this week. Grant's teacher reported that he's doing really well - needs to learn letter sounds. They are going to start reading after Christmas. He's very social in class - friends with everyone.

Beckett's report was the one we were a bit worried about. Just like at home, he has trouble following the rules. He's also social in class - well liked by the other students. He just needs to listen and follow the rules. :-) Ahhh...Beckett. As his teacher said, his name should be Beckett "I just want to have fun" Simmons.

 Goofing off in the back seat. Beckett was singing along to the radio in those silly glasses.

Aarr...Happy Halloween!

This year we had 2 pirates, a firedog and a hockey player making the neighborhood rounds. The boys donned their pirate costumes, glow swords and various accessories. Riley wore Beckett's costume from last year. Roger donned a UAA hockey jersey and off they went. It was freezing cold (42 and windy) so I lucked out and handed out candy this year.

 Beckett AKA Captain Hook ready to go.

 First Mate Grant ready to go!

 I think that they are saying Aarrr....

 Love this pic...Beckett is looking so fierce! :-)

 Riley did such a great job. There was still about 45 minutes of Trick or Treating when the kids got back. Riley sat by the door and when kids rang the doorbell she actually stayed...no barking, no running out the door! Just sat there. We gave her a few extra marshmallows that night. :-)

Robots!

As I mentioned before, we received a whole bunch of toys from our neighbor. Between Grant's birthday and their generous delivery, it's like an early Christmas in our house!

One of the toys is a bin of Tinkertoys. The boys love their LEGOs, so I had a feeling the Tinkertoys would be a hit - I had no idea how big a hit though.

Grant loves them. He has set up a "workshop" in the tentfort. He zips down the doors and won't let anyone in until his creation is complete. For inspiration and ideas, he has been looking at the pictures on the side of the can. Although I am pretty sure the creation in this video is all Grant. Beckett also likes to play around with them, but he's not as into them as Grant. Rescue Heroes and LEGO are still his go to toys. :-)

Here is a video I took this afternoon. The first part is Grant working on his robot. Then Beckett telling us about his robot. And then Grant and Beckett at the end. :-)

We love Riley

Riley is definitely a part of our family...and Roger is her favorite. :-) Here she is giving her nightly post work hugs and kisses.

The kids recently received a bunch of toys from our neighbor - so generous! Here is the fort tent set up in the playroom. Apparently they aren't the only ones excited about it!

Backstroke!

Today was Grant's second to last swim lesson. We was really excited to show his backstroke to Macie and Cap. I didn't think he did as well as he did in the last lesson...he was a bit distracted with an audience in the area. Anyway, he lapped the pool a couple of times. He also began to learn the breaststroke today - he can't figure out the crazy kick. :-)

He's going to take a break from lessons till after Christmas.

New Bike!

Here is the video of Grant's new bike. He went from a 12" rim to a 20" rim...big difference and he adjusted quickly. He's already very comfortable on it and as Beckett said - he's super fast. :-) Now Beck is wondering when he is getting a new bike. Ugh.

 Not sure what's going on with this smile - this is the best one I got today.

Grant's smile is weird too. He told me his face was too cold. :-)

Grant is 5!!!

I can't believe it - Grant turned 5 yesterday! It seems like we were all just in the hospital in Fairbanks, waiting and waiting for him to come. Looking out the window at the massive snow storm that was settling over the city. Sigh....it goes so fast!

We had a pretty fun, but low key day. Unlike last year, we didn't have a friend party because most of Grant's good friends are in elementary school now. Fridays are also a hard day since the kids are usually wiped out from the week. We are heading to a gymnastics gym/zip line with Grant's good friend Isaac next week.

First thing in the morning the kids found the game table we got for them. It is a great find - foosball, hockey, basketball, chess, backgammon, shuffle board, and a few other games in one. All you have to do is change out the game top. We started out with foosball and that was our morning....tournaments in the playroom. Beckett is having a hard time because he's just a bit too short for the table. He also spins his guys the wrong way so he's always scoring for the other team. :-)

Beckett and I then headed out with Macie so Beckett could pick out a present for Grant. Cap and Grant headed to the sports store to get a few more pieces for the game table. For dinner we went to the superhero restaurant for dinner...always a hit with the kids, not so much with the adults. :-) Cake and presents when we got home. The big hit with the presents was a couple of Paper Jam guitars I found for the kids. We had quite the concert happening last night! Books, rescue hero vehicles, star wars LEGO watch and a kite rounded out the evening.

Grant's big present is a new bike. We decided to wait until today to give it to him since neither of the kids took a nap yesterday and they were so excited over the guitars. I will take some video and pics of the bike and post those later.

 Grant and Beckett showing off their LEGO creations.

 Goofy picture with goofy birthday boy.

 Silly Beckett. He found this truck in the toy bin at the restaurant and just didn't want to put it down. Beckett LOVES trucks!

 Rescue Heroes!

 Rescue Hero Jeep

Beckett jamming on the guitar.

 The Simmons concert has begun.

 Grant wanted a vanilla cake, chocolate icing, brown sprinkles and marshmallows on his cake. I added the rocket and smoke to make it a bit more festive.

Happy Birthday Grant!

Stair Ball Lives!

We have had pretty rainy and chilly weather lately, so in stead of heading to the park, Riley is getting her exercise via chasing her ball on the stairs. We used to play this with Hilo in Fairbanks all the time. Glad to see that it lives again!

Last Game!

Last Saturday was our last soccer game of the seadon....and it was a COLD one. When we left the house it was chilly, but once we got to the fields we realized that it was also windy - should have brought more layers!

The kids didn't care though and jumped right on the field. We had a double header since a couple of our games were cancelled this season. We have decided that Grant definitely needs to be on defense and Beckett...well he just enjoys running all over the field. A parent on the other team did comment to me about Beckett, saying that he's a good player. That's always nice to hear.

After the game there was a brief ceremony where the boys received a mini-soccer ball and a plaque. All in all a great season...just not enough games. The boys are sad that it's all over.

 Roger was too cool to put his hood up and so he thought the half hood over the ears looked better...no so sure on that one. :-)

Best Buds - Emmitt, Alina, Beck and Grant at the closing ceremony.