I'm going to catch up on blog posts so I can print my blog book and then neglect the blog for another big chunk of time. December was very busy with Christmas concerts and events, which considering how non-musical we are in general, I can't imagine how busy other families were. I am also so grateful that the kids are not in sports right now, it just gets to be too much. Patrick has the occasional soccer practice indoor for one hour and Emily has one dance class a week. This is plenty. We are actually having family dinners and watching movies together and playing games (Sean more than me). I need these weekends at home with nothing planned to get the house prepared for the remodel and this is no small task. Anyway, back to the beginning of December...
Emily read the petitions at her class mass and did great for a 6 year old, no fear. The rest of the kids are not big fans of doing readings and I don't blame them.
The adorable kindergarten classes after mass.
Patrick had his First Reconciliation with his class and here he is, relieved to have it over with.
Anna was in A Christmas Carol (their own version) for drama class at school. She loved it, along with all these other quiet girls. It was quite surprising to see them come out of their shells, a great experience.
Patrick and Emily had their Christmas program at school, they are hidden in there someplace. I took a bunch of videos to show Sean who had to miss it. No idea what to do with those videos... someday we will tackle that.
Took the kids to McCain for a Christmas show, again, Sean was working. His schedule was jammed in the front of the month so he could take a week off to go to Virginia at the end.
Their favorite part about McCain, getting treats in the Director's Lounge
It was a surprisingly good show, minus the people next to me who were quoting certain scenes along with the actors. Groupies??
The sixth graders always make a float to go in the Mayor's Holiday Parade and this year it was much warmer than in the past, so I walked along with them, handing out candy.
These kids sang in the back of the truck and threw candy.
This was the float with the live nativity scene. After this we had to rush back to the mall for Megan's band concert. A few of those double booked nights was plenty for me.
We went to the Flint Hills Discovery Center for their gingerbread making event, a great way to keep the mess out of my own house.
It was a bit of a challenge...
Anna had to leave this early to go to play practice, which is making me realize these photos are out of order.
Megan was a big help with Emily
I think she was enjoying helping though
All done. As soon as we got home they wanted to eat them...
He did it all himself, was so proud.
Getting ready for St. Nicholas Day. I didn't dare set this up in the laundry room, St. Nicholas would have been scared away by the huge mess.
checking for the candy
Sampling the candy...
St. Nicholas found chocolate coins at Trader Joe's, good stuff.
Emily loves to color at bedtime, she is suddenly very creative then, but during the day she just begs to watch TV...
Patrick playing a game at his school Christmas party.
Emily eating/giving us the stink eye at her class party
Sean took the older three to see Star Wars first and then went back a second time with Emily and Anna. Other two must have had something going on...
Megan is still Emily's special sister but Anna has figured out how to be nice and get along so they are doing more together now, like going in the hot tub. We shut down the pool this winter because they never wanted to use it, only wanted hot tub. So I'm not paying for that right now. I'm paying for new kitchen.
Presents from Aunt Stephanie, opened them early for some fun distraction while Sean was sleeping.
Anna got a book about dogs, to continue her campaign for one. Nope. Cute to look at though.
As always, Patrick loves all things lego.
I make so much bread that my hook finally broke. Santa brought new one, slightly bigger so I can make double batches of cookies finally.
Oh, this is why St. Nicholas wouldn't deliver to the laundry room... how hard is it to get their junk in their baskets???
Anna's band and choir Christmas concert. Somehow Sean was working for this one too. Usually we have them two Tuesdays in a row but this year we didn't have school on the second Tuesday, a Holy Day, so it was two weeks apart and since Sean works every other Tuesday... I'm there taking video. It would be different if any of them ever had a solo...
And then we were at the Christmas caroling with the whole school on the last day, after the parties. Photos get out of order when we are using both phones to take photos.
We took them to open up their own bank accounts, at their favorite bank that has games and popcorn.
Teaching fiscal responsibility?
Getting a small taste for how many papers we have signed at this bank?
Even Emily brought her bag of money to deposit. They really did use the coin counter for each of them, it was quite amusing how seriously they treated the kids. Just trying to lock in those customers early.
I remembered at just the right time that I had this gingerbread house lego for them to do. Christmas break got to be a bit long leading up to Christmas eve...
But he is always happy to do legos...
And on a random note, the squirrels hid out in their attic space eleven days with the trap on before we put the new screen up.... and then they tried to chew their way out. If only he had a tiny white surrender flag to wave, yes, that is a squirrel arm. Thankfully we haven't had any signs of rats since we trapped them. And the smell seems to be gone, victory is ours!
