December 20, 2007 - Playgroup Christmas Party with Our Friends!

Every year we get together at "Miss Shannon's" house for our playgroup Christmas Party. We formed this playgroup when Nicholas was 6 months old. We started with around 5 kids, and I think we grew to 12 at one time. Playgroup has grown through the years as our families grew. Right now, there are 3 families with a total of 11 kids between us ranging in age from 10 months to age 7. Most of the kids are in school now, and last December, one of our families the deJongs moved to Kalamazoo. Now that most of the kids are in school our weekly get togethers now consist of the 4 kids (3 of which are mine) plus a couple of boys that Miss Shannon has for daycare. Even though we don't get together every week, we have managed to stay in touch and meet somewhere every month or so. Our Christmas Party was no exception.

Group Picture
Nicholas - 5, Kylie - 7, Carson - 6, Aubrey 5
Allison - 2 1/2, Gabrielle -4, Nyla-almost 5, Tori - 4 1/2, Arie John- 2 1/2
Sam - 11 months (Annaliese -not pictured - 9 or 10 months)

Decorating cookies

Sam got a hold of some legos as we set up to do a cake walk for our gift exchange.
Our tradition is that each child buy a book for our exchange.

December 19, 2007 - A Preschool Christmas !

Gabrielle decided she wanted to wear her Santa Hat to her Preschool Christmas Party. She actually left it on through the entire party. A class song....Allison loved being included in all the festivities

When Santa dropped by for a visit. Sam walked right up to him and put his arms up for Santa to pick him up - didn't even blink an eye. It's really quite amazing in my mind. To this day, I can not recollect any time, ever that Sam has been afraid of anyone. He has never cried when dropped off at nursery, and is very quick to request that anyone pick him up.

Allison took a turn as well. Unfortunately, Gabrielle was too shy to take a perch on Santa's lap.

Miss Monica decided to let Sam play with her cell phone.
He loves phones, and knew just what to do with it.

Gabrielle works on one of her projects - a snow man.

Snack time! They used frosting to hold an ice-cream cone onto a graham cracker.
Then they frosted the entire cone and decorated it with M&Ms.
It was a really cute holiday snack.

Allison was mainly interested in the "yum-yum's"
(Allison's word for M&Ms)

December 17, 2007 Puzzles, Pots and Pans

You'd think the theme for the day was the letter 'p'.

Every afternoon, Sam takes a nap and the girls have to find quiet activities to occupy their time. They usually start by watching a little TV or a video - while I get a chance to get lunch cleaned up, etc. However, one of their favorite activities is doing puzzles. It is so interesting to watch how their minds work so differently. Gabrielle is really good at finding the correct piece for a particular spot. However, Allison is actually a little better about orienting the piece correctly in the puzzle. The two of them can do a 25-50 piece puzzle almost by themselves. I am usually there to help when they get stuck and sometimes prompt them for the next piece they should look for. I'm sure you can see the gate in this picture. We actually have a gate on both ends of our kitchen to keep out the pot bandit. (The is also a safety issue - as Sam like to pull out the oven drawer and stand inside it to open the oven door, "little monkey.") Anyway, today Sam was unusually fussy while I was trying to make dinner. Since I didn't have the oven on, on that particular day I decided to let him inside the gate to explore the cupboards as he loves to do. He will often dig out the spoons and start banging.

December 15-17, 2007 The Baby Is Really A King!


Our second candle for advent was The Baby Is Really A King! Our activities for this week's theme included making a manger for baby Jesus, finding baby Jesus, and decorating crowns for the baby King.

Paul and the kids make a manger out of popsicle sticksNext, they filled the manger with hay.

They then had to go find a baby for the manger.
They found that the baby from Gabrielle's dollhouse was just the right size.
We wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.

The next day, the kids each got to decorate a crown for our new baby king.
They used stickers, glitter glue and other decorations.

Sam didn't get to help, but he didn't get to check out Allison's chair at the table.
He thought he was pretty hot stuff.

After all of the glue dried, we stapled the crowns together to form one
large crown and crowned the baby King.

December 9-14 - Jesus is the Star of Christmas!

Our Sunday School Class at church went through a book this advent, on how to bring advent to a place where your children, at any age, can understand at their level. There was a flip book with a scripture each day and then there were suggestions for family activities. There were activities for older and younger children.

We were unable to do an activity everyday of the week, but did a few to get the kids focused on the real meaning of Christmas.

Week # 1 was Jesus is the Star of Christmas. Everytime the kids saw a star, they were supposed to say "Jesus is the Star of Christmas" It was pretty fun.

I didn't get a change to get our advent wreath right away, but then Nicholas and Gabrielle came home with handmade wreaths they made in Sunday School. They were just a paper plate with toilet paper rolls for candles, and a piece of yellow tissue paper for the flame. When you light a candle you pull the tissue up from the inside of the roll. I decided to utilize their creations and have a flame-free advent wreath this year (well actually two of them).

Here are some of our activities for the week re: Jesus is the Star of Christmas

Decorating their wreaths with star stickers

We made Star Christmas cookies

They used markers to decorate little wooden stars. Then they each got to help Papa drill a hole in them for a ribbon, to make them into ornaments.

Even Sam had to try to get in on it.

The arrival of our new Fisher Price Nativity

Star Shaped Brownies for Friday Night movie night

December 8, 2007 - Mmmmm, Pancakes and Sausage!!

Sam, our child who not long ago would eat anything and everything and as much of it as possible, has started to become a little bit more picky. If you put something on his tray that he doesn't exactly, shall we say: appreciate!, he will definately let you know it. He grunts, arches his back and sometimes get downright agree. Hopefully, this is just a phase, but it the meantime - Sam was definately enjoying this meal of pancakes and sausage!

December 2, 2007 - A Christmas Tree and A Christmas Card

We decorated the Christmas tree with the kids today. We took the opportunity to do so while Sam was napping upstairs so he couldn't get into everything. The kids were all dressed up so we could take some pictures decorating the tree and hopefully snap some good portraits to use for our Christmas cards.

Nicholas had the privilege of turning on the lights

Helping Papa put some of the ornaments on.

With each passing year we get more and more handmade ornaments and no more room for my ornaments. It is so neat to see Nicholas and Gabrielle remembering when they made some of them last year. It is truly amazing how much they can remember at this age - of things that happened a whole year ago.

Time to take some pictures in an effort to get a good card.
Would you believe I took over 150 pictures in the process?

I decided that the key to getting a good shot of Sam, was to keep him occupied. So....I wrapped up a great big empty box we had in the basement and put some bows and ribbons on it and let him explore it and the tree. It worked, we got quite a few great pics.

A Christmas Card Success (picture #135)

After the photo shoot, Sam got adventurous in the other room and figured out how to climb up onto Gabrielle's rocking chair. He is a mischief maker in the making.

End of November - First Part of December - These feet are made for Walking!!

Sam has definately found his legs. Here are some of his first steps. Following in the steps of his big brother, Nicholas - Sam is walking at 10 1/2 months.

November 29, 2007 - My Little Pony Magic!

Gabrielle noticed the other day that her My Little Ponies, have magnets in their feet. It is what helps them dance and things in her My Little Pony Castle. Well, being the smarty pants that she is starting to become, she figured out that if they have magnets - they should stick to the refrigerator, right? She called me into the kitchen, to show me her discovery.

November 28, 2007 - One Tired Little Girl!

Allison didn't take a nap this day. Normally, she is OK with the situation as she actually naps few days that she doesn't lately. However, today when Paul came home from work and she went to give him a hug, she laid her head on his shoulder and fell asleep almost instantly.

November 22, 2007 - Thanksgiving

We didn't have a whole lot going on this Thanksgiving. We headed over to my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner with them and my Aunt Nancy. We had a wonderful time! Later in the evening we drove out to my aunt's house to visit with extended family and my siblings were there as well. The kids got to raid all of the toys that Aunt Shinny very wisely saved. They are toys from when I was growing up, so they are different than the things they usually play with, so they had a great time.

Nicholas and Sam pose for a Thanksgiving portrait

Gabrielle and Allison smiling pretty!
Nicholas made a pilgrim mask at school that he wore to grandma and grandpa's house.

November 19, 2007 - A couple of basket cases!

Sam was messing around in the bedroom the other day while I was trying to fold laundry. He kept grabbing the folded laundry off from the top of the bed. So, I scooped him up and put him in the laundry basket. It didn't last for long, but it reminded me of a similar picture of have of Nicholas.

Nicholas - age 5 months

Sam - age 10 months