Sunday Funday

Uncle Nathan and Erica came to visit all day Sunday! There was book reading, puzzle doing, coloring, stencil drawing, toy playing, horsey ride giving, McDonalds playland going, hat sharing, Gusher eating, Crocodile chomping, Chutes and Ladder playing, and lots of hugs. Thanks guys for coming down, the kids go crazy for you two!

the way to her heart...

Uncle Nathan says "Emmy, let's play a game!" After all that excitement, she didn't even win!

long weekend

Nana and Papa came down to stay Friday through Sunday! Luke was so excited to tell them about going potty like a big boy. Emily read lots of books to everyone and Luke helped Papa hang all of the storage things in his room. Thanks Papa! It looks great. To celebrate Luke's good news, Nana brought down the movie Santa Buddies for everyone to watch. The kids didn't like the dogcatcher, but all the little Golden puppies sure were cute!
On Friday, I left the house at 2:30am and was in Lacrosse by 3am to score some Black Friday deals. The crowds at ToysRUs, Kohls and Old Navy were too much for me, 1.5-2 hour check out lines!? No thanks. Katie and I met at the mall at 5am and went Gymboree crazy, hit a few other stores in the mall, and then went back to the stores that had huge crowds really early and pretty much got all we wanted, go figure! Lesson learned. Then we went for breakfast and back to her Mom's to wrap, all kid free! I hit Menards and Kmart when I got back to town and got some good deals. Very fun. I think it's now a tradition!

Pizza Man

The kids play with this wooden pizza all the time. Emily got it when she was 3, I think, from Great Aunt Julie. It's been prepared and cut a hundred times since!

Our Thanksgiving...

was filled with sweet potato bread,

rock tumblers,

blowing the turkey 'fog',

and trying to catch it,

Zhu Zhu pet disasters,

although they are cute (and no, I definitely wasn't one of the crazies in line for one of these, Deeda got it for Emily's birthday a month ago!)

and Dora Memory! Thanks Deeda, for coming to spend Turkey Day with us!

my take on potty training...

As history seems to be repeating itself, my kids are 'late' potty trainers. I suppose statistically speaking. Potty training just isn't my thing. I've never found it miraculous if a child is potty trained at 1 or 2 or whatever age. I try to leave it up to the child. Now with Emily, she was 3 and turning a sharp corner towards 3.5, plus a baby brother coming ever so quickly. So she got a stearn nudge from me and it backfired. What was a month or 2 of hell, did reward me nicely in the end I admit. She is now a very modest bathroom go-er and I'm proud to say I've never had to wipe any (undiapered, I should add) hind ends. Yet. Now on to Luke, we've had the potty chair in the living room for probably a month. This past week, he's been into disrobing himself, waist down. Just for fun, no desire to take it any further. Now today, he went pee in it. Twice. Just cause he must have wanted to. I wasn't in there when he did it, so he came running to me to tell me. I said to him..."Did you sit or stand!" He says "Stand, then sit!" I guess we'll take his enthusiasim and run with it! So good job Buddy, especially for doing it on your own time.

( I took this picture because he was filling up his book rack on the potty chair with his cars, then he'd get up and say "Wait, I'm missin' one!" )

Thanksgiving musical

Central Elementary had their Thanksgiving musical last night at the middle school! It was neat to listen to all the songs they learned and all the actions they remembered. The Kinders went first, and then they did the Thanksgiving Blues song with the 1st graders. Then the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders sang.


Before the show!

Waiting so patiently...

Shakin' their turkey tail feathers!

When the 3rd and 4th graders were done with a song that required some instruments, Luke says (very loudly at a quiet time) "Why they pickin' those up....I want to do it myself!" Emphasis on the myself!

"Mama, how you spell....?"

Luke is taking after his big sister and wanting you to spell things for him so he can 'write' them down. Yesterday he was at the little desk and yells "How you spell poodle?" I told him "P-O-O-D" Then he interrupts and says "E then L?" Umm, no. But I love how he tries.

Until next year...

We threw the last bag of leaves in the van and after picking Emily up from school, we went over to the farm one more time. I saw a buff colored Cocker Spaniel running around while Dave was talking to Farmer Dick. He said that they have 3 week old Cockapoo puppies right now and asked if we wanted to see them. Umm, yeah!?