Letter to Santa

Earlier this week, Evan had to write a letter to Santa in school. Here is his letter:

And here's what it says, in case you can't click the picture to view it larger:
Dear Santa,
How do you fit down the chimny?
I have been...Good! Can I have vixon?
How do 8 rain deer pull such a hevy sligh?
Can I have azteca toreteeas!
Your friend
Evan!!!!

I laughed at the part about wanting Vixen.
And I loved my little guy a little more when I saw that he asked Santa for Azteca Tortillas.

Christmas-y homework

Now that Christmas break has started, I find it completely acceptable (or really odd) to post about homework.

A few days ago, Kendra came home from school with this super cute elf hat. She wore it while working on her homework that night. The project was to write a book about a little Christmas tree.

This was the thinking position for her hat:

Once she got started though, the jingle bell moved back behind her head and away she went: 

And so you don't hurt your eyes trying to read what her story says (ahem, Chad's mom, I'm talking to you), the first page says: My little Christmas tree has yellow and blue ornaments and a yellow star on top.

Fun side story: Kendra says "ordaments" instead of "ornaments". I have no idea why. My best guess is that when she learned the word from me, I had a stuffy nose.

Books in triplicate

This is what happens when a great grandma buys all of her great grandkids the same book for Christmas:

Ok, fine, she probably didn't expect the books to be lined up in a row, all open to the same page. But what else was Laura going to do when she wanted to look at her new book but there were three of them together on the bookshelf?

While we're on the topic

Since my last couple of posts have been about jammies and sleeping anyway, we'll stay there for one more day.

Here's a picture of my jammied stairstepped lovebugs:

To be or not to be (left alone)

So, when you check on your 4-year-old (did I forget to post about Laura turning 4?!) before you go to bed and you find her sleeping like this, do you let her be or do you fix it?

I chose to fix it ... right after taking pictures.

Jammie day ... visions of things to come

On Saturday, the kids and I all had a jammie day (Chad got dressed and went to the office to see patients and responsible things like that).

I think we're now in good practice for Christmas break and lots of jammie days!

Plant sitting

This post is purely so my father-in-law knows that I haven't killed his African Violet yet.

I would like to leave the "yet" off of there, but I'm not that confident in my plant-rearing skills ... yet.

For reference, this is what his African Violet looks like:

Failing at success

I just made a batch of puppy chow that actually turned out -- my first! (Yes, it is embarrassing to admit you can't make puppy chow, but I've come to terms with it. Mine, until today, was destined to never have powdered sugar visible on it.) Success!

Unfortunately, no one will see this success because Laura and I will have consumed the entire batch before anyone else gets home. Failure.

Yummy, yummy failure.

I'm dreaming of a warm Christmas

Actually, I'm not dreaming of a warm Christmas. I love snow. But we don't have any yet this year. And today it was 54 degrees here, a mere week before Christmas. So, instead of sipping hot chocolate or watching Christmas movies or going sledding, we offered the kids a "surprise afternoon". They agreed, and off we went.

After grabbing lunch at McDonald's (because it make the kids happy, and the adults can get coffee drinks), we headed to a nearby wildlife refuge to look around in their center, to go on a trail, and to drive around looking for bison (but I usually call them buffalo).

As we walked in the center, a ranger asked me if we were there to go on the family hike. Uhh...no, but that sounds fun. She said we were welcome to go along. So we got a guided tour on one of the trails, and the kids got to do a craft with the ranger afterwards using the things they gathered on our walk.

After the kids were done with their craft, the guy working at the front desk started the prairie movie in their small theater just for us. And Chad spotted a whole herd of bison out the windows of the learning center. So after potty breaks and grabbing our coats, we headed on a drive to see the bison closer. We saw 53 of them that were close enough to count!

I may be feeling a bit snow deprived, but we sure enjoyed our day outside in the middle of December with no boots, no hats, and no mittens!