Christmas Program

Last Sunday night was our Christmas program at church. Before the "real" show began, the 3-5 yr. olds sang 2 songs. Here are my 2 children: One is singing her little heart out and the other is silently saying "you can make me stand here but I'm NOT going to sing!" Can you guess who is saying that??



I know what you're thinking John. She is not picking at her fingers!

The first thing Renee said to me when they were done was "I don't want to do that again." Really? I thought you liked it. At least she didn't scream or walk off the stage. Could have been worse!

Pucker Up

I meant to include this one from yesterday.

Pucker Up

The girls were playing so nicely together this afternoon. Good thing, too, because I spent most of the afternoon on the couch. Last night my throat started hurting and I never got to sleep until close to 3. (I'm blaming the raspberry chai from Jitter's). So needless to say, I was exhausted today, my throat was still killing me and my whole body ached.

At one point in my dozing, Renee woke me up to show me what they were up to. All I can say is "thank goodness they're washable"!!! (The children and the markers).





Kaitlyn reserved her coloring for her knees but Renee went all out, covering her shins, both sides of her feet and hands. The lips are what really got me. I quickly grabbed the camera, took a few shots and then marched them up to the tub. When Dirk got home a little before 5 they were both in their pajammas.

Dirk was trying to get some cute pictures of the girls for our Christmas card this year. Here are a few possibilities.








They were so excited about the snow on the ground. They even attempted doing snow angels. They turned out more like leaf angels. But they had fun.

They love wearing their "twin dresses" from Amy's wedding. Last year they touched the top of their shoes. This year they're tea length but they don't care. They wore them all day on Sunday.

Reading level

I saw this on another blog I frequent. Chek it out. You can find out the reading level of your blog. I feel smart........her reading level was only junior high. She has 3 kids.....must be that 3rd. child turned her brain to mush.

Get a Cash Advance

Volunteering

I have to tell this story before I forget it. Last Tuesday I volunteered in Kaitlyn's class. I had not arranged for anyone to watch Renee so I took her with me. I was hoping that was OK. She was actually pretty good but stayed pretty close to me. Kaitlyn, on the otherhand, could have cared less that I was there. She did her own thing. (Personally, I was happy about that. I remember having parents in my classroom and their kids were always hanging on them and it was so hard to pry them off of Mommy's side.)

I cut some things out for the children to use for their craft. Renee helped Mrs. Vicki put them at the tables. Later she helped picked out the snack and passed that out too. The funniest thing happened towards the end of the class. The letter for the week was "i" and the kids had made ice cream cones for their craft. They were all sitting on the rug for their last circle time and this time Renee was right up front next to Kaitlyn. Miss Becca called on each student and asked them what their favorite ice cream flavor is. When she finished, Renee stood up and started running to the back of the class, crying "Mommy, she didn't say MY name!" Poor little thing. Miss Becca quickly apologized and asked what her favorite is. By this time her head was buried in my shoulder but she quickly recovered and told her chocolate and returned to Kaitlyn's side. She was, afterall, a part of the class, at least for one day.

Tomorrow is Kaitlyn's VIP day at school. She has been looking forward to this for at least 2 weeks, planning what she would take for show-and-tell. All weekend she has told me she can't wait for her VIP day. I guess she really does believe it's "very important".

On a final note, way to go Brett and the Messiah Falcons!! You are off to Disney World and the Final Four for the zillionth time in a row. You guys ROCK!! I guess that means we'll we watching the CBS program "The Road to the Final Four" with great interest yet again this year. We're really proud of you!

Frick or Freat

As you all know, Wednesday was Halloween. Kaitlyn had her party at school and the parents were invited to come back for it. (Thank you Becca.) Last year Kaitlyn wanted to be a fairy and this year was no different. She was perfectly content to wear her glitter skirt and wings from the dollar store. Yes, I'm a big spender, I know. Even seeing her friends in cute "real" costumes didn't faze her. She was excited to wear her pumpkin shirt from Amy and John and her wings. Miss Vicki fixed Renee a plate a goodies and they shared a chair and looked like they actually liked each other.

The highlight of the day, of course, came after supper. We had an old Ziegler traditional Halloween supper of pancakes and then the girls got their "costumes" on. Dirk took them to about 10 houses while I stayed home to pass out the candy. We had maybe 15 kids, and they were done by 7:30. Dirk and the girls never got home until close to 8:30. Smart planning on my part, huh??? Renee wore her little pink princess dress-up outfit. (She wears that at least 5 times a week.) She was excited to go "frick or freating" As soon as they got home, Kaitlyn dumped out her candy and counted it. "Mommy, I have 24 peices!"



I got my hair all cut off and am going to send my 10" ponytails to Locks of Love in the next day or 2. I like the new do and Kaitlyn loves it. She has told me many times that she really likes it.



When I made pancakes the other night I tried a new recipe. They were pumpkin pancakes and they were really good.

Random "F"oughts

I've given up trying to post pictures. I thought maybe I could put some on a thumbdrive and load them off the laptop but that didn't work either. It's totally frustrating me.....I can usually figure things out.

We are in the process of having our house painted. It's still going to be white but no more green shutters. They will be blue (oh surprise!) to match the trim on our shed. For those of you who don't know me real well, blue is my favorite color and there are 5 rooms in our house that are blue: the master bedroom/bath, the guest room, the girl's bathroom and the kitchen. The previous owner loved green, thus the green shutters.

The girls continue to keep me on my toes. Renee's behaviour has mellowed a bit this past month. AMEN!! I strongly believe in the power of prayer. I think my reaction to her has changed a lot too. She hasn't had me in tears for several weeks. In fact, I really enjoy my mornings with her while Kaitlyn is in school. She loves to play with playdough and we do that just about every day. She is a mama's girl at bedtime, unless she knows I won't be home. She will ask me, "Do you have a party tonight?" If I do, she is so good about hugging and kissing me goodbye and that's that. Kaitlyn still likes to do the cling-on thing, complete with dramatic tears. "I just love you so much I don't want you to go!"

Kaitlyn continues to love school. Miss Becca is all-knowing and poor Mom is NOT. One day she told me about something she learned at school.
K: Mommy, if you put a t and h together they make the "fa" sound.
B: You mean "th". You have to stick your tongue out a little. It's called a tongue cooler because you're blowing on your tongue. (I was so proud of myself for remembering some of my multi-sensory reading stuff.)
K: No Mom, It makes the "fa" sound. Samanfa has one in her name.
B: No honey, it's SamanTHa.
K: How do you know?
B: Because I taught second grade for 12 years and I know.
K: Well, you've been home for a long time. Miss Becca said it's "fa".

There you have it. I know nofing!!