Playing with PopPop

A little known fact about Brian is that he can't stand to sit on the ground. He loathes it. Playing with the kids on the floor is just about his least favorite thing to do.

This weekend his parents came over and Addie and Ben were really into the idea of PopPop playing with them.

It turns out that PopPop equally loathes sitting on the floor. He was a trooper though. Addie was playing Go Fish with him.

Very serious.

I don't know what was said here, but something funny.

Decorating for Christmas

We spent the weekend putting up our Christmas decorations outside. We are a well-lit house, that's for sure.

Years ago Muddy made a candyland theme for her house. Well those decorations were used one year at Brian and my first house and then we've been storing them in the basement. We decided to bring them out at this house this year.

Our mums finally bloomed just before Thanksgiving, and I don't have the heart to remove them from the front stairs yet, so the kids were quite happy to stick "gumdrops" into the pots.

And one inside picture-- this is why I love having a 3 story center stair case!!

Cute Addie

To ring in the holiday season, I bought Addie some special clothes. She got to wear her first outfit yesterday. Just so cute.

No photo shoot is complete without her goofy face.

See her cute hand-on-hip pose? Is she a pro or what?!

Gingerbread houses

You may recall that my work holds a gingerbread contest each December. Well I've been planning my gingerbread house for months now. This weekend I let Addie and Ben try out their gingerbread skills, in preparation for the big competition which begins on December 13. They printed a gingerbread house off of the internet and "tried" to follow it, but that wasn't really a successful venture. No matter,they had fun and made cute houses.

Christmas songs

Addie is really into understanding the lyrics of Christmas songs this year. She's not just about singing the words, she wants to know them. The one that gets her hung up the most is the song "Last Christmas," with the lyrics: last Christmas I gave you my heart, the very next day you gave it away.... Well she and I have had several conversations about how one doesn't actually give their heart to another, but instead loves the person and then gets hurt by that person. If only you could hear our talks in the car about that one!! Well today Graham came over and later this evening they were playing the piano and Graham snapped at her. She got up and left the room. A few minutes later I went looking for her and she was sitting at the dining room table writing. This is what she wrote about Graham: " Last Crismis I gav hart bot the vary nex day you gav away." She is so dramatic.

Ben's biggest issue with Christmas songs so far is his frustration when something is on the radio and not a cd. He frequently wants the song played again since he was enjoying it so much, but that can't be done on our radio. Too bad. Usually once we're 3 seconds into the next song, he's moved on.

Salvation Army Kettle Drive 2010

Addie's voice carried throughout the mall and people were purposely walking towards her voice. It was hysterical. She was so animated the whole two hours. Her two biggest numbers were Feliz Navidad and Santa Claus is Coming to Town (both the traditional and Bruce Springsteen versions).

Ben was really into it too. Addie was trying to download songs on my cell so she had some music behind her.

We ring again in two weeks and then again on Christmas Eve.

Addie's school work

I love her so much. I will translate all of her words for you... ds and bs are backwards.

fimmly- family

cat- cat (which by the way, she doesn't have one!)

love-love

fres- friends

myoosc- music

Her illustration labels say: Ben, Addie singing, and Vada (her friend)

A bear lives at a cave when it's winter. The cave is in the woods.

Do you know how people get fat? People drink soda. A cat can meow.

A mouse lives in a toy house. and it's little. His house has one door.

A elephant is big. A mouse is small.

My dad puts the wood in the fire. I put Christmas decorations on the Christmas tree.

With the exception of the d/b issue, I think she rocks. I love the way that she doesn't shy away from big words like 'elephant' and 'decorations.'