Polar Express Day in Kinder

At Blake's school they have a yearly tradition for the kindergartners of a Polar Express Day.  It is a fun and magical day for all the kiddos and a lot of work by a group of parents gets poured into it all to make it happen.  The best part is that its a surprise for all the kindergartners!  All they knew going into the day was they got to wear their pj's to school.  Normally, I drop Blake off in the carpool lane, so he was very curious why I was walking him into school!  Instead of going to their classrooms, they were immediate greeted at the front doors and ushered into the school cafeteria.  Here is Blake waiting for the fun to begin, not knowing what was going on.  He asked me to take a "silly" picture of him.

Then they gathered the students and explained to them the tradition of the Polar Express Day at the school.  One of the teachers then read them the book, Polar Express.  

This is when I had to exit stage right to take Brady to school so I missed some really fun pictures.  But I quickly made my way back to the school  After the story, each student was handed a train ticket to board the Polar Express!  They took the "train" on the "tracks" all through the school, back to the kinder pod. 

When they arrived, they were at the North Pole!  

 

And got to meet Santa and take their picture with him.  Every student took home a printed picture as well. 

*Blake later told us that the Santa at his school was a fake.  We asked how he knew that and he said, "I just did."

They colored snowmen and did crafts to give as presents to mom and dad.  

They played the dreidel game to attempt at including Chanukah.  I then had to teach the class how to play.  Blake kept asking me when I was leaving and I said I wasn't and he would get the biggest smile ever on his face.  Made me feel oh so good.  
After craft time the teacher announced Santa's elves had put something in their cubby!  They each got a bell necklace.  Blake's teacher then quickly told them to put them back where they found them, ha!

After lunch and art class, they got to watch the movie Polar Express.  During art class I went and got Brady and then brought him back to the school for the rest of the day.  He sat next to Blake on the carpet watching the movie with his brother.  My heart was so full.

Blake said of course it was the best day ever.  How could an entire day of fun at school not be?! 

Family Pictures

I'm so grateful for talented friends!  My friend Kristin took some beautiful pictures of our family and I am oh so grateful for them and wanted to share!  The boys were fairly cooperative which was a huge blessing and we really really enjoyed the beautiful surroundings at White Rock Lake she chose.  Thanks again Kristin!!

The Great Ice Storm of 2013

We had a pretty big ice storm that hit our area last week and we are STILL waiting for all of the ice to melt. It threw these parts quite in a tail spin and everything was pretty much shut down.  No school, no going into the office for Brad since he's able to work from home, no going out and about.  We had about four days straight of just staying at our house.  We baked and decorated gingerbread men, we did arts and crafts, we put the boys in their ski bibs and let them play outside for a good amount of time...which they loved.  We watched movies and played board games.  I surprisingly didn't get too much of cabin fever.  We really were able to enjoy the iced in time together, which was really a miracle I think.  Very lucky we kept power the entire time so we were able to stay warm (and sane).  The most upsetting part of the ice storm for us, was losing our big tree out front.  I don't recommend starting your day looking out the window and discovering your tree is caput.  Not at all.  Apparently with the amount of ice McKinney had with the combination of the leaves not having fallen off the trees yet = a ton of extra weight, causing the trees to...timberrrrrr!  A lot of McKinney got hit pretty badly.  Our neighborhood looks like a tornado tore through it with downed trees everywhere.  It is a huge mess.  And a huge headache.  And will cost a good amount to get rid of the tree completely and replace it.  *sigh*

This shot is of our neighbor's house.  Half their tree is in our yard now.   (the rest are of our house)

Thanksgivukkah!

I really enjoyed Thanksgiving week this year.  The boys were both out of school the entire week, and while I do enjoy some time during the week when the boys are at school to get things done...alone...I really really enjoyed having the boys at home with me and not being in a set routine, rushing out the door for school and just getting to be.  I am so thankful for my family!  This year was also an incredibly rare occurrence...something that hasn't happened since 1888.  Thanksgiving and Chanukah, on the same day.  Crazy town.  At first I was incredibly annoyed.  Why is Chanukah SO early this year?!?  Do I decorate for Thanksgiving?  For Chanukah?  When do we decorate for Christmas?  This is all so confusing, especially in a house that celebrates Chanukah and Christmas.  But I finally decided to pull out all the Chanukah decorations even with some of the Thanksgiving ones still out and then I realized....Chanukah isn't "competing" with Christmas this year.  It was kind of nice to be able to focus on just Chanukah and it not getting lost with the other holiday that can tend to be very overbearing.  No offense.  Brad's mom and stepdad were in town Thanksgiving week as well. And so I decided to throw a Chanukah dinner party and had my in-laws, brother-in-law and my parents over for the first night of Chanukah.  I made a big dinner, including latkes and lit the candles and enjoyed all being together.  

Then we all regrouped the following day and stuffed ourselves silly for Thanksgiving.  And then a few days later we regrouped AGAIN to stuff ourselves silly and then the boys got to build gingerbread houses.  The boys had so much fun.  I love watching them participate in activities like that and see the joy on their faces.  Blake took the whole thing very seriously, like a little master chef.  It was so cute.  I think I might need to sign him up for some cooking classes!  

 

It was a non stop week of family time, eating, more eating and some eating again.  Can't wait to do the same thing in a few weeks for Christmas!  

Blake's Piano Recital

EEK!  Looks like I have some catching up to do, since I haven't posted since HALLOWEEN.  Blake started taking piano lessons in January and is one of the youngest students his teacher currently has but has really taken well to it.  It can be a battle at times to get him to practice, but he never asks to stop taking piano, so we keep with it.  I'm so very proud of him.  There is one thing for sure, this kid loves attention and he loves to perform, so he thoroughly enjoys getting to play for an audience.  And I thoroughly enjoy watching him play and seeing how he's improved.  This is his first song using both hands at the same time.  Exciting stuff.

Blake's Piano Recital