Party Time!

Since I am a room mom this year, I helped with both of the girls' school Christmas parties and even managed to go to Judson's preschool Christmas party.  Judson's party was short and sweet with food, a craft, and a book exchange.  For Kendall's party, the kids had pizza, decorated sugar cookies, and played some silly games like blind drawing and scooping cotton balls into a bowl using Vaseline on their nose.  They also made a foam Christmas tree craft.  For Avery's party, we had the kids make Christmas cards for the troops, assembled bags of snack mix and had snowmen-shaped donuts, did a snowman craft, and played Bingo using cards with the kids' pictures.  Kendall came with me to Avery's party because she wasn't feeling just real well.  She sat between Avery and another little girl at her table.  She was very sweet to help Kendall make a card and play Bingo.  They were both fun parties, but this Mama is glad that it's over and I don't have to plan another party until Valentines!

Judson holding his candy cane he made with beads at his Christmas party.  

Kendall with her decorated cookie

Making cards at Avery's party

Avery and Ella with their snowman crafts

Kendall and her new friend in Avery's class

playing Bingo

This little girl was very sweet to share some of her desk space and to help Kendall know who all the kids on the card were.

Avery's Voice Recital

Last summer Avery began taking voice lessons, and so at Christmas time she got to show off her skills and perform in Harmony Music Studios Christmas Recital.  The recital was held in the auditorium of the historic Old Bedford Schoolhouse.  It was just big enough for the audience, but still had an intimate feel.  Avery sang 2 songs, "Castle on a Cloud" from Les Miserables (chosen by her teacher) and "Happy Holidays" (chosen by her).  I know she was nervous, but she had such composure on stage and I think the nerves actually helped her to sing the songs better than she ever had. She nailed both of them and even incorporated some hand motions that she came up with.  She had a big audience of fans including our immediate family, Mimi and Poppi, Memaw and Dedaw, Aunt Sheila and Brooklyn, and her teacher Miss Henderson and her fiancee. She received tons of compliments from people in the audience as well as from her teacher.  Mrs. Jacobs was very impressed of her performance considering she had never been in choir or performed on stage before.  We are super proud of her and we are already looking forward to her recital in the spring!

Judson's Christmas Program

Since Judson is in one of the 3's classes at SCP, he got to perform in the little Christmas program this year.  Each class sang one song onstage, and his class's song was "Christmas Makes Me Smile." in the song, they went through a whole list of "Christmas makes me________ (smile, laugh, sing, dance, etc)   It was really cute seeing them perform the different actions to go with the lyrics and so precious to hear the kids' sweet voices and see their cute expressions. After the show, we got to join Judson in his classroom for a cookie reception and open house time.

Christmas makes me sing! La, la, la ,la

Christmas makes me laugh! Ha, ha, ha!

Not sure what part this was

Christmas makes me smile!

Just singing away!

Avery had rehearsal for her voice recital on this same night, so she wasn't able to come with us.

Kendall and Judson enjoying some cookies at his table.

Judson's "favorites" poster that I made for him at the beginning of the year and his artwork spot .

Battle of the Books, Birthdays, and More

Avery's "Battle of the Books" team- Kaylee, Avery, Kylee, Adelyn, Ari, and Maelyn

This year Avery got to participate with other 3rd, 4th and 5th graders in a school competition called "Battle of the Books."  From September until the day of the competition in December, students read as many of the 10 books off the selected reading list as they could, and then formed teams and competed against one another to answer questions about the books.  Avery's team didn't make it past the first round of the competition, but I was so proud of her for reading 9 1/2 of the 10 books off the list in 3 months time.  Several of the books were 200-300 pages and her favorite was 500+ pages!  I thought that was awesome for a 3rd grader and I think it really opened her eyes to the world of books!

Since we finally purchased some fireplace tools last year after Christmas, we were able to enjoy our first fire in the fireplace this December.  Even better was the fact that we bought our firewood from a teenage boy from church who was chopping it and selling it to raise money for a mission trip.  I walked into the room one night after cleaning the kitchen to find them all like this:)

Avery's good friend Ella had a pizza-and-a-movie birthday party with a small group of girls from school.  Jenny and Par set up a huge screen for them to watch their movie on.  It was a big hit!

Over the past two years Avery has gone to quite a few parties at Skatetown and has really improved at skating.  This was her friend Makenna's 9th birthday.

 Doing the chicken dance out on the floor. Flap those wings!

So Thankful

Thanksgiving this year was with the Bedicheks. After a big breakfast at home, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and some cooking for our big lunch, we went over to Doug and
Sheila's to spend the remainder of the day. While we waited on everyone to arrive and for all the food to be ready, the kids had fun jumping on the trampoline, swinging and playing ball outside.  There was initially some scandal over the meal when we were planning it all because different people signed up for items that have traditionally been brought by certain people.  But the food turned out great and we had tons of leftovers.  Sheila sat at the kids' table this year, which our kids loved and which gave us a chance to visit with the grown-ups:) We also had a special guest for lunch this year.  Sheila's Uncle Jim, who was the policeman handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot, came over for Thanksgiving lunch since his wife had just passed away a few months before.  He's a very nice man with obviously some super interesting stories. After lunch, the girls enjoyed hanging out with their cousins and Judson had a ball playing with all the toys in the playroom closet.  We also let all the kids do a piano and voice recital for us.  Judson, Kendall, Avery, Bailey, and Brooklyn all played some piano pieces for us and then Avery also sang her two songs that she is going to perform at her voice recital.  After the Cowboys game was over, we let the little kids (which was only our kids this year because Amy and Mike weren't there and everybody else is too big) open their presents and then we played our traditional git card exchange game.  Sheila wanted to do it like last year where we had to challenge someone to a Christmas trivia question in order to steal their present, but not many people seemed to be on board and there was a lot of confusion.  So we ended up doing it the old way and I think everyone ended up happy with their gift cards. It was a fun day and we are so thankful for the blessing of family to spend the holiday with!

The kids always enjoy the swing set at Doug and Sheila's since we don't have one anymore

strengthening Daddy's legs

Kendall playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and Avery singing along

Lovin' on Bella

So thankful for my hubby!

We celebrated Christmas with the Bedicheks at Thanksgiving since we won't be together then.  Kendall and Avery got some ear muffs fromAunt Sheila and Uncle Doug for walking to school on super cold days!

Uncle Gordon and Aunt Janis gave Judson a Mr. Freeze jet that he loves

Scott trying out the TMNT mask that Judson got from Uncle Mike B.

Cool!  A TMNT sub from Memaw and Dedaw

Gordon had fun with this little scooter thing that Judson got from Aunt Sheila and Uncle Doug

Avery and Kendall always have such a good time playing with Brooklyn

Memaw read Kendall one of the books that she and Dedaw gave her.

Kids table! Some of these "kids" look awfully big!

Avery, Kendall and Judson with Uncle Jim

take 2- a little less crazy this time

Avery and Kendall enjoying their Thanksgiving dessert