Holidays – Page 20 – JTOK Chatter

Owen’s first real play date

Posted on January 30, 2015 @ 2:00 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

A tiny bit of background… Owen decided maybe two months or so ago that he wanted a pool party at our community pool for his birthday. We were totally on board with this idea since it would be inexpensive (no cost for the pool and we just have to buy food and drinks) and he could invite his whole class. Well, loooooong story short, we are still going to have a summer birthday party, but we will only be inviting a select number of friends…and in honor of his actual birthday, we are letting him have his very first sleepover!

So in preparation for the sleepover, one of the invitees came over for an extended play date today—it would also be his first away-from-home sleepover and we thought it best for him to be comfortable with us, the animals, the house, etc. His mom and I chatted for about a half hour (they were the ones we sat with during Bingo Night) and then she left.

The kids had a great time! There were light saber fights, beanbag jumping (with only a few warnings to be careful), and then finally…Legos!

When the visit got extended and I needed time to prep dinner without wondering what they were up to about the house, I finally let them watch a half hour of TV. 🙂

Catching up on school work

Posted on January 26, 2015 @ 11:47 am by Jen — 1 Comment ↓

I’ve been very bad about scanning and posting Owen’s schoolwork/homework and art projects as they come home…so these are not really in any particular order, except I guessed on the dates and they’re all from about Thanksgiving to the end of the year. 🙂

The robot-like creatures are from a video game he plays with daddy and the numbers above them are their “health” in the game.

At the time he told me what this was, but we’ve both since forgotten.

This was from months ago, but I just took a picture of him with it this morning. It’s a playground he designed.

I love this monster!

Better pictures of the satchel he made for the Thanksgiving Feast.

He came home with this turkey and honestly, the vegetable- and God-feathers threw me. One, he dislikes vegetables and two, we are not religious (and there has been no discussion of religion of any kind—not on purpose…it just hasn’t come up) so we were confused as to how he’d come up with being thankful for both those things. We asked him and he did the shrug-his-shoulders answer. I was thinking maybe he brought home the wrong turkey or took someone else’s feathers (because they didn’t really look like his handwriting) so I actually emailed his teacher! Turns out, after more subtle questioning, he just borrowed ideas from his classmates and copied some of the things they wrote!

Owen was VERY excited about the Hour of Code and everyone got a certificate! (The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.)

Mom, notice the bubble light? 🙂

They learned about all different holiday traditions…

My second Christmas wreath!

Posted on January 5, 2015 @ 2:10 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

I had wanted to make this wreath last year but I ran out of red ornaments. I waited until this Christmas hoping to find the same or similar ornaments on clearance again at Target but I was not successful. So I had to make do with what I found on Clearance at Michael’s. It looks nice enough, but I see all the flaws that occurred while making it.

Dinosaur Twins

Posted on January 1, 2015 @ 7:50 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Santa brought Katie Dino PJs to match big brother!

Now we have two dinosaurs with cute little tails! (I tried to get them both to hold them for the picture but after eight shots I gave up.)

Lego Movie T-Shirt Twins

Posted on December 30, 2014 @ 8:27 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Santa brought both of them the same Lego Movie T-shirt!

Watching from as close as she’s allowed!

Posted on December 29, 2014 @ 7:15 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Katie didn’t follow the rules earlier so she doesn’t get to play with the new toy. But she’s as close as she can legally get.

His first complete bead project!

Posted on December 26, 2014 @ 8:05 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Working hard…

Ta da! An ornament!

Tom and I need practice melting the beads together…it sounds easy but isn’t. We pressed too hard and sealed the center circles which you’re not supposed to do. 🙂

“I like to painting! I need more water!”

Posted on December 25, 2014 @ 12:41 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

His first two Lego projects!

Posted on December 25, 2014 @ 11:12 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

He didn’t get them out until almost lunch!

The Mixel he asked Santa for!

Beads instead of Legos?

Posted on December 25, 2014 @ 8:04 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Surprisingly he wanted to open the beads first instead of Legos!

Two Darth Vaders

Posted on December 25, 2014 @ 7:56 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Charlie and the mouse!

Posted on December 25, 2014 @ 7:35 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Santa wasn’t going to get the cats anything because Charlie is the only one that eats treats and neither one really play with toys…but they had stockings hanging so I had to put something in them…so I got a bag of mice at the dollar store. Katie had to give the mice to Charlie right away—and Charlie actually played with it!

Throughout the day, Katie would randomly bring the mice to Charlie but of course Charlie was done. 🙂

Santa was here! He left bags!

Posted on December 25, 2014 @ 7:32 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

The kids slept in until after 6:30 (normal).

He loved his new shoes—they have FLAMES on them! A size 3 if you can believe it!

Digging into her bag!

A Pirate Lego game!

The Frozen headband had to go on right away!

TUTU PANTS!

She got a Yoda ornament and put it right on the tree. She also got a fragile Princess Sofia ornament and of course wanted to play with that one!

She got her own old iPhone so there are no screaming fights about sharing Owen’s.

Owen was SUPER EXCITED about getting this dollar store skateboard! He had mentioned a skateboard a few times I didn’t pay any attention because I had already bought all his stuff—but I saw it at the dollar store Christmas Eve when I went to pick up a few stocking stuffers so had to get it.

From walking in to the last stocking present opened, it was just under 30 minutes! Phew!

Santa is done!

Posted on December 24, 2014 @ 8:53 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

I had bought the extra-large Santa gift bags from Pottery Barn Kids last year (on clearance!), thinking that it would limit me to that many gifts…except holy cow were the bags HUGE! Santa had about 10 gifts for each kid and barely filled the bottom of the sacks (though, granted, none of their gifts were that big)! At least we’ll get to use them for many years to come…

New matching Christmas jammies!

Posted on December 24, 2014 @ 7:20 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Their first set of matching PJs! Both kids LOVED them—they were both dancing and prancing around.

Now with Santa hats!

Then the playing!

“Where’s Katie?!”

“Here I am!”

Watching their videos from Santa

Posted on December 24, 2014 @ 6:45 pm by Jen — 1 Comment ↓

Santa emailed the kids! 🙂

Interesting sticker placement.

Posted on December 24, 2014 @ 11:40 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

Gramma Jean got Katie a Disney sticker book and she had zero interest in it when she opened it. However, today she got it out on her own and I saw her doing this: taking out a sticker, slapping it on her chest, taking another sticker, slapping it on her chest… There was a huge stack there!

Still in the ballerina…plus a backpack.

Posted on December 24, 2014 @ 7:45 am by Jen — No Comments ↓

She slept in the ballerina outfit and didn’t want to take it off, so I added tights and a long-sleeved shirt…and she added the backpack (another gift from Gramma Jean) first thing!

A real ballerina!

Posted on December 23, 2014 @ 7:52 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Katie wasn’t too excited when she opened the real ballerina outfit from Gramma Jean because there was too much other stuff going on…but when things calmed down a bit, she had to wear it!

Opening presents via Skype, part 3!

Posted on December 23, 2014 @ 5:10 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Tonight was presents with Gramma Jean and Grandpa David!

The kids loved everything, but Katie really loved her Olaf hat and tea set (they’re having a tea party in the picture) and Owen picked the Magformers as his favorite! We ALL loved Owen’s MSU PJs and he was thrilled with his Lego Movie PJs, too!

Gingerbread House Close-Up!

Posted on December 23, 2014 @ 3:33 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

From 12/19 but I forgot I had the pictures on my real camera!

Making cookies for Santa!

Posted on December 21, 2014 @ 2:30 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

He did about three scoops and he was done. 🙂

He said we had to put out five cookies because that’s what we did last year. I asked if he was sure. He went over and pointed to the picture (on the calendar) of Christmas Eve (which is the picture of him with Santa’s cookies last year) and yep, five cookies. 🙂 I should know not to doubt his memory.

Opening presents via Skype, part 2!

Posted on December 21, 2014 @ 12:00 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Today we opened presents from Grauntie Marge!

They got to see Katie dance around with her dolly in their new matching outfits (I didn’t get a picture of it because they were watching live and I can’t take pictures at the same time!).

And Katie loved her new Frozen sheets!

And Owen LOVED his Robot Turtles game. We watched some videos online about how to play, then we played, and after we put it away he kept running around the house playing a full-sized version. 🙂

Bouncy Birthday Party

Posted on December 20, 2014 @ 6:20 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Owen was invited to a birthday party of the twins in his class (the same family that gave Katie her black ballerina outfit a ways back). It was at a bouncy place that had glow-in-the-dark lights. Tom took him because (long story short) I was told Katie couldn’t participate. Tom said when he got there, Owen turned super shy…but quickly got into it and had a BLAST.

And here’s Owen racing up the slide! I made sure he wore a neon shirt so he’d really stand out! And action video!

Here’s the group:

And some of the boys from his class (Xander, Colton, and Manuel).

And then after the party, they stopped at Wendy’s for dinner!

Opening presents via Skype!

Posted on December 20, 2014 @ 2:20 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

It’s at times like this that I love technology!

Owen’s first shopping spree

Posted on December 16, 2014 @ 7:10 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Owen’s school offered a Penguin Shop for the kids to shop for inexpensive gifts for their families. I volunteered one afternoon and it was…a little crazy. 🙂 Owen had $10 to spend on gifts for me, dad, and Katie. He came home with something for each of us (plus about $3 left over) and he was SO excited for us to open them…so we finally did tonight.

I got a cupcake pencil sharpener, Tom got a purple high-heeled shoe pencil sharpener, and Katie got a barrette with a feather on it! Our very first gifts from Owen with no parental input whatsoever! I told Tom I would switch him sharpeners, but he said no way—he was keeping the very first gift his boy bought him! 🙂

Katie LOVED her feather…

Christmas with Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob!

Posted on December 16, 2014 @ 1:01 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

We celebrated Christmas this morning because Owen was home from school…due to ongoing constipation issues (he had been heavily medicated but NOTHING was happening and I hadn’t wanted to send him to school just in case).

She LOVED her princess tutu, crown, and wand! After about 10 minutes, we were all tired of the wand because it lit up AND made noise! (The crown lights up, too, but thankfully doesn’t make noise!)

Uncle Rob helped Owen with the Legos after Owen got stuck and I tried and gave up. 🙂

Stockings from Grandma!

Posted on December 15, 2014 @ 8:30 pm by Jen — 1 Comment ↓

The kids were itching to open all the presents they saw Grandma and Uncle Rob bring in, but it was a little late in the evening…so we just let them open the stocking stuff.

Katie LOVES Yoda!

My ornament hanger!

Posted on December 15, 2014 @ 6:19 pm by Jen — No Comments ↓

Katie LOVES hanging ornaments on the tree! As it happens, we’ve actually received a few ornaments since we initially decorated the tree, so she’s gotten to hang a few. This one today came from Grannie Lin and Papa and she had to run right to the tree to hang it! She does a pretty good job, too!

And a closeup of the Michigan ornament. I think the UP has grown since we’ve last been there. 🙂

Santa Visit (Fail) 2014

Posted on December 13, 2014 @ 11:03 am by Jen — 1 Comment ↓

I didn’t want to wait in any long lines so after requesting advice from a local facebook group, we decided to visit the Santa at the new Gander Mountain. Both kids hadn’t been able to stop talking about seeing Santa and they were SUPER excited leading up to the day…until we actually saw him, at which point neither kid wanted ANYTHING to do with him. Owen hid in a clothes rack and Katie begrudgingly got carried up by daddy. (And this is precisely why I didn’t want to spend any amount of time waiting in a line.)

This was their best shot. Not too bad. It was actually neat—they took the picture with an iPad and then emailed it to you right then and there.

After Katie was done, Owen decided he wanted to try again…so we tried to get them both on Santa’s lap. Ha. Ha ha. This time, Owen was pretty good, but Katie was still being a poop. This is the best one they got.