Pony Painting

Tom stole a Melissa & Doug painting Kit in the white elephant gift exchange at the party last night since there wasn’t really anything else we needed (or could steal). We knew Katie would love it. (On a side note, who puts a kids gift in an adult exchange? Really?! The other part of the gift was a huge rubber duckie…which the kids also got.)

   
 

A little bouncing. 

The place where the kids have swim lessons (and Owen had his summer activity camp) had an Open House today so people could swim and bounce for free to test it out. The kids have been asking to bounce, so we thought it would be a fun thing today. Owen loved it, but Katie was pretty much a mess. There were A TON of kids there (including a lot of rambunctious and NOT well-behaved ones which made everything worse) and she had a fit on every bounce house because there were “too many people” — except it was mostly her fault because unless she was the only one on the ladder, she would stop wherever she was and then as the kids would try to get past her and she’d get upset (and if she’d just have kept going up the ladder, they would have gone up behind her and things would have been just fine). So…we didn’t stay quite as long as we anticipated.

2015 Videos from Santa!

We got these from Santa about a week or so ago. The kids were very excited to watch them! Do you think they both made the naughty or nice list? The kids LOVE these videos SO much and get SO excited about them it’s worth the $12 I pay to make them. 🙂

Owen – Secret Places

Katie – Tour the Post Office

And surprise! Tonight we got these two new videos! Uncle Rob and daddy were able to watch along with us!

Owen – Movie Star

Katie – Elf House

Morning Program Poetry Helper

Every week, 10 students help read a poem during Morning Program. This week was finally Owen’s turn! Daddy didn’t think he was going to be able to make it…but he did! And Uncle Rob was there, too!

  
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We couldn’t hear him, of course, but his lips were moving and he wasn’t crying or hiding so it was all good!

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Katie LOVES swinging.

She still swings the entire time I’m taking my walk (which is about 18-20 minutes). I usually still have to get her started with a big push, but today she started all on her own! She was waiting for me to come push her and was just swinging her legs back and forth…and she started moving. I saw it happening and procrastinated getting over there…and soon she was swinging as high as ever! I love her hair in slo-mo!

With her friend Cayenne.

Another great slo-mo on the slide.

Kidisms 20

Me: Katie, can you help me put these [dishes] away?
Katie: Of course, my dear!

We were shopping at Marshall’s and testing out a squeaker dog toy.
Me: [squeak squeak]
Katie: MAMA! That’s Maggie’s sound!!

I cracked my neck.
Katie: Mama! Don’t break your bones!

Katie wanted to take a picture of me so I gave her my phone. She backed up, looked to be framing the shot, and took the picture.

Me, looking at it: Good job, Bug!
Katie, smiling proudly: I made sure your head wasn’t cut off!

Seeing a mannequin in lingerie at Kohl’s:
Katie: Mama! She forgot to put clothes on!

Another shot at Santa

Our community clubhouse had cookies and activities with Santa this morning, so we thought we’d try with the kids again—just in case we got a better picture (since I could dress the kids up).

But first, the at-home pictures:

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And then while waiting for Santa, they did some crafts and coloring:

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Katie wanted NOTHING to do with Santa, so it was just Owen!

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But she did make more rings to put on the tree!

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Katie’s afternoon challenge

She’s done a handful of letters at a time but never the whole set…but she’s very good at it so I dumped them all out and left her to it.

She did quite well until a little more than halfway through when she started whining that it was useless and she couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to help her too much, but I arranged them a bit and tried to put wrong letters in wrong pieces which got her interested again (to tell me I was wrong).

Finished!

Putting them away!