Girls' Night!

Waaaaaaaaayyyyy back in July, just after the 4th Colin was invited to a classmate's birthday party. At Chuck E. Cheese. The mama refuses to acknowledge the existence to Chuck E Cheese, so it fell to the Dada to accompany the boy. So, Gillian and I had a Girl's Night Out. Gillian is an adventurous eater. So I took advantage of that and we went for Greek/Middle Eastern. And she loved it. Pita, hummus, and olives make the girl HAPPY.


We also stopped for some top-your-own frozen yogurt. We had the place to ourselves (it was early), so G turned the place into her own private dance studio.


Very fun night now. We should repeat it soon...if only I could convince the Dada to go back to Chuck E Cheese.

Spring Sing!

The kids' school held their annual 3 Year Old Spring Sing last week! They have been practicing for weeks and talking ALL about it. Colin came home from school and recited Miss Lanna's instructions to me on Tuesday: Drop us off in the room, go get a seat in the sanctuary, we will take the secret back way to the gym for ice cream. Oh, and Miss Lanna said to pee before we come ;) Ha.

Colin's room was asked to wear orange and Gillian's room was asked to wear yellow. G doesn't own much yellow...it's not so flattering on a blond. But, she had a cute dress with some yellow in it, so we were good. We took a few quick pictures before we left.

Colin is an a very odd phase and is taking some pretty horrible pictures...



Gillian is a bit more practiced at posing.


Group shots!




So, we followed all of Miss Lanna's instructions and Daddy and I found ourselves awaiting our little singers!


(Pardon the blur.)

The whole Crew.


They sang 6 or 7 songs. And C and G both did well, singing and doing the motions! So proud!

Look, they both ended up eating their clothes...



After the singing we had ice cream. That was Colin's favorite part. And pretty much the whole point of the evening, in his mind.





And Miss Lanna was kind enough to take a picture of all of us!


A very nice evening of music and FUN! And ice cream.

Christmast 2012, Part 1

We kicked off our Christmas extravaganza at Great-Grandma and Great-Papa's house the Sunday before Christmas.  Colin was sad there was lasagna, BUT Great Lori more than made up for it with homemade ice.  MORE than made up for it!

We all had a good time eating, visiting, playing, and, of course, kicking off of the present-palooza.

I think Matt and Rachel enjoyed their reindeer book for Baby To Be Named Later.



I KNOW Colin loved his skeleton sweatshirt.


Gillian enjoyed her goodies as well.


Oh yeah, and standing on Papa Greg.


After a fun afternoon, we headed over to Papa Frank and Grammy's house for Christmas with the Keisters.  YAY!  We always have the best time partying with them!  Gillian even did her Jingle Bell Rock for them!  And the ladies got to model the lovely scarves Mrs. K crocheted for us!
 

We had a good night sleep at GraGra's house (well, okay 3 out of 4 of us did) and we spent Christmas Eve hanging out, playing, and cooking.  We opened a few presents since Real Leah was headed back home.


Oh, this BOOK.  This fossil book was and is a HIT.  I am learning a lot.



No Pants Presents.


We had a delicious dinner prepared by GraGra, Uncle Stevie, Uncle Willis (and me) and AMAZINGLY it was served 5 minutes early this year!  Woo hoo!  Then it was time to get dolled up for church.
 

And a big thank you to Papa Greg for persevering to get a great family picture for us!  He had a lot of work to accomplish that!


We had a nice church service. Made me good and teary.  Then it was pajamas and cookies for the BIG GUY, then off to bed!



I think it took Gillian a bit to fall asleep, but Colin seemed to be out quickly.  They both slept well and LONG.  Miraculously, everyone slept past 7:30!  UNHEARD of!  More on the big day to come.....