.

Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 Christmas Program

Our local homeschool group hosts a Christmas showcase each December.  I co-lead our preschool group, so all three of the kids got to sing along and shake some bells to a Jingle Bells recording.  I think they enjoyed their time in the spotlight, although they definitely got impatient waiting for the other acts to round out the show.  Here are a few pics from the night.

IMG_4052 IMG_4073 IMG_4074

Christmas 2010

Christmas always starts with opening jammies on Christmas eve.  This year each kid got their pj’s and ornament on Christmas eve.  Here is Jake with his Luke Skywalker ornament.  Grace got a Tinkerbell ornament, and Clare got a kitty ornament.

IMG_4119

The kids in their Christmas jammies posing with their Gree Gree.

IMG_4149

The family!

IMG_4153

Christmas morning was so exciting.  Here comes Grace to see the presents with Jake right behind.

IMG_4154 IMG_4155

Clare makes a stop at the stockings.

IMG_4156

Each kid got a pillow pet from Santa.  Clare got a bear (fitting, huh?), Jacob got a puppy, and Grace got a kitty.  They also got kid-sized desks that Santa built especially for them.

IMG_4157 

Then everyone started into the wrapped presents.

IMG_4158 IMG_4159

Jacob got three sets of Star Wars Legos.

IMG_4161 IMG_4165

Clare got a mini Kit doll and a mini Ruthie doll.

IMG_4172

Grace got Ruthie, Kit’s best friend.  Not sure how I missed that one!  The rest of the day was spent visiting family (and I forgot the camera).  We all had a great Christmas 2010!

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

St. Nicholas Day and Santa at the Y

One of the things I love about being Catholic is all of the feast days throughout the year.  Monday was the feast of St. Nicholas, a generous bishop.  See here for more info on the real St. Nicholas.  So on Sunday evening before they went to bed, the kids put their shoes out in hopes that St. Nicholas would leave them a small treat.  And he did!  Each shoe (even Kit’s) had some chocolate coins.  Grace also got an American Girl book called Dance!  Jacob got R4-P17, and Clare got a small Yoda figurine.  They were all thrilled with their treats, and I’m pretty sure we had chocolate for breakfast.

IMG_4043

On Saturday, Santa visited the local YMCA.  Clare wanted nothing to do with the poor man, but when she saw that Mrs. Claus had candy, she happily posed with her.  She’s a smart girl, that one!  Now we just have to wait for Santa to make his visit on Christmas eve!

IMG_4039 IMG_4042

Houston Children’s Museum

For Clare’s birthday, Aunt Kelly decided to take us all to the Children’s Museum rather than give a physical present.  We finally had a chance to go the week of Thanksgiving.  The museum was a zoo!  We had a great time despite momentarily losing Jake. 

All of the kids loved the water area.  I didn’t get many pictures inside the museum because I was too busy trying to keep an eye on everyone.  We’ll definitely have to go back when everyone is a little bit older, and we will definitely pick a day that is not during a holiday week.

Thanks for a fun time Aunt Kelly!

IMG_4008_1 IMG_4011_1 IMG_4015_1 IMG_4016_1 IMG_4019_1

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Random (Mostly) Iphone Photos

At a St. Thomas game

Back Camera

After a Home Depot kids workshop

Back Camera

At an Astros game

Back Camera

Front Camera Back Camera

S’mores at a YMCA movie night

IMG_0167 IMG_0175 IMG_0177

Coloring at Aunt Kelly’s

IMG_0223

Mommy’s Birthday

IMG_0441

Sisters swinging with their dolls

IMG_3943

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A Pony Party

On Saturday we went to a little friend’s 3rd birthday party, and the theme was, as you can guess, ponies!  The kids were so excited to see and ride real live ponies.  Those ponies were definitely a hit, let me tell you!  The twins loved riding and feeding the ponies.  Clare didn’t want to ride, but we convinced her to sit on one for about a minute.  She did feed the pony an apple though!  Definitely a fun time!

Monday, November 15, 2010

All Saints’ Party

Every year our local Catholic homeschool group has an All Saints’ party.  We haven’t been able to make it the past two years (one year we were at a wedding and the other due to a fun stomach virus), so we were really excited to finally make this event.  The kids and grown-ups had a great time.  Although, next year we are definitely sharing a game with another couple of families.  Each family or group of families hosts a game for the kids to play.  We did our own game this year, which meant that George had to man the game while I took the kids around to play the other games.  It would have been much better to share a game with another family or two so that we both could take the kids to the other games while the other families run the game. 

Here are our saints:

Saint Anthony of Padua

 IMG_0595

Our Lady of Grace

Saint Clare

IMG_3931

Here we are in the saint parade:

IMG_3941

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A Star Wars Halloween

Jacob’s Star Wars obsession has rubbed off on the rest of us.  So much so, that all three kids went as Star Wars characters for Halloween. 

Meet Luke Skywalker, Yoda, and Princess Leia…

Friday night , two days before Halloween, our local village center had trick-or-treating.  All the stores have someone sit outside their doors and pass out candy to all the kids.  It’s an easy, safe way for our family to trick-or-treat, and this is the 3rd year we have been. 

IMG_0586 

IMG_0587

We enjoyed a little Freebirds before heading to the village center.

 

Our street always has a Halloween block party, and this year was no exception.  Our street has cul-de-sacs on both ends and you enter from a small street that tees into it.  We all gather where the tee is and pass out candy while we grill and eat other side dishes that each family brings.  It’s nice for us to sit outside all together, and it’s one stop shopping for the trick-or-treaters.  Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

On Saturday between the Friday evening trick-or-treating and the Sunday block party, we attended our local Catholic homeschool group’s annual All Saints’ Party.  But I’ll leave that for another post…