12.17.11

Gingerbread Houses

Posted in Alex, Beth at 9:13 pm by Shannon

Today we had a busy day. We started our morning by putting together the side walls of the kid’s gingerbread kits. That step had to sit for an hour, so we had breakfast while we waited.


(Lest anyone think I actually had time to mess around with trying to bake these things myself, I bought the kits a few days ago at Michael’s. I bought two simply because I did not want to deal with two kids trying to decorate the same house!)

At 9:15 we put the roofs on. That step had to sit for 2-3 hours. Fortunately for me, we already had plans for the rest of the morning.


We left almost immediately, headed for Discovery World and it’s two day train exhibit. The kids lasted there for 3 hours! That was an hour longer than we thought we’d be there. At one table, the kids both got to run a train.


We moved on after the trains and checked out the rest of the museum. We got home about 1:30 and made lunch before getting ready to decorate the gingerbread houses.

Here’s a few shots of them before, during, and after decorating. Alex did some of his piping, but I did all of Beth’s and the rest of Alex’s. I think they had fun doing it. I would *maybe* like to make my own next year, but I have to plan really far ahead because I’ve heard the gingerbread part can be difficult. (Can you tell Alex just loves having his pictures taken these days? :) )











12.12.11

Beth’s First Ballet Recital

Posted in Beth at 10:32 pm by Shannon

The parents were invited in tonight for the last 15 minutes of Beth’s last Ballet class of the session. Granted, the teacher asked me to stick around for each class after week 3, but Eric had not attended before. I still enjoy watching her after all these weeks, but he also said it was very cute and I think he was glad he came.

I opted to make a video in the hopes that we could get some pictures from it later. Which I’m sure I will. But for now, here’s the video. Please note that the songs range from 2 minutes to almost 5 minutes, so it may take a little bit of time to download the movie. Enjoy!

Frosty the Snowman:

Their usual warm-up song (yes, she did this second):

Going on a Bear Hunt:

12.04.11

Countdown to Christmas

Posted in Alex at 9:12 am by Shannon

Last year before Christmas, Alex brought home a Santa face with rings attached to the bottom so that we could count down the days to Christmas. This year, it was a bell with a really cute poem:



Click to make this bigger (and readable):

12.03.11

Screwdriver?

Posted in Beth at 9:09 am by Shannon

Last weekend I was standing in the kitchen when Beth walked in. She headed straight for a drawer, opened it and reached in. Came out with a screwdriver. Then she walked out of the kitchen with it, without saying a word. So I followed her. Then I went and got the camera because this is what she was doing:

She had dropped something down the grate and was trying to get it out herself. Fortunately for me, she had the wrong screwdriver because a few minutes later, she dropped that in too. :-)

11.30.11

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Posted in Alex, Beth, NaBloPoMo at 8:58 pm by Shannon

Well here it is, the last day of NaBloPoMo. Somehow I thought that we’d have plenty to blog about, but at times I didn’t have much simply because of spending so much time at the Y. And time at the Y usually didn’t mean time with the kids, but rather time when kids were in classes and I was doing my own thing.

The new schedules came out for the two sessions running from Jan-April. We’ve scoped things out and I decided that since I am going to be taking a programming class through MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College) next semester, we’re going to cut Alex back to 2 classes instead of 3. In Feb when the 2nds session is starting, we’ll evaluate if we can handle more. Fortunately my class is online, so I can do the studying and homework on my schedule (i.e. after kids are in bed and on lunch-breaks) and not have to worry about making (or missing) actual classes. This class will help me to be more valuable at my work -and less likely to be laid off! And my work will even reimburse me for the tuition, so that makes it even better. I’ve been considering this for 2 years and could never find the time. Probably should have done it two years ago, but better late than never.

Anyway, the tentative plan puts all our classes on Mondays. Alex had expressed an interest in Karate many months back, so we asked him if he wanted to try
Tae Kwon Do. He very enthusiastically said yes! The only catch was the class was either Mon or Wed at 4pm. 4pm is a little early, even with me getting off work at 3:30. But I talked to my boss and I’ll work a little late on Tue to make up for leaving a little early on Mon. Beth absolutely loves Ballet and asks almost every night if we’re going to Ballet class. She’s so excited on Mondays when I can say yes! So she’s going to do that again for her class. And my bellydancing is moving from Wed nights to Mon nights, so we’ll get all our classes done in a single day, even mine.

So here’s the plan for Mondays during the Winter I session:
   4:00-4:45   Alex   Tae Kwon Do
   5:05-5:35   Alex   Swimming (Ray)
   5:45-6:15   Beth   At the Ballet
   7:45-8:45   Me     Bellydancing

My co-worker Lisa said that she could bring Adrianna to swim from 5:30-600 and watch Alex for me while I drop Beth off at class. Adrianna is taking the Ballet class after Beth’s, at 6:30, so they have to come to the Y anyway. I’ll come back to the pool and get him dressed before picking up Beth from her class. Mondays will be a little crazy, but it will be worth it not to have to run to the Y on 3 different days for 3 different classes. But since I cut the number of Alex’s classes back, and swimming is non-negotiable, ice skating is off the table for now. I’m a little bummed because I was enjoying it, but we can add it back in when things settle down. And once they open the ice rinks in the parks, I might be able to find time to take him to ice skate, since I can at least skate a little bit myself now.

I know that the Winter II session will change because Alex has to transition into the non-preschool swim classes and I really should get Beth back into swimming. By that point I can put her in the no-parent Pike class that Alex started in a few months ago. I’m looking at possibly Friday nights since that’s the only day I can coordinate their swim classes to be at almost the same time (and therefore only have to deal with showers once a week!) But as Eric would say, “That’s a long time off!”, so we can wait and see how things shake down.

11.29.11

Going on a Bear Hunt

Posted in Beth, NaBloPoMo at 8:42 am by Shannon

Last night Beth had Ballet again. We got there a little early. The teacher had some music playing. One of the songs is called Going on a Bear Hunt. (None of these versions in the link is exactly the version she has, but the words are the same.) Anyway… This song came on and Beth started doing the actions that go along with it. Then the other two girls started doing it with her. The teacher was just sitting and watching. Made me realize that even with all her playing around during class, something is sinking in because she knew exactly what to do for each part.

We got the book for next session and they changed the age limit on the class from 2-4 to 3-4. But the teacher said that since she’ll turn 3 during the class I can sign her up again. They also shortened the class to 30 minutes instead of 45, which I think is a good call. 45 minutes is a bit long for this age group. Of course, depending on what activity Alex wants to do in the Jan-Feb session, Beth might end up in the Sat class at a different location with a different teacher. But it’s still only a 35 minute class at that location as well.

11.28.11

Thankgiving dinner

Posted in Alex at 10:47 pm by Eric

While the Packers were beating the Loins, and the turkey was sitting in the brine, we stopped for lunch at some point. I told Alex he should think about what he is thankful for, because we would talk about it at Thanksgiving Dinner. I also mentioned that he should be on his best behavior, because this is an important holiday dinner. We got one out of two, which isn’t too bad.

So, after the turkey was roasted, and all of the good food was put onto the table, I asked Alex what he was thankful for.

Alex said, “I’m thankful for Grandma and Grampa.”

“And Momma, and Daddy.”

“And Beth.”

“And Jenna.”

Any water works yet, Grandma and Grampa?

Paladin

Posted in Beth, NaBloPoMo at 8:15 am by Shannon

Since the kids were born, we’ve only used one diaper rash cream – Paladin.

Alex didn’t really need much of the stuff over the years, but Beth has. And at this point, Beth will actually ask for the stuff by name. Whether she needs it or not. And her usual response as we’re putting in on is:

“Paladin. It’s my fa-vor-ite!”

11.27.11

Escape

Posted in Alex, NaBloPoMo at 11:15 am by Shannon

Yesterday morning Alex came into our bedroom, sounding worried.

Alex: “Mom! Mom! Beth escaped!”
Me: “Beth escaped because Daddy let her out. They’re downstairs already.”
(Beth had been gone for at least a half-hour.)
Alex: “Oh! OK.” And he races off and down the stairs.

Mama went back to sleep. :)

11.26.11

Trains!

Posted in NaBloPoMo at 5:23 pm by Shannon

So previously I mentioned that I spent several hours in the basement a few Saturday’s ago. I was cleaning out a section that we mostly used for empty box storage and storage of a few other things. That day I got everything cleared out and the floor clean, but we didn’t get any further.

So today I spent 3 hours in the basement and Eric spent at least 2 hours in the basement. We cut up the old carpet from the kid’s bedroom to fit the newly cleaned out space. Then we moved Alex’s train table over there to create a new space just for train-building. It looks nice. :)

This clears the way in the other section of the basement for some plans we have for Christmas.

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