Words of wisdom from a 7-year old

Tonight I was straightening up the living room when I found this piece of paper under the desk:

"you know every one should be nice when it's Christmas cause Santa Clause has his eyes on you so you better do nice things your friends and everyone else cause if you do you will get presents from Santa Clause but you'll still get presents from your family but you still should be nice you get candy and hot chockalte with marshmellows also cookies Christmas is the best time of the year!"


I agree!

St. Nick and Christmas Cookie Time

After yesterday's early start because of breakfast with Santa, I thought for sure the girls would be up and at 'em again this morning for St. Nick's day. Surprisingly, they both slept in until after 7, and then just sat on the couch to watch a show, not even noticing the full stockings sitting under the tree. M&M Dad had to go remind them, and then they came scurrying in to "wake" me up. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because Jr. Princess has lately taken to sleeping in just her underwear (she definitely doesn't get her hot-bodiedness from me!) and has most of her stocking emptied before I thought I should make her put on a shirt for decent photos. They got Old Maid and Pass the Pigs (among other things) which kept us busy most of the morning.

Then it was on to commence Cookie Baking 2009. I definitely required shirts for this, so I got good pictures of their favorite part, crushing of candy canes for M&M Dad's pinwheel cookies.

I think there will be more pictures later -M&M Dad said he would construct an indoor obstacle course to help burn off some energy on this very cold day...

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday the girls were up at the crack of dawn - excited to go off and have breakfast with Santa at my work. The retirees do a wonderful job organizing it. We have a huge breakfast of kid favorites (french toast sticks, donut holes, Trix yogurt, fruit, chocolate milk...) and plenty for the adults, too. Then there are tables to learn about other culture's holidays while you are waiting your turn to sit on Santa's lap. They love to spin the dreidal and get Chinese dragon tattoos. The only bummer was the Diwali table wasn't doing henna tattoos - which were a huge hit last year.

Jr. Princess has been waiting all year to show Santa her fabulous Santa outfit she got last Christmas from Grandpa L. It is a touch snug because she is growing like a weed, but she squeezed herself into it and was super excited when both Santa and Mrs. Claus commented on how great she looked.


They also gave Santa their lists...


All in all, it was a great Saturday morning.

Decorating the Tree

Tonight we put up the Christmas tree, which was a fun family evening. The girls are finally old enough to be lots of help, and we only broke one ornament (actually, it was M&M Dad). Of course, the biggest fun of the evening, apparently, was playing with the empty Christmas tote...

It was rainbow assembly day at Starshine's school, and her grade was assigned orange, so her all-orange outfit was a bizarre bit of Halloween spirit amid the Christmas decorating...

Jr. Princess was all smiles...

It was Starshine's turn to top the tree (with a little help from a super tall M&M Dad)...

Now it's off to bed to rest up for a very exciting "Breakfast with Santa" in the morning!

Tugging at my heart strings...

Yesterday when I picked up Jr. Princess from daycare, the teachers showed me the poster they made after their group time discussion about occupations titled, "What Occupation Will You Be?". My heart just melted when I saw Jr. Princess's answer - "make cereal like my mommy."

I was especially impressed that she has a general sense of what I do (which may be because she and Starshine were super excited when they found out recently that my work makes Lucky Charms). When Starshine was this age, she put on a school poster that "Mommy washes dishes" and "Daddy hammers stuff." Ha!

Family Talent Show 2009

After a long year of planning and keeping secrets, we had our second annual Thanksgiving Family Talent Show. It was a rousing success, and we especially credit our new guests who rose to the occasion and came prepared with a talent act.

Here is a quick montage to help you remember all of the laughs...

Note to self: Next year show how Minnesota fans can sing the school song without a cheat sheet!

If Starshine had a million dollars...

Last week Starshine came home singing "If I had a Million Dollars," which she learned in music class. We had a fun dinner discussion deciding what we would all do. Well, apparently they also made posters in class, and she brought hers home tonight.


Here is what was on her poster:

• I would buy all the webkins in the world
• My house would connect to my friends house
• I would buy Target
• I would buy diamonds
• I would buy all the dresses in the world
• I would buy 80 PetShops
• I would have 60 Barbie dolls
• 10 treehouses
• I'd live in a castle
• Every limo in the world
• 70 Maids
• 16 houses
• I would buy a dolphin to ride to school (M&M Dad's favorite)

Ahhh to be 7.

Note to Grandmas: There appear to be some Christmas present themes in here.

Clueless Mom Moment

So I had a few moments in the kitchen this evening, waiting for M&M Dad to arrive home for dinner, so I decided to check my email. I opened the latest edition of Starshine's school newsletter and scrolled through boring announcements: book fair dates, blah, blah, blah... Then...

Student Council - 2nd grade - Mrs. XXXXXX class - Starshine

Huh?

Me - "Starshine - you're in student council???"
Starshine - "yeah, I told you that"
Me - "No you didn't"
Starshine - "Yeah, remember when we had elections in class?"

Um - ok, but the way she described the election it sounded like a mock election for election day. Seriously, they send home all kinds of useless paperwork. You think they would send home some sort of "You're daughter is in student council" note. I wonder what else I'm going to learn next week at conferences...

Separate Fun on Saturday

This Saturday we ended up having separate fun with the girls.

The day started with a trip to Home Depot for more caulk (I am about to go postal on our shower where every time I caulk it ends up peeling right off...). It was Kid Project day, so the girls got to make cute trivets. Though, every kid that showed up at the table said, "what's a trivet?" Home Depot needs to contemporize a little...

Then, I took Jr. Princess with me on a volunteer driving trip to a kids theater. The kid we were supposed to drive cancelled at the last minute (as in the minute I showed up at her house), so Jr. Princess and I went by ourselves and had lots of fun.

Starshine and M&M Dad ended up biking (because it was GORGEOUS out) to Wendy's to use her free Frosty coupons from Halloween, followed by baseball at the park, and home for some Wii fun. Now, M&M Dad and I are definitely out of Wii practice, because it is our "we need something to do when it is cold and dark here" hobby, but who knew M&M Dad was this out of practice...

Jr. Princess and I got home just in time to see her first victory at bowling over M&M Dad (who even admits he didn't let her win). We thought it was definitely worthy of putting a picture on the blog.

Of course, Jr. Princess then had to play. And seriously, with no help from me, her score beat M&M Dad's, too!

We then had a delicious dinner at Good Earth. We ordered the edamame appetizer, which is the girls current favorite food item. I love that they get seriously EXCITED over a green vegetable. My entree came with a little pumpkin cake for dessert, which all the girls loved, so we will definitely be making something pumpkin-y at home soon!

Happy Halloween!

Saturday was a long day waiting for it to get dark. I thought the girls were going to explode with anticipation. After an early dinner, we headed to the bathroom to start getting ready.

This year the girls wanted to be matching witches, which worked for me considering Starshine was a witch last year. So, we only had to buy another witch hat, some green hair spray, and some face paint. I crafted another black skirt out of scrap fabric, and luckily we already had dark coats and gloves, because it was a bit chilly. We bypassed the black spider and black sparkly tights in favor of two pairs of pants under the skirts.

I think the black lipstick really completed the ensembles. Here they are posing with their "I'll get you my pretty" faces...

Our little social butterfly Starshine, of course, got invited to go trick-or-treating with a friend up the street. So M&M Dad took the girls out for round one as I handed out candy. It was pretty cute because it turned out the friend was a witch, too.

Meanwhile...

Last year Auntie and I noticed a very smart neighbor up the street sitting in her driveway, by a fire pit, relaxing, handing out candy. Genius! So this year I had M&M Dad light a fire in our driveway while I was dressing up the girls. Then, I sat toasty warm, listening to my Ipod, and watching the cute neighbor kids run around like sugar-crazed maniacs. This was WAY better than going up and down the stairs of our split level all night. I was a little reluctant to give up my spot to M&M Dad as the girls circled back to head up the street the other way, but I did have fun running after them trick-or-treating.

A fun night, for sure!