3,2,1.... Happy New Year

We celebrated the New Year at the Children's Museum. The kids had a blast. They made crafts from around the world; Native American necklaces, Chinese lanterns, Hawaiian grass skirts, and Japanese fans. We watched some African dancers, participated in the parade to Time Square and then counted down the minutes till NOON! Then we had a snack and went dancing :)

Ah.. home again, home again.

We returned from our Christmas trip yesterday evening and spent the day catching up on laundry, getting flu shots, and emptying the china cabinet in preparation for the floor to go in tomorrow morning.

Now to back up a little!
Genie had a great time at her gymnastics "competition". She got to perform her routines on the bar, floor, vault (well at this age they use a tall mat not an actual vault), and beam. All the kids who participated received a medal and their "scores" at the end. I do have some pictures. My digital camera broke at the gym (just in time for Christmas) but I have some on the video camera which I left in St. Louis.

Santa made an early visit to our house on Saturday morning to leave a new DVD player for T (along with a new Dora movie), a game boy and game for G, and a new game boy game a sparring gear for E. The intended purpose was to make the trip easier but G, as much as she has begged for a game boy for months, just wanted to watch T's Dora video. We made Christmas cookies at Grandma's on Sunday and then DH and I got to go out shopping and dinner and a movie all by ourselves! Monday was "midnight mass" at 5pm LOL and then dinner and a gift exchange at great grandma's. It was really nice to see everyone.

Christmas morning came early! The kids seemed pleased with their gifts. T is having a great time with her piano and puzzles, and E has spent a good portion of the day putting together bionicles. G, well, lets just say I completed the Disney Cinderella game boy game in the car yesterday and married my Prince.

Kitchen Update +

The kitchen is coming along well. The cabinets are done (although the doors won't go back on the bottom ones till the new counter tops are in.) The new dishwasher went in today- I can't wait to use it! The floors go in next Friday but it will be 4-6 weeks on the counter tops, ugh.

School is out for Christmas break! And no more dance, gymnastics or boyscouts till next year. I was so happy last night to reach the "end" of activities. I like that the kids stay busy and that they enjoy what they are doing but Tuesdays and Wednesdays kill me. School gets out at 3. On Tuesdays we have gymnastics for the girls from 4:30-5:30 and then E has boyscouts at 6:30 with dinner in between. On Wednesdays we have dinner at 4. E has karate at 5 then I run over to dance to drop G off at dance at 5:30, then back to pick E up at 5:45 then back to dance, the kids have a snack in the car while we wait for G's class to be over at 6:30. Then home and E takes and shower I give T a bath while G has her snack and then she gets in the shower after T. Oh, I need a rest!

Tonight is karate at 6:30 and tomorrow G has a gymnastics "competition" (I'll post about it), but no more craziness for 2 whole weeks.

Merry Chirstmas from the bath tub?

There is not really much new here- I just wanted to share this picture of the girls using their bath bubbles to make Santa beards :) Work on the kitchen is still progressing. W is finishing the fronts of the cabinet doors and then they will be done. The new dishwasher is being install on Wednesday. We have the flooring and are waiting on the call to set up installation. The counter tops are ordered but will take 4-6 weeks to come in.

This will be a busy week! Today is the boyscout Christmas party, Sunday G has a birthday party to go to, Monday is T's school Christmas party, Tuesday the Christmas cards are going out (I promise), Wednesday is the dishwasher, Thursday is the big kids Christmas parties (and maybe the floor install?), Friday we pack and Saturday morning is home for Christmas!!

Santa

The kids and I headed to the mall yesterday to see Santa and get their wishes turned in. Luckily no surprises there since the shopping is all done :) T hid from him at first and wouldn't sit on his lap but she did stand in front of him for her pictures and she told him what she wanted for Christmas. After that we went around the back side to take some pictures in front of the tree for our Christmas card. I got a few good pictures before being thrown out by mall security. Apparently taking pictures in the mall is against the rules. The security guard even went so far as to tell me it is because the Santa people are trying to make money. Well I already gave them my $20 for their horrible pictures... I can see the headline now- Family Arrested at Local Mall for Taking Pictures in Front of a Christmas Tree. LOL.

Anyway after that excitement we went home and got in our PJs, had breakfast for dinner, and watched Christmas specials.

Check out T singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPP5WlW2LaQ


And here is the video of E's kata that I have been trying to load since his belt test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SJwg4xHXCk

Phone Call

So as you can see from my Links- I love K-Love it is an awesome radio station that not only play contemporary christian music that I (and the kids) enjoy, but I also don't have to worry that my kids might hear something inappropriate coming over the airwaves. But besides all that it is just a great ministry they have staff pastors and the staff gets together regularly during the day to pray for the staff, listeners and prayer request that have been called in.

Well today I learned something new! Diving home from PTA my cell phone rings, of course I am thinking it is DH wondering when I am going to be home or having a question about putting the kids to bed :). But it is a California number. It is a woman calling form K-love (the radio station) asking me if I have any prayer requests I would like to make or if there is anything she could do for me- listen, pray!!! I have never had a CHURCH do that, it's a radio station! I pray where ever we move next has K-love and thanks to Amy for getting me listening when we lived in Chesapeake.

Christmas Parade

Last night was the town Christmas parade. E rode on his Boy Scout Pack float and G rode on her dance troop float. Since it was dark the pictures didn't turn out so hot but if you look closely there is a green arrow above E's head on their boat float and a red arrow above G's head on their sleigh float. T had a good time watching the parade and Santa Clause was sitting next to us so he gave the girls teddy bears and I took their picture (G's float was near the beginning of the parade so she came back and sat with us to watch the rest). It has always puzzled me why they start the parade so late in the day. At least it wasn't so cold this year,we froze last year!

Enchanted

Since DH was working hard on the kitchen we stayed out of the way yesterday and went to see Enchanted after school http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/enchanted/ . I was worried about a princess movie for E and that T might get bored but, all three of the kids loved it. When they got to the ball I told G I thought it was almost over and she replied "no it is not this isn't romantic enough and anyway they haven't said happily ever after yet." Sure enough it all ends happily ever after!