School Christmas Parties

We are wrapping up school this week and the little ones had their parties and annual sing-along.  Grammy and Big Daddy even made appearances at the sing-along - Good Times!

Classroom party one 

Classroom party two!

Shooting at Mommy and Daddy

Big Daddy and O

Big Daddy and G 

O, G, Mommy and Grammy 

A perfect ending to a perfect day - lunch with friends at Chick-fil-a.  In matching shirts of course! 

Weekend in Review

It was Big Daddy's birthday this weekend, along with Nutcracker and Aunt B's birthday so we were busy, busy, busy!

We started our festivities with some gifting for BD - lots and lots of clothes from Banana, Gap and J. Crew - are those the only places men have to shop?  I think so.

We (he/I - ok I) like the fitted tees at J. Crew and Banana as well as the sweaters.  Gap had a sale on their sweaters - buy one get one free and 1/2 off their scarves so Big Daddy made out.  I think the thing he liked the best though was his Ipod nano and watch band.  The nano has watch face apps so you can change the look and it fits into a cool watchband!  BD wore it to the gym and was able to run his ear bud wire up his shirt sleeve - said it worked great.  Blessing #1 kept stealing it all weekend - I think we might need to email Santa and make a last minute addition to the list.  He could go to Target to buy the nano and get a $15 gift card with purchase.  He might need to run there this morning!

A little Big Daddy Bday love.  Blessing #1 is missing - still in bed!

Then it was a morning to afternoon at the office for BD - doesn't that stink - working on your bday??  We made up for it with a fun Saturday night and Sunday.  Meanwhile, back at the house - it was Nutcracker time!  Blessing #2 loves to go to the Nutcracker every year.  We go with my Mom - Grammy and usually some friends.  This year it was a ballet school/kindergarten buddy.  B2 was about to burst with excitement.

She wanted to put her dress up the second she got up - uh - we're leaving in 5 hours, you need to wait!  But finally, it was time.

Our pre-show photo shoot on the front porch.

After the show, they had a tea party.  The performers came out and signed the girls' programs.  Here's the Rat King - B#2 used to be petrified of it!  Oh how far we have come.

Pictures with Clara too.  This show is put on my B#2's ballet school.  She is now old enough to perform in the show but didn't want to tryout this year - too "a scared".  Maybe next year - I think she would love it.

After the show, it was back to the house to drop off kids and go out to dinner with Big D at a restaurant in our neighborhood.  We met some friends and drank too much wine and ate too much food.  A great time was had by all and i wish i took some pictures - but maybe it is best that I didn't!

Sunday we just hung around the house - watched Christmas movies - A Christmas Story and The Muppets Christmas Carol and just relaxed.  We ended our weekend with dinner out with family at the Yacht Club.

We had a good time - the food was good, the kids behaved and we celebrated two birthdays.  What more could we ask for.

Hope you had a good weekend too!

Lori

Teacher and friend gifts - done!

We spent yesterday afternoon putting our teacher and school/mom friends gifts together.  We used the peppermint cocoa mix that I found on another blog last year.  It looked so good, I pinned it on pinterest and have been waiting to make it for Christmas for almost a year!  I started off by making a batch for our family (me) - to make sure it was as awesome as it looked.  And let me tell you - - it is!  So chocolatey, minty and rich.  At the end of the cup, you are left with little bits of chocolate and peppermint to spoon into your mouth - delicious.

Here's the breakdown:

Powdered cocoa mix (we used nestles), mini semi-sweet chips, regular
semi-sweet chips, mini-marshallows and crushed peppermint sticks
(the big ones from dollar store)

Mix it all up and be sure to smile real big while doing it

lick the spoon when you are done stirring

Bag it in cellophane bags - adding extra chips, marshmallows and peppermints on top

Tag it with instructions and hand-drawn candy cane

Mom friends get cute mugs from Marshalls with cocoa inside.

These are the teacher gifts - mug from marshalls, bag of cocoa and gift card to Barnes and Noble.  I love these little bags - I have to remember to get them at Target again next year.  They were cute and easy.

Hope you are having a great holiday season Wendy - my one blog reader!

L.

Back to school

I know it is Christmas but I have to get some fall pictures up here for my kiddos - so better late than never - that's how we roll around here!  Let's start with back to school as I promised myself I will not spend more than 15 minutes on blogging per day - I need the rest of the time to read everyone else's blogs!

Blessing#1's first day of high school!  That's 9 fingers for 9th grade - he indulges me :  )

Blessing #2's first day of Kindergarten

Blessing #3's first day of pre-school

He wasn't afraid - just walked right up to the door

Big sister - ever protective

"I pway with toys!"  Enough said.

First Post!

Yeah - I am finally doing this!  I love reading other people's blogs.  I love how they are like scrapbooks without all the cutting, designing and paper pasting. I have friends with blogs and I love them.  I have a friend in particular who has encouraged me to start a blog - hello Wendy - but I have been hesitant.  Will I keep up with it?  What will I even post?  Will the Craigslist killer come into blog-land and get me??  Who knows but I am taking the plunge, if not for me, for my kids - so they will have a place to actually see all those hundreds of pictures I snap of them and then hold hostage on my hard drive!  So Craig's list killer/blogger killer be darned - I am on the net.