KIDS CHOICE 2011 & AN ANGEL UP HIGH

We set up the Christmas tree on Saturday, right at the end of naptime. As Jay was plugging in the lights, James jumped out of bed and ran down the hall yelling "It's Christmas! It's a Christmas tree!" He was SO excited, and it was so adorable!

The kids and I went downtown this afternoon with the mission of finding a new tree topper, since our snowflake broke during the decorating process. We found a pretty, copper angel who isn't exactly a tree topper, but who fits quite nicely and looks great with our beloved mish-mash assortment of ornaments (you'll never see a fancy tree in our house, since we prefer our old keepsake ornaments, gifts from friends and family, and the crafts our kids make):

This photo shows only the top 3rd of the tree, since that's the only portion we decorated this year. For obvious reasons... The kids LOVE the ornaments, and James in particular fought me over almost every other one, wanting to keep it off the tree to play with. He still has the airplane he received last year in his room, since he refused to let that one go. He's been taking it with him everywhere. And since both kids are constantly touching the tree, we put up only the most sturdy and lightweight ornaments in our box, and kept our series collections tucked safely away. So I decided that the kids were old enough to pick out their own ornaments of their choice this year, to put up on the tree themselves. James found a crocheted snowflake and said "I like THIS one", so that's what he got. Cora picked a shoe. Of course. (And tried to put the teeny little thing on her foot before she gave in and put it on the tree. Silly girl.)

"HOLD ON TIE-EET!"

I THOUGHT JAY WAS SENDNG ME A CUTE PICTURE...

...but it's snot!

(Poor Baby Doll, the cold weather is messing with her head)

CHRISTMAS CARD CONTENDER

SWEETNESS

As long and frustrating as yesterday seemed (we had many meltdowns and lots of whining, likely attributable to the sudden reduction in one-on-one attention with the departure of "Gramma" and the return of Daddy to all-day studying), and as much as I was actually looking forward to coming to work this morning, there were some priceless moments. Like this one:

If only it had lasted longer than 45 minutes...

BALLOONS AND BOTTLES

More fun ideas from Pinterest!

#1: Balloons filled with different dry goods become a matching game (2 balloons each with lentils, beans, pearled cous cous, flour, and rice; 2 balloons of each color). James loves this and can remember what each texture is, though he's much better at matching colors than textures. Cora, on the other hand, managed to break a balloon on day one. A flour-filled balloon...

#2: A plastic bottle filled with pieces of pipe cleaner. James enjoys using a magnet to move the pipe cleaners around and "hunt" for specific colors, but he also likes to just shake the bottle up and call it pretty. Of course, I had to make one for Cora ASAP, since a fight quickly ensued. Someday I'll learn to just make/buy 2 of EVERYTHING...

AHOY MATEY!

This one is just some adhesive-backed felt, cut out with a razor blade, using a pumpkin carving stencil. I sewed around the edges to make it last through a few washings. When I gave it to James, he yelled "It's a pi-wate s'ip!"

LEAVES AND ACORNS

MORE STORIES

These babies sure have been spoiled by their grandmas this month!

WINDSOR RUINS

(An airplane flew over)

Windsor Ruins is the site of Windsor Plantation, the largest Antebellum home in Mississippi.

(She was looking for her belly button...)

GOBBLE GOBBLE

I finished Cora's turkey shirt just in time for the holiday, and I think it turned out cute!

(Of course, by the end of the night she was quite preoccupied with chewing on the ribbon "feathers"...)

THANKSGIVING "MUNCH"

Today was the first time that I prepared a good portion of the Thanksgiving meal by myself. Jay handled the turkey, and Jean made her authentic gravy and stuffing. My list consisted of the green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, sweet potato dumplings (a new recipe this year, which I doubled, and which did not include flaming marshmallows...), and avocado deviled eggs (for something different - they were so good that Cora licked the mixing bowl clean)!

(Oh, and James calls lunch "munch", hence the title of this post.)

SNUGGLING OUR BABY DOLL

I was so jealous when Cora fell asleep in Jay's arms the other night (since she almost never does that anymore - instead, she tells us when she's ready for bed, then walks herself back to her crib and reaches up to be put in)...

...that I held her extra long tonight, and ended up falling asleep with my little snuggler. Jay told me today that when he went to take her out of my arms to put her in bed, I reached up and held her tight so that he couldn't move her without waking us both. Guess I didn't want my turn to end.

CLOSING DOWN THE PARK

Once again, we hit the park from after work until sunset. And this time Coltin joined the party, as well as Manu. James and Cora had so much fun playing with them, and rolling down the hill in the leaves, and stomping around on top of the new tree stump. Too bad the sun sets so early these days... I have a feeling these kids could have played for hours!

GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE

Cora is always so happy in the morning. And she always reaches for her paci and blanky before she'll let us scoop her out of her crib. Baby Doll is too precious...

I hope she'll always be a morning person (especially since her big bro is hit-or-miss in that regard).

LOOK WHO ROLLED OVER!

Chris is getting so big! By the time I meet him next month he'll be singing and dancing!! (That smile just made your night, didn't it? Sure brightened my day today!)

OCC, YEAR 3

It felt good to drop these off this morning!

SUNDAY FUNDAY

At the BIG park with Gramma...

Here she is thinking "I can do it MYSELF Mama!" They swung together like this for at least 20 minutes. And had to be convinced to get down and finally give someone else a turn. They are SO sweet... Here's that "rolling pin slide" I was telling you about:

And we found this crazy, serpenty (it had 3 parts) dragon across from the playground (though the kids were far more interested in tossing pebbles into a nearby water-filled pipe):

After a yummy lunch and major bookstore shopping spree, we dropped off the recycling, grabbed some free coffee (gotta love those coupons on Starbucks bags!), and headed to the grocery store to get our turkey day fixin's. And who did we happen to bump into on the way out? None other than the Sanchez-Munger crew. Cora SQUEALED with excitement when she saw Manu, and he kindly requested that she vacate the "taxi" so he could ride with James. Hilarious!

And after such an energy expending day, James obviously had to rehydrate at dinner. Chocolate milk and juice? Together? Gross buddy. Totally gross.