Crafty Girl

Esther loves crafts. She loves drawing, coloring, cutting, painting, beads, ribbons, card-making, designing and creating projects... you get the picture. The other day my Mom brought over a kit which contained 4 foam princess items to decorate with stickers, glitter glue, and jewels. Esther spent a lot of time today working on them, and here are her finished products. I'm sort of in awe of her creative talent because my creative and artistic abilities are severely limited. She must have received that gene from Casey!



I also had to post this picture because it made me smile. I love it how Peter and Esther are laughing and Miriam is eating her snack in the background and looking over like she's trying to figure out what she's missing!

Preschool Fathers' Night

On Thursday night, Daddy was able to attend his first Father's night at Millbrook Christian School. This is an event that is done every year with the preschool classes.

This year's theme was "Cowboy Night". Esther and I managed to find a couple of cowboy hats for the night.

Every father and child had to bring a sack lunch (OK, ours was McDonalds) and then were able to participate in many many games. We started off the evening with a dance, Esther beat me in a sack race, we panned for "gold", had our pictures taken and made our very own horse (which Esther named "Horsey"). We finished off the evening with a horse race. You really haven't lived until you've seen 60 fathers riding on "broomstick" horses!

Pajama Day

Esther had pajama day at pre-school on Friday. I'll admit, I was a little jealous and kind of wanted to declare my own pajama day! She wore her pj's and slippers (after wearing her boots to school of course) and brought along her bunny, Lacy, who was also wearing her pj's. It was really cute and she had a super fun afternoon (although I think every afternoon at pre-school is super fun)!

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

Esther and Peter got these adorable outfits from Grandpa and Grandma K. when we celebrated Christmas with them on December 20. They were all excited to wear them to church the next day, but then church was cancelled because of the weather! We were in Florida the next week, so they finally got to wear them on the first Sunday in January. Don't they look darling? For some reason Peter doesn't know how to smile a natural smile for pictures these days, so we have to try to catch him when he's not posing to get a cute face.

Also, a recent picture of our 3 cuties together...

Esther's Amazing Memory

The conversation over two bowls of Rice Krispies and my coffee this morning (at 6:00).

Esther: "Daddy, where did you get that coffee cup?"

Me: "From the Honderds"

E: "Who are they?"

Me: "We went swimming in their pool this summer."

E: "Oh yeah, that was on a Wednesday."

Me: "OK honey, I wouldn't remember what day of the week it was."

E: "Well, you see Dad. It was a Wednesday because this summer I took swimming lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays. And on Wednesdays I had Miss Nicole for a teacher at swimming lessons. And Mommy and I had to leave the pool party early for swimming lessons and it was the night Miss Nicole was there, so it had to be a Wednesday."

Yup, you know what....she was right. I'm going to do a little Pre-Calculus with her tomorrow. Can anyone teach me that?

Birthday Blessings

Esther has been so cute about my birthday this year. Casey took her and Peter to the flower store yesterday to pick out flowers for me and they had them delivered this morning. She was very good about keeping the secret about where they went and what they bought. She did inform me that she was taking some of her own money in her purse to the store. She told me last night that she got her own receipt because she used her own money for my gift.

Yesterday before dinner she and Peter were working on a secret project upstairs for quite a while (with some help from Daddy). This was her own idea, and I think it's one of the best gifts I've ever received (although the gift of sleeping in this morning was a close second)! The cover says "Happy Birthday Mom" and the inside says, "Dear Mommy, this is your birthday picture book. You may ask your kids to add pictures to this book all year long." Esther and Peter each drew a picture to get it started. How sweet is that? I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Oh Miriam

She's still making us laugh a lot... she's become an accomplished walker and is still a climber. She also likes to jabber and "talk" on the play phones. Here are a couple recent shots of our funny little girl:

Christmas in Florida

We had a wonderful week in Florida with my parents and sister. Here are some highlights and a slide show of pictures...

• Beautiful, warm, sunny weather!
• Spending tons of time swimming in the pool and watching the kids get braver and more relaxed in the water
• Seeing my aunt, uncle and cousins and spending an afternoon at the beach with them
• Enjoying a morning at the Sarasota Jungle Gardens
• Playing at a playground, going for walks, playing games and just relaxing
• Watching Miriam's walking skills improve over the course of the week
• Celebrating Peter's birthday (again) and my birthday (early)
• Having great family time away from the busyness and distractions of life at home

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES!

Happy 3rd Birthday Peter!

Our favorite little boy is 3 already! After Peter opened a couple gifts from us this morning, we continued our tradition of going out for donuts on his birthday and headed to Marge's. Then we came home and played and hung out and also did laundry and packed for our trip to Florida. In the afternoon some friends stopped by and after supper our neighbors came over to help us eat some of the leftover cake from Saturday night. It's good to start and end the day with sweets, right?

Peter is really good at being thankful and appreciative for his gifts. He'll say things like, "Oh, thank you SO much!" or "That's SO cool!" in a very sincere and excited voice. My favorite moment this morning was when he opened one of his gifts from us. It was a bunch of extra track for his GeoTrax train set, but I had wrapped it in a Pull-Ups box. When he took the wrapping paper off, he said "Oooh, more pull-ups for me?!" in a really excited voice. This kid would make Miss Manners proud.

Peter is such a fun little guy. He's always moving and has boundless energy. He loves cars, trucks, trains and emergency vehicles. When we're riding in the car, he points out every bus, police car, UPS truck, etc... that he sees. He's been totally into puzzles lately and will actually sit somewhat still to complete one! He loves to do whatever Esther is doing, which doesn't always make Daddy very happy when she's playing Barbies or dressing up like a princess. He also loves Miriam as long as she isn't getting into his stuff. He's an all-around great kid, and we're so thankful for our buddy!

Snowed In

Today ended up being a stay inside day due to all the snow and wind we had. Church was cancelled this morning, so we decided to let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. We will be flying to Florida over Christmas to be with my parents and sister, so we were planning to have the kids open their gifts today anyway. We had a fun day playing with the new toys they got last night and today.

We were all disappointed that Esther's Christmas program at church was also cancelled this afternoon. They will be doing it on Christmas morning instead, so Esther will not be able to participate. She has worked so hard to learn her "5 Little Candles" poem and the songs she was going to sing, so she was pretty sad when we told her about it being cancelled. We told her she'll have to do a special little program for all of us by herself on Christmas. She said Peter can do it with her if he wants, so we'll see what they come up with!