Making Ornaments

Another day at home means more time for crafts.  Today we made ornaments for our Christmas tree.  So fun spending my days with these two kids!

Julia loves craft time and is very willing to help get things ready.

Craft Time

Julia has a cold and didn't go to school today so she missed her Christmas party with her friends.  So I decided it would be a great day to do a craft at home.  Julia and Andrew made super cute Christmas trees and they both did such a great job.

 At first I started helping Andrew but he really didn't want any help and was able to do it by himself.

 Julia loves doing crafts and did great at making her Christmas tree.

Looks great!  She was feeling pretty good at this point but don't want to pass any germs to anyone else and have them sick for Christmas.

 Close up of her tree with the star and the ornaments.

 Andrew was quite proud of the tree he made.

 Close up of his tree...looks a little wobbly but it still looks like a tree to me.  Way to go Andrew!

Julia taking a nap on the couch which rarely happens.  Hope she catches up on some sleep and feels better soon.

 The afternoon craft was Santa complete with a beard.

 Gluing on his beard.

 Rolling his beard to make it look more realistic.

 Trying to roll his beard but no luck.

 Andrew and his finished Santa face.

Julia and her Santa face.  Fun crafts for a day at home.  Now, what shall we do tomorrow?

Christmas Party with Ballet Friends

Such a fun Friday afternoon with friends from Julia's ballet/tap class.  Julia is enjoying a snack with Peyton and Presley.  The twin's mom Julie hosted a great Christmas party where the kids played, ate a snack, and did a reindeer craft.

Lots of ballet/tap friends along with their siblings.  Julia and Andrew had such a great time playing with friends and new toys.

Julia's Christmas Program

On Thursday we enjoyed watching Julia's Christmas program at her school.  Super cute and fun to watch.  Julia was very much into doing the hand motions but not much singing...I don't think she really knew the words since they really didn't have much time to practice since the Thanksgiving Feast was quite recent.

Looking cute in her new boots!

Julia and her best buddy Grace.

Such sweet girls!  Hard to believe that Andrew will be in this Christmas show next year.

Griffin Our Elf

I thought it would be fun to post some photos of what Griffin our elf has been up to in our home.  As you know Griffin flies to the North Pole each night to tell Santa about Julia and Andrew and I must say he's been giving Santa such great reports.  Griffin on the other hand is kinda silly at times.  He thought it would be funny to hang Julia and Andrew's underwear on our stocking hooks.

He really liked the fruit pouches just like Julia and Andrew.

He can also draw quite well.  One night he did a self portrait!

Then he thought it would be funny to decorate the Christmas tree with toilet paper but Julia didn't think it looked good so we took it down right away.

Checking out Julia and Andrew's candy from Halloween.

Then he decided to do some fishing.

Just relaxing and hanging out on the reindeer.  

Silly Griffin upside down in the pantry.

 I guess Griffin liked the smell of our Christmas cookies so he decided to try one for himself.  Yummy!  Who knows what else he has in mind for the rest of his stay?

Who wants to make Christmas cookies?

Cookie Time! Silly Andrew blocking us from going into the kitchen.  The chocolate chip anise Christmas cookies are my favorite and I love that Julia and Andrew love them just as much.

Julia and Andrew pretending a little while Mommy and Daddy get out all the ingredients.

This year we had two great helpers!  It was very fun having both of them really be a part of the cookie making process this year.

Needed a little help with mixing from Mommy.

And a little help from Daddy with pouring the milk.

Don't quite know how he got this messy from only three little chocolate chips, but he did.

This is my least favorite part of making the cookies...mixing the batter by hand. Thankfully Julia was more than ready to help out.

She even did a bunch of mixing by herself...hard work.  She's my little baker.

Then we gave Daddy a turn to mix in the chocolate chips.

Andrew enjoyed rolling the cookies into balls this year and he was very serious while he was working.   Love his little apron that Julia found at the outlet mall last year for him that has a train on it.

Julia was a great cookie roller as well.

Tons of cookies that need to be frosted!

Andrew liked adding the sprinkles to the cookies.

And so did Julia.

Of course the best part was eating them.  So yummy!

Julia likes the ones with lots of frosting and sprinkles.  Great memories we have of baking Christmas cookies with our two sweet kids.

Sight Words

Julia continues to do very well with learning her sight words.  It's been so exciting watching her learn them and be excited about how many words she can read.  Now we can make some sentences with the words she knows, so that's fun too.  Today she was doing q-tip painting to practice some of her new words.  I'm so proud of how many words she can read!  We still try to do some kind of learning time three to four times a week while Andrew is napping...even if it's only 20 minutes.