Pinewood Derby

He's a Natural!

R.J. was really looking forward to band in the 5th grade, but then budget cuts happened. We are so grateful to one of our teachers who has decided to start a little school band. R.J.'s instrument of choice is the trumpet. He is excited to follow in the footsteps of his Uncle Jon and Grandpa Jan. Today was his first band practice. As you can see from this video, he was born for this!!

Fishies?

I've become accustomed to Braden's peculiar ways. This recent antic is, shall we say, creative? He has taken to putting pickles in baggies full of water and calling them fish. I thought I confiscated all the "fish", but no, my very confused toddler found a bag this morning and will not relinquish it! He keeps saying, "Hi fishies, look at the fishies, my fishies!" Then he'll look at me and say, "Pickle?" Then he'll go back to calling them fishies, and then say, "Pickles are washing?" I think he's flummoxed. I thought maybe he would like to eat the pickles, since he usually loves them, but that just stressed him out. I started to dump the water in the sink and he completely freaked out and kept pointing to the fish bowl, where the REAL fish are, and said, "NO! Put them here!" So, when Braden comes home from school, we will be having a little chat. NO MORE SWIMMING PICKLES!!

Happy New Year!

Ever since I was very small, one of my favorite traditions in our family is the Santa Claus pinata on Christmas Eve. My mom, an artist, paints Santa on a big paper bag. Then, she would cut tons of strips of white paper and would let us help her curl them for Santa's beard. The pinata was filled with candy, but also one present each from Santa Claus. This is a tradition that I really want to keep going with my family. But somehow it has been very difficult. With so much of Ryan's family around, we have so many parties going on, and Santa gets put on the back burner. This year, I kept making plans, but it kept not working out. So, this weekend I knew it was now or never. It seemed like such a HUGE effort to get out the Santa bag, figure out how to hang it, and of course, fill it. So we did an interesting version of this tradition. And the kids were just as happy. First we gathered the children. Then, I nicely handed each of them their gift from Santa. After they opened their presents, Ryan threw candy at them. And that's how you do a Happy New Year pinata!