Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Dec. 24, 2010

Christmas Eve is spent at My Uncle Bill's house. But this year something different happened... Santa Claus came over for a surprise visit. Caleb screamed and jumped and laughed. He yelled "Santa!" over and over.

































Hannah on the other hand... cried and hid. Santa tried to coax her over with a present but she kept her feet planted (to maintain the distance) and reached only with her fingertips to grab the gift.
After Santa left Nono came in ; - ) I read "Twas the Night before Christmas" pop up book style to Caleb, Hannah and Nono and then we went home (it was 9!)

Music and More

Dec. 24, 2010

Cory played guitar for Hannah this morning, mostly Beatles and the songs he wrote about us when we were dating. It was so nice to hear those songs again. I heard them so often that I still remembered them years later (10 years!)




























It was a beautiful day today so we went outside to the park and played ball with Caleb while Hannah was free to explore. We all loved having Cory home on a work day.

A castle of Presents

Dec. 22, 2010

I hung up the willow wreath that Connie gave me for my birthday and Caleb took a picture of it today.
Caleb is really into castles and knights right now (how perfectly perfect: since he's getting a lego castle for Christmas) He built one for himself out of presents and also one for Hannah.

Christmas Shoppping

Dec. 21, 2010

I took the kids Christmas shopping this morning and they did really good. It was a long day. If you saw us at Bed bath and Beyond this afternoon you would have seen me park 1/4 mile away from the entrance, walk to the door get in line, realize I forgot my wallet in the car, walk back to the car and grab my wallet that was laying on the passenger side seat saying to everyone, "take me" (I rolled my eyes at myself when I saw it laying there) back to the store to buy the one thing that I called ahead of time to make sure it was there and then back to the car. Instead of getting back in the car we did Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, and Once there was a snowman, a few times and then I (Darth Vader) chased Luke and Leia on the grass (Grass? remember: I said I parked 1/4 of a mile away). We got back in the car and drove. I asked them if they wanted to go to one more place to make it an even 6 stores. They said, "No thanks." In a way I was grateful because by this time I was tired and I knew they were too. We went to Grandma's. Caleb and I watched a movie and Hannah slept from 3pm until I woke her up at 7:30 to go home and then laid them both down for bed.
It was a long, but productive day :-)

Rain rhymes with Train

Dec. 20, 2010

When has it ever rained so much in Bakersfield?
It has been raining for almost a week with out stopping. All this rain and cloudy weather has made me feel like not doing much. Around mid morning I told the kids we were walking down to the garage to get a few things and also mail a few letters. At first they were reluctant but then they felt the rain on their faces and were okay to be outside. Caleb and Hannah are homebodies for sure, which is the opposite of me. I want to be outside and doing something while they are quite content to be inside with their imagination.
I have a snowmen collection that I try and add to every year. Every year I put all the snow men in my window on top of fake snow and twinkle lights. The kids really like to be up the counter top and playing with the snowmen.


My Mom came by and built a long track for Caleb. I'm sure glad I vacuumed this morning before the track went down.

"Q" week

Dec. 20 - Dec. 24, 2010

Monday: Animals - California Quail and Queen Conch (or Pink Conch)
Tuesday: Social Studies - Queen Victoria
Thursday: Craft/Activity - Go to a Quilting store (oh do I have too?)

Composer: Quartet
Poem: The Queen of Hearts (Nursery Rhyme)

Moscow Ballet

Dec. 16, 2010

We watched the Ballet tonight and it was wonderful. The Russian dancers were professional and talented. An unexpected surprise was: that a few months ago Bakersfield dancers were welcomed to audition for parts in the the Moscow Nutcracker. Over 30 kids were a cute addition to the Ballet. This was ingenious advertising: Have local kids in an International Ballet to draw in more paying customers! Also it was darling to see little 3 and 4 years old kids skipping and bouncing across the stage.