B.E.A.R. week & Tigger, too!

This week Faith's school is having B.E.A.R. week (Being Excited About Reading). You may remember that last year, during this week, Faith dressed as Bambi. Today, continuing the Disney character theme, she is heading off to school as Tigger.

A few modifications to her Halloween costume (making it easier to go potty by herself. I'm a mom...I worry about things like that!) combined with a little face makeup and she ready to bounce off to school!

We had some leftover material, so I made her stuffed bear a matching outfit, of course (again, I'm a mom...I do things like that to make my daughter happy and make us run late in the morning).

Itching to roast marshmallows...in January?

Our family spent the day working in our yard. The highlight was testing out our fire pit with a hot dog & marshmallow roast this evening. Faith even invited the little girl next door over to join in the fun. She took a few family pictures of us. Even "kitty-kitty" is in this picture. He also seemed to enjoy hanging around the campfire, although this did cause Jaron quite a bit of distress. He was sure the kitty would jump in the fire. While we cleaned the fire pit and Dave built a fire, Jaron ran around the yard shouting, "I can't wait, I can't wait...we are going to camp marshmallows!" None of us corrected him. It was too cute!

Faith trying a marshmallow, "daddy-style." He says toasting a marshmallow until it is golden brown is a waste of time and seriously over-rated. I completely DISAGREE!

It's hard to believe when we first moved in, we couldn't even see this fire pit through all the grass, shrubs, trees, garbage...

Thank you El nino, for a fabulously warm January day.

New Year's Shiner

1st lesson learned in 2010: If you stand only 3 feet tall, don't walk too close to a foos ball table while your cousins are playing. You're liable to get a black eye!

Santa, please stick to the script!

We took the kids to the Pioneer Park Christmas display in Ferndale today. The whole experience was really fun and REALLY COLD! We walked through all the little cabins, the little school house, post office, general store, etc... The kids got to do crafts, make cookies, eat cookies, ride a covered wagon and see SANTA (this was the highlight of the trip, of course)! Jaron was nervous about talking to Santa, so Faith went up with him to give him courage and to be his "spokeswoman." She got right to the point and told Santa what they both wanted. Afterall, she had been thinking about it all morning, running different ideas by us. We had to shoot down her number one choice of gift, a ride in Santa's sleigh. I felt bad telling her she couldn't ask him for that, but I explained the safety issues that would be involved, not to mention the time crunch Santa would be in on Christmas Eve, and she seemed to understand. :)
Instead, She asked him for a jewelry box and for Jaron, a toy car. Then, Santa started asking them questions. It went something like this:

Santa: Jaron, have you been good?
Jaron: Nodded his head.
Santa: Jaron, do you help your mom?
Jaron: Shook his head. ( I don't think he understood the question, or maybe he was just being really honest) :)

Santa: Faith, have you been good?
Faith: Yes.
Santa: What grade are you in?
Faith: 1st grade.
Santa: Do you work hard in school?
Faith: Yes.
Santa: What is your favorite subject?
Faith: Bible.
Santa: Oh, what school do you go to?
Faith: Lynden Christain School.
Santa: Really? There is a church group that meets at that school on Sundays and that is where I go to church.

Long pause...

Dave and I look at each other,
Santa looks at us,

Clearly, we are all thinking the same thing. 'It's time for us to leave and time for Santa to review his script.'

Merry Christmas!