Winter Partying...

Quinn and Sullivan celebrated their last day of school with a Winter Party.  I was blessed to be able to attend and help plan their parties.  It was a lot of fun for all of them.

Sullivan's class made a cute, cute snowman ornament similar to this one...

which made a TREMENDOUS mess. But boy was it fun!!!

After making the craft,we played "pin the nose on the snowman."  I was bummed that I didn't take any pictures of the game, but we were way too busy to take pictures!  Here is a picture of the snowman in the background that I made...plus Sullivan running to tell me something!

Here is a group picture of Sullivan's class... hard to get 20+ kids to sit still long enough to take a picture!  Sullivan is sitting next to her dear friend, Carter!  

Quinn's party was equally as fun!  I threw that party together in about a week's time, as the room parent for her room quit at the last minute.  We played "Minute to Win It" games the whole time, and it seemed as though the kids had a blast.  

Here is Quinn participating in some of the games...

She had a slight unfair advantage... she was my game tester before it made it to market, so to speak!  Quinn had a blast trying them out and gave her stamp of approval or disapproval!!

Honestly, Quinn's class was probably the most appreciative and polite group of kids collectively that I have run across.  So worth every ounce of stress that went into planning a last minute party!!

Christopher

Our elf, Christopher, has been extremely busy this year.  Like always, he likes to get into mischief.

He reappeared for the first time this season when we were back in Sioux Falls for Thanksgiving.  He was hanging from the chandelier in Matt and Mer's house.

Attached to him was a note... the jist of the note said, "I've been looking everywhere for you.  I couldn't find you at your old house.  I couldn't find you in Fishers. But I finally found you at your cousin's house."

Here are some of the other places he has been spotted at our house this season...

In the fridge, snuggled with one of Sullivan's blankies.  

Hanging over the staircase on the Christmas garland outside Sullivan's door...

Using Quinn's loom to spell out his name...

Typing a note to Santa on the typewriter...

In the birdcage (with some beanie baby birds) above our kitchen cabinets...

Being cuddled by the Bitty Baby... 

Digging into the cereal, literally....

Having a sugar party...

Littering his coloring pictures all over the girls' rooms...

The coloring pages need a bit of explaining.  For the past couple of years, Christopher had left coloring pages for the girls.  Quinn asked me a couple of weeks ago if I thought that Christopher would do it again this year.  I told her that I doubted that he would do it, since he had already done it for the last couple of years. Boy, was I proven wrong when he showed up this year with all those coloring pages!!! :)

And the final place (so far) was posing with Santa and Mrs. Claus for a picture....

One of the girls' dolls had stacked up some books with the camera and was taking their picture!

We just love that elf of ours...he helps make this time of the year so enjoyable with his creativity!

2014 Ornaments...

As I've said before, I love to look for Christmas ornaments for the girls each year.  I try my hardest to find ornaments that represent a milestone or a love from that year.  Here are 2014's ornaments...

Quinn

 This ornament represents Quinn's fascination with the Rainbow Loom and making things out of rubber bands.  Quinn crocheted the Q out of bands for her ornament

This ornament represents the new glasses that Quinn got this year.  It's funny how fast you get used to something,but I barely recognize Quinn without her glasses on now.  It seems as though they have always been a part of her!

Sullivan

This ornament represents Sullivan starting Kindergarten this year, and the fact that she gets to and from school on the bus.  She loves school and is so determined to learn.  I love that she loves school so much.

This ornament represents a couple of different things... Sullivan's love to color and write. She can be heard asking, "How do you spell ___?" about 2,895 times a day.  So cute.  It also represents Sullivan's fascination with the dog. Since moving to Fishers, she has a deep connection to Duff.  Don't know why.

Family

This ornament represents our family trip to Disney this year.  This is an autograph book, signed by all the Disney characters - which greatly parallels the autograph books that the girls have from the trip.  So many hours spent in line getting all of the characters' signatures!!

And finally, this ornament represents our new move to Fishers and our new home. A big move like this deserved to be commemorated.

Picture Ornaments

Aside from the memory ornaments, I also do a picture ornament for each of the girls and one of them together.  These ornaments are put on our "pretty" tree.  Here are this year's pictures...

Can't wait to see what 2015 holds in store for us!

Hard Day at Kindergarten

We went downtown last Friday to see the circus.  On the way there, I turned around to look and saw Sullivan Grace like this...

I know it is a poor quality picture, but it was so reminiscent of this picture of Quinn when she was in Kindergarten after a long week at school...

School must just take the wind out of a Kindergartner's sails!

Shoe Box Autobiography...

Sullivan's Kindergarten class does not participate in the traditional "star of the week" celebrations.  Instead, each week a student is asked to make a shoe box autobiography.  They are asked to put items inside a shoe box that represent them.

Sullivan was jazzed to be the one to put together her shoe box last week.  She ran around the house collecting all her favorite things that represented her in one way or another.

How well do you think you know Sullivan? What things do you think she put in her box? 

Here are the things she chose...

Because she loves to swim!!

Because she loves to color!!

Because she loves to be outdoors - ALL.THE.TIME!!

Because she loves and collects these Beanie Boos!    

Because she would eat fruit all day long if she could!!!

Because she loves books and this is still considered her favorite!

She also included a picture of her family, but I seem to not have taken a picture of that! 

She had a blast putting this together and sharing it with her friends.  I'd have to say that all the things she chose really are a reflection of her loves.

The Greatest Show on Earth...

After a few glitches with the new computer, I think we are back up and running again.  So I will attempt to blow off a thin layer of dust from these pictures and let you know what we've been up to this past week or so.

As many of you know, our family can't turn down a good circus.  So when we heard that Barnum and Bailey was going to be in town with their circus, and Groupon made it super affordable to go, we couldn't resist!

We had fabulous seats overlooking the one-ringed circus. 

The girls had their favorite acts.... Sullivan liked the clowns and elephants!

Quinn liked the acrobats that started off the show.  Several ladies started off in these clear globe-like objects (in the middle of the picture).  The globes split open as they did their acrobatic feats.  I have to say, it was pretty amazing!

We convinced the girls to forego on circus souvenirs this time around, as they were super expensive and really nothing spectacular.  They asked for a snow cone, which seemed like a fair compromise, until you learn that a snow cone nearly costs as much as a steak dinner!

Regardless, the snow cones were pretty yummy! 

I'd never been to a circus that had trained pigs and kangaroos.  Pretty funny to watch!

And of course they had the usual tigers and lions and motorcycles in a cage.  But I had never seen at the most during the show - eight, yes eight, motorcycles in a cage at a time. How do they do that, I wonder?!

At the end of the circus, there were three people who gave it two thumbs up and one that gave it two thumbs down.  I won't say who that Grinch was, but I am guessing that you can figure that out!!