Christmas 2011

With Ah-Gong, Ah-Ma, and J in town, we definitely had a fun Christmas this year.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
We headed to Windcrest to see lights again this year.  It was great!  The kids got out of their car seats to see all the lights while we (slowly) drove around the neighborhood.  We also enjoyed some hot cocoa during our visit.  We love this tradition...but honestly, I think we could drive around our own neighborhood because the fun part is getting out of the car seats!

Here's a video of one of our fave houses every year...they really do a good job of changing things up each year!

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

We started the weekend off with our annual gingerbread house contest (I really should re-name it since we use graham crackers to build the houses).  This year I got the kids a gingerbread house to decorate on their own while the adults built with graham crackers.  The kids seriously over-decorated the house, but they had a blast doing it...it was definitely colorful!  Elina loved squeezing the icing all by herself.  Besides decorating a house, Elina deemed herself the official judge for the contest.  She put on sunglasses and went around asking us questions about our houses.  It was quite comical!

Here were the results--

Most Improved (me): I had to do a lot of work to redeem myself from last year...after "the shed incident."  I thought I did a pretty good job, don't you?  I think the creative juices were flowing this year.  I know my roof isn't solid, but, seriously, did you see mine last year?!?  This is definitely an improvement!

Most Creative (J): J was really creative this year.  She used lots of different candy and the house turned out so cute!

Most Clever (B): B had some difficulties this year...only because he was trying to re-create our new house.  It was a valiant effort, but just took too much time.  I just thought it was cute that Elina thought to use the word "clever" to describe his house.

Most Decorated (Elina and Eli): This was the perfect word to describe their house!

HOT POT

We enjoyed a yummy hot pot on Christmas Eve because it was cold, windy, and rainy out....perfect weather for a hot pot!  Unfortunately, B and Elina are not big fans of this style of eating, so it wasn't as yummy for them.

CHRISTMAS EVE PJs
The night before Christmas, the kids put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  When Elina put the carrots out, she noticed that one of the carrots was extra big.  So she left Santa a note telling him to make sure that the reindeer share the carrots and not fight over the bigger one.  It was pretty cute.

Then the kids opened up their first gift, which is always matching Christmas pajamas.  This year's theme was snowmen and the kids looked cute!

CHRISTMAS DAY
This year I made 2 breakfast casseroles for Christmas morning--Emeril's Sausage Breakfast Casserole (our usual delicious one) and Paula Deen's Baked French Toast.  Sorry, Paula, but I think the sausage one won out this time.

We opened gifts around 9:30am and the kids were in heaven.  Evie really knew how to tear her gifts open and after she opened every gift, she would say, "Whoa!"  Her fave gift had to be her new Sigg bottle.  See, her older siblings each have their own and she's always trying to steal their bottles, so J bought her a new one and she wanted to use it immediately!

Elina loved passing out gifts to other people this year.  Her fave gift was the pogo stick from Aunt A.  It's a pogo stick that has a base, so you can learn the balance first.  After you can bounce on it with the base, you can take the base off and take off with it.  Not sure when Elina will get to that point though.

Eli was obsessed with the first gift he opened (new Leapfrog Tag books) and couldn't put them down.  Eli definitely had too many favorite toys to name, but if we had to name one, it would probably be the Mater Shake 'n Go truck.

One cool gift that Elina gave to everyone this year was a book she created herself.  It was entitled Summer Fun 2011 and it was all about the highlights of her summer.  We sent it in to be bound and the end-product was so cute.  I think we'll be doing this at the end of every summer from now on because it's a great way for the kids to remember all the fun things they did.  Check out a few pages...

  

  

Another neat gift was a set of presents from V and J to me and B.  They were nice enough to give us a bunch of gift certificates that are only redeemable in Austin--their babysitting services, movie passes, and our favorite restaurant in Austin.  The plan is, they want us to leave the kids with them one day so that we can have a date in Austin.  Wasn't that nice??

My dad (Ah-Gong) has been obsessed with Angry Birds lately, so the kids got him this big Angry Birds plush doll.  My dad's reaction was great!

The rest of Christmas Day was spent playing with new Christmas toys.  Eli built a firestation out of legos, Elina baked "yummy" cookies with her new Easy Bake Oven, and Elina couldn't stop bouncing on her pogo stick!  It was a great day!

Here was the aftermath--

And here are our annual wrapping paper pics--

OUTINGS
I think this was the most non-food-related outings we've ever had with my parents during one visit.  The day after Christmas, we took them on Elina's tour of Mission San Jose.  My parents and J really enjoyed it.  For added fun, we also searched for a letterbox while we were there.  My dad claims that letterboxing is for people who have nothing better to do....although he thought it was neat that people went to so much trouble to hide letterboxes and write clues for them.  I think this stamp was my favorite so far.  It was a handcarved image of Mission San Jose.  Beautiful!

The next day we headed to the zoo during Evie's nap (J stayed home).  We did the bird tour that we took when we last visited with Elina's 1st grade class.  The animal highlight for this trip was the hippos!  They were really active and yawned, had the fish clean inside their mouths, and swam around.  It was awesome!

We also found a letterbox outside of the zoo.  Elina said this was the most adventurous one because we had to climb up a brushy hill get the letterbox out of a "cave."  This was a neat handcarved tiger stamp.

The following day we all went bowling.  We didn't get any pictures because we were always managing children, but it was a really fun time!  Elina and Eli both used those kiddie ramps and Elina managed to break a hundred for the first time with a score of 104!  [My sisters and I have wonderful memories of bowling with my parents when we were younger.  Besides working long hours at my parents' restaurant, there really wasn't much else that we would all do together back then...but on the weekends, we would go bowling after work and close the bowling alley down.  The owner there knew us well and we loved going there almost every weekend.  That's where I learned my hook (although I don't really hook the ball anymore)...where I bowled my first 200 point game and earned myself my first bowling ball named "Black Beauty."  I know it's corny, but bowling brings back fond family memories.]

Well, that's our Christmas in a big nutshell.  Lots of family, fun, food, and good times.  Hope your Christmas was just as wonderful!

Holiday Express at the Zoo

Last night Eli, Elina, and I attended the zoo's Holiday Express program and had TONS of fun.  I really do enjoy all the programs held at the zoo.  They do a wonderful job!  (We were sad that Evie and B had to stay home, but Evie had a fever and couldn't make it.  Bummer!)

First the kids played some games while we waited for the Holiday Express Train to arrive.  Elina's favorite game was a cups game and she was actually pretty decent at it!  (We had to play it today at home too.)

Then we rode on the zoo train, which was all decked out in Christmas decorations.  During the train ride, we picked up Santa and he hopped onto the train with us!  Eli and Elina weren't sure about him because they said he looked different from the Santa we went to visit last week (at Bass Pro Shops).  I was surprised that Eli didn't really want to meet him...not sure if he was shy or just a non-believer.  Elina also told me she thought that the Mrs. Claus there wasn't real because she saw that she was wearing a wig since her hair color was different underneath.  Where's the magic??

Anyway, when we got back to the station, the kids decorated and put together cookies in the shape of a train.  They also had the option of decorating a cookie tree, too.  While the kids were decorating, they provided popcorn to snack on. The funny thing is that Eli decorated the train and the tree, but didn't take one single bite of either.  He was completely focused on eating popcorn.  He was even just eating the popcorn that had fallen onto the table. Elina, on the other hand, made the train and devoured the whole thing!  She didn't even bother with the popcorn.  Eli is definitely my savory boy and Elina is the one with the sweet tooth.

Afterwards, we went into another room and the kids played homemade musical instruments for Santa while we sang "Up on the Housetop."  Then the zoo docents brought out a white ferret for the kids to touch.  Santa also brought out a beautiful parrot.

Then we headed out to the zoo to do some critter carols.  The kids blew on kazoos while the adults sang carols.  We sang to the capybaras (the largest rodents in the world), the gibbons, and the reticulated python.  The capybaras are nocturnal, but since we were there in the evening, we got to see them swimming around!  It was so neat because usually they're barely moving while we're there.  And the male gibbon actually came all the way down to the glass to watch us as we caroled.  It was neat, but kinda creepy.

After all the fun, we walked around and saw that a lot of the bears were out.  Since it was nice and cool, the bears were just hanging out!

All in all, a wonderful time at the zoo!

All I Want for Christmas...

...are my 2 front teeth!

I can't believe the timing on this one.  I never thought it was possible for both of your front teeth to be gone around Christmas.  I always thought that that was such a silly song!  But now I know that it CAN happen!

Tooth #4 was lost last night.  What perfect timing!

Eli's Stats

We love our 4 year old!

Here are Eli's current stats--

Weight: 33 lbs 7 oz (15th percentile)

Height: 37.5 inches (6th percentile)

Here is what Eli can do these days.  He--

1. Loves to draw.  His favorite thing to draw is himself.  The details have gotten better over the year...ears, feet, belly buttons.  He used to only draw himself with spiky hair,

but now he'll opt for "flat" hair.

And this was his stegosaurus a month ago...

...and now it's evolved into this.

2. Argues with Elina.  He could do this last year, but this year he's resisting way more.  He refuses to dress up as "girly" things.  He wants to play HIS things sometimes.  But even though he argues more, he's amenable.  If Elina makes a different suggestion or offers something else as a choice, he usually will agree to it just so he and Elina can play together.

3. Makes his own choices.  He used to pick everything the same as Elina.  Now he picks what he wants to eat, drink, etc without any outside influences.  It's great!

4. Shows empathy.  He's definitely our sensitive, caring one.  Not that Elina's NOT caring, but Eli is just really aware of how others feel.  For example, he saw that Elina was upset when she had a splinter in her finger.  After B got the splinter out, he ran up to Elina (with placemats still in his hand because he was in the middle of setting the table) and asked, "Jie Jie, does it still hurt?"  He always does stuff like that!  He'll tell me, "Mommy, I just wanted to make you happy."  Awwwwww. I can never stay upset with this guy.

5. Gets upset easily.  But the "sensitive" thing isn't always good because Eli tends to get very sad when I say "no" to certain things.  He slumps his shoulders, mopes away, and lays on a sofa or bed.  He'll say things like, "I don't want to talk to you right now."  Wow.

6. Is a great big brother.  He loves Evie a lot.  (Sometimes too much because he will squeeze her hard!)  He tells her what to do and really tries to help out with her.  But then there are days when Evie's climbed on top of the piano keys and he's literally right next to her, but claims that he didn't notice she was up there.  Hmmmmm.

7. Has 2 left feet.  This boy trips on everything and nothing.  He has had so much trauma to his face that one of his top front teeth has turned brown/gray because the nerve is bruised.  This made us so sad because he has pearly white teeth!!  The discoloration can go away but sometimes it stays until the adult tooth comes in. What a bummer!

8. Is a good driver.  He really knows how to drive our little toy jeep around.  He knows how to throw it into reverse and back up and everything!  Maybe it's a boy thing?

Here are his current faves--

Favorite food: miso soup with tow-food (tofu)

Favorite drink: strawberry milk, hot cocoa

Favorite song: "M-M-M Mittens" from Elina's play The Mitten; "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" by Alvin and the Chipmunks; "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

Favorite book: Max and Ruby: Snow Bunny Tales

Favorite characters: Max and Ruby, Wonderpets, Diego

Favorite toy: dinosaurs

Favorite activities: riding bikes, baking, camping

Favorite animal at the zoo: anteater

Favorite dinosaurs: T-Rex, Giganotosaurus

And here was his Birthday Bingo card filled with all his favorite things...

He's definitely growing up too quickly...I guess all of them are.  *sniff sniff*

Ready for the Break

It's been a long week...a really long week.

On Tuesday, Eli was sick again with a low-grade fever so he had to miss his class Christmas Party!  We were so bummed about it.  But we made the most of it by spending a good day cooped up at home.  We played lots of games and read lots of books.

On Wednesday, Elina had her school play.  This year they performed Jan Brett's The Mitten.  It's a story about a boy who loses a mitten.  Some animals find the mitten and they all try to squeeze into this one mitten to stay warm.

Elina played the meadow mouse (of course!) and she did an amazing job!  She said her lines clearly and with lots of emotion.  I've noticed that practicing for this play has made her a better storyteller.  When she reads stories now, she uses more emphasis and emotion.  It's great!

I love this little curtsy she does at the end...it's a little blurry, but you can see how proud she is!

The teacher sewed all the masks and they looked adorable!  All I had to do was find a plain gray top and plain gray bottoms for our little mouse.

The play had a few songs in it as well and we are all humming them as we go about our day here....even Evie!  Here are a few bits from the play...

This is the "No, Nikki" song to tell Nikki not to choose white as the color of his mitten because it will get lost in the snow--

This is the part where the Meadow Mouse sees the mitten and wants to get in--

This is one of my favorite songs about the Mitten--

Eli was so cute during the play because when it was Elina's turn to speak, he just stood up, smiled brightly in amazement and whispered, "Jie Jie! Jie Jie!"  It was adorable because he was so proud of her!

On Thursday Elina had a Holiday Traditions Around the World presentation on Australia.  She decided to pick Australia because "it's so far away!"  This was a fun project because we learned a lot about Aussie traditions.  Elina especially liked the idea that Santa usually wears a swimsuit or swim trunks and that his sleigh is pulled by six white boomers (kangaroos).  She also drew a great picture of Santa surfing.

This was a great learning experience for all of us because in addition to the presentation, we had to make a traditional holiday food from that country.  We decided to make Pavlova, which I had never heard of before.  We spread meringue into a bowl shape and after it baked and cooled, we filled it in with whipped cream.  Then we put fruit on top.  It was really yummy!  I felt awful that my meringue just kept crumbling at the edges as the morning went on, but my friend from Ireland told me that she used to eat Pavlova all the time and the edges are supposed to look like that.  Phew!  What a relief!  Usually, Aussies use kiwis, strawberries and raspberries on top.  Unfortunately, our kiwis didn't ripen enough and our raspberries didn't make it, so we just used strawberries.  Elina loved laying all the berries on top.

Thursday was also Eli's teacher's assistant's (Ms. T's) birthday celebration.  As a co-room parent, I have to work with another mom to provide a cake and gift. We also have to make sure each parent brings in a flower and a card.  I wanted to be there for the "happy birthday" song, so I was literally running from the Holiday Traditions presentations to the birthday back to the presentation.  It was exhausting!  The cute thing about the birthday is that the teachers have the kids guess how old Ms. T is.  Based on her own kids' ages, I think she's in her late 40s.  A lot of the kids guessed that she was 1 or 4 years old.  It was crazy!  Eli got the closest because he said that she was turning 29.  I was impressed he could come up with such a random number on his own!

Then yesterday was Elina's class Christmas Party.  Luckily, Eli got to attend at least one Christmas Party, even though it wasn't his own.  The host had it at a friend's Mexican restaurant and it was really laidback.  There was lots of yummy Mexican food.  Then they discussed how Mexicans usually make tamales during the Christmas season....and the kids got a chance to make one!  It was so neat.  They spread the masa (corn dough) in the corn husk, spread refried beans on top, and folded it up.

Now that the busy week is over, we are going to have a weekend of rest.  I deemed today a PJ Day...complete with Christmas movies and ornament-making.  We are all excited to take a break!  (Although it makes me sad that half the school year is already over.  I hate to admit it, but I'm sad that Elina has to leave her teacher and her school.  We love her teacher SO much.  But I can't think about that right now.  I'll leave the tears until the end of the year...end of the school year, that is.)  *Ahem* now back to what I was saying....yay, Christmas Break!  We're looking forward to sleeping in, not driving back and forth to school, and lots and lots of family time!  Woo-hoo!

Dino-Four Party

Eli's party was a hit this weekend!  Of course he asked for a dinosaur theme--again!  (It was nice that we had decorations left over from last year.)  This year we kept it very small and only invited the friends he plays with and sees frequently.  Plus, we decided to have the party similar to Elina's four year fairy tea party so we only invited little dinos.  As Elina said, "Adult dinos have to stay home."  I really like running parties with just kids because it's less pressure.  It's just about having fun!

For the invitations I made my own stencil of a t-rex silhouette and then painted it onto cardstock...complete with cheesy dinosaur wording!

On the big day, we set the mood in front of the house with a few big, inflatable dinosaurs peeking through our bushes.

While all the kids arrived, the kids worked on making their own fossils.  They colored some Model Magic and then chose a shell or insect to imprint into it.  If you can imagine, Elina and A were the last ones to leave the table.

Then I read them Dinosaurs Galore, a funny book that introduces different kinds of dinosaurs.

Then B led the kids in a drumming activity.  We were mimicking the way stegosaurs communicate by thumping their tails.  So we turned it into the kids drumming the same beat as B.  This activity didn't last as long as I would have liked because B was just a little too advanced for the little ones.  I asked him to start out very very basic, but it wasn't easy enough for it to catch on.  See, the inner drummer in B was just dying to emerge!  He used to play drums before kids, so he couldn't help himself.  Oh well, the kids still had fun banging on the floors.

After this, we had the dino dig!  It was cold and a little wet out, but we still decided to do it.  We used 2 sandboxes this year and we added something else to make it even more fun.  A few weeks ago, we got this Dinoworks set where you could make your own casts of T-Rex bones with plaster of paris.  Elina and Eli had painted them and we had built it together, but then it was put away.  I decided to take the bones out, trace the individual bone shapes onto a big piece of paper, and then hide the bones in the sand.  When each child found a bone, they would run to the paper to place it in the right spot.  The kids thought that this was so much fun!  What was funny was that no one could find the last femur.  Then one child found part of it...the other part had broken.

Some of the adults started helping and no one could find this missing piece.  Then Eli found the last part!!  It couldn't have been more perfect!  We all cheered for him and he was all smiles.  It was the perfect ending to an awesome adventure!
Then we had a volcanic eruption!  I borrowed Mt. Discovery from Elina's teacher for the party, so the kids could see a volcano.  We let Eli help with the ingredients and everyone thought it looked really neat.

Then we all went inside for some yummy dino-lunch.  The kids had Steggy Sandwiches (they were really long-necked dinos, but Steggy Sandwiches had more of a ring to it), Dino Eggs (grapes), Dino Claws (Bugles--you remember those yummy things, don't ya??), watermelon (in a nicely carved dino watermelon head--more on that in a bit), and Lava Juice (a sparkling berry drink I made that the kids didn't particularly like...oh well!).

Afterwards, we had another chocolate chip T-Rex cake.  Yum!

Then Eli opened his gifts.  I love this part about small parties.  Eli sat in a special chair while the gift-giver sat in a chair next to him.  Then Eli opened the gift and the gift-giver could explain things about the gift or help open it.  Eli got some great gifts--clothes, a helicopter, an umbrella, matchbox fire station, a play laptop, a scary pterodactyl, just to name a few.  He was in heaven!

At the end, the kids had free play while they waited for their parents to pick them up.  This year's main favor was a homemade t-shirt with the same silhouette of the t-rex from the invitation.  First I bought some Hanes t-shirts and dyed them green.  It took longer than I thought and they didn't come out perfectly, but it was pretty easy (I got inspired by "Project Runway!").  I was going to use fabric paint to stencil on the t-rex, but J's new boyfriend, V, has a screen printing press so he volunteered to silk screen the t-rex onto the t-shirts!  They came out beautifully, right?  Go, V!

All in all, a wonderful party!  The 2 hours flew by so quickly!  I'm glad J was there to take pictures of things for me because I was just all over the place.  She was so helpful with the kids and the decor.  We are definitely a party planning team!  Plus, her new boyfriend, V, is full of hidden talents that came in quite handy for the party.  He's a graphic designer, so he has access to a studio...that's where he and J made Eli's nice birthday banner and food labels. Besides doing the silk screening, apparently he has a talent for carving watermelons!  I had wanted B to do the carving, but he had a few party things to take care of the morning of the party, so V handled it all by himself.  He was at it for 90 minutes and it came out SO well.  We were all so impressed!

J's other friends who attended also helped out tremendously.  Definitely a group effort!  Thanks to everyone for making this party a huge success!  The kids had a great time and I didn't lose my mind once!

ROAR!!

After the party was over, we continued the birthday extravaganza the next day with a nice gift from B's parents.  (Eli was lucky to have his grandparents from Oregon come out for his special day!)  They got him a Cars bike and he was ecstatic about it.  Finally, he doesn't have to ride Elina's old pink bike.  Honestly, we're all ok with the pink bike, but it finally gave out, so we had to trade it in for a better model.  But I think Eli really enjoyed having it be a boy bike.  He was all smiles when he rode up and down our street!

Of course no birthday is complete without Birthday Bingo.  Eli and J tied for being the big winners this year! There was $8 in the pot!  But J was gracious enough to let the birthday boy have all the winnings.

What a fun-filled weekend!!