Lunch with the Kids

Today is the last day of school for the kids in 2011 and they were begging for Mommy to go have lunch with them.  Chloe's class had pajama day, which was also turned into dressing up as reindeer.

Chloe had worn off her black reindeer nose before lunch was over and she gave her first grade teacher Mrs. West a special Christmas hug.

Owen was thrilled that his best friend Tayden was allowed to join us for lunch at the visitor tables outside the noise of the cafeteria, even though we weren't all family.

Fun with Leaves

Chloe had fun playing outside this afternoon with her friends.  They all pulled rakes out of their garages to rake up the leaves in our front yard.  Then they had fun picking up the leaves and dropping them on top of each other.

Evening in Roswell

Kelley took her friend Cas out for a Mexican dinner to belatedly celebrate her birthday.  She picked up some black paper and an exacto knife on the way for a little art project over dinner.  We cut shapes out of the black paper.  Cas cut a star out of her paper.

Kelley cut a heart and then used a rubber band to attach the paper over her camera lens.  The cut out heart shape turned lights into hearts.

After we finished eating, we went outside to walk around the town square and take more photos with our newly made lens covers.

And without them...this is the backside of a canoe shop.

Here is one of Cas's shots.

Karate night

Kids are amped up over Tae Kwon Do and the possibility of signing up for the leadership program.  They are giving their best punches.

Games with Friends

Owen had his friend Tayden over for the afternoon to play.  They had fun playing the wii while Ruby stayed close.

These two are best friends and have fun together every day at school.

Dinner Out

Papa Ford came up around the time Owen and Kelley were finishing up with the Help Portrait Project.  We had a late lunch together, hung out around the house and then went out for dinner at Ipp's (a newly opened Italian restaurant in downtown Woodstock).   Papa helped Chloe with her word search puzzle.

Chloe squeezed Daddy's cheeks.

Afterwards, we walked across the street and railroad tracks to check out the Christmas lights in the gazebo and square.

It was cold.

And we had a little girl not very interested in posing for her Mommy.  Or even making eye contact.

So we called it a night after a minute and a half in the freezing cold and ran back to our car.

Brrrr!  It was pretty out, but way too cold to stand out snapping photos!

The Help Portrait Project

Kelley's local photographic society volunteers their time, experience and equipment to participate in the Help Portrait Project each year to photograph foster families before Christmas.  Owen went with Kelley to help and he handed out candy canes to all the kids after they were photographed.  Kelley helped with posing kids and editing, but did get a chance to photograph Owen hamming it up on a background under the lights.

Tae Kwon Do - Leadership

It was time to renew the lease on the kids' karate lessons and we decided to kick it up a notch.  We signed them up for the Leadership program.  The expectations are higher.  There is more to learn.  And the number of classes to attend is now unlimited.  The kids were stoked when we told them!  This is their first Leadership class and they got to do cartwheels, ninja rolls and board breaking kicks throughout.

I was impressed with the girl child pulling off a cartwheel!

The boy had to step it up another notch and show off a bit, turning cartwheels on his forearms and elbows.

The last ten minutes of class was spent practicing their forms.

Combined with a little sparring.

Way to break that board, Beanarina!

The kids absolutely LOVED their first Leadership class and were worn out!!

Decking the Halls

The kids have been begging and begging to put up the tree, but we've been so busy the last couple of weeks.  But we finally got around to pulling the boxes out of the attic and the kids did all the hard work.

They sorted the branches into the various sizes while Ruby supervised.

They worked together as a team to put the branches into the pole.  It was an excellent afternoon for teamwork and not a peep of bickering!

I love the tippy toes back there.

More tippy toes.  This girl was determined to do every bit as much as her brother!

I helped get the top on and then two strands of lights.  After that, the kids did everything and hung almost every single ornament we had packed away.  Little Horse supervised, too.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Suzanney!

We're so glad you waited a day to celebrate your birthday with us so we could have more people singing around the table after dinner!

And so glad we could get some multi-generational photos in, too!

Thank you honeys for playing photographer so I could get in a couple of shots!

We had sugar-free ice cream for Grandma's birthday dessert.  It was delicious!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Suzanney!  We love you!!!