Tree hunting

For the past 4 or 5 years we head out to Turks Trees and pick out or Christmas tree. This year it was Ellerys year to pick... We had to start the every other year for each kid because the fighting over which tree to pick was tooooo much. Ellery loves the long needles whereas Cal likes the short needles. I kid you not the first tree Ellery picked we ended up with. It sure beat last year walking around with Calvin for 2 hours looking for the perfect one. Now onto lights and ornaments.

24/7

This happens in our kitchen nightly... Constant throwing of a rubber ball against my cabinets...not sure my cabinets will survive but I guess it beats him watching tv or playing on the computer plus maybe new cabinets are in my future.

making music

Ellery had her piano recital tonight. It is has been so fun to watch her improve over the years. Then Anine surprised her and showed up for her recital, she was so surprised. Ellery leaned over to me prior to her going up to play and told me how nervous she was and then went up and played beautifully. 

Firsts.

 Cal and Grandpa Tom.  How cute are they?  Calvin is trying wrestling this year (not to worry, he is still in hockey too).  This was his first meet.  Is that what they call it...a meet?  As you can see, he appears a bit nervous, but he had Grandpa Tom coaching him and considering he had only been to 3 practices, he did pretty darn good.  He took third place out of 4.  The boy who won had been in wrestling for 4 years.  He was GOOD!  So afterwards, I asked Cal if he had a good time and his reply was they wanted to try basketball next year. So I don't think this if for him, but I am glad he is giving it a shot and ...it wears him out!!  Yeah me.

 Poor Cal, had the flu first.  It hit him hard and slept the entire day.  This is how I found him after I came home from running errands.  His arms are tucked in between his legs...ha.

Ellery had to work on her 5th grade heritage project.  I mean Ellery and I had to work on her 5th grade heritage project.  I mean Ellery, Grandma Shirley and I had to work on her 5th grade heritage project.  It took a team to pull all the info together.  If you have young kids get started on it now!!  It was fun to see how far back we could go in the family tree!  I am happy to say the project is complete!!

Photos Shoot of the Kids...back in October...

So I said I would blog once a week.  I never said it would be anything profound...so this week I am just sticking with photos!  Lots of photos of my cuties!  Love them!

Well I have many new years resolutions this year.  

One of those resolutions is to blog once a week.

I am already a week behind.

It's tradition that in second grade they get to make gingerbread houses.

Here is Calvin's masterpiece.  It has been the centerpiece of our table since he brought it home.

I am having a really hard time throwing it away as it

will be the last 2nd grade gingerbread house I get to have

as my centerpiece.  

Ellery is our singer.  This is her caroling in Central Park over Christmas

with her church group Joyful Noise.  Grandma Shirley and I stayed and 

listened and it was COLD, but worth it to listen to those girls sing

Christmas carols.

Who didn't once of these Pier 1 chairs as kid?  We were at Pier 1 with Grandma

Shirley getting out traditional Li Bien ornaments that she gives the grandkids

every year, when Ellery said she would like to get one of these with 

her birthday money from November..but she was short some money.  In steps

Grandma Shirley to save the day, she advanced Ellery her 'Christmas gift' and helped 

pay for the rest of the chair.  SWEET.

This is the scene at my back door.  It is one of my favorite parts of winter. =)

This is my boy enjoying the first big snow!!

 

Cal is trying wrestling this year.  He is in hockey as well. 

While I am glad he is trying it, I have a very good feeling hockey will be his sport

of choice!

 

This is a page ripped out of the Martha Stewart magazine.  I had brought a stack 

of magazines to work this other day and when I came down to break the ladies were all laughing

because they found the above written in the Martha magazine.  It says:

Jean Jean made a machine,

Joe Joe made it go,

Art Art let a fart,

and blew the whole machine apart.

Such a super proud moment for me.

PS.  Ellery wrote it.

I did it.  I blogged.  I am exhausted.