Fun For The Whole Family

One of our favorite people came for a "sleepover," as the girls like to call it in mid-January.  We had lots of fun while Beth was here.  We spent sometime watching wombat (Beth's self-proclaimed animal), bandicoot, binturong, porcupine, and platypus videos.

Beth's love for riding horses transfers over into their play:  the girls played mommy and baby horse with Beth.  She's the mommy horse and she teaches them all sorts of things like how to eat, roll in the dirt, come when she calls them, etc.

As is becoming the norm around here, the girls wanted to do some crafts while Beth was visiting.  Two kids finger painted and Theia got some help from Beth on a Busy Box project.

Joe and I also enjoyed playing a few games with Beth after the kids went to bed and the following day while visiting another family's home.  It's always great when Beth comes.  It's fun for the whole family!

A Wild Time

On New Year's Eve day, with the weather mild and moderately cool, we enjoyed a family trip to the National Zoo.  We saw a porcupines,

and pandas

(we saw some real ones, too),

did lots of walking

(well, some of us did),

and learned lots about the elephants, apes and other small mammals.

It was a real wild time.

Grand Old Time

We have a good time around our house.

Usually there's a fair amount of silliness to our good times, like Aliyah sticking her head in her pasta bowl at dinner,

or Theia dancing like a crazy person.

Most often Joe and I get to be a part of the good times and silliness, but on a recent morning when Joe and I were home, all four kids disappeared behind the closed door of the girls' bedroom.  After sometime had passed without any arguments, fighting, crying or whining, I poked my head in to investigate.

"What's going on in here?" I asked, while observing all four kids happily playing on the bed amidst blankets, pillows and stuffed animals.

Xandra proudly announced, "We're having a grand old time without you and daddy."

And they were.

Interior Redesigns

Occasionally the girls will shout, "Mama, Come take our picture!"  I never know what I'll see when I round the corner.  On a recent evening, when they were supposed to be quietly laying in bed and/or sleeping, this is what I saw:

A little night time bedroom redesign. 

Not long after the great unveiling, all was quiet and this is what I saw:

From a distance they all look so peaceful and asleep.  Up close, it's a different story.  Sneaky bandicoot.

Here's a recent nap time masterpiece:

Who can sleep when there's so much interior redesign to be done?

Crafty

The girls got a lot of wonderful gifts for crafting at Christmas this year.  We've been enjoying using some of them up in the weeks since. 

The favorites currently are finger painting, water colors, Color Wonder princesses, puzzles, magnetic dress up dolls, and Theia's busy box which is full of various crafting projects for her and any available adult.

Keepin' Busy

We love when Grandma & Grandpa come for a visit.  We like to keep them busy in lots of ways, like book reading,

and wrestling,

and romping,

and climbing,

and tackling,

and snuggling,

and reading,

and hanging out,

and reading,

and baking,

and crafting.

I'm guessing that when they get home, they do lots of this:

Glory to God in the Highest

I have no idea why they started doing this, where it came from, or what prompted it, but they did it frequently throughout the Christmas season.  They also did it once last week around the coffee table in the front room.

Two other notes:

1.  I love that Joey's always in the middle of it all with some random toy in his hand, being knocked to and fro, and perfectly content.

2.  Joe's ability to sit in a room completely undisturbed and unaware of the small children running about, making large volumes of noise, seems to be hereditary.

Unwrapped

After dinner clean up, the true festivities began.  Grandpa Tim, in an amazing turn around from previous years' yule log mishaps, actually trimmed off a small portion of this year's yule log and packed it in his suitcase.  It's good Gramps was on the ball because in the great clean up of 2011, in which Joe broke with the tradition of leaving the ENTIRE tree intact until Christmas Eve, our cut up and neatly stacked yule log disappeared into the wood pile or otherwise made its way to the local dump in the back of the van.  If it weren't for Grandpa Tim, there would have been no yule log.

 

There would also have been a lot less silliness (and heresy) at our Christmas celebration.

Once the yule log was on, the Christmas story read, and we listened to a Christmas song, the paper began flying.

The girls were quite excited at the Tinkerbell jammies and robe from Grandma & Grandpa DeShon.

Joey was quite excited to just be able to rip, tear and destroy something without getting in trouble.

Besides the cardboard boxes, Joey also liked his sippy cups. 

There were lots of craft supplies for the girls, which we all love.

lunchboxes, which are carted all over the house and rarely used for lunch,

nightgowns with matching bear nightgowns,

bear snugglis made by mama,

and lots of other beloved gifts!

After the presents, we always enjoy some hot cocoa (with marshmallows) in the chilly outdoors,

and then send the kids off to bed. 

The next morning the fun starts again with stockings.

All that little loot, makes little girls happy,

until Joey gets his hands on it

and starts eating the oranges.

After all the gifts the night before and the stockings that morning, that was all that was left to unwrap.