Kindergarten Show and Tell

For this month's IB planner at McGraw, We are all Artists, the Kindergarteners had to do a show and tell showcasing an artistic talent.  Some of the kids did a dance, sang a song, painted a picture, etc.  Rian decided to play the piano.  We brought in our keyboard and she played two songs:  Jolly Old St. Nicolas and chopsticks.  She was pretty shy at first, but once she started playing she did a fantastic job!  And she had fun showing the class how the keyboard could play songs "by itself" and how you could change the music to sound like different instruments were playing. 

Mrs. Themm held the keyboard for her while she explained things about it.

Elfie Red

The day after Thanksgiving, ever since we can remember, a little elf magically appears in the morning along with a book, "The Elf on the Shelf".  We read the book together, though this year Rian was able to read the entire thing by herself, and follow the directions- the magic elf watches over the girls during the day and every night flies back to Santa to report on their behavior.  The elf (or Elfie Red as Hayden named him years ago when he first appeared) then shows up the next morning in a new location.  The girls are so excited each day when they wake up to go and hunt for Elfie- you never know where he will appear! The  rule is that you may never touch Elfie- or he may lose his magic.  Watching over the girls and their daily behavior really makes our job as parents much easier during the days leading up to Christmas :)

His first appearance- on top of the paino in a little candle holder.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving this year.  Mom started out the day at a Sun Salutations Yoga class, which was a great way to start off the weekend- and the girls all helped with various cooking projects throughout the day.

Rian helped mom make the pumpkin pie.

Jessie helped daddy with the cranberries, and also helped keep Sugar entertained!

Mike made two really delicious and moist turkeys on the grill.

Hayden helped baste the turkeys. Grandma and Grandpa came over at three o'clock and brought a nice fruit salad and a green bean casserole.  We also had candied yams, stuffing, cranberries, acorn squash stuffed with apples and cinnamon, and three kind of pie for dessert! (apple, pumpkin ad pumpkin pecan- thanks to our neighbors the Willsons).

 We said prayers of Thanksgiving, and then had a toast using sparkling cider. It was a nice low key way to spend the holiday.

What a handsome pair!

Rian, the carnivore of the family, delighted in eating the turkey leg AGAIN this year.

The next three members of Overeaters Anonomyous. Though all of our bellies were a bit distended by the time we were done, only these three bellies were cute enough to photograph! After dinner, Grandma and Grandpa and the girls watched "Polar Express" on daddy's big TV in the basement, while mom and dad cleaned up dinner and the kitchen.  After that, we were all too tired to do anything but relax.  Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

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