An Early Christmas Celebration

After the piano recital and the sing-a-long, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a very early Christmas celebration .  This was our one chance to have Christmas with family before heading out to Maui on Dec. 12th.  The girls were very excited to see grandpa's train, have dinner, and open some presents.

Grandpa's train and village set up looked great and the girls had fun running the train. 

The American Girl Puppy Spa set Rian had been wanting.  

AG Hair Salon and Spa- right up Jessie's alley. 

Comfy new robe.

Flower pressing kit. 

Grandpa liked his new aviator-style winter cap with furry ear flaps to keep him warm on his walks around the neighborhood.  

Grandma and the girls.

Buddies- for the moment. 

We had a nice Christmas-style dinner and dessert and listened to holiday music while opening gifts and visiting.  Merry Christmas!  

Winter Piano Recital

For their recital pieces this semester, Rian played:  Camptown Ladies, Taps, Oh When the Saints, Jingle Bells and Up on the Housetop.  Hayden played:  Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Sea Chanty, and Sonatina.  Both girls did their best and each had some difficult pieces to play.  

Joan and Arlen came to watch the recital, along with grandma and grandpa.  

The girls with their amazing piano teacher, Kathy Peiffer.  

Rialto Sing-a-long

The girls and I went straight from their piano recital to the Christmas sing-a-long at the historic Rialto Theater in downtown Loveland.  They always do such a great job decorating and getting everyone into the holiday spirit.  The girls all had hot chocolate and cookies and then sang Christmas songs to their heart's content!

Hammond's Candy Factory

To get into the spirit of the holidays this year, we decided to head down to Denver and tour the Hammond Candy factory.  In all our years of living in Colorado, we had never been there, so we invited the McGonagils and were on our way.  The weather was terrible, with freezing snow and wind.  But once inside the factory, we were toasty warm.

Waiting for our tour time to start.  Not sure where Hayden's mind was, this was actually a lot of fun!!! Ramona and her daughter, Reilly are on the far left.

Watching a short video on the history of the factory.

It was interesting to see how Hammond's candy canes, ribbon candy, and lollipops are pulled, twisted and shaped by hand, just like they were when they opened in 1920.  Everything is handmade and hand-packaged, from beginning to end.  At first we all thought it would be such a fun place to work.  Then we just thought it would  be way too much work!!!

This hot and bubbly pile of glop will soon be turned into ribbon candy.  

That's a lot of canes. 

The gift shop was very fun and festive this time of year.  

It was hard for the girls to pick just ONE treat to try.  

I have never seen so many kinds of candy canes in my life.  There must have been 100 different varieties.  

This reminds me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. 

Rian had to try her luck and ask if this could be her ONE treat.  Um, big fat no to that!

It was fun to see all the old fashioned equipment and learn how this famous candy is made.  It was a great way to kick off the holiday season while trying something new.

National Junior Honor Society Induction Ceremony

Hayden applied for and was accepted into the National Junior Honor Society at Lesher Middle School.  As part of the application process, she had to write a personal essay and get a letter of recommendation attesting to her character.  (Ms. Sharolyn- her Taekwondo instructor from OMS wrote her a recommendation that brought me to tears when I read it!) Applicants had to have a minimum G.P.A. of 3.75 and be active members in both school and the community.  Members were selected based on:  Scholarship, Service, Leadership, Citizenship and Character.  When they announced this year's chosen members at the school assembly, they handed each recipient a carnation with their acceptance letter  attached to it and tied with a ribbon.  Hayden felt honored to be chosen. 

Her back is to us, but here she is accepting her NJHS membership certificate.

 

The new 7th grade members.

Hayden with Skylar and Holly.

 

Everyone got dressed up for the event (including Mike!) and they had a nice cookie and punch reception after the ceremony. 

Halloween 2013

Halloween was a busy day this year (ok, so it is crazy busy every year).  I had signed up to help with both Rian and Jessie's classroom parties, and then we were having The Kensoras and McGonagil's over for a chili dinner before trick-or-treating.  Luckily for me, Mike was able to take the day off and help out with it all.

Our five pumpkins along with Grandma's Owl and Grandpa's Cat in the very front row.  Jessie's is the kitty near the bricks on the right.

Rian's winking pumpkin.

Hayden's puking pumpkin.  Apparently the babies threw up first, causing the mom to get sick as well. 

Hayden made cupcakes for dessert.  The spiderwebs she made out of white chocolate.

SuperGirl!

Strawberry Shortcake's good friend, Blueberry Muffin!

The parade of elementary students through all the classrooms.

 

 

Ms. Themm's Kindergarten class.

We brought the spooky punch.

Rian said everyone enjoyed the Dracula bagels we made along with the jack-o-lantern clementines.

Jessie, Rose, Jasmine and Rian trying to contain their excitement and eat something before getting changed into their costumes.  Hayden went over to Reilly's after school to get ready for the night.  They had fun putting lots of make-up on!

The Snake, The Zombie, The Angel, The Dancing Princess, Blueberry Muffin, SuperGirl and the Chinese Girl (she is the one who told me to call her that!)  The dads took the girls out trick-or-treating and everyone had a great time.  The best part was watching them after they got back home dump their candy all over the floor and then sort it out according to type, likes vs. dislikes, chocolate vs. non-chocolate and those they were willing to trade.  It was exhausting having to get everyone up for school so early the next morning, but worth it to have such fun with good friends!

Miller's Farm

It had been chilly and rainy the past couple of days, so when we woke up on Sunday morning and saw sunshine and warmth in the forecast, Mike decided to take the day off and go to Miller's Farm with us in Frederick, Co. After a quick stop in Longmont for another round of breakfast burritos (the girls' favorite) we were on our way.

They were having a great pumpkin sale:  $30 for a wagon full.  And you could be very creative about how you loaded your wagon.  All kinds of squash (hubbard, acorn, butternut, spaghetti), gourds, mini-pumpkins, potatoes and onions were included in the deal.  We were told by the people at the farm that you were either a "slacker" or a "stacker" so we gave it our best shot at falling into the latter category.

Rian found her pumpkin right off the bat.

Hayden searched and searched, but finally chose this beauty. And Jessie didn't care about pumpkins at all- she was more interested in running back and forth across "the yellow brick road" they had near the pumpkin patch 100 times. 

After a lot of trial and error, we finally had a wagon full we were all proud of.  The onions, gourds and mini-pumpkins were great to help with the balancing and stacking of the larger squash and pumpkins. 

Very carefully we had the girls pose by our haul- but not too close! After loading everything up in our car, we spent a couple of hours exploring the other fun things the farm had to offer.

Rian and Jessie got a real kick out of this GIANT chair.

On your marks, get set, GO!

Everyone had fun racing the little "go-carts" around the dirt track.  Mike and Hayden always turn it into a big competition.  Rian and I are just happy to mosey around the track and enjoy the ride.

Jessie finally decided to try it out and let Hayden drive her around for awhile.  (Fast forward four years, I see this same scenario repeating itself, only in a real car!). 

 

Who could resist sledding down a big dirt hill?

 

 I think the giant pillow jump was everyone's favorite activity of the day.  Mike nearly had a heart attack watching them, but they jumped and jumped and jumped to their heart's content. 

 

 

We were happy to enjoy another beautiful fall day outdoors.  We are hoping there will be many more before winter sets in!