Christmas Program

The Christmas program at church (postponed a week because of weather) was hilarious. Eliana knew every line, every place she was supposed to be, and every dance step. Olivia forgot many things because she was so enamored with having an AUDIENCE. She kept stopping to pose. And then there was Corbin. He was perfect during the rehearsal. Then he got on stage and ... well, you'll see. Enjoy.

Christmas Morning

Snow Days

We had a lovely/horrible week of snow and ice ... the first batch of snow was tons of fun for the kids, but then we had yucky ice, and by the time we got more snow, Steven was so sick and we were struggling so hard to keep the house warm that nobody went out in it the second time, even though the snow was better. But I think the first time was enough!

Playing Games

Today is my "catching up on blogging" day ... so hopefully you'll get lots of glimpses into what this vacation has been for us.

Corbin and I have a breakfast tradition. We have breakfast early (usually cheerios these days) and then after my shower (or after we drop the girls off at school on school days), we make our "second breakfast" of eggs and potatoes. Corbin was a little hungry today, and while I was making the eggs, he devoured all of his potatoes and was asking for more. And he's been asking for more potatoes all morning, even though he ate half of mine with his eggs. He really likes fried potatoes.

While we were making breakfast, the girls were playing UNO Attack! There are a few extra cards with UNO Attack, and Eliana asked me what a certain card was. I told her it meant that you could lay down all of your cards of a certain color. She thinks about it for a minute and then says, "I don't think I want to do that, because then I'd win and it would hurt Olivia's feelings. Olivia, I'll just skip you instead."

A little while later I hear her say, "I think that might be cheating, but we can do it anyways if we want to." and Olivia replies, "Yeah. It is my game, so we can cheat whenever we want!"

They seem to lack a competitiveness sometimes... but in a really good way! After lunch they were playing go fish. Olivia had all her cards laid out on the table, and Eliana says, "Ask me for this one, Olivia, and I'll give it to you!"

Happy Birthday Krystal!

Today is wonderful Aunti Krystal's birthday!! Happy birthday Aunti Krystal! I hope the Phillipines is treating you well on this special day! We miss you very much ... Here are the girls' responses to Aunti Krystal's birthday:

Olivia: "I know just what to get her for her birthday! A belly button pump. It's for doctors. Really, it is! You hook it up to your belly button and POP your belly button pops out!"

Eliana: Happy Berthday Cristl . How old are you terning? I hope you are having fun. I had my dance recitle to day! Me and my sister danced on stag ! My sister danced tow time'S.I danced only once . because I was only scegld for one! I did tap it was cold Slay Ride! and Olivia's dance is cold I'm gitin nuthing for crismus and the other one is cold Havein Fun ! And cobin's dance was cold toy shop he was a Bear! Love Eliana !

Cousins watching Nemo

Corbin's Haircut

Addendum

So check out my sister's response to Olivia!

Olivia's kissing

Olivia got into some trouble today at school. Apparently she's been kissing and hugging too much at school. Specifically her "boyfriend" named Mason. Last time we had a discussion about Mason, she told me, "I can kiss Mason if I want to, Mommy!" ... I decided to let it lie because as far as I knew, this kissing was hypothetical. Mason has been her "boyfriend" since last school year, and she has been constantly telling us that she is going to marry Mason. Since then, the kissing has become less than (more than?) hypothetical. Ms. Dianna stopped me at school today to inform me that she had to talk to Olivia today about it. When I got to school, she and Mason were sitting together hugging and talking. Then I talked to Mason's mom who has determined from Mason that the kissing has happened on at least one other occasion. I felt like I was discussing a teenager. We had a long conversation with Olivia at the dinner table tonight how kissing at school was against school rules and that our family had a rule too: no kissing outside the family. I feel a little bit better since she agreed to follow our family's and school rules ... but I'm still nervous. How can a four-year-old be so enamored of a boy? And what does this bode for teenage years?

Eliana again

Eliana and Corbin have been playing pretend. Corbin wanted his shoes on, and from the other room I heard Eliana telling him, "We're going to take you to the experiment farm to get your shoes on." A moment later they come trotting into the laundry room where I'm folding laundry, and Eliana says, "Experiment farm person, will you put his shoes on? You're the experiment farm person because you have so much more experiments than anyone else. 

Eliana also got her report card today. She's "above instruction level" in reading and "at instruction level" in writing and mathematics. She scored "4" and "+" on everything on the whole report card except "Conventions (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar)" which she scored a "3" .... [If you read the last blog, you might have got that idea] When I told her how proud I was of her and gave her an overview of the card, she said, "so I'm doing good in everything except periods and capitols and spelling and stuff??" I thought it was kinda funny how she summarized it ... as though there's anything she's doing badly at. And then she proceeded to explain to me how multiplication works. Did you learn multiplication in first grade?? I sure don't remember doing that!