Elf Work

We are busy bees around here getting ready for the holidays. But our hearts have been really sad because of the shooting in CT on Friday.  We're holding our young ones close and saying prayers for the families.  As a parent, I can't imagine that kind of pain and sorrow.

Here were some of the happenings from last week:

 Morgan and I attended Jacoby's first holiday program at school.  He was very excited to be standing on the top riser and knew all of the words and hand motions.  They were so cute!

The morning kinders are on stage with Jacoby's class in these pics.  The full-day kinders got to stay on stage and perform a few additional songs with the music teacher.  I didn't get pics of those because Morgan was threatening a full-on meltdown at the time...

We finished up our gifts for the teachers

Morgan's class visited Miss L.'s horses at an equine center.  His class is studying the letter H right now.

We made snow globes

One of our advent activities last week was to try a special treat, so we made donuts.  The boys were curious about them after reading a Curious George book.  They were quite tasty.

And kid-approved!

Jacoby and Justin went skiing on Saturday.  Here's the pretty tree in the Winter Park Village.  I'm told Jacoby did very well for his first time out this season.  He wasn't quite ready to ski on his own (which he was doing at the end of last season), but he loved being out in the snow.

He walked the whole way from the car to the lift in his ski boots (no small feat, let me tell you) and carried Justin's polls.  We've definitely come a long way from a few seasons ago when we had to lug kids and gear all at once!

Snowy highway

Morgan and I stayed home and got a few Christmas projects and baking done.  We gave each boy $10 this year to buy a gift for each other.  They both did very well, and I was particularly impressed by Morgan's choice for Jacoby.  Now we'll see if they're able to keep them a surprise until Christmas. (:

Today we enjoyed a holiday party with Jacoby's class:

 I need to give a shout out to the mom who built 30 gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for the kids to decorate.  She also brought frosting and decorations for all of them.  Wow.  I was impressed.  Justin and I built Jacoby's house this weekend, and let me tell you, we were not thinking merry thoughts after building just one house!  And I even hot glued the sucker so it would be virtually indestructible. (:

 Making our candy cane mice

We also brought caramel corn and oreo popcorn (delicious)

These events are total madness but lots of fun.

We were a tired bunch when we got home, and I was grudgingly cleaning up the mess we packed home from the party.  And in the midst of all of it, I found this:

Best Christmas gift ever...

I'll close with a couple of videos.  I love it when my very serious, reserved oldest son breaks out his care-free, silly side.  Have a great week everyone!