Homework

Jack's teacher gave him a sheet of Christmas-related homework to complete this week. Here he is this morning checking off the list by writing "Christmas" five times. He also had already helped me decorate the house and sang a Christmas song.

Getting in the spirit...

We've been in Operation Christmas mode since arriving home yesterday. All the Thanksgiving decorations are safely in the attic and Dave dutifully climbed up in the attic to haul down the plethora of Christmas decorations for me today! I took Jack shopping this morning for a new tree (I had envisioned it for the entry way but we ended up putting it in the playroom). It's a fun bright pink color with bright ornaments to liven things up. The boys finished trimming it with school ornaments from years past. Our tree is in the living room this year. I'll miss seeing it from the front window when I come home at night but perhaps I'll see the pink one?

It was fun pulling out all of the ornaments for the living room tree. They are all sentimental and some date back to 1976 (Dave's first Christmas). We have so many "Baby's first Christmas" ornaments for each child that it's almost comical. I think they each have 5-6. That's each!! I especially love the ornaments that Dave and I collected on vacations. I also have an ornament from my first Christmas in New Orleans. I thought then that I would never stay in the region and would need the ornament to "remember" my time here. Wrong! Ha ha.

Do you like the note our Elf on the Shelf, Eli, left for the boys this morning? Jack had his ornaments fully colored by 7:30 am when I woke up. The child is such an early riser. I'm hoping Eli's watchful eye will curtail the wild behavior we've been enjoying for a week. One can hope, right? :)

Mimi turns 60 (and sassy)

We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday last night at the clubhouse in her subdivision with lots of family and friends. The boys made a brief appearance before their babysitter took them home and put them to bed :) Mom's friends, Cyndi and Sherry, hosted the party and did a fabulous job tying everything together. She raked in tons of gifts and was surrounded by those she loves for her special day. Happy birthday Mimi!

Lego fun

The boys got creative with the legos! Very impressed with their teamwork. Especially for the harder shaped letters!

Mom learns a new trade

I took a concealed hand gun course today and learned about the different types of hand guns, gun safety and how to handle, reload and fire a gun. It was a bit overwhelming since I had never held or fired a gun before and certainly hadn't loaded one! The course was very thorough and had about 5 hours of instruction before we went to the shooting range. I have to admit that I was scared to death to load the 22 caliber gun (I was originally given a .357 Magnum Revolver and didn't want that!) but once I had about 3 shots under my belt (and my hands stopped shaking), it was all good! I ended up really enjoying it and got a perfect score. Granted it was only 5, 10 and 15 feet. I look forward to going back and trying a different gun and different distances :) I highly recommend this course to all you ladies out there. Now I feel confident that I can shoot a gun if my life depended on it and that was my goal for today. :)

Final treat

I finished this marathon day with the Fall birthday celebration for my Mom's club at a local park. The boys had a blast and just ran and played with the other kids there. I had to take a picture of how they eat cupcakes these days. Theo went on to eat the cake part. Jack, not so much.

Thanksgiving Feast

Jack's class feasted today so Theo and I were there for all of the excitement! The kids made their own butter from whipping cream yesterday and used it on the rolls for lunch. The class had a spread of food and also got to paint symbols on a tortilla that was cut in half to fashion a small teepee. Then they made turkeys from oreos and candy corn. Very creative stuff!! The kids headed inside after the feast was over to play games and burn of all that sugar. That's when things got a bit chaotic for me. Trying to keep an eye on Theo, constantly checking that his pants were still dry, cleaning up the feast and taking pictures....... I felt like I needed a stiff drink when I left school. I settled for a 10 minute nap on the coach :) Thank goodness Jack's Christmas party falls on a Friday so I can come alone!