Library

We went to the library one morning over break. The big kids spent a long time picking out new books and reading on the whale chairs and then 30 minutes on the computers playing games.

I would say Leah enjoyed the whale chairs (but just for a brief time).

Here's a link to Amelie at the library from 2012, right before she turned two.

Amelie and James were featured on the cover of the library quarterly program guide a few years ago, and I searched for that picture to link to but couldn't find it!

Updated with Nana Jana to the rescue:

Gingerbread* Houses

One of our winter break activities was decorating gingerbread* houses. We'd done it before, but just with cookies or a kit.

I bought out the candy aisle at Aldi and then went searching for ideas online. One person recommended using graham crackers, so we did that and it worked pretty well. Next time, we'll leave some wait time between the constructing and decorating to give them time to solidify. We just did it all at once, and the roofs all fell flat, but then as James was munching on his the next day, it had hardened into a pretty indestructible structure.

(Another tip online was to stick the houses together with hot glue! We went for the all-edible version, which is good, because Spark ended up eating part of one, too.)

James is of the "more is more" mindset:

Another tip was to prop them up with canned goods inside, which we did.

So serious:

Here's the finished product:

Amelie with hers:

 

Leah with hers:

And James with his:

Grindstone Nature Area

I met up with some friends at Grindstone Nature Area one day over break. Here we are hanging out and goofing around.

Leah was pouting about something. I accidentally turned on some kind of filter at this point and it looks like they're shooting an album cover.

Not pictured are the kids at the end of the trip, when they got very overzealous throwing rocks into the creek and their shoes and pants got completely soaked.

Wild Lights at the Zoo

Sam took off work a few hours early on Friday so that we could go to the zoo to see the lights. We left Columbia about 2:45 and drove to Stephanina's for St Louis pizza and pasta and then spent til 8:45 tromping around the zoo, looking at all of the amazing light displays.

I took several really terrible pictures, so I'll borrow one from the zoo website to give you an idea:

We're Bank of America customers, so there was a big discount. However, I realized once we got on the highway that we'd forgotten to pack the stroller, so we had to spend $10 renting a stroller for Leah. It was money well spent for sure -- we walked a lot!

This is us waiting in line to see Rudolph in 4D. First I took a picture of Sam and the kids. (They were not so enthusiastic about picture-taking.)

Then Sam took a picture of me and the kids. (3 out of 4 of us are looking happier about it.)

This is us walking through a tunnel of lights. (I'm choosing to believe this is Amelie's amazed face and not her gum-chewing one.) I think if it had been even 5 degrees warmer, it might have been uncomfortably crowded, but it was on the colder side and I think some folks stayed home. I packed everyone big coats and hats and gloves, but we shed our accessories as we went along. We also went on one of the very last days. There were a good amount of folks for things to be festive but not overcrowded.

More amazed face here: 

The sea lions were out and active, despite the dark water. 

One of the keepers was playing a game where the sea lion would follow his hand. 

Here's Sam and Leah waiting in line for the carousel. The kids wanted to wait in line and do all of the activities that were included with admission. We also waited in line to see the penguins (not pictured).

Oh my goodness, look at the face on James! Are you noticing a theme?

I stood by Leah on the carousel.

There were small fire pits scattered about and you could buy s'mores kits to make on your own, but they wanted a funnel cake instead. In all fairness, it was pretty good -- they put apple pie filling in the middle to dip. Amelie had a hot chocolate.

This picture is very, very blurry (as were pretty much all of the pictures I took -- I just had my camera and it was dark) but I think it shows how excited James was.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Before break, the kids had parent-teacher conferences (plus book fair). Here they are waiting for our turn:

At Ridgeway, the student, parents, and teacher all meet together for conferences. Our family also had siblings in attendance. We met with James's teacher first, and had a perfectly medium conference! Yay! Mainly, he needs to work on being more patient and kind with his classmates, but he's come a long way since last year. He got "satisfactory" in every subject (that's the best) and "James is a pleasure to have in class" from his math teacher - which I'm sure is a canned response, but we'll take what we can get! The other big topic of conversation was that James has moved away from his table/group and is sitting at a desk by himself. His teacher confirmed that this was not a punishment, but rather James came up with the idea/it's his preference.

We met with Amelie's teacher next, and her special ed teacher sat in, and they all had good things to say. She's been reading some when she's supposed to be working, but she's shown a lot of improvement in writing. She got "satisfactory" in everything but academic progress in writing, which is "nearing proficiency" and math facts which "need improvement." She's using the iPad to write, which makes her work quite a bit easier to read. Her classroom teacher recently suggested that she go get the iPad to help and she said that she was afraid she'd get distracted and open the reading app, so the school put a guided access on to keep her in the writing app when it's writing time. The occupational therapist said that Amelie was a rule-follower and her classroom teacher added, "except when it comes to reading!" Which is not the worst thing. 

We went to the book fair last. I had $20 in cash and they spent every penny. 

Leah Says & James Says

Leah took our google mini off its charger and I asked her to plug it back in. She responded, "I supposed to plug it out!"

Leah throwing shade at Dada: 
Sam: I love you, Leah.
Leah: I like you a whole bunch, Dad.

She's regularly saying 9- and 10-word sentences, and is very polite! 

I'm not sure if I already put this one, but she says "rainbows" for "hair bows" and it's the cutest thing ever. 

Here's a conversation I recorded the other day.
Leah: Toast makes me happy ... What are these?
Me: Just dirty dishes.
Leah: Oh are they dishes?
Me: Yes.
Leah: I don't like dishes ... I like butter.

James, after dealing with Leah for a bit: "This is hard brothering."

James, appearing in our bedroom after bedtime: "You know what I don't like about Christmas?" (Long pause where I fully expected him to list off some petty complaint.) "That we don't have another one for a whole other year." (Then he wanders back off.) He had a similar complaint about The Rise of Skywalker: "You know what I didn't like about the movie? ... That there won't be another one for a long time." 

James got a "Would You Rather" book from Nana Jana and was talking about it. "So many of them depend. Like kiss a jellyfish or step on a porcupine? It depends. I mean, step on a porcupine with a shoe!" He argues with you about all of the ones he thinks don't "depend," though - if you chose the "wrong" answer. 

At dinner: "Cole slaw is like a salad." We agreed, and then James said, "But better." 

Christmas Tree & Other Decorations

We went on our pilgrimage down the road to Westlake to pick out a Christmas tree again this year. It was cold then (a couple of days after Thanksgiving - but it's warmish now - a couple of days after New Year's.)

It was also snowing the biggest, clearest snowflakes I had ever seen in my entire life! Look at this one on my glove -- not even the best one!

We also cut out snowflakes one of the days the kids were home from school and then they brought home a couple more from school to add to the collection. 

At first, Sam wanted to put the tree in the van, but I convinced him to strap it on top and drive slowly home.

Looks pretty secure to me!

And here is a photo of the finished product (from Christmas morning).

And some of the rest of the decorations (this picture's from Christmas Eve). Sam took the lights down from the front of the house on the 1st, since it was nice outside and he was off work. I finished packing up all of the rest of the ornaments and everything yesterday.

The big kids have been rearranging the NOEL candles around to say "Lone" and "Leon." And don't worry, Leah has an "L" stocking on the other side of the fireplace.

Leah's enamored of the larger-than-her nutcracker - all the kids like him (for some reason this looks like a cardboard cutout of James).

And here's a comparison picture of James with the nutcracker when he was three (2015):

 

Rag Curls

I ripped up an old t-shirt and did my hair and Amelie's hair in rags for rag curls. (I believe this was Christmas night.)

Before:

After:

Just, wow!

Mine went kind of crazy (probably because of my natural texture), but Amelie's turned out so nicely! Leah's, of course, is just naturally curly all the time. Photo credit to James.