Sorry!

We have been thoroughly enjoying our Christmas vacation, especially with these few days of nice weather we've had. Seth is taking the kids sledding now before another cold front hits us like a slap in the face.

Last night we went caroling with some friends and it was so much fun. Fortunately over half the group was musically inclined enough to do harmony on all the songs and it sounded beautiful. The kids especially liked it when people handed out cookies! Charlie was happy to be outside - he probably doesn't even remember what it's like to be outside longer than it takes to get from the house to the car. And I'm pretty sure he was singing along on a few of the songs.

Another thing we've had more time for is playing games with the kids. Elena, Sam and I played Sorry! the other night. Elena won first (which really makes everyone happier) so then Sam and I finished the game. Sam beat me, and about 10 minutes later Elena came up to us and gave us our "prizes."

Here they are. I'll translate what they say since she's still working on sounding out words:


Here is Sam's (with a blue ribbon in the center): "Sam, You are the star. Congratulations, Sam. Best Player Ever!"



Here's mine: "Great try."

Roast Dinner

Not to brag, but the roast I recently made for dinner was delicious.

I know because when Elena tasted it, she said, "Mmmmmm. I wish we were carnivores."

Unfortunately for her, I made all the omnivores at the table eat their vegetables, too.

Seth was drinking wine with supper, which triggered this puzzling comment from Sam: "Wine is made from elks."

"How do you figure?" I asked.

"Because it's elk-a-hol."

Look Who's Walking!

He's actually been walking now for almost a month and I'm just now getting around to putting it on here. He is our earliest walker so far, taking his first steps at 10 months.

Brrrr...

For those of you not living in MN, I'll give you a little weather update.  Though the past couple of days have been staying at a tolerable sub-freezing temperature, December so far has been COLD. There were several days in the last 2 weeks where I was tempted to put on boots, jacket, hat, scarf and mittens just to answer the door.

For those of you also enduring this MN weather, let's look at the bright side.

It could be worse. We could be total wimps like these people (and I say that in the most loving way possible):

(OK, I'll admit it's very debatable whether it's worse to be a wimp or to suffer through 6 months of winter every year)

Happy 5th Birthday, Sammy!

Sam decided that he wanted to have a birthday party with just his friends this year (which actually ended up being 3 cousins and 1 friend).  I was a little apprehensive about keeping 5 little boys entertained for the whole party. I had a few games lined up, but those took up all of 10 minutes before the boys started needing to burn more energy than they could exert on Pin the Tail on the Donkey.






Enter Seth and our 11-year-old nephew AJ to the rescue.  We were lucky to get decent weather for Sam's birthday so the boys all played football outside for almost 2 hours. They had a great time playing and my mom and I had fun watching them from inside. Elena was a bit disappointed that the majority of the party was spent on something she had no interest in, but once she accepted the fact that a bunch of preschool aged boys will not sit and play dolls for 2 hours like she would, she was OK.

 

 After 2 hours of running around, the boys were ready to join Elena in an activity that was more up her alley: stuffing envelopes for the 800+ Christmas cards we are sending to Seth's clients.  She outlasted the boys by far, though, and I've still got around 500 to go :)

Note to self for next year: make sure to check the toilet seat and floor around it before going to the bathroom when there is a house full of little boys. And keep those sanitizing wipes handy!






Included with Sam's card from my parents was this picture of my 5th birthday. I'm sure it seems like an ancient picture to Sam, but to me it doesn't seem so long ago: