Caroling at a Nursing Home

Tonight, Grady, Alice and I went to a local nursing home with our Tiger Cub pack and other children. We met last week and made some crafts and practiced carols.
When we got there, they had already started rehearsing the carols. There were probably 25 children there. We went down to the memory impaired unit and sang 4 carols. I think the moms were louder than the children!
The mom organizers had pre-made milk-carton/graham cracker ginger bread houses. After singing, the children went and decorated the houses. Grady ended up sitting at a table with two other residents. The man didn't talk or move very much at all, although he looked young - maybe late sixties. The woman at his table had about a five minute memory. She kept asking Grady where he lived and he answered nicely every time.
The mom organizers had brought cookies and the facility had punch. Grady handed out some drinks and spoke clearly to each resident. He had such nice manners - I was so proud! The residents seemed to really appreciate our being there. We handed out the crafts the children had made. It seemed to brighten their day. The woman said they normally didn't have such a fun evening.
As we were leaving, I had Grady say thank you and goodbye to our table mates. The man shook his hand and seemed to make eye contact. I was really glad we went.

More Christmas-y things

Grady, Alice and I decorated a gingerbread house last weekend. We had a great time - now we're just trying to keep Alice from eating it!

It was Grady's idea to write "Hello" on the back of the house. He was so proud of himself for this idea. He made sure anyone who saw it knew that it was his idea!
We have been watching a Christmas movie or show just about every day (more on the weekends!) We introduced them to the Bing Crosby classic, "White Christmas," this year and I think they've seen it 4 or 5 times already. Grady has started quoting lines from the movie - which is better than when he was quoting lines from the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie!

We went out looking at Christmas lights the other night. Stephen and I have decided that more people decorate for Christmas here than in Tennessee. In our neighborhood alone we saw all kinds of figures, lights, inflatables and a few nativities. Even Pryor gets into it: "Oh look there!" We are all experts now on Christmas light decorations!

School Christmas Program

Monday afternoon, Stephen and I joined about 500 other parents and family for Newlonsburg Elementary's Holiday of Lights Celebration. We were not able to enter the school earlier than thirty minutes before the show. I got there 25 minutes early and got one of the last parking places along the road! Crazy! Stephen parked at a church across the way.

Alice was in the back row! Although I was only in the second row of the gym, I still had a hard time zooming in enough. She has the red bow in the back. She got to raise the sign for, "R for reindeer." Of course, her favorite song was the Hanukkah song they sang - but I didn't record that!

Grady loved this song, "Mary Had A Baby", and sang it at home. He, too, is in the back row almost in the same place as Alice, wearing a red sweatshirt. They are "signing" the song as well as singing it. We were at a Tiger Cub event and singing Christmas carols last week. The boys started singing this song. Even though none of them go to our school, they all knew the words! It was precious!

Rip Roarin' Roller Coaster

Stephen went out sledding with the children on Saturday. He decided to sled down the hill in a completely different way. When I filmed this I was watching them for the first time. I was surprised myself.

I had a hard time holding the camera steady since I was laughing!

I also got a shot of Alice and Daddy sledding down the same hill. It's hard to get a feel for how far they actually go down the hill.

If you can believe it, it was 61 degrees this morning and Suzy is no more! Everything is gone. It's not supposed to snow a lot for the rest of this week, so the next sledding will have to be in the new year. The children are already looking forward to it!

The First Sledding!

Breaking news! It finally snowed enough last night (although just barely so) to go sledding this morning! Fortunately the schools complied and we had a two hour delayed start (although they still get out at the regular time.)

Of course Grady, being the expert that he is, had plenty of advice to offer to Alice! HA!! HA!!


The snow was pretty sticky so we had a hard time getting started. Once we did there was no going back!! Later on, I moved us to a different part of the yard. If the children dropped their sled, it scooted down through the trees almost to the storm drain and creek below.

Alice and Pryor took off their mittens so they didn't last long although we were very busy!!

They decided this snowman looked like a girl so they named her Suzy. Not sure where that name came from. Grady gave her his hat. They added more rocks for buttons later on, but it's snowing right now and I don't feel like going out and taking another picture! :)

Pryor loved taking snow, putting it in his shovel and throwing it!! We spent an exhuasting hour or more outside, raced inside for a second (or in Alice's case first) breakfast and made it to the bus stop right as it pulled up. PHEW!

Pryor Sings

Pryor wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas-y Things

We decorated the tree while the Arnold's were here over Thanksgiving. We had a great time cutting it down and putting up the ornaments.

This year, I'd say the children did over half of the ornaments. Since I'm a big-time control freak when it comes to my Christmas tree, it was an incredible release and act of love for my children that I let them hang so many. I didn't even re-hang that many - ha ha! This tree is so much smaller than our ones in years past that there were many ornaments that are still in their boxes.

Stephen's Aunt Kathy gave us this singing, jingling snowman and barking dog several years ago. It is one of the children's favorite Christmas decorations! Pryor "discovered" it this year and loves it so he is into hugging it while it plays. He laughs and laughs!

Grady and Alice had "Holiday Shoppe" at school today. The PTO buys items from the Dollar Store for $0.90 and sells it to the children for $1 as a little fund raiser for the children. I gave each of them $5 to get things for our family. Well, they both were so excited - and it was really cute to see what they bought! I won't give away the surprise but suffice it to say they loved the whole experience. When they got home they wrapped them and put name tags on them. They carefully put them under the tree - they thought they were so big! I thought Holiday Shoppe would be a waste of time and money - but the experience has been great for the children!

Science Museum, Part Two

We went back to the Science museum last Sunday and came upon a HUGE crowd. I guess everyone had family in town and went to the museum on Sunday morning. We went upstairs to the 4th floor which was the only level we hadn't seen the previous visit. They had all the basic elements of a basic children's museum and the children had a great time.
Grady of course enjoyed the ball area where they have a series of pulleys and buckets to bring all the balls to a large container up above which periodically empties out. They all played in there for a while.

Alice decided to make a room with these large blocks.

Pryor LOVED the water table and spent the most time there. They did have bibs, but he still got sopping wet.

Pittsburgh Creche

While we were downtown we walked to visit the Pittsburgh creche that I had read about. They had Handel's Messiah playing. The "stable" was huge and really breath-taking. I just looked up info about it and thought I would just cut and paste it below:

The Pittsburgh Crèche is the world’s only authorized replica of the crèche erected in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. First erected in 1999 through the work of the Christian Leaders Fellowship, the Crèche features larger-than-life-size renderings of the Holy Family, the magi, an angel, shepherds, animals and a stable, along with a professional sound and lighting system. Pietro Simonelli, sculptor of the original Vatican crèche, created the figurines, which have lifelike hands, feet and faces made from clay and weather-proofed papier-mâché placed on a wooden frame. The stable design is also taken directly from Vatican blueprints.

Macy's Pittsburgh T-giving Parade

We had a fabulous (albeit cold) time at the parade on Saturday!

Pryor was transfixed by all the activity! Unfortunately we were sitting past where the TV crew was - so we had lots of gaps when groups were performing at the Macy's.

Alice was wearing her new Christmas outfit that I got in January. She was wanted to wear it all year and so did not want to cover it up with a coat (although it was 25 degrees! ) She did not want to wear a hat to cover up her bow or gloves. Needless to say she was cold! A slave to fashion at 5! She was the one who requested to go to a Christmas parade.

A brush with a celebrity! For those who don't know, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was taped in Pittsburgh. Mr. McFeely (the mailman on the show) was in the parade! Not sure who the panda is supposed to be, though.

We loved seeing all the floats and big balloons. They also had several dog breed clubs - interesting. The children had a great time looking at everything! We got really cold sitting outside for 2 1/2 hours, so we decided to go into the Macy's to get warm. I was trying to get a better view of the parade by getting close to where all the action started. Well, while we were in there we heard that the parade was over!! We made our way out of the building just in time to see the big man himself! Phew!!

The day was saved by an official viewing of Santa!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

We had an unpleasant surprise - Grady got the stomach flu Wednesday night! He ended up feeling better by lunch but still didn't eat much.

Stephen's parents arrived Thursday afternoon while I was in mid-meal preparation. Patti brought a bunch of sides and I did the turkey, dressing and both potatoes. The Oeders, family friends who live nearby, were unexpectedly unable to join us so we had enough food to feed the masses!

I got a fresh turkey from the local farm and reserved a 19 pound turkey since I wanted to be sure to have leftovers. Well, I guess they were all really big this year and I ended up bringing home a 21 pounder!! We ate it all weekend, gave some to the Oeders, made turkey soup and just put some leftovers into the freezer!

We had a great time with the Arnolds: hit the mall early Friday morning, cut down our own Christmas tree Friday afternoon and went downtown to the Macy's Pittsburgh Thanksgiving Day Parade on Saturday morning. I'll post pictures of that later. They babysat for us Saturday night so we could go downtown and see Spamalot. It was excellent!!

The rest of the story is that Patti ended up with the stomach flu Saturday night, so she was out of commission on Sunday! So sad! We ended up going back to the Science museum with out them just to give the Arnolds some space. I've got some good pics I'll post later.

It was the first day of deer hunting today so the children had the day off of school. Of course! We actually had a very pleasant day and the children enjoyed watching White Christmas for the second time in two days. Gotta love Christmas movies!

Pryor sings the ABCs

Need I say more?

Carnegie Science Center

We went to the Carnegie Science Center on Sunday after church and since they didn't have Sunday school we were able to get downtown just before 11 AM.

It was just FABULOUS!!! The children hadn't ever been to a nice science museum. We saw three floors and didn't even visit the top floor where they have the water table and other typical children's museum exhibits nor did we see the naval submarine docked outside.

We saw the Sky Above Mister Rogers' Neighborhood show at the digital dome theater. They have an aquarium area and a model railroad exhibit. Of course Grady loved the K'Nex exhibit - yes, they really have a k'nex exhibit!

We saw the Meringue Madness show at the test kitchen. Alice and Grady raised their hands and particpated in the show - see the pictures below. Of course, my favorite part was the sample at the end!

Breaking News, Part Two

The tooth fairy has been very busy here recently!

His smile looks so different! It's crazy! He is so excited. He seemed surprised that the tooth fairy brought the same amount that she had for the first three! ($2.00 - coin dollars)

Breaking News

Breaking news!! The other tooth that was not quite as loose this weekend, came out today!

Grady - in an act of love I have never seen in him before - kept the lost tooth a secret. He lost it at Powered Up - a church program/dinner on Thursday nights. Stephen went to pick them up - and they both said they had a secret they would tell when they got home. They both kept the secret the entire fifteen minutes.

When they got home, Grady told us - and the fact he had saved it till home made me cloud up! So precious!

Playdate

We invited some friends to come over and play yesterday afternoon and had a great time!

Grady asked Jack, a little boy from his class. Jack liked legos but had never heard of k'nex. Grady was more than happy to inform him. I'm not sure how many words the little boy spoke the whole time he was here.

Alice invited Michelle R. (not to be confused with Michelle G., twin sister to Rachel, both of whom we have played with before) to come over. Her Mom, who is from Germany, also brought her 5th grade daughter and her 3 (almost 4) year old son. Pryor played with Nicklaus and the two got along well.

After a while, we all played Scene It! Disney version - the DVD video clip/board game. The children and I had been playing it earlier in the week. I'm embarrassed to say that my children kept on answering for the other children but I think everyone had a good time.

Home Movies

Grady was pushing Pryor in a big container. He wanted me to film him.

Then Alice wanted a turn. In this second video, you can almost hear what Pryor is saying, "Hello, Baseball Game!" He was actually holding Grady's basketball game which is similar to Grady's baseball game. Pryor was talking into it like a phone. He is really becoming a chatty chad!

I can't believe that Grady's front tooth has still not come out! When he wiggled his tooth on this video, I thought for sure it was coming out that night. Here we are two days later and it still is in!

Holidays and Outfits

This was before church on Sunday in some adorable outfits from Mom. Later that night, we did a couple of movie clips - I'll post them next.

I just found out about this yesterday: this is the first year this school system has had two weeks off at Christmas. Normally, they only have one!!! Good grief! Are you kidding me? I was already upset that they don't have a spring break - only 2 days before and one day after Easter. I think I would have had a nervous breakdown with only one week of school.

It has been snowing off and on for the last few days. We haven't even gotten in our boots to go out and play in it. I guess it's becoming old already - uh oh! It may be a long winter!

Halloween Pics - Better Late than Never

We had an excellent Halloween this year! Thank you to Amy Colton for our costumes!

Grady as a Karate guy

Alice as a mermaid (she said she was Ariel.)

Pryor as a bunny rabbit

Haruka, Grady and Alice out trick or treating! They were out for the max allotted time: 6-8 PM - no more no less! Haruka didn't want to go out - we convinced her to go! Who wouldn't want to go and get free candy?

Grady and his hoard - I was blown away by his catch.

Alice got an incredible stash as well - full size candy bars and everything!

A Celebrity in our House

This picture is interesting for two reasons:

- Grady is a cutie patootie in the back row in the middle (with his head askew)

- I didn't realize he will be in the Class of 2020!!

Leaves

These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago, although we were out raking leaves again yesterday. In fact, almost all of the leaves are off this tree today.

Grady loves raking, especially if we pay him a little money!

They wanted to get buried in the leaves and have me take a picture. Well, all you could see in the picture was a pile of leaves!

Grady loves posing for the camera!

News Alert: Snow!

Holy Cow! This was us at 8:00 AM this morning:

Alice's Precious Snowman:

I think it was six inches total:

A live movie of our first snow ball fight of the year. I'm sure there will be many more!

Too Many Pics but Too Cute: The Hair Cut

Before:

During:

After:

Need I say MORE???

A Couple of Thank Yous

Thank you to Grandmother for these adorable outfits they wore to church on Sunday. You know me and matching! I would have worn a teal jumper if I could have gotten away with it. Grady is a good sport and Pryor *loves* matching him. Alice normally picks out her own clothes - so it's a bit of negotiation and diplomacy to get her agree.

Thank you to Mary Elizabeth and Aunt Amy for lending us this coat. Alice got several compliments on it. She absolutely LOVES it!! It has gotten quite cold so this coat is completely appropriate.

Just one more time...

We were on our way out the door on Saturday night. We were on our way to a big night out - taking the kids to Chik-Fil-A to eat and we were going to pick up some Mexican for us to bring home.

The children had been riding their toys down the driveway and near the mud of the construction next door. Stephen told Pryor he could ride down one more time...it was a face plant...whoops...

A Bobcat Badge

Grady's pack had a hayride and campfire ceremony last week. We all went and had a great time. All you have to do is mention S'mores and I'll be there.

His leader is a really nice father of an only child. He seems really gung ho for Boy Scouts - and that's that I want in a leader.

It was a really cute ceremony and Stephen helped with Grady. Grady got his Bobcat badge and now he's ready to be a Tiger Cub!

There are 10 boys in his Tiger pack - the most you can have I think. Grady is the one with the Tiger Cub cap on above.

I think he is really going to enjoy scouting. They seem like a really nice group of people. They had 2 bonfires and sticks all organized for hot dog and marshmallow roasting! That's what I call being prepared!

Duff Park

The park system here in Murrysville is pretty extensive. They have a really nice park about five minutes away with extensive trails. This (by the way) is also the location of the trip and fall which brought about the broken finger the week before! We did this last Saturday after the children got their flu shots. No crying for any of them! We were so glad.