Sofia's Winter Program

We went with all the grandparents to watch Sofia perform in her program tonight.  While there was some argument over whether Sofia would wear a costume to play "Jack Frost", she decided that the dress she found on a shopping trip with her dad was better.  (I agreed.)

Sofia was poised and very excited for her parts.  We are so proud of her!

December 2012

We started off the month with Daddy and I planning a trip, me holiday shopping with Sofia while Samantha had a friend over, followed by Daddy getting sick and me taking the girls to meet friends downtown for the Holidazzle parade.  It was chaotic navigating due to my interpretation of Daddy's directions, but we got where we needed to go.  The grownups didn't see much of the parade, but the kids all enjoyed it!

There was wacky hair day at Samantha's school so we twisted her hair up.

We also had a lot of leisure time when Ely would cuddle with whomever was lying around. 

During our first big snowstorm of the season, the girls and I played outside for hours.  Ely's reaction was funny and playful.  I made a snowman that turned into a gymnast when the weather warmed up.  "Frosty" (as Sofia calls it), is now stuck in a back bend/bridge since he fell over.

Both of our girls participated in their gymnastics winter meet.  They are scored on their routines and compete against all other kids in their level.  Our girls performed very well and we are so proud of them!  Nana and Papa came to watch, which the girls really appreciated.  We recorded all of their events so we can watch them whenever we want.

Samantha is very proud of her gingerbread house that she made at school.  She even shared it with Sofia when it was time to eat it!

Happy Hanukkah!

It was a crazy 8 days for us!

Hanukkah started with a snowstorm, which kept us outside for hours sledding, building a snow castle and snowman and clearing the walk/driveways.  We also managed to bake cookies.

Everyone enjoyed their gifts throughout the holiday and capped it off with dinner and a gift free-for-all at Uncle Todd's and Aunt Shelly's house.

On Friday Daddy went to both Samantha and Sofia's  classrooms to talk about the holiday.  He explained the history and talked about being Jewish.  The kids in both classes were engaged asking questions.  Daddy even brought tootsie rolls to use as gelt for the dreidel game.  I'm proud of Daddy for doing it and happy that everyone had fun!

From Samantha: Me and my Classmates had so much FUN playing dreidel!

Sofia's field trip with Grammy chaperoning

Sofia's school went to see Disney On Ice and Grammy chaperoned!  Sofia was so excited about seeing her favorite characters and had fun with her Grammy!  I'm grateful that Grammy was able to go to continue our tradition of having at least one family member chaperon the girl's field trips.

Sofia's also entered a new stage in her speech: the "And guess what" phase.  She is hilarious to listen to because everything begins with, "and guess what".  This will probably pass quickly, but for now it is comical and sweet.