Snowmaggedon 2014

As many of you know, we don't get snow often around here. The last time there was a good snow was when Alia was born in December of 2008. The city is ill-equipped to deal with it and it generally shuts the entire city down. On Thursday, February 6 (while Max's class was on his field trip) the snow started to really come down, hard and fast. By 11:30 most local school districts had made the decision to close early and try to get kids home before the roads got awful. Pretty much the entire city left wherever they were and tried to get home. Jason was no different and ended up in his car for nearly 3 hours trying to get the 6-ish miles or so back home. Craziness!

There was no school, gyms were closed so I didn't have to teach, everything was at a stand still for the whole weekend. Schools were closed Friday & Monday and we spent a lot of time hanging out at home. We did get outside to play a little bit, but we don't own any snow gear so the adventures outside were fairly short. 

Thursday - noon

Thursday - evening

Playing outside in the snow on Friday

We tried to make a snowman but the snow was very light and powdery and didn't pack well :-(

using garden tools to play in the snow

our little "Olaf" the snowman

When you are cooped up in the house for a few days, things start to get interesting ...

Mommy teaches everyone how to use the dust buster and the Swiffer ...

And this guys sense of humor gets even more silly!

Class Field Trip

Max's Preschool class went on a field trip to Papa's Pizza to celebrate the end of their study of the five senses. They got to tour the kitchen, play in the play area and eat pizza of course!

Adorable 3 year old kiddos waiting for the tour of the kitchen.

playing in the ball pit

saying their little class prayer before eating

The best part - eating the yummy pizza while Mrs. Franklin read a story. Max put everyone else to shame and had 4 pieces of pizza. He was the last one left at the table. That's my growing boy!

Time To Update

Time seems to be going by faster than I can catch it these days. I blinked and we were already 6 weeks into the new year. I'll do a post or two to get you caught up on the happenings here at the Douglas house.

Max has suddenly taken quite the interest in writing, doing "homework" and reading me stories. He drew me a picture at school, this says "Max, Mommy". He did that all by himself. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Max and his best buddy Landon try to do a play date together once a week. That way the boys get to play and one mommy gets a morning off while the big kids are at school. This play date was at the Children's Museum. 

Eilee spends most afternoons with us. She and Alia love playing together. In this picture, they were cuddled up in the chair at Grammy's apartment. 

Grammy (my mom) moved here mid-January. It has been so nice having family near and has already saved my rear a number of times. 

I've been learning how to crochet. My first big project was this blanket for Alia. She picked out the colors :-)

She loves it and carries it with her from room to room.

Then of course, Max needed a blanket too. These are the colors we picked out to match his bedding. I'm nearly done with it. Next on the project list are a bunch of baby blankets for expecting friends. 

Fortunately, or not, depending on how you look at it, we got a new garage door recently. We didn't enjoy spending the money but we do love having a safer door that actually works and is VERY quiet.

Christmas Morning

We had an outstanding Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve, the whole family headed to the gym in the morning so that Mommy could teach her last class before the holiday. That afternoon we went to a children's mass at a new church we've never been to before (thinking we might be headed back there tomorrow). We all really enjoyed it. We even managed to get the kids in bed and on time that night. The elves had been wise and did most of their preparation ahead of time, so once the kids were in bed the grown-ups got to relax.

Alia was up at 5:00am on Christmas morning! We pulled her into bed with us and managed to hold her off until about 5:45. Then we woke up Max and let the fun begin! 

The Christmas Eve view of our tree

Max insisted on leaving Santa a beer to go along with his milk & cookies. Smart guy :-)

Santa always leave the kids presents by their chairs so that there's no confusion. Max got a plasma car, a RC car and binoculars along with lots of goodies in his stocking.

Alia got a scooter, a unicorn light up pet and pink binoculars from Santa.

The kids each got robes from Mommy and Daddy ... along with other fun stuff of course. 

A talking Doc McStuffins doll from Nana & Sir

Fun fairy stuff for the bath tub from Uncle Monkey, Aunt Kelly and Wyatt

The wreckage!

We are still working on cleaning this up.

After the 5am wake up call and all the excitement we snuggled up on the couch to watch one of our new movies, Turbo. Max loved it! He didn't move or blink the entire time! Alia and I managed to squeeze in a nap that day and I think we all managed to make it out of pj's eventually. It was so wonderful to get to spend an entire day at home just playing, resting, cuddling and enjoying my family!

My amazingly talented hubby made this delicious dinner on Christmas. We had steak Oscar style, crab cakes and Brussels sprouts. Yummy!

A little Christmas morning video ...

Santa

I waited much longer than usual to take the kids to see Santa this year. I just wasn't on top of my game. We did make it there before Christmas and that's all that really matters, right? Alia was thrilled to see him and gave him her list without hesitation .... a scooter, her very own hairbrush, binoculars and a Doc McStuffins play area. Max however was not sure about Santa ... AT ALL. We avoided a complete meltdown by having Mommy sit on Santa's lap and be in the picture with everyone. I assure you (and I'm sure you can guess based on the picture) that was not in the plan. I'm such a sucker! Max finally squeaked out his usual request, cars and trucks. 

Gingerbread Houses & Christmas Cookies

Two of our favorite holiday family traditions are making a gingerbread house and making cookies for Santa. It just gets more fun and more interesting each year. This year we were impressed with Alia's interest in making a pattern and/or having some sort of order to her candies on the gingerbread house. Max also clearly had a plan for the parts he decorated, but I wouldn't call it "organized" :-)

Thank you Wilton for the lovely kits that come with everything you need! We just added m&m's because those are fun to decorate with AND eat.

Mommy and Daddy do the icing part (its harder than it looks)

Lots of great teamwork happening here

Can't let the kids have all the fun

On December 23rd, we made our cookies for Santa.

While the first batch or two was baking in the oven the kids played with some of the scraps of dough like play-dough. They loved it!

I simplified the decorating process this year and got these little tubes of cookie icing. It was much more fun for Alia. She was able to do just about all of it herself and drew faces on her gingerbread men.

Daddy and Max worked together on his cookies!

A few of our delicious and gorgeous works of art

Alia is 5

Despite my best attempts at talking her out of it, Alia went ahead and turned five this weekend. There's something about 5 that is really hard for me. It seems so grown up and so "big kid". I can't believe she'll be starting kindergarten in the fall. Even though Mommy isn't ready for any of it, Alia surely is. 

A little bit about my 5 year old Alia - 

Favorite:

Colors - pink, purple

Song - The "gingersnaps" song from The Nutcracker

Food - most fruits, grilled cheese, hot dog, mac and cheese 

(She''s going through a very picky eater stage.)

TV Show - Doc McStuffins

Thing to play - Doc McStuffins, School, Palace Pets, Barbie fashion show

Outfit - leggings and t-shirts (She likes to be cozy.)

Book - just about anything!

Best friends - Eilee & Carson

Activities: dance & gymnastics

Alia is a very smart little girl, and I'm not just saying that because I am her mom :-) She is constantly surprising me. She is doing outstanding with her reading. She's reading a ton of sight words and is sounding out simple words as well. Her confidence with writing has grown a ton in Pre-K. Her teachers are doing a great job encouraging her without letting her get frustrated. With all that being said, we think that math might be her greatest gift. Here's an example I just have to document so that I don't forget ...

At school each morning the kids have a question of the day. On December 4th the question was "Do you know how many days until Christmas?" The kids read the question (with the help of a grown-up if necessary) and then put their picture under the yes or the no. Alia put her picture under the yes. I said, "Really? How many?" She took about 3 seconds to think about it and looked me right in the eye and said 21! No other kids or grown-ups standing by and no counting on fingers. Yep, I was impressed!

Alia is still thoroughly enjoying dance class with Miss Lynn. The Nutcracker performance took her love of ballet to another level I think. We now have the DVD and she enjoys watching her favorite parts and dancing along to it. Pretty darn cute!

Here are a few pictures from "birthday morning" ...

Her eyes lit up when she saw her new pink and white desk.

Daddy got us sprinkle donuts for a special birthday breakfast

New desk & pink chair

Sparkly purple leotard for gymnastics & pink leotard for dance

Thrilled to get some birthday money!

Her very own pink guitar courtesy of Grandpa and Roseanne :-)