The last few chilly days of Christmas break

This past week has been chilly and we even got to see some snow. We tried playing outside several days but even Samuel said it was too cold. We also had a few girls over to play before I started school and I know Lucy has a wonderful time. Thanks everyone for coming!

Most of our adventures were indoor adventures -

We played castle - ogres, princess, knights, horses
Lots of princesses and play at the Noonan house on Friday
Samuel and Lucy, the Pirates, rowing their rowboat from the pirate ship to shore to get the buried treasure.
The promised rabbit and rabbit hunter. They turned the styrofoam packing pieces from Christmas into the bunny den and the hunter's cave - their ideas are funny...
Lots of reading and pony riding...

One last Christmas quote

Lucy has loved singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer this Christmas season. She can sing most of it correctly but my favorite part is "he'll go down in MYSTERY!"

Things I'm thankful for this New Years Day

I cannot explain how excited I am that I don't have to go back to school until January 11. I thought I had to go back Monday January 4, but I was wrong (I checked the calendar yesterday). One more week with my little ones, one more week to clean and organize and one more week to enjoy life. Tomorrow the kids want to make more puppets, more toilet paper characters (a rabbit and a rabbit hunter with a hat) and play outside!! Yippee I can do it!

I'm also excited that I got to take a nap this afternoon with my strawberry blond cutie - an 1 1/2 nap with her cuddled up next to me. Whew - I needed a nap.

I'm so glad I got to play knights with my valiant redheaded warrior - we defeated dragons, shot crossbows and traveled to the magical forest to eat blueberries with the sparkle ponies (AKA My Little Ponies) that live there. The redheaded warrior also roasted the pet shop pig so that all the knights could eat and be strong for battle. Lucy was not so excited about the pig roast but she did make some blueberry and strawberry cupcakes for her magical ponies. I'm grateful for their imaginations - where do they go when we grow up?

I'm also really grateful my children LOVE their grandparents (Jeremy and I talked about this yesterday when the children were excited to go to spend the night with Grandpa Noonan and when they say "can we stay at Grandma and Papa's for 5 days next time"). When we tell them we will see a grandparent - they get so excited. They love them all and enjoy different things with each one. They don't get to see Nana very often but they get to see Grandpa Noonan and Grandma and Papa often. It is neat to see their unique relationships with them grow - something apart from Jeremy and me. Each grandparent is unique in their own way and the kids have something to learn, grow and enjoy from each - THANKS Mama, Daddy, Jack and Lois for being a part of their lives! We are so grateful for each of you.

Family pics

I missed the boat on getting pics of our family, of the children with their grandparents, etc - here are the only ones I can find in my camera

a pic of Lucy and me taken by Samuel...yep - no heads


Daddy with the children on Christmas morning -

Quote

Samuel got a collection of Beatles CD's from Grandpa Noonan for Christmas - Samuel loves them and many other songs Grandpa Noonan and Daddy introduce him to. While at the farm Samuel was having trouble in the bathroom and I heard...

Samuel: "Mama, I need some help."
Mama: "What Buddy?"
Samuel: "Help, I need somebody! Help, not just anybody!"

More from the Tree People

Samuel and Lucy LOVE sticks and the farm has plenty. We don't have trees for climbing or producing sticks in our yard at home but the farm - well that is a different story. We had a great time playing in the trees during the visit and I'm sure we will be scoping out a few other trees in the future for climbing. The lower branches of this tree weren't easy to get to so we got the ladder and made an entrance to the tree fort. Lucy played in the vines - she picked one she especially liked and called it her horse - named Lucky.Samuel the guard - "Who's there - friend or foe?"
Thomas with Lucy riding horses
My little monkey

The pondering guard

Christmas with cousin Thomas

Cousin Thomas came to the farm with the children for a couple of days and had a wonderful time. I taught Samuel and Thomas how to catch chickens and Thomas was a pro by the end of the day - he had his own system down for catching them and got pretty good at it. Samuel and Thomas played on the hay bales, we had ice cream sundaes and played in the trees (one of the trees the little redheaded girl and brown headed boy played in years ago). Here are some pics of the cousin time - Thanks Thomas for coming



can you spot them in the trees?

Christmas with Cousin Wyatt

We enjoyed family this Christmas. The children especially enjoyed playing with their cousins. Tori and Jordyn live far away in California and we missed them but we got to see Wyatt and Thomas. Wyatt is scooting around and into everything. The children loved playing with him and can't wait until he is bigger. All grandma wanted was a picture of the three of them looking and smiling... we will have to try again soon...

Merry Christmas!

Read some of the posts below for more details about our day (read from the bottom up to get it in order) - hope yours was Merry and bright!

Homemade Christmas - Mama version

I mentioned wanting to make the children a puppet theater in an earlier post. I thought I would make an over the door theater but as I thought about it - we only really have door ways in the children's rooms and there is not much room to watch anything from the outside of the door AND how would they hang it up themselves. SO, I decided to make a table top version from a presentation board, some fabric, a little hot glue and a box cutter. The children seemed to like it and it will store nicely when we aren't playing with it. They played with their puppets and Lucy was fascinated when I used the puppets to "talk with her". Hopefully we will get alot of use out of this theater and see get to see some creative puppets made.

A homemade Christmas - Lucy version

Lucy made some "walky things" as Lucy called them. They are actually some large green bean cans with some string used as stilts (I remember playing with these at Madison Academy - don't you Casey?). I cut small holes in the cans, added some rope and Lucy painted them. We added some bean bags to the set and there were two games in one - stilt walking and throwing bean bags into the cans...the gift was a hit and Samuel caught on quickly to the walking - he walked the halls several times throughout the day - they are sturdy enough for me to walk on them too!

A homemade Christmas - Samuel version

One of the sweetest things today was watching Lucy and Samuel give each other the gift they made for each other. Samuel made Lucy a dollhouse ...

We took a piece of foam board and cut it to make two rectangles, cut out a couple of doors, put a slit down the middle and Ta-Da we had a house. Then Samuel decorated the walls with some scrapbook paper I got at the store and then pictures from magazines. He made an animal room (since Lucy likes animals), a stable room for her ponies (because she likes ponies), a bedroom and a living room. She can use her own ponies, animals, and little people to fill the house - and that is exactly what she did... (Samuel wants to make a castle or police station like this soon)

Christmas Day Boxes

Lucy ended up in several boxes today. Grandpa Noonan brought all of Jeremy's old Childcraft books and Lucy took they out meticulously and put them on the shelf AND princess Mia sent Lucy some princess stuff (THANKS so much)

Christmas Day!

This has been a wonderful Christmas - I'm still in the PJ's I slept in last night and I am curled up by the fire with two little children tucked, tight in their beds after a sweet day with them. We opened presents along and along today - stopping to play a game of "barrel of monkeys", read a book, put together some knights and a chariot, brush teeth with new toothbrushes, construct a marble run (they spent 2 hours playing with it), walking on 'stilts', playing with puppets in their new puppet theater, and seeing the joy in them as they gave the presents they made for each other and family. We read the Advent story book and a letter from Jeremy's grandfather who wrote to Jeremy's oldest Uncle on Christmas during WWII, 1942. We played and laughed and enjoyed chocolate and family. Jeremy's family came and we got to spend a great time with them. Thanks to each of you for coming. We didn't get any family pics but here are some of the highlights for the children today...
Lucy intently put together her beads, again and again -
Sharing Chocolate with Grandpa Noonan
The children were excited to share what they made as they gave Grandpa Noonan his Christmas and Birthday gift...we had to tell Samuel to wait until Grandpa Noonan made it in the door before he gave it to him
Lucy's new pony - Jeremy and I got her a stick horse that neighs and gallops - she took off immediately after getting it out of the box and I had to take it out of her bed tonight after she fell asleep.

Christmas Eve

Last night we went to the Christmas Eve service at church and then came home to a warm dinner of shrimp and grits. We finished our Advent books, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then opened one present each. Lucy chose one of the gifts from Uncle Pat and Aunt Ann - a blue princess dress. She loved it and quickly put it on...and reluctantly took it off for bed. She definitely had a princess Christmas...(THANKS Samantha, Madison, Aunt Ann and Uncle Pat - they LOVED all of their gifts!)