The Elf on the Shelf

Obviously behind the curve a bit, but I finally caught on to the whole the Elf on the Shelf idea recently.  It's such a cute idea!  Charlie loves the book that goes along with the stuffed elf explaining that the elf watches you every day and reports back to Santa at night.  The elf can't talk to you and you can't play with him.  He just watches and every morning will be in a new spot to check on you.  Good thing Charlie is still pretty young because only about 50% of the time does the elf actually remember to find a new hiding place at night!  Many mornings Charlie gets up, sees the elf in the same spot, and makes me go hide him somewhere new.  Maybe we will get with the program by Christmas.

Charlie and Anna finding the elf in the dining room

Charlie decided to name the elf Thomas.  Everyone with a little boy will realize that this is for Thomas the train.  So Thomas the elf watches over the kids all day.  It actually has been a great way for them (really Charlie since Anna isn't even 18 months yet) to start understanding Christmas.  Whenever Charlie asks for a toy he has seen on tv or in the Toys R Us catalogue, we explain that Thomas is watching and will let us know if we should get it for Christmas.  It is starting to click for Charlie, and he now shows all toys he likes to Thomas and asks the elf if it is okay to buy.  Funny how the elf always tells him yes!  

Anna loves walking by and pointing at Thomas elf all day

Now I'm just hoping the novelty of the elf doesn't wear off before Christmas actually gets here...

Charlie thought this was the funniest spot

Anna at school

This picture just cracks me up!  Anna was actually thrilled to be at school and lunged for her teacher.  However, she was less than pleased that I was interrupting her school time for a picture.  Note the sunglasses she wears.  Charlie calls them "eyes."  Both kids wear their "eyes" to school every day, and it is so cute. 

Anna with her teacher Ms. Jerrica

 Anna's face shows off her sassy side just perfectly!

Thanksgiving Part 2 11/25/11

Friday morning Jeff took off at 5:45 am.  He was driving to Columbus Ohio to move in with his fiancee Beth.  Since he had about 10 or 11 hours of driving ahead of him, he really wanted to get on the road.  Zach of course got paged to go into work that morning, so he had to leave us bright and early.  My parents and I decided to take the kids to the choo choo restaurant (aka Fritz's) for breakfast.  We got there around 10:30 and took our time eating.  As a pleasant surprise Zach finished up at work quickly and managed to meet us there as we were finishing up.  So we stayed a little longer to let him eat before heading back home.

Grandpa teaching Anna how to blow straw wrappers

Anna showing that no instruction is necessary!

That afternoon we decided to be crazy and brave the Black Friday crowds.  Since we headed out around 2 pm we figured the crowds would probably have died down a little bit.  Zach and my dad took the kids to the mall to ride the carousel and play for a little bit while my mom went to the Toys R Us across the street.  Toys R Us was pretty busy, but they had everything in stock, and there were no lines to get checked out.  We managed to get all the kids' gifts done and then swung by the mall and picked up the others.  All of us quickly ran in to Target on the way home for a few things, and that was no busier than I expected.  We had a pretty good experience shopping on Black Friday since we waited until later.  

Grandma and Charlie - best buddies

Saturday we had to get up and get going since my parents were flying back home.  We left for the airport at 10 am and were back home around noon.  It was so sad having them leave but at least we see them in 3 weeks for Christmas.  I had the start of a cold coming on, so I laid down as soon as we got home.  Zach got called back in to work not long after I shut my eyes.  Luckily we had arranged for a babysitter for Sat afternoon/evening so we could run errands and see a movie, so she got there about 30 min after Zach left.  I went back up to lay down for a while and then worked on a few things upstairs.  Zach ended up being at work about 4 hours and got out exactly in time for us to see The Descendents as planned.  We both found the movie really slow despite the good reviews.  However, we had gone to Fork & Screen, so we got dinner during the movie, which we love doing.

Sunday Zach and his dad fixed the insulation in our attic.  We had a really bad squirrel problem a few months ago, and they did major damage.  The squirrels started wrecking our brand new roof, stripped wires in the attic, and ruined our insulation.  Luckily Zach and his dad were able to fix it all themselves.

Busy Thanksgiving weekend, but it was so wonderful to see all our family that could make it.

Thanksgiving Part 1 11/22/11

The week of Thanksgiving was a busy one.  My brother got in Tuesday afternoon at exactly the same time as Charlie and I got home from PJ Day at school.  Jeff was literally knocking on the front door as I pulled in the driveway.  The kids spent the evening going crazy because they were so happy to have someone visiting.  Jeff was a good sport about playing with them, although I'm sure he was happy when they finally settled down for cartoons!  Zach was on call for the whole week, and Tues night did not get home until after 10 pm.  We all went right to bed within 30 min of Zach getting home.

Charlie and Anna hanging out with Uncle Jeff

Wed I spent the day trying to get errands done before my parents came to town.  I picked them up from the airport at 3:30, and the kids were beside themselves with joy to have Grandma and Grandpa in town.  It was fun to see that even Anna remembered them.  She wouldn't let my mom put her down at all.   

Anna watching out the window for Grandma and Grandpa

We made burgers on the grill for dinner and once again had dinner without poor Zach.  Normally I wait to eat with him, even if it is 10:00, but with family in town we were ready for food by 6:00.  We ate and played with the kids all evening, and hung around until Zach joined us around 10 pm again.  Poor guy!

Charlie and Grandma playing air hockey while Grandpa keeps score

Charlie so pleased to be winning!

Thurs morning the guys got up and did a local 4 mile race.  Zach won!  My brother Jeff is a great runner, and he helped pace Zach throughout the run, which was really nice of him.  When Zach, Jeff, and my dad got home, there was plenty to do for Thanksgiving dinner.  This was going to be my first year doing a holiday meal at our house.  I am well aware of my limitations in the kitchen, however, so I had called upon HyVee for some assistance.  I ordered ahead a turkey, gravy, rolls, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole.  They all came mostly ready to go, which was great.  We also picked up cranberries, squash, mac n cheese (a tradition at my parents' house!), corn, and salad.  As soon as we got home the turkey had to go in the oven for 2 hours to finish cooking.  We spent that time getting the rest of the food prepped and heated so everything would be finished at once.  Thank goodness my mom was there to coordinate and time everything with me. 

Zach's parents arrived at 1:30, and we had some little snacks out to tide us over until we ate at about 2:15.  They brought apple and pumpkin pies for dessert, so it was nice having that taken care of.  Everyone chatted and hung out until we had Howard carve the turkey, and then it was time to eat.  We all ate and ate and ate and most of the food was polished off.  It was pretty successful for our first time doing a formal dinner if I do say so myself.  Zach's parents stayed until around 6 pm at which point Zach started getting ready to go back in to work.   

Anna laughing as she gets her picture taken

Charlie showing PawPaw and Grandpa how he plays Candy Land

My dad decided to take Charlie to see Puss in Boots at the 7 pm and my mom and I were going to stay home with Anna and Jeff.  As Zach was walking out the door for work and my dad was leaving for the movies Zach got a call canceling his case.  Plans changed and Zach, my dad, Charlie and I all went to the movies together.  It was an okay movie but not great.  I just had fun hanging out with everyone.  We came home and it was time for bed not much after that.

Grandpa and Anna reading after dinner

Silly Kids 11/28/11

Charlie and Anna were both in great moods today.  They had school in the morning, and then Anna and I took Charlie to his afternoon school.  Usually she naps while he is at his afternoon class, but today she was wide awake and ready to go.  It was really fun to have some time to play with her alone, and she was just a bundle of laughs!

A quick nap in the car on the way to Charlie's school.  Very unusual for Anna since she hates sleeping in the car.

Charlie waiting for his teacher to get him for school.  Love it that they get the kids from the car in the afternoon!

So happy to be playing with Mommy all afternoon!

Pajamas and Pancakes Day 11/22/11

Charlie's afternoon preschool has an annual Pajamas and Pancake Day at school that he absolutely loves.  All the kids wear their pjs to school for the day, which makes them feel super special.  This year I bought Charlie a new pair of Thomas the train Christmas pajamas, and he could not have been happier to show them off to all of his friends.  They do a normal class for the first part of the afternoon, then the party starts at 2:30.  Parents and siblings are invited to the class to participate, which is really nice.

This year I got a babysitter for Anna so Charlie and I could have some Mommy-Charlie alone time.  He was thrilled when I got to school and told him it would just be the two of us.  (Unfortunately Zach had to work, so he had to miss the party.)  Charlie and I sat a small table in his classroom with a few of his friends and had pancakes and juice for an hour.  He introduced me to everyone (even though I know most of them since he was in the class last year too) and he felt like such a big kid for the afternoon.  It was really great to get some time with just him for once.

Having a great time with my guy!

After the party we hurried home because Uncle Jeff was on his way to our house to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Charlie was so excited when he got home and found another friend to play with!

Air hockey time with Uncle Jeff

Lake Weekend 11/18/11

We finally had a free weekend ahead of us, so we decided to head down to the lake.  Since we hadn't checked on the place in about 2 months we really needed to get down there.  Friday night we left around 6:30 and did the 3 hour drive to Lake of the Ozarks.  The kids really don't mind the drive, thankfully, so it goes by pretty quickly.  We got there about 9:30 and spent the next hour unpacking the car and letting the kids play and snack.  Then we all crashed until the next morning.

Anna and Charlie snacking before bed

 

Saturday we spent doing chores around the place.  The back deck needed power washing and staining, so that was Zach's big project.  I had about 20 loads of bedding, towels, etc that had piled up and needed to hit the laundry.  The kids spent the day playing with toys and trying to "help" Daddy with his projects.  The weather was actually pretty nice for mid-November.  

Charlie playing on the boat ramp to the water at the lake

 Saturday night we went over to our friends' the Riggins.  They are about 30 seconds about by boat but 20 min away by land.  Since we don't have a boat yet, we made the drive over to help celebrate Cade's 4th birthday.  Charlie is only a month older than Cade and a little more than a year younger than their oldest Jake.  He loves going over to play with them!  We had burgers, smores, and cake for Cade's birthday and stayed for about 2 hours.  Then exhaustion set in (mostly for me!) so we decided to go back home and have a really low key night.

Charlie, Cade, and Jake listening to a story

 Sunday was spent just finishing up some projects and then we headed out around noon.  We got home about 3:00, and the kids were bundles of energy from being in the car.  It probably didn't help that Anna had her first chocolate cream-filled HoHo on the drive.  Talk about a sugar high!  We had planned for Jana, their babysitter, to come around 4:00 so Zach and I could get a few things done in KC.  We passed the hyped up kids off, and Zach and I enjoyed some quiet alone time to do errands and have an adult-only dinner.  We returned home to a sleeping Anna and a very cuddly Charlie.  Busy weekend but lots of fun.  

Anna with cream filling all over her mouth

Oh man that was good!