Christmas ... 'tis the season ... for dancing and singing!

Dance, dance, dance! Sing, sing, sing! Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!

*Ok, so I have been trying to upload the dance that my daughter's dance class did for "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", but it won't upload, so maybe that'll be on the next post. Frus-trated! But at least I got her singing at her Pre-school concert. Yeah! by the way ...

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" now will forever be a favorite of mine :)

My little darling doing the "I'm a Little Donkey" song (sung to the tune of "I'm a Little TeaPot", of course). They take a lot of well-known tunes and match them up to Christian themes - like this one where the donkey carries Mary into town before Jesus is born.

-In case you couldn't tell by looking at the pictures from the previous post, my daughter is front and center in the first row! Black dress with red sleeves. She's a REAALLLY good donkey! :)

Christmas Concert at Pre-School for my Daughter :)

She did well. She was front and center in the entire group of around 80 kids. She goes to our neighbors' church for preschool, so it was right there in the worship space. I loved watching her sing and do her hand movements (as led by the teachers). I'm so proud of how she loves to sing and dance. She has such rhythm! And she's a great learner - which makes me even more proud. Had to get a few picks even though we didn't have a great angle at the concert itself. My son and his neighbor/friend had to get in the pictures, and we had to have a cookie treat after the show (of course). It was a fun event :) I'll post video as I get it uploaded. Takes a while :) Merry Christmas!

Cooking creating with the cook (aka Mom)

Happy together :)

Negative 8 when I woke, positive 3.7 right now!

Yeah! Minnesota winter is here. Which means spring will be here ... eventually ... and baseball with it (maybe BEFORE it).

We're staying warm (inside, mostly). But school is also warm - and the bus that takes and brings my son home.

Speaking of school, we got a nice report card yesterday. Kindergarteners apparently get graded on EVERYTHING! A bunch of O, S, or N for social skills and behavior. And then 1, 2, 3, or 4 for academic skills. The teachers send a "key" home so that you know what all this means. Apparently they don't give out 4's much, so 3's mean the skill is being mastered, 2's mean they are still developing the skill, and 1's mean they need to work on acquiring the skill more. O's are for outstanding and consistant behavior and social skills. S's are for appropriate behavior, with plusses and minuses also associated, and N's mean that their behavior and social skills need improvement.

My son had 24 threes, and 1 two for his academic skills. And he received all S's for social skills and behavior. He had 6 plusses, 9 regular S's, and 1 minus. Needless to say, we are proud parents. What a great report from his school!

All I want for Christmas is my top front tooth ...

... and tons of stickers - on my bel-ly :)

My Princess's Room

Some daylight shots from when it first arrived.

And some shots from today ... with Gramma's (my mom's) added touches - a quilt, a couple of pillows/pillow shams, and lamp shade decoration. Butterflies on the walls to come ... and sheer curtains ... and a wire for hanging artwork ... hopefully :)

Old times are good times ... in this case.

Really couldn't resist posting a collage of cousins. Almost seems like they're related, too.



I did run at the Twin Cities 10 Mile earlier this year, even if the collage only has 1/2 of me running. As you can tell, I felt MUCH better once I was done (top picture).



My big guy took a disposable camera to school for his birthday/star week. He wore a funny hat, played with friends at free choice time, ate a green pepper for snack (this is a regular occurance), and talked (proudly) about his baseball glove (Thanks, Uncle Kurt!).



The camera stayed there a while so that they could use up all the pictures. I picked some choice ones for these collages. In these, he's telling everyone about Frog and Toad (book), making something or other (not sure what), sitting with his class, and showing off his baby memory of Rusty the Puppy.



Apparently he has friends at school - lots of them - including the teachers. He has a sixth (I think sixth) grade buddy who comes and helps with things from time to time. They're making gingerbread houses this month! And the big guy even got to hold a monarch butterfly by the wings once it came out of its chrysalis. (His class had four create chrysalis and come out alive!)

Happy days looking back. We can not wait to keep making memories. The big guy and the peanut (my daughter) both love school so much. And this is the time of year to be with family, so we're anxious to visit both our Ohio family and Wisconsin family this Christmas season sometime.

Then, we'll start making 2010 the year of the Vitense :) Swimming starts January 6th! (And hopefully basketball soon thereafter for the big guy!)