our Humane Society visit

Santa's helpers were spotted visiting the local Humane Society today and bearing gifts for the pets staying there. This is one of our favorite holiday traditions. Today the helpers were joined by a third helper (same friend from last year) and together the three delivered new toys, treats and old towels. Afterwards they walked through the entire facility, greeting all the pets. My favorite today was a sweet Weimeraner puppy named Blue, Thomas' was a playful cat named Carly, and Meredith loved seeing the rabbits. It's a bittersweet visit but one we do enjoy every year at this time.

the girls

It's hard to say which of these girls is the cutest...

painting projects

I like making New Year's resolutions. I have always made them and do my best every year to keep them. This year I had a couple -- one was to paint one room in our house every month and the other was to run 1200 miles. The year started off great with three rooms painted in the first two months. Then birthdays came along, guests came, the summer got busy, blah, blah, blah... Over the last few months I've been trying to play catch up on the painting projects. It's a bit of a stretch but I think after today's hall painting I can officially say 10 rooms/spaces were painted this year. Not the 12 I had wanted, but pretty close! (Maybe I can squeeze in another room after Christmas, but I doubt it...)
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** The running mileage goal? I've got 45 more miles to run this month to get that one!

Kindergarten Winter Party

snack time

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Thomas' Winter Party at school was today. The kids rotated through several fun activity centers where they made ornaments, beaded necklaces, decorated a gingerbread man and a few other activities. Another mom and myself were responsible for the Christmas Bingo game. I always find it interesting to observe all the different maturity and understanding levels there are at 5 and 6 years old. After just 40 minutes of running this game with all the children cycling through, I was ready for recess and snack time! Thomas was content cycling around the playground during recess. August, a friend's little girl, asked me to help her and two friends build a leaf pile to jump in. It was a very enjoyable morning spent in (and outside) the classroom.

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Away in a Manger

M-preschool performance from cherl willardson on Vimeo.

the traveling gingerbread man

When a friend in Portland recently asked if we'd help her daughter out with a geography project, we jumped at the opportunity. Today the package arrived from her containing a questionaire, project instructions and this sparkly gingerbread man. He's only with us for a short time (about 3 hours since we did a really quick turnaround) but the kids have loved having him. Thomas insisted he hang out with him while doing homework, then he had to come with us to the hotel for brochures, and then he had to join us for dinner, too. In all, it was a fun project for us to do so Thank You, Kaitlin! We learned some new things about the state of California, wandered around the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort in Carlsbad and enjoyed having this little guy hang out with us for a few hours.

preschool holiday program

Meredith's "Christmas tree" make & eat craft

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This morning was Meredith's Christmas performance at preschool. The entire program consists of three year olds dressed for the holidays and singing Christmas songs to excited parents and grandparents. It's all very cute, sweet and simple. She was so excited to see Mike and I there! After the performance the parents were all invited back to their classrooms for a party with special snacks and goodies. The kids loved it and Meredith was certainly no exception. She's been practicing the songs and movements for weeks now. Thomas wanted to be there but he had school today. As soon as we picked him up from school the first thing he asked was, "Can I see the videos you made?"

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Meredith's class enters the sanctuary

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performance time!

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best pal in preschool, Daphne ~ w/good friend Grace

card making

The kids are participating in an International Holiday Card Exchange again this year. It's our 3rd consecutive year, maybe 4th. Both kids enjoy crafts so it's always been a fun project for them over the holidays. Meredith has been working on hers and today we finished them up and dropped them in the mailbox. She wanted to do all the assembling, gluing, cutting, folding and writing by herself. She was so proud of herself each time another card was fully finished and would announce "three down, seven to go!". I love how much she enjoys this; it's really fun to watch. She's amazing.

Holidays at the Del

Hotel del Coronado lobby

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Hotel's main entrance & valet ~ beach side w/ice rink

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ocean-themed tree

the Nutcracker ballet

When I bought tickets for the family to see the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet's production of the Nutcracker, I had no idea it was going to be such a warm day. Mid-80s in December!? Yes. Forget the holiday clothes, forget closed-toe shoes... we wore summer clothes and flip flops, which is really acceptable just about anywhere in San Diego anyway. We arrived at Balboa Park early enough to dip our toes in the fountains, run around in the grass and enjoy the summer-like afternoon before the ballet.

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The Nutcracker was wonderful and a great holiday treat, as usual. I assumed it would be an abbreviated version since it was the youth ballet, but it was a full performance. Fortunately, our kids did great sitting still for the 2+ hour performance (!!). They've been to enough of these sorts of performances to know what is expected of them. We also had fantastic seats and friends in the row across the aisle from us -- those two things definitely contributed to the fun time for us!

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Afterwards we headed over to Coronado for dinner and more holiday cheer at the Hotel del Coronado. The hotel and grounds are absolutely beautiful, not only during the holidays, but all year long. It was a really fun family day out!

Santa Claus!

Tonight our playgroup had its annual Christmas party for the kids. Santa Claus stops by to greet the children, sing some songs, read a story and then gives each child a present from Santa. They were so excited when he arrived and loved every bit of his visit with them. Of course, hanging out with your pals for a few hours and eating lots of yummy treats is also fun!

December is here

another rotated image that I can't correct (??)

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Where has this week gone? It's weird to think we were in Oregon just one week ago because we've been so busy this week that it feels like we've been back in CA for weeks. We had two evening parties this week (one for a child, one for an adult) and I think that made the days fly by. But, it's also due to the increase in activity that simply comes with the holidays.
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The kids have been busy crafting holiday cards this week. This is the third year I've organized a holiday card exchange for the playgroup. The kids really seem to enjoy it. On the cover of Thomas' card this year we used a drawing he did for Mike earlier this week. Meredith is making a reindeer handprint for the cover of hers but her is a little different in that they are pink and glittery. She's a three year old girl, what can I say. We also participate in an international holiday card exchange so next week we'll continue our card making for that exchange.
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A couple of park playdates, a screening of a new film for me one evening, some interior painting at our house this week, attempts to get the holiday decorations out and up... It's been busy, really busy, which made ending the week with a fun holiday activity especially nice. This evening the family constructed our gingerbread house. As always, Mike starts the project, the kids initially help and then resort to eating the candy, and I finish it up. It works for us and everyone is pleased with the end result. We'll see if it sticks around until after Christmas!

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word scrambler

This morning Thomas started whipping out these word scrambles for Mike and I to unscramble. This was the first time he's done these and it was totally his idea. Most words were actual words and three letters, but then he started doing longer words and -- to make it even more challenging for us -- made up words and phonetically spelled words. Way to go, Thomas!

ER trip over the holidays

kids decorated their playroom tree today

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As wonderful as it is to go back to Oregon and visit everyone, it's really nice to return home. It was a great week filled with special people, moments and memories, but Thomas and I were both sick. My congestion eased early in the week but my coughing still lingers.

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Thomas came down with a similar bug Thanksgiving afternoon but it hit his little body much harder. In a house full of people, he slept in the middle of it all in a living room chair. For the next 24 hours, he was unable to hold down any food or liquid. We had originally planned to return to CA the day after Thanksgiving but he was in no condition to travel. And, as it turns out, he didn't improve all afternoon so later Friday evening, Mike took him to the ER for a multitude of tests and an IV for dehydration. He was released a few hours later and immediately began to improve.

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We left the next morning (Saturday) for our return drive to California and he traveled just fine. He still has a little cough, but you'd never know he had been as sick as he was just two days ago.

tooth #5

Thomas lost his fifth tooth (first one up top) Thanksgiving evening at Grandma's house! Two evenings earlier there was a little blood along the gumline so we knew it was loose. Thankgiving morning Thomas said to me, "Mommy, I think my tooth is going to come out today." And sure enough, it did! The other front (top) tooth is wiggling now, too. If it falls out in the next few weeks, Thomas will be singing All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth...

Thanksgiving holiday

snow-covered Shasta

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Our family recently traveled back to Oregon for the Thanksgiving holiday. We drove for the first time since our move to California. There were weather issues to deal with (nonstop rain, snow covered roads, icy conditions...) and the drive was long since we did both trips without stopping (17 hours there, 16.5 hours on the way back), but overall it seemed to work out pretty well. We got to see all of our favorite people, enjoy some Oregon goodness, pick up a few items sales tax-free, run a little Turkey Trot at the zoo and spend a full week with family. It was a very enjoyable trip for all of us!

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holiday dinner with the W family (cousins)

reindeer hand ornaments

I don't know why this photo is loading rotated like this, but there it is. The kids and I made a bunch of dough ornaments two weeks ago and these were two of the many. Most were cut using holiday ornaments but we also made their handprints to give to grandparents. They loved making these ornaments, painting them, and helping me add the details. It was a very fun project with cute results!

out with the old, in with the new

Thomas has sprouted two new teeth and they are coming in quickly. It seems that every few days this boy looks different.

counting the days

The kids (and us, too!) are getting very excited for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. For the past month, they've been asking us daily "How many more days until we go to Grandma's house?" To help them understand I picked up a calendar for each to have in their rooms. Meredith marks her important dates and the days leading up to Grandma's with star stickers; Thomas uses a pen. They both seem to really enjoy this little activity every morning. Three more days until Grandma's house!

40 days til Christmas!

mine ~ Meredith's ~ Thomas'

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With the holidays always sneaking up on me, we've started thinking about them a little earlier this year. There's never enough time to do all the things we want to do, but I'm sure we'll find time to do most of them. Last week we started making some ornaments. This was our first attempt at these and we've learned some things along the way, but the kids have had a great time with this project. From rolling out their own dough to painting their finished products, they've really enjoyed it. Thomas is very much into painting his "realistically" while Meredith dabs on paint layer atop paint layer. She handed me each ornament as she finished painting and, more often than not, would say something like, "This one is done. I put glitter paint under the green paint." Sometimes it was purple and pink paint under the black. I love this little girl -- she never fails to make me giggle...

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Thomas & the missing teeth

A week has gone by without a post -- yikes! We've been busy out enjoying the warm late Fall weather (almost 90* one day last week!), beginning some craft projects for the holidays, playing with friends, going to a birthday party, wrapping up classes and... oh, yeah... losing teeth. Thomas lost tooth #4 last night!

lagoon playdate

Greta & Buster hunt ~ Bela watches egrets
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A few weeks into the school year I became friendly with another mom who also has a 5yo in Kindergarten and a 3yo in preschool. Our kids are at the same schools, but in different classrooms. And as it turns out, her famly lives very close to us, she's an avid runner, they have a Vizsla... You get the picture. We became fast friends and have enjoyed many playdates, runs, and even a party at their house. This morning we met up at the lagoon after Kindergarten drop-off. Meredith had a great time playing with her pal Ruby, Bela and Greta romped and hunted for birds with their buddy Buster, and she and I had a nice chat on this gorgeous day. This might have been one of the best playdates ever -- we can't wait to do it again!

the final Halloween photo...

Over the course of 30 hours and 3 different Halloween events, Meredith wore 3 costumes. Dora gave way to Snow White who later gave way to Cinderella...

science camp

Thomas loves science and math so when a friend invited him to join the science camp she is offering in her home, I knew it would be a good fit for him. Today was the first camp and it was a success! Camp is a 2 hour block every Monday afternoon where they can talk about electrons, neutrons, static electricity, molecules, energy... basically all the scientific concepts, introduced in an age-appropriate manner. Thomas loved it. He was excited to go, excited to share his experiments with us and he's excited to return again next week!

FUN-ups

M: "FUN"-ups from c on Vimeo.

Meredith always intently watches whatever Thomas is doing and then tries it for herself. The latest thing has been doing a push-up. I was surprised how well she can do them!