Relaxation time at Grandma and Grandpa's

After Christmas, we went down to may parents. Initially Scott was suppose to work on Dec. 27, so he was going to fly home on the 26th for that. But last minute one of the Doctors he works with wanted to switch the 27th for the 30th, so Scott was able to hang out with us for several days :)

My parents were very excited to see Scott, not only because they enjoy his company, but he helped them set up their computer, printer, and IPad.

We visited Great Grandma. We drove along Ocean Dr. So we could see the bay. We played in the garden, and just relaxed.

It was nice to have some down time.

Christmas Eve

 We went to Kevin and Dawna's for Christmas Eve. Grandma and Grandpa were there. The cousins played. Grandma made some scrumptious chicken kiev for supper - yum! We opened presents and went to church service at Kevin's church in Cat Spring.

The kids were all dressed up and I tried to get some nice pictures of them.... Ian decided it was a good time to act goofy.....

The Nutcracker

This was our first year in the Nutcracker ballet. I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when Payton said she wanted to audition for it. I felt like we lost most of the first week of our Christmas break doing the Nutcracker. It was A LOT of work, but, I think, worth it. The production put on by the Collin County Ballet Theater was first class. The professional dancers and older dancers were really friendly and great to the little cast members. Payton got to be part of a large production and got to see what all the hard work it involves in a very family friendly environment. The moms ran the backstage and the taking care of the children while they got dressed, waited, and waited some more for their turn. Payton got to know some of the older girls who played the angels, mice bakers and petit fleurs. Payton never complained even though she had three dress rehearsals and four performances. We had to start getting her hair fixed at the house, about 45 minutes before we were going to leave because it took me so long to get her hair up in a sleek bun and get her makeup on. Then we had to get to the theaters at least 30 minutes before call times and many times an hour before. Then Payton had to usually wait for an hour and a half till it was her turn on stage. Then on stage, she sat for most of the time she was there. She danced for a minute and then she was off.

The costumes were beautiful. The orchestra and choir added to the overall enchantment of the ballet. Oma, Opa, Grandma and Grandpa all came up to see one of the performances. Ian sat riveted to the performance, especially during the first act. Afterwards he said, 'that was awesome!' We gave Payton flowers after the performance that all the family attended. She said, 'Mommy, getting the flowers makes me feel like what I did was special' :) And it was. I was a proud of how dedicated and patient Payton was through the whole process.

So, I guess if she wants to try out to be an angel next year, I won't protest. About a week after her last performance we were talking about her role and that next year she would be cast as an angel, then a rat, then a baker, and so on. Then Payton said, 'And one day I want to be the only one...where there is no one playing that part, but me.' I said, 'You mean you want a solo role?' She said, 'Yeah, like Clara.' ......oh, boy, we'll see :)

Merry Christmas!

It's been a busy time for us. We've had Nutcracker practices and performances. We've had Oma here for a couple of weeks while she recovers from shoulder replacement surgery. We did manage to squeeze an evening for setting up the tree between Oma's arrival, Scott's work, and a birthday party Ian was invited to. Once the tree was up, I felt we could get ready for Christmas in ernest. I spent a week making cookies :) which all went to Scott's nurses.

I plan to post stories of our Christmas break soon....  :)

Pioneer Day

The day before Thanksgiving break, the first grade at Payton's school had Pioneer Day. They had been studying the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. So, on Pioneer Day they got to do activities that the Pilgrims might have done in their day.

Since I am the first grade volunteer coordinator, I got to learn the ins and outs of Pioneer Day intimately :) I got other moms to volunteer to help with the activities and helped organize and complete the prep. work for the activities.

What kind of activities you may ask?

There was butter making, corn grinding, pinch pot pinching, tin-punch pictures punching, noodle necklace making, headband creating, and my favorite - candle making :)

Somehow, I ended up preparing quite a bit for the day. I didn't delegate very well. So I dyed 5 - 1 lb packages of rigatoni (the house reeked of isopropyl alcohol). I made 75 mini corn muffins (to taste the homemade butter on).

And, (this was the worst part) I melted 4 cans of colored wax, in my pots, on my stove. I tried it the night before because we new wax that needed to be combined with old colored wax. I thought that it would melt faster in the morning if I got it all melted and combined once already. The wax was contained in big old metal coffee cans. I placed these cans in my pots with water. The water helps control the temperature, so that you don't get everything too hot. Well, once the blue wax was almost completely melted I realized that the water was also blue. It took me a while to realize this because my pot was teflon coated and very dark. Anyway, that's when I realized that the blue wax can had several holes in it. Ugh! Anyway, long story, short, I managed to pour the hot wax into another can. I saved most of it.

 So the morning of Pioneer Day, I woke up at 5 am! to start the wax. It took almost an hour and a half to get it all melted. I carted the hot melted wax to school and unloaded it into our candle making room. We had electric skillets at school to keep the wax at the right temperature. Well, the electric skillets kept shutting off. And we didn't realize how cold the wax was getting until it was chunky. It took us a while to find the right outlets to plug our skillets into. By this time we were almost an hour and half into Pioneer Day. So the candles made int he beginning were quite chunky and rough looking. By the end of the day, the wax got too hot and didn't want to stick to the wicks. So those candles were very smooth and skinny :)

If you've ever dealt with melted wax, you know how messy it can be. When I got home, it took me another hour to clean the stove and my pots.

Oh well, everyone seemed to learn something and enjoy themselves. 

Ps - Ian tagged along for the event. It lasted 2 hours and he was REALLY good. He let me coordinate and help out everywhere while he stayed in the candle making room listening to stories and playing the iPad.

Sugar Plum Fairy Tea

Payton is in the Collin County Ballet Theater's (CCBT)- Nutcracker this year. She is cast as a Sugar Plum Fairy Attendant. She gets to wear the cutest little purple tutu! :) (I can't believe I'm saying this because I'm not a girly-girl. But really, it's really sweet and cute.)

She's very excited.....I'm actually very excited for her.

CCBT actually does a great job with the whole production. They try to keep the costs down for each individual, so they use lots of volunteers, volunteer hours, and fundraising.

At the same time, CCBT's version of the Nutcracker is the only one in North Texas that has a live orchestra and a live choir! They bring in professional dancers for some of the bigger parts. They'll have one performance at a local high school (sans the orchestra) and then 3 performances at the Eisemann Center.

Payton started practices at the end of October. And has them once a week on Saturdays. Most of them are for an hour and a half. But she also gets to see the big girls dance and go on pointe which she loves.

Well, one of the fundraisers that they do is called the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea. It's a fancy tea for little girls and their moms or grandmas. The cast has a grand entrance, they take pictures with the girls and then they do snip-its of some of the Nutcracker performances.

On Nov. 27, Payton got to 'work' the Tea. Since the Sugar Plum Fairy (SPF) is the 'star' of the thing, Payton was right in the middle of the whole thing. She and another Attendant followed the SPF around everywhere. Then during the performances, the SPF Attendants got to sit up on the stage and watch the entire time! Payton did such a good job too, especially considering they tell the girls before-hand about the stage part.

My little girl :)

Smurfville

Plano Children's Theatre has classes for elementary school age kids on up. One of Payton's classmates sent out an invite to her end of semester performance of Smurfville. Payton really wanted to go and one of her friends down the street wanted to go, so I took them both (plus Ian) tonight.

The skit was only about 10-15 minutes long, but super-cute. There were a couple of missed entrances and lines, but for their first performance, I think the 6 year old performers did great!

Ian's School Christmas Program

Ian did a great job at his school's Christmas Program. All the 3 and 4 year olds sang about 5 songs. They sounded pretty good. Ian stayed focused for most of the program. By the last song, there were a couple of yawns and funny hand motions going on...

I did not have front row seats, as the video seems to show. Payton and a bunch of other kids got to sit down front on the floor. I let Payton take my camera phone :) She did pretty well considering she's six :) At one point I was worried that she would just make one long video of the entire performance. But no, she recorded each song, individually.

This video is the shortest one she took. The other videos are of the songs and end up being huge files. I have to take them into iMovie to edit, but haven't got the energy to do that yet, so.....here you go.

All I want for Christmas....

is my two front teeth....

my two front teeth....

see my two front teeth!

:)

And the occasional whistle when she talks is super-cute!

Cowboy Stadium Tour

Scott, Ian, Han, Joop and Opa went on the Cowboy Stadium Tour. They seemed to be very impressed by the enormity of it all. Ian enjoyed running around on the field. He took a liking to the tour guide and stayed with him for most of the tour.

Unfortunately the tour guide took advantage of Ian's trust a little bit. The tour guide wanted to show just how big the football pads were and decided to use Ian as a model. Without much warning, Ian ended up in the pads....

He wasn't too happy about it....

 On the way out, Fox News was interviewing people about the Cowboys. Scott and Leo stepped up and gave an opinion.

 We recorded the news to see if they were on, but alas, they were not.

Which is probably a good thing. According to Scott, Leo told the Fox News that Philadelphia has a better team than Dallas :)

Han and Joop Visit

We've been quite busy this past week. We've had Oma, Opa, Han and Joop (from the Netherlands!), and Kate, Kennedy, and Collin - all come visit us this last week and weekend. Whew!

It was nice to visit with everyone. Some of the sight seeing tours included the Celina Balloon Festival, visiting South Fork Ranch (from the show Dallas), and touring the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

Here are some pics from South Fork. 

I didn't get to go on this excursion, but evidently Han was a big fan of Dallas. 

Everyone really enjoyed it - even Ian! I think he really liked the longhorn cattle :)

Tooth Fairy Visits Ian!

On Monday, Ian came out of school with one less tooth in his mouth!

He was very excited. He said that during music, he was wiggling it with his finger and it just fell out. He said there was a little blood.

Ian's only 4-1/2 which is a little early to lose his first tooth. But there is a story behind the loss. Back in May or so, Payton and Ian were climbing the stairs to go to bed. Payton somehow kicked her foot backwards and hit Ian in the mouth. Lots of crying and a little blood in sued and Ian's tooth was loose.  The dentist said that he had an abscess under it and that it wouldn't heal. But the dentist thought he would lose it sooner than later, so he didn't want to pull it at the time. The abscess thing worried me a little bit, so I tried to encourage to wiggle it :)

Happy Halloween!

The kids were so excited yesterday, they were almost literally bouncing off the walls. They could not sit still or be quiet - and they hadn't even had any candy yet. The anticipation of the evening's festivities was almost too much for my two little ones - Halloween! - where you get to dress up in fun costumes, beg for candy, and actually get to eat it!

Payton was Aurora this year and Ian was Bumblebee. They went trick or treating with some friends, escorted by Daddy, while I got to stay home to hand out candy.

After their acquired enough loot to make their pumpkin baskets heavy enough to complain about, they came home.

Then they had fun answering our door and handing out candy to other trick or treaters.

This was the pumpkin we carved this year. Payton helped, a little. She stuck her hand in to retrieve seeds about  four times. I told the kids, that if they didn't help, I wasn't going to carve pumpkins. Ian did not care. He sat by and put together a Lego thing.

The pumpkin was Payton's design....

Then she decided to, ah....dress her up.

Pumpkin Jester?

Pumpkin Pirate?

Pumpkin Princess?

Happy Halloween!