It’s That Time of Year

We are getting ready for Christmas and winding up to the cruise. On Monday, Mike helped out as the working parent at Landon’s school. The boys enjoy participating in all the responsibilities that the working kid takes on as part of having a working parent there. The kids learned all about the five senses this week. For art, we played with shaving cream. We built block towers and dress up, then we read a story about the sense of sight. Afterwards the kids played in the active room at the sand table, painting, or pretending to build a house. We had Cheez-Its and apple juice for snack time, then sang Jim Gill’s song “Alabama, Mississippi” before ending our busy morning.

Wednesday was our busy day. Hallie attended the orientation for her new job in the afternoon, so Mike took the kids on their outings.

In the evening, we went down to Windmill Pointe Park for the community tree lighting and a visit with Santa Claus. Landon learned all about the legend of Santa as we watched Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town on the big screen at the movie theater (gotta love those Rankin-Bass stop motion specials), and we had the kids take pictures with that jolly ol’ elf before going out to watch him receive the key to the city and light the tree.

Full moon over the lake

Santa Receives Key to City

Caroling by the Defer Elementary Choir and lighting the tree

Mike reached 50,000 words of his novel two days before the November 30 deadline, but he probably still has another 50,000 before it’s finished.

Here's a view of Mike's idea for the cover and a hint about the contents. Draft title: East of the Sunrise Line. 

Landon and Eliza went to occupational and speech therapy Thursday. Eliza is now at about a 15 month level in her speaking, and she is making real gains in communicating her needs. Landon is getting to a point where he is scoring better than normal on some of his benchmarks.

How the boy keeps himself occupied while they watch Eliza's sessions. We hope he picked a winner.  Of a game. On Hallie's tablet.

So much excitement!

Eliza and Christina

Landon and Sandra

Eliza enjoys being read to and will go get favorite books for us to read to her. Landon even “reads” to her, telling her the parts of the story he remembers. He asks all sorts of curious questions about how and why things work, and Mike doesn’t shy away from using big words like momentum (with explanations) to answer. They look at the pictures in the National Geographic magazine over breakfast and lunch and have a great time.

Landon attended Owen’s sixth birthday party on Saturday while Hallie got her hair done and Mike got out the Christmas decorations. Owen has really embraced the idea of being a December baby. He planned a party where the kids decorated gingerbread houses and received Christmas-themed party favors. Very cool!  

Speaking of gingerbread houses, Landon decorated one at school on Friday and brought it home. We had to do a lot of persuading to get him to leave it alone long enough for a picture. He’s a big fan of snowy roofs and lots of candy. 

We finished most of the decorating on Sunday. We even managed to get the paper snowflake ornaments up this year!