Chloe's grocery list

What does a 5 year old put on her grocery list?

waffles milk
blueberries
drumsticks
bread
pesto
drink yogurt
spaghetti sauce

Letters to Santa

Letters to Santa. (aka Mom's shopping list)






Note that Sam requested one of the presents for his Dad- a Wii game, of course.


We visited Santa in WI. Chloe was very shy and a little concerned that Santa wouldn't know what she wanted for Christmas since she didn't speak to him.


Sam and Jackson didn't have any problem talking Santa's ear off. The photographer told me I could only take one photo! I took ten and Jeff took video.


Here are letters to Santa- to leave next to the plate of cookies and milk.


See the snail- that's in case Santa is a fan of the game Plants Vs Zombies.


Sam wrote all of this on his own!


Chloe wrote this in the style of those people who write one long sentence email- with no punctuation.

We had an early Christmas in Seattle before heading to the tundra (Wisconsin) for real Christmas. These are the toys that were too big or messy to bring.




Doesn't every little boy want to excavate a set of dinosaur bones out of a hunk of plaster? Just like a real paleontologist...



Sam hard at work





The next morning, the great dig continues.





Jackson continues. See the T-Rex in the front.




Meanwhile, Chloe creates her pastry Easy Bake masterpieces in the kitchen.



Cookies and cakes



Finally... The wooly mammoth is completed.

Chloe's ice skates

Inspired by her new book, Chloe decides to make her own ice skates.





You just take some ballet slippers and a few crayons...




Add a little tape....




Voilà! New ice skates.




Frustrated by the ice skates' performance, she decides to roller skate instead. And if course, a costume change is in order.

First blog from phone

It would be cool if this works.


The first snowflakes begin to fall. Time to put in our snow gear.




Sam




Me, Anna (Chloe's friend from school) and Chloe




Jackson

Halloween

1. Here's a photo from Sam's 1st grade class. Sam is on the left. He was originaly going to be Darth Vador, but then decided it wasn't cool to be the same thing two years in a row, so he made his own Batman mask from paper and he's wearing it in this photo.
















2. This is Chloe's friend, Delia. She came to our Halloween party dressed as a vampire, but then she and Chloe decided to try on the dress up clothes, so now she's a vampire bride.

3. Here's Traci and Chloe. Chloe's original costume was a scary bee- which included a bee costume with green face paint and red painted hair. But then after she wore it to one party, she decided she needed a new costume, so she's got on one of her princess dresses for our party.

4. Here's Jeff in his home-made pirate hat. This hat was one of the costumes for his very elaborate treasure hunt.

making cookies

Chloe loves to bake- especially cookies!

Here's what happens when I tell Chloe that we have to put the cookie dough in the oven and cook it before we eat any more of it.

Here's what happens about 30 minutes after Chloe eats cookie dough.

planting

We're planting some shrubs and grasses in our front yard. We removed a tree about 2 years ago and last winter we leveled out the yard and put some rocks in for a planting bed. Sam and Chloe are really interested and helped put in the plants and the water bead things.

biking in the park

We take the bikes to the park because our street is really hilly. I'm sure someday they'll use that to their advantage and my horror. The boys were really excited this day. Chloe was upset that she didn't have a "helmer" to wear on her head.

names on the board

Jackson had been talking a lot about his teacher, Ms. Fitch. He would "talk to her" at our house, saying, "Ms. Fitch, I'm going to write your name on the board." Or, "Ms. Fitch, you're going to go off the earth!" He never really told me why he would say these things. Then one night, I went into his room to cover him up after he fell asleep and I came across this. Jackson had written Ms. Fitch's and Chloe's names on his board and given both of them a lot of check marks. Jackson has always had a love/hate relationship with Chloe and now I guess Ms. Fitch has been added. I found out later that Ms. Fitch had taken a sticker away from Jackson one day because he was playing with it during a time when he shouldn't. Gee- he can really hold a grudge!

swimming lessons

We started taking swimming lessons in January. Lucky for us, there was a pool that had classes for both the boys' age and for Chloe's age at the same time slot. Chloe absolutely loves swimming lessons. She gets to hang with me the entire time- since Jeff has an aversion to the water. We do fun things, play with pool toys, sing songs and jump into the air. The boys' class is a little different. They get to cling by the edge of the pool while the instructor shows them what to do and then they take turns swimming out in the open with the instructor. I think there's 4 kids to their instructor. Her name is Gwen. But then the boys get out of the pool and they stand there absolutely freezing, all hunched over, waiting for Jeff to bring them their towels. There have been a few days when the boys try to fake being sick or tired to get out of going to the cold swimming class. I guess we need to be overachiever parents for this one- they need to learn how to swim!