Music to my ears

This week our kids both had holiday Christmas concerts at their school.

Sadi's grade preformed on Tuesday night.  All the girls looked so cute in all their holiday dresses.

They put on the cutest program.  They sang songs I had never heard before, and had great choreography to go along with all the songs.

Sadi had a solo speaking part, which she had memorized perfectly.  They day before the performance she got a bit of stage fright and asked a friend to stand with her and read a line.  She did amazing and didn't even have to look at the paper.

The night of Sadi's performance Chase had a solo song...a Christmas rap.  He did SO GOOD!!!  We are so proud.  He got many, many, compliments on his performance that night. 

Chase's  5th grade Christmas program was the following night.  There were so many kids that they didn't all fit on the stands so they shifted throughout the evening.

Besides singing, they played their recorders that they had been practicing all year.  Chase also had one more performance of the night.  He has been in band all year and learning how to play the trumpet.  Since he never practices at home this is the first I had heard him play, and was pleasantly surprised. 

We are lucky to have such a wonderful music teacher who has taught him so much, and has patience to listen to all the practicing.

Two musical nights + two amazing performers = Two really lucky parents.

It's beginning to smell alot like Christmas

This last weekend we went to pick up a Christmas tree.  We were debating getting an artificial tree, but I just couldn't find the right one (or the right price..yikes!).  So we kept with tradition and got a live tree.  Went and picked one out at Costco.  This is how we roll.....

I tried to tell someone (Matt) at the store it looked really big.  He said it wasn't any bigger than years past.  Well, we brought it in, and it engulfed our house.  It is HUGE! 

We were quick to get to decorating (after a few lighting difficulties).  Sadi was happy to help me decorate the giant.  We have so many special ornaments that we didn't even hang any of our store bought ornaments.

The kids decorated their own trees with the ornaments that they have collected over the years.

They have an ornament for each year since birth.  Ever since they were big enough, they have picked out their own ornament.  This year's treasures....

Chase picked out a a squirrel.  He really wanted the singing squirrel he found that danced and sang I'm getting "nuttin" for Christmas but it wasn't an actual ornament so, when I found this squirrel he was sold.  Sadi was searching for her favorite winter animal.  You would think a penguin would be easy to find...not the case.  We FINALLY found one.  And he was perfect.

They had fun decorating their little trees, that get a little fuller every year.

We snuggled up that night under the tree and started reading a new Christmas story, The worst best Christmas pageant ever. 

Although I don't love watering this guzzling beast, I LOVE that sweet smell of pine.

Fa La La La La.....

This morning we woke to this surprise...

Our elves are back!  And there is another one!  They came with a letter from Santa explaining he promised Jingle if he was good all year he could bring yet another friend.  His letter read that this elf is a tinker elf.  The kids were excited and started deciding on a name for him.  After arguing debating they both agreed on a name.  Meet Jangle....

I have a feeling it's about to get a whole lot more festive around here real soon!

Thankful

This year we stayed home for Thanksgiving and had all our kids here (at least for part of the day).  Matt's grandparents also came over for the day.  We were thankful we were all able to be together.

I spent the morning prepping for the big meal.  I had been brinning my bird for a few days.  Although none of us really care for turkey(except for Matt) it did make the house smell delicious.  And it turned out beautiful...

The food was delicious, and we were thankful that we had family to share it with.

We ate plenty, laughed, played games, and enjoyed being together.  Even Grandpa and Grandma's dog, Gallant was able to enjoy the day with us.  I'm thankful to have such a wonderful family, those living close, and those far away.

Home for the Weekend

Kelsey was able to come home from college for the Thanksgiving break.  The kids were excited to spend time with her.  She actually wanted to play Chase's bean boozled game he got for his birthday.

Her first and second spins on the game ended in "good" tasting beans...lucky duck.

 Chase's luck was well....

Not so lucky.  They played 5 rounds.  Kelsey did get a few unfavorable flavors but didn't even blink at them (skunk spray, rotten egg, and barf).  Seriously how do you not gag?  She ate the entire bean...yuck!

There were many games of UNO played and plenty of hours catching up on sleep.  She even roped the entire family into helping her with a project one afternoon.

We all helped make these mini rolo pencils she is giving to all the students living on her dorm floor as a finals week treat for good luck.

Hopefully she won't need luck for her finals, and she'll have all the "write" answers.

Turkey Trouble

Part of Sadi's homework this month was a family project.  We had to disguise a turkey so that he wouldn't get eaten for Thanksgiving dinner.  We made our turkey into a pizza delivery man...who wouldn't choose some Gobblers pizza over turkey?  He is sure to escape being eaten this year!

Thursday the school hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for lunch at school, where parents were encouraged to come and eat with their kids.  I got to have an extended lunch hour since my kids have different lunch periods.  It was nice to get a chance to enjoy lunch with each of them.

Although Chase opted to not buy his lunch, he really wanted to eat MY pumpkin pie.  I told him he had to let me do the "airplane" if he really wanted some. Turkey for lunch with my two little turkey's...doesn't get much better than this :)

Leadership Field Trip

The day we returned to school after our Utah trip Chase had a leadership field trip.  I was asked to go along as a parent volunteer.

The purpose of the field trip was to take a tour and learn about how one school in our district has adopted a great way to reduce, reuse, and recycle their cafeteria food.  The kids were teamed up with a student who is a member of their "green team" who took them on a tour of the school to learn all about how this process works.  Chase was teamed up with a 6th grade boy named Conner.  He was really fun, and really knew his stuff.

They have a pretty great system that the school uses to recycle food.  They have pig buckets that they collect daily for a local farmer, and use another for organic foods that they use to make compost.  They then use the compost in their school garden.  We got a tour of the garden, and even got to taste some celery they were growing, it was delicious!

They clean and collect all the milk cartons to use for other things.  All these garbage bags are full of cartons they will recycle.  They said they went from throwing away over 200 lbs. of trash a day to just over 30 lbs.  That is a whole lot of trash.

During lunch the kids got a hands on of how the system works.  The thing that surprised me the most is how all the kids in the school are so use to this and know what to do.  They do have to occasionally do a dumpster dive, but this green team is not afraid to get their hands dirty.

This was a great way to learn about recycling, and how we can learn to reduce the amount of waste we put into the environment.  And making new friends in the process, major bonus!