Logan's Last Day of Preschool!

I'm such a terrible blogger!  One minute I am going strong with documenting life and another minute I want nothing to do with it.  Hmmm...guess that's life, huh?  One of my big reasons for blogging is to share stories, pictures and videos with friends and family...especially those that do not live close to us.  So, here I go...let's try this blogging thing again!

Logan's last day of preschool was on Thursday.  I always try to have a small gift for not only teachers, but everyone that impacts my child's life at school (including bus drivers, speech therapists, para educators, etc.,).  So, this is the gift that I came up with for this year.  We bought terra cotta pots and the boys painted them, added soil and chose their flower.  We then stuck a fork in the soil and added a photo with a little note to each person.  Between the two boys, we had 14 of these to make!  When we went to deliver them, everyone was very excited about them and the boys enjoyed giving them.  

School Gifts

Note attached to gift (I just love this 'Dear Teacher' font!)

Logan with Miss Jodie, his teacher

 His preschool did a cute little presentation, including music, receiving of certificates and a cap ceremony for the kidos who were moving onto Kindergarten (not Logan). This is Logan and his classroom singing a song titled, "Love Grows"!  Logan is constantly singing this at home (complete with hand motions as well!

Logan receiving his Certificate

 They even had a special snack for the kids and Logan was waiting sooo patiently for this part (which of course was his FAVORITE!).  I was chatting with Logan about the upcoming party before he went to school.  I explained that I wasn't able to stay for the whole thing because I needed to be home for when Carson gets off the school bus.  I asked Logan if he wanted to come with me when I left or take the bus home.  He says, "Mom, I'm staying at the PARTY!"  Well, of course you are!  Very funny and cute!

Logan just LOVES preschool and will greatly miss his teachers and friends.  Before school was even out, he was already asking "Mom, can I play with _____ this summer?"  So, I whipped up some little cards to give his friends so they could call us for a play date or something.

Carson's last day of Kindergarten is tomorrow, so I will blog about his fun day as well!  He can't wait!

Christmas Traditions

This holiday season, we have done some very fun things!  As usual, I am always trying to instill some family tradition into our holiday season!

This year, we added a new tradition....The elf on a shelf!  This is a great little package including a book (that explains the tradition of the elf) and an stuffed little elf.  You name the elf (the boys named ours Zap) and the elf's job is to be Santa's eyes.  At night, Zap flies back to the North Pole to let Santa in on the day of Carson and Logan.  When he flies back (in time to be back when the boys wake up), he finds a new spot in the house in which to watch the boys.  We added our own personal dimension to this...we have Santa write notes to the boys ("good job with making good choices yesterday", "work harder or I'm flying right past your house on Christmas eve", etc., ).  It's been fun, but it's been difficult to remember to move Zap every night!  My friend Angela assured me that this would be your key to good behavior during the holidays.  Well...I don't know about that, but it has helped a little, so I'll take it!

We've had a tough time with the boys' behavior lately.  The thing that has helped the most with their behavior is The Portable North Pole!  You enter information specific to your child like their name, hair and eye color, what behavior your child has been working on this year (and how well they have done with it), what they want for Christmas (and can even download a picture of it) and the program even makes a book with downloaded pictures that you add!  It uses this information to customize a video from Santa.  Once the video is made, you receive it via e-mail and the best part, you ask??  It's totally FREE!!

Carson was quite naughty on Saturday, so I made him a video telling Santa that he had been naughty.  Here is the video that was sent to Carson!  After watching the video, Carson looks at me and says "Mom, I'll try harder!" (finally, maybe something has gotten through to him!!)  And here is the video sent to Logan!

After several weeks of bad behavior, the boys FINALLY earned a trip to McDonald's and they were very excited!  After McDonald's, we went to the Morford Family Carousel and the boys had a BLAST!  There was a spinning cup (like the tea cups at Disneyland) and Carson loved that!  The boys rode the carousel 3 times and Carson rode the spinning cup all 3 times!

The boys worked on their letters to Santa this weekend.  Logan dictated his and Carson wrote his letter all by himself (dictated it and then copied what I wrote).

Logan's Letter to Santa

Carson's Letter to Santa
Dear Santa,
Snow is here!  I'm sorry for being mean to my mommy.  I will try harder.
Please bring me Loopz for Christmas.
We will be in Roseburg, OR for Christmas with my cousins.
Carson George
(picture of Santa on sleigh and reindeers flying in the clouds)

After working on the letters, the boys took them to the post office to mail them!  I found this cool website.  If you include a return stamped envelope with Santa's letter inside, they will return the letter to you with the North Pole stamp on it!  We'll see if we receive our return letter!  The boys would get a huge kick out of it!

Tomorrow, we are off to the Garden d'Lights in Bellevue!  I hope the boys enjoy it!  It's FREE!  Check out the website for other free nights!

Well...I think that is about it!  We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

First Snow this winter!

It snowed for the first time this winter season (YIKES...you know, it's not even officially winter yet??) on Sunday night 11/21.  By mid morning on Monday 11/22, the were closing the schools early.  Both bus drivers called me to find an alternate drop off location since they didn't think they could navigate our streets!  Carson's bus was about 45 minutes late in arriving!  And, it took Kelly 2 1/2 hours to get home from work in Seattle!

By Tuesday morning, we had a good 6 inches on the ground!  And, school was CANCELLED!  It allowed us all an opportunity to go play in the snow, and that we did do!  We had lots of hills around our house (our gravelly road, our driveway, our hill onto our sports court and our neighbor's yard as well)...all these possibilities without driving ANYWHERE!!  Here are a few photos of our fun time together!

Taking the toboggan down the driveway!

I love these pics!  They are treating their toboggans like they are some cool snowboard!  Very cute!

This morning, Carson ran out into the snow and jumped in....FACE FIRST!  Silly Carson!

Playing in the backyard!

This hill is PERFECT!  The hill has a very nice slope and then there are stairs right next to the run!  How cool is that?

Getting ready for the last run of the day!  Look at those rosy cheeks!

The snow was sure fun!  We'll see how long it sticks around!

I'm very thankful for our warm home, fireplace and hot cocoa!  Those are the fixings after a cold day of play in the snow!
Enjoy the snow and stay warm!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!