A snow day at last!!

As a former teacher, there was nothing better than a snow day. But, now as the mother to two kids who I feel are growing up WAY too fast, my feeling on this wintry days was confirmed...there is nothing better than a snow day! The kids have pretty much called the shots today, and it's been great. An extra episode of Dora this morning (while I got to read)...sure! Fresh blueberry muffins (with permission to lick the batter covered spoons) and hot chocolate for breakfast...sure! Baking chocolate chip cookies and really enjoying the dough...sure! Snowmen and sledding outside...absolutely!

The roads are already beginning to clear so I know that tomorrow we'll be back to our usual schedule, but it sure was nice for the day to have nothing, absolutely nothing, that needed to be done!

Can I just say how much I love that Amelia calls her sled a "sleigh"! She likes everything to be fancy in her world!
And yes, he has mittens, just hates them. I choose my battles.

Amelia gets her way....

The bad blogger Mama is back....

I fully admit to pushing the blog waaaaay onto the back burner for the past month. We've been insanely busy (a 5th birthday, a trip to Kauai for Daddy Jeff and I, a trip to Arizona for the kids with Grandma and Grandpa while Daddy Jeff and I were on the beach, dance lessons, piano lessons, swimming lessons, preschool, two Valentines Day parties, and plain old life, keep us on our toes every single day) and to be honest, sitting down to blog, doesn't always end up on the top of my 'to do' list. I promise to put forth better effort going forward though...

When the kids play together, which they're doing a very nice job of lately, Graham usually decides the game and the rules for the game. Usually, it involved Darth Vader and his crew taking over the Barbie house, but Amelia is just happy to have a willing playmate. Tonight though, Amelia got her way. She has a hair stylist set that she loves and she convinced Graham to play "hair cutter" with her.

I love Graham's expression in this picture-he takes the blow dryer very seriously and does a pretty good impression of the way it actually sounds!

And, on a completely random note, here is a cute quote from a conversation I overheard today.

Amelia:I really want to be a princess when I grow up.

Graham: You can't be a princess, Amelia. You have to have a REAL job!

Amelia: Like what?

Graham: How about you be a clown?

Clearly, Daddy Jeff and I need to do a better job instilling high career aspirations in the two of them! :)

Time Flies

Graham officially turns 5 (!) on Sunday, but tonight we celebrated with a party for his friends. Pictures on the blog will come later, but as I quickly looked through them tonight (thank you Sara for all the great shots!), I couldn't help but feel sentimental. My little guy isn't so little anymore but he happens to be growing up into a very cool kid that I am so incredibly proud of!

Graham and I in Seoul the very first time we met...

And tonight, at Graham's 5th birthday party. Wow, does time fly...

Swimming Lessons

It's official, both kids LOVE their swimming lessons!

This is the first year that Amelia has taken her lesson without a parent in the water with her and she's doing a great job! She is VERY cautious when jumping into the water (more like the teacher has to pull her in) but once she's in, she's all smiles!

Graham is also doing a great job! His aspirations include not only passing Red Cross Level 1, but to also exit his current level as a scuba diver-air tank and all. The kid can barely float on his own so I have a hunch that nobody is going to be strapping an air tank to his back and hading over a mask and flippers. Yes, he's in for quite the surprise....

Mr. Independent likes to do it all by himself. Heaven forbid anyone try to help...

Slumber Party!

At the request of two very persuasive little people, this is the sleeping arrangement for tonight! We'll see how this goes...

UPDATE: After some unwanted kicking and biting by both individuals, promted by a lack of personal space, the slumber party was called off at 12:40 am. Perhaps when they're a little bit older we'll try again! :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from two little kids who despite the normal bedtime routine, are way too wound up for sleep. The only thing they wanted to do after their bath was to pretend they were Santa flying his sleigh and sing 'Rudolph' at the top of their lungs.

Graham is holding very tightly to those reigns!

I wonder how many times we'll be visiting Graham and Amelia tonight reminding them that Santa can't come until they are fast asleep?

Random Photo Dump!

In the interest of being caught up by Christmas, here are a bunch of random photo's. Enjoy! :)

The visit to Santa didn't start out very well. In case you can't tell, Amelia had a death grip on her Daddy. Then, because Santa is smart like that, he offered Miss Amelia a candy cane and everything changed in an instant....

In this case, a little bribery went a LOOONG way!

On our way to Grandma's annual Holiday Tea

Amelia doesn't go anywhere without her spunky shades

A spur of the moment puppet show staring "Graham and Amelia Puppets" lead to some very happy kids

Apparently, the puppets are very funny!

The puppet show encore

This giant brown box provided some serious entertainment! It was turned into everything from a McDonald's drive-thru to a rocket ship to the Great Sphinx (if you're confused about this one, I understand, I was too! But, Graham was insistent, so I went with it.)

Amelia spotted Daddy with the camera as she walked in with her class at the preschool Christmas concert

As luck would have it, Graham (first one on the right in the front row) was way to the right as he performed and Amelia was way to the left so it was impossible to get them in the same picture

Amelia performing - she is the fourth one in from the left in the front row

Posing with special concert guests Miles and Grace

"We're taking you for a ride Baby Grace!"