Very Merry Vocabulary

Joseph unwillingly participated in his school's holiday performance this week.  His teachers wrote an original work that taught key words in holiday songs.  The teachers and the kids did their best, which is probably all you can hope for in a school holiday show.  Joseph objected to singing the holiday songs; he opted to lip sing instead.  We count that as a win (at least he isn't the kid in the front row that you can see dancing around in the video).

The kids got a bonus visit with Santa after the show.

Cub Scout Award Night

Joseph says that the best things about Cub Scouts are that it's just for boys and they get to do boy stuff.  He earned the status of Bobcat at an awards ceremony this week, and he got belt loops for soccer, fishing, archery, and BB gun shooting (also known as "boy stuff").

The holidays in Alabama

There may not be any snow on the ground, but we still managed to celebrate with some holiday traditions.  St. Nicholas paid us a visit earlier this month.  Nana and Grandad went with us to pick out a tree this weekend and helped decorate it.  Next year, we may need to get a bigger one because we almost ran out of room for all our ornaments.  We all took a train ride to the North Pole last night and got to visit with Santa.  It was nice of him to share some hot chocolate, treats, and ornaments with us.  Grandad says it's more fun to be on the naughty list, but the kids are sticking with the nice list to guarantee some gifts on Christmas morning.

B-17 visit

Last weekend, we spent an afternoon at the airport touring a B-17 that dates back to WWII.  The kids thought it was pretty neat to crawl inside and around the plane.  We thought it was pretty neat to watch some of the older gentlemen who came to see the plane remember their experiences in the war.  Seeing our little ones alongside older generations left a lasting impression.

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

Every year, the fall brings a marathon of birthdays for us to celebrate.  Joseph rounds out the season with his November 3rd birthday.  We celebrated him turning 8 a few days early.  He picked a Teenage Mutant Ninja Theme (we've come a long way since his caterpillar cake on his first birthday).  Luckily, the internet can teach us everything we need to know about throwing a TMNT party.  First, we need paper lanterns dressed up to look like ninja turtles.  Then, we need decorations in each turtle's signature color.  We can't forget appropriate activities such as decorating throwing disks to look like pizzas and laying out pizza boxes for the kids to throw them into.  They also got to try to land throwing stars in takeout boxes, wear ninja masks, and swing around foam nunchucks.  The kids thought it was a pretty fun afternoon.

 

Of course, the food included pizza and toxic ooze (jello).