December Happenings

We went to Kate's preschool Christmas program.



Kate couldn't see us, but kept waving. I'm just glad she wasn't the one picking her nose.

Kate was a cow

Eating cookies with Kate's preschool friend that she likes to chase the girls with.

Allie and Kate taught a Christmas family home evening lesson straight from Allie's pillow and the scriptures.

We made some cookies for Santa





And ate lots of sugar


Allie hosted a pictionary party


We've also been to 3 birthday parties, 3 christmas parties, ice skating, roller skating, bowling, tennis, activity days, Christmas Eve with family, Christmas Day with family, a basketball tournament and everyone made it to the dentist. Phew! It has been a fun filled vacation!

Blazers!

Last night Luke got to go to a friends birthday party at a Trailblazer's game. They saw the Blazer's beat the Nuggets 111-102 in a great game. Their little group even got top be on the jumbotron! Luke didn't get home until after 10:30 which he thought was pretty cool.

Santa part 2

I never got around to posting the picture of all the kids with Santa. Kate is really into Santa this year. She has sat on his lap twice already and wants to go again. Everytime someone knocks on the door she runs to it saying, "Santa's here!

Train

While driving around town we have seen the Max train and Kate has been asking to ride the train for weeks. So last week Kate and I went and rode the train into downtown Portland. It wasn't raining, but it was freezing. Of course, there was some kind of power outage so the trains weren't running as scheduled, but after standing out in the cold we finally got in. While in downtown we looked at the giant tree in Pioneer Square, checked out the Macy's window displays, visited Santa (again), and got some frozen yogurt with gummy bears for lunch. Okay, that was Kate's lunch but not mine. I had planned on sharing, but her pick didn't really interest me. I was worried that we might run into Occupy Portland but we made it out okay and were not involved in any protests.
  Waiting for the train

Writing and mailing a letter to Santa. Kate wrote it herself and would not accept any help. Hopefully Santa can read it since she doesn't know how to write.

Nothing like frozen yogurt with gummy bears on a freezing day.

Holiday Choir

This is Allie's second year in the Holiday Choir at school. She has a concert coming up this week, and in preparation for the concert, the choir always sings at a retirement home. The children fill a balcony and sing to the residents as they have lunch. I think it's even better than the real concert because you can see the joy in the residents' faces. Kate came along with me to listen. As always, she is a big hit with the 5th graders. They always mob her and want to play with her and get her to talk. This group of Allie's friends wanted to have their picture taken with Kate.

Piano Recital

Allie had a piano recital last night. She just started up again this fall after a bit of a break with all of our moves. We really miss her old teacher Maria, but she was a little to far for us with all of the things we have going on. Her new teacher Letty is great and teaches a lot of the kids in the neighborhood. Allie really loves piano and has been super disciplined about getting up each morning to practice. She played Christofori's Dream and Pachelbel Canon.

 


Christofori's Dream

Pachelbel Canon

Santa

Kate has a new friend!