Christmas Family Visits 2010

The day after Christmas, Evie woke up with quite an appetite. I guess she needed the calories after all that work opening presents! Here she is munching on a McDonalds hash brown:




We had a fun and busy day planned. First we went to a restaurant near Kenosha, just over the border, to meet up with my aunts and several cousins who live in Wisconsin. We do this every winter. It is so fun to catch up in person, but it always seems to fly by so quickly!

The lunch was during Evie's nap time. She didn't fuss, but she wasn't very social either. She ate some sausage and some bacon.




Unckle David and our cousin, Karen.



Gavin kept asking to leave the restaurant (asking, not yelling, which was a plus in my book). He said he wanted to "eat at home", and then he said he wanted to "go to Annie's house." That was our next stop!

Evie gets one of her inhaled nebulizer treatments at lunchtime, so we had to improvise and do it in the van. Francis has an adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter, then we could plug Evie's machine into that:




Then we stopped off at the home of Uncle Mark, Aunt Robin, and Annie and Sam. Gavin adores Annie and followed her everywhere.

He was interested in whatever she was doing; here, she was making a Santa out of some tiny beads:

Gavin just loves phones!

Annie and Sam working on the tiny bead thingys (with me continually reminding Gavin not to tip over all the beads):

Evie stuck close to Francis - she was still a little grumpy. Our visit was brief but lots of fun! Both kids and Francis fell asleep on the way home. Hmm. At least it was a quiet drive!

Christmas Day 2010

On Christmas morning we went out to breakfast with Nana & Grandpa Cermak. The twins were really well-behaved! Evie tried bacon and loved it. They both colored quietly and played with their silverware...not quietly, but they weren't too loud either. The restaurant gave them plastic dinosaur cups with lids, which they loved.

Gavin kept asking me to draw whales on his paper, then he would draw some himself:

Evie: "I think I'll have the omelet..."

You can't tell from her expression, but Evie really enjoyed her bacon!

When we were done, we went back to our house to open gifts. When Gavin first saw all the gifts, he said "Hey, look at all these presents! It's a lot!"

Gavin got a lot of "Cars" themed gifts. This one was from the story of "Rescue Squad Mater:"

Opening the "Screaming Banshee:"

Evie got a book that has a music player. It plays "CD's" (not real) from several Disney movies:




Evie is about to open Optimus Prime, from "Transformers." We saw it in Target a while ago and both kids loved it.

Gavin takes a turn with Optimus Prime:

Gavin opens some special cars that go with "Flo's V8 Cafe:"

Francis puts the "Flo's V8 Cafe" together. This is one of Gavin's favorites!




Evie got a talking pot with vegetables:

Gavin got a Lightning McQueen scooter. We went around the house about 50 times, and with each pass he got faster and had better control. He picked this toy out from the Target ad back in October, after he had ridden a scooter at school for the first time!

Evie and Gavin had a wonderful Christmas. They are starting to understand Santa and baby Jesus. They are enjoying their new things, and enjoying their winter break from school. When I tell them "There's no school today," Gavin responds "want to stay home with Mommy." It's nice to just say, "yes, you can stay home with me!"

Christmas Eve 2010

This year, the kids got into "Christmas prep" more than in the past. We made one paper chain last week, and all of a sudden Gavin wanted to make more. We made about 5 chains. He chose the colors, decided their order, and decided when they had enough links to be complete. Then he hung them on the tree. We used tape to put them together - no glue or staples!

The kids colored on their cards for their grandparents:




They also hung candy canes on the tree. Evie hung up one and she was done; Gavin hung - and broke - several!



Evie and Daddy read Mater Saves Christmas, and played with all the coordinating cars:

After naps, we got dressed up to go over to Grandma & Grandpa Cordes' house:

Evie was happy that Grandma had chips for her!

Uncle David and Auntie Di, my favorite siblings:

Gavin saw that there was cheese set out with Grandma's "snackies," and was eager to try it. It turned out to be a sharp provalone that he ended up spitting out, but hey, he tried it! It just wasn't the cheddar/mozzarella blend he is used to having at home. (Auntie Di didn't particularly care for the provalone either.)

We couldn't get all of us together in front of the tree, so this year our Christmas family picture is on the couch:

Grandma's table:

Gavin kept a close eye on Grandma's salt and pepper shakers during dinner:

Evie looks on as Uncle Brad reviews the "Legendary Twins 2010 Calendar:"

Gavin swims through the wrapping paper and boxes:

Auntie Di and Uncle Kevin:

The kids had a wonderful time and got a lot of nice new clothes from Grandma. Stay tuned for more of the twins' holiday festivities!

Gavin's First Show

Gavin's class has been doing a "Vehicle Unit" for the past 4 weeks or so. He has loved every day of it! The students read books about going places, made pictures of cars, learned road signs, worked on colors using the cars in the parking lot, etc. The unit ended Monday with a "culminating activity." This involved the parents making a car for the kids to wear. You just have to see this...

We decided to make the car look like Lightning McQueen. We started with a plain bankers box and Francis wrapped it in red poster board. I made lightning bolts, wheels, tail lights, and a mouth. Francis made headlights and did all the gluing (or rubber-cementing), buying the materials, and cutting of cardboard. We used a pair of Francis' old clip-on suspenders to hold it on Gavin's shoulders.

Here is Gavin measuring his car while I sketched:

Making sure the wheels are in the right spot:








This may have been Gavin's favorite part of the construction - digging through Daddy's tool box to pick out the right tools to attach the wheels:




Ta-daa! The finished project:





We brought the car to school and gathered in a room to wait for Gavin's class. When the kids came in, the parents put the cars on their children.

Next we made a parade around the school. The other students sat in the hallway near their classrooms and clapped as we went by. Gavin and I ended up leading the parade:

I can't say this enough times... managing all the children was like herding cats! We had a traffic jam when we were supposed to turn around:

After the parade, we went back to the big room so the kids could sing songs to us. The kids were supposed to line up to go through the "car wash." Again, herding cats.

The kids all took their cars through the "car wash." Introducing... Gavin!



I was looking forward to hearing the songs, because every day when Gavin gets in the van he tells me about the songs he sang in school. But he didn't sing them for me, so all I knew was that one was about cars and one was about sticks.

Gavin singing the "Ridin' in the Car" song:



Gavin singing the "Stick Tune:"

I love the joyful look on his face... he just loves the "Stick Tune!"

After the songs, we were invited to decorate "traffic light" cookies, but Gavin wasn't interested in them. So we visited his classroom. He showed me the listening station and explained that he wears one set of headphones and "a friend" wears the other set:

Then he showed me all of the materials that he uses in the art center:

Then he showed us his cubby:

We went back to the main room to wait for Evie's class to finish up. Her nurse brought her to the room (usually she brings Evie out to our van in this wagon):

It was so much fun! We had a great time. I was super excited to see what the children were going to do, because you never know with three-year-olds. And it was neat to see Gavin following directions (something he doesn't always do at home)!