Christmas Program I and II

This year's school Christmas program was "Joyland."  Jake had a speaking part and Maggie got to be, well, you'll just have to read on to find out.

Joyland is a toy store - Jake was a sales clerk named Tommy.    Notice the lack of singing.  Pretty typical.

Maggie, on the other hand, loves the singing.

Jake did great - remembered all of his lines, even though his microphone gave out.  My favorite part was when it started working again and he whispered, "My mic is working again," for all the audience to hear.

And Maggie's special part?  She got to be 1 of 4 dancing sheep.  They had a routine during one entire song.  She did just great!

And looked pretty darn cute, too!

On to the church program.  This year, the kids got to play the nativity one of three Sundays in December.  Jake got to be a king - check out his royal crown!!

And Maggie was a camel.

Sorry about the less-than-stellar pictures.  I'm not the best photographer, especially in difficult lighting and from far away.

Anyway, I cherish these memories, because I know they won't always be so excited to play a camel and a king.  But I hope they will always be excited about celebrating Christmas - and for the right reasons; that it is the birth of our Savior.

The Perfect Ice

If the lake freezes on a perfectly calm day, with no snow, we get the perfect ice for skating.  That happened this year - it's a blast.  It's clear enough that you can see the seaweed swaying back and forth under the water; you might even spot an occasional fish.

We took complete advantage this year and skated, even while there was open water (you can see it in the distance on this picture).  It was like this for several weeks - Jake and I even skated to a different side of the lake to his friend's house.

Then it rained on our parade (literally rained) and ruined the nice smooth ice.  But never fear, there's a rink just down the road, and a couple more in town, and one in our friends' backyard....

Check out Mags' new blog!!

Maggie got a camera for Christmas and wanted somewhere to post her photos...so she has her very own blog!

Check out www.maggiedoodledesigns.blogspot.com for all of her musings and photos.

Merry Christmas!!

There and back again (and again and again)

We had the privilege of spending a week at the Causeys' right after Thanksgiving and had a blast.  We took advantage of their proximity to DC and did a little sightseeing. 

Isaiah went along and it was a beautiful day - sunny and nearly 70!  Awesome for walking around and seeing the White House...

The Washington Monument...

The Lincoln Memorial...

And the completely torn up reflecting pool.  :(

We also took in the Museum of Natural History on that day and had our fill of walking around.

So, Scott and I left the kids home the next day and headed back to DC.  I had never seen the Jefferson Memorial before - by far my favorite!  Worth the hike around the tidal basin.  It was also beautiful that day; 75 and sunny, so we walked and walked and walked.  It was great.  Took in the Air and Space Museum on Washington Mall; went in the Smithsonian Castle, saw a few more monuments and memorials and had lunch near the Capitol building.

A few days later, Scott and I hopped on the Metro once again and got a tour of the Pentagon, thanks to Charles.  By far, the highlight of our sightseeing.  This is the only place that pictures are allowed to be taken in the Pentagon, so Scott quickly briefed the nation and then we headed out on our tour.

We got a private tour from Charles and a couple of people he works with - one was at the Pentagon shortly after the plane hit on 9-11 and it was fascinating to hear his account of that day.  He took us to the chapel and the memorial that are now at the site where the plane hit the building.  It was amazing.

Each corridor of the Pentagon has a different theme and artifacts and displays line the hallways.  Several areas have quilts, etc. that people sent after 9-11.  My favorite was by a little old lady, who made a beautiful quilt...of a hexagon. So cute!!  Our tour guide told us there is a warehouse full of those kinds of things and they are traded out periodically so they will eventually all be on display.

We ended our trip with a morning at the Air and Space Museum by Dulles Airport.  The one on the Washington Mall ran out of room, so they built another one.  (Airplanes take up an awful lot of space...)  We thought the second was the coolest (and not just because one of the Transformers movies was filmed there).

It was a great trip!  Thanks to the Causeys for the hospitality!

The Number 10

Oh yes, he turned 10.  Double digits.  Hard to believe that in another ten, he'll probably be halfway through college.

We were in Virginia the week before the big day, so we got to celebrate with the cousins.  No better way to celebrate a birthday, in my opinion.

Maddie baked a cake - YUM!  Much tastier than the one he got on his actual birthday...

We flew home on Jake's birthday, and the flight attendants made a cake for him out of a toilet paper roll and some stir sticks; the crown is bags of peanuts held together with stir sticks.  And he got gifts!  10 bags of pretzels and 10 bags of peanuts.  They had everyone on the plane shut off their lights and turn on their "call" lights to make it look like candles and then everyone sang.

It was quite a birthday, to say the least.

Loooong time

I know it's been awhile since I posted and I will have some new pictures soon.  We celebrated Thanksgiving in the DC area with my family - had a blast!


Spent Jake's birthday flying home ( I will post pictures of the awesome crown and cake the flight attendants made for him).

And the kids both had parts in the school Christmas program.  Jake was a shop-keeper and Maggie was a dancing sheep.  Yes, that's right.  A dancing sheep.

We've also been doing some ice-skating on the lake and dreaming of snow.  (Can you believe I just said that??)  It's true, though.  Winter is ugly when the white stuff isn't around to cover up all the brown.

Anyway, I will get my pictures downloaded soon and get some updates on here.  (Especially for you, Judy!!)