Sick Kids and Star Wars

 Jillian and Bridget were feeling better this morning so they came to play.  Jillian did a little ball handling with Ty in the house, played for a bit and then took a rest and by afternoon her fever returned.  Lots of coughing then and nose blowing.

 Bridget was my helper all day, taking ornaments off the tree, doing a craft, and keeping Anna entertained.  She worked on this Santa puzzle they didn't get to do on Christmas day since they were sick.  Right before dinner she laid down on the couch and promptly feel asleep.  Daddy came then and she had a slight fever so missed dinner and was still asleep when they went home.

Tor was the only one that wasn't sick so he had lots of fun playing Star Wars with Ty.  I'm not sure who enjoys it more.  They had quite the set-up so Ty took a picture to send to Brock and Tierney. 

Almost Basketball Season

 Basketball season starts after Christmas so it was time for lessons from Ty.  Here Ty was teaching Jillian head and shot fakes before driving or shooting the ball.  It was so cold out but the girls were little troopers.

This will be Bridget's first time playing basketball so she had a lot to learn but she worked hard.  Ty is learning patience too.

Young Darth Vader

Going through some old text messages, this video made by Tierney over the summer was rediscovered. It shows Tor in the role of Darth Vader. It's too good not to share.

Rogue One

Tierney joined Jillian, Tor and Daddy at the matinee showing of Rogue One (Bridget took a better offer of playing with cousin Karlie). The kids were excited to see Star Wars characters, but that excitement faded with the previews and the first hour of the movie. It was all a bit too scary, so Jillian and Tor both hid their eyes for long stretches. It wasn't until later that some familiar characters showed up and the action was more typical that everything was OK again.

Olympic Winter Program

Bridget had been practicing for her Christmas program, and had to wait until after the snow days, but she finally got to perform. As a special treat, her cousins Tierney, Ty and Karlie came to watch her.

Another Snow Day

Another day of snow - another day off from school. This time, Cousin Adam joined us at our house for the day. At about 10:00, the kids got bundled up and we headed to the RA Long fields to make a snowman. Daddy built the base, Mommy and Tor rolled the middle, and Bridget built the head (taking breaks to eat some snow), while Jillian and Adam spent the entire time having a snowball fight. It was hard finding decent-sized branches and rocks out in the field, but the kids managed and made a nice looking snowman. They were a tired, cold and hungry bunch when it was all done.

Nutcracker Ballet

This was the first time that the entire family went to the annual Nutcracker Ballet in Portland. Tor had enough practice at preschool in how to sit still and quiet that he was ready to do the same for 2 hours at the show. He did really well, using a whisper voice and mostly staying seated, although he did hide behind seats a couple times during "scary" parts. By the end, both he and the girls were wearing down and getting sleepy. But, they all really enjoyed it.

SNOW!

School was cancelled so they came about noon and waited for the snow.  When the first flakes fell they went running outside dancing and trying to catch a snowflake on their tongue.  Finally it was deep enough so off to the hill they went.  Jillian was an old pro at it so she packed the trail.  The snow was coming down hard now. 

 Tor showed he was ready to go by himself every time.  At first he would bail out before the steepest part but as he got braver he went all the way.  He was a trooper as he would pack his sled by himself up to the top each time.  Bridget went with Tierney, who just got home from college, a couple times but decided it wasn't her thing so she built a snowman.

 Pretty clever.  They wanted blue snow so they poured some Gatorade on the snow and when I told them you can eat fresh snow they ate the blue snow and thought it was tasty.

They tried building snowmen and a snow fort but the snow would pack so just ate more.  I did help Bridget build a small snowman which she decorated with branches.

 Next they all made snow angels.  This was the first time out.  After warming up and drying wet clothes they went out for another round.

 When inside, Jillian wanted this bigger box so she could surprise Tor and Bridget with a play train.  It had two sections and a sign plus headlights.  Kitty Anna thought the train was a great play place too.

Today they got to build their traditional gingerbread house.  They all added their own special touches.  Jillian did a lot of icicles, Tor added trees and the wreath, and Bridget made her side of the house very pretty.  They had a hard time not eating the candy, even when it was finished.

Star Topper

Bridget got to put the star on top the tree this year. Jillian had to pass down this responsibility, since she was getting too big for Daddy to lift up that high. Bridget was excited to finally get her chance, but was a bit anxious when she got up near the ceiling (she's always been a little nervous of heights).

Tree Decorating Crew

The kids were very involved in helping Mommy decorate the Christmas tree this year. They love doing it so much, they usually go too fast which leads to broken ornaments. They did pretty well decorating the lower half of the tree, and Mommy reported that only 5 ornaments were broken this time around (and only 2 were beyond repair).

O'Christmas Tree

 After a lot, and I mean a lot, of searching, they spotted the perfect tree for Grannie & Papa.  They all took turns sawing it down and waited while Cale finished cutting to yell "timber".  Cousin Cale was the muscle man on this trip.

 Here is the perfect tree for their family.

 Daddy had already cut down the tree so Cale kneeled behind it to hold it up for the family tree photo.

When they got back to Grannie's the kids stayed to hunt for their tree to decorate downstairs.  We walked all over before finding this Charlie Brown tree.  Jillian wasn't as impressed as the tree farm ones were more bushy.  But they happily put lots of decorations on the tree.  I don't know why but it's hard to get smiles out of Tor with the hat on.   Then they had lunch upstairs and when they went back downstairs they saw that Bridget's kitty "Anna" had destroyed the tree.  The ornaments were all over the room so they decorated again.  Anna was forgiven but no guarantees it won't happen again.

Christmas Parade

The weather at the time was cold but not rainy, so we braved the Longview Christmas Parade on Saturday night with Auntie Greta and Cousin Adam. The kids were bundled up, and they enjoyed watching the floats and collecting candy. But then the rain came, and we made an early exit before Santa showed up ... oh well.

Dancing

 Tor decided to make people out of play-doh now.  He made the head, arms, and legs to show me.  They were pretty small but he was excited to show me.

I heard loud music and when I checked they had a program to play music on the computer.  They had made light sabers from a building set and Bridget was showing Tor dance moves with the light sabers.  They both had some swinging moves.  Pretty cute.  Meanwhile Jillian was more ambitious with her building.

The Polar Express

 Wow, were Jillian, Bridget and Tor surprised when they arrived at Grannie's and Rielee was there to go on the Polar Express train ride with them.  Papa wasn't feeling up to going so Rielee took his place.  Here they are in front of the engine with their tickets, waiting to board the train.

 Tor was a very serious boy throughout the trip.  Here he is holding his precious ticket.

 They served hot chocolate and cookies which were delicious.  Then they passed out songbooks and Jillian requested that the train car sing "Jingle Bells".  They sang lots of songs and then the girls all sang the "12 Days of Christmas" to us.

 When they heard the jingle of bells, Santa appeared to delight them all and gave them each a bell engraved with "The Polar Express".

Tor had his bell and he didn't let it leave his hand the rest of the trip.  Later they sat on Santa's lap and talked to him.  It was a fun trip to the North Pole for the kids and adults.

Thanksgiving Dinner

The kids had lots of food to eat - turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin and chocolate pies, and turkey cookies. They all went back for seconds, but even that didn't slow them down as they resumed their running-around ways afterwards.

Busy Boy

It's rare when it happens, but Tor sat and worked for a long time.  First he wanted a yellow legal pad like the girls write on and a pen.  He filled up a lot of the pages with his drawings.  Then he saw a pair of scissors and wanted them so I got him some kid scissors.  Obviously he learned to cut in pre-school as he proceeded to cut out all kinds of shapes from his drawings.  And you can guess which one he was proudest of-a light saber.  In fact, he kept hold of it and even had it when he got home.

Tor's 3's Preschool Picture

Here's Tor's 3-year-old preschool picture. He told us that the photographer had him say "stinky feet" to get him to smile.

Bike Riding Boy

We figured it was time for Tor to learn to ride a bike without training wheels, so we gave it a go at the beach cabin, since it has a nice flat, wide, empty road out front. On the first attempt, Tor went several yards with Daddy running alongside before tipping over. After several more tries, Tor was pretty much able to ride quite a ways by himself. He was still a bit erratic, turning suddenly or just not pedaling. But, he was very proud of himself, and Jillian and Bridget were cheering for him the whole time.

Beach Trip in November

Even this late in the year, the weather was pretty nice at the beach (not too cold, just a little rain). So, we were able to make at least one trip to the beach, where we found some very large sand mountains that the kids climbed ... before having to leave due to a very high tide. As usual, we had our after-beach ice cream, at Aidelaide's. Much of our time was spent inside the cabin, sleeping in late, watching videos, playing UNO, and relaxing while the kids came up with their own games. We did manage to spend some more time outside when we went biking to the library (and Tor learned to ride without training wheels!) and when cooking hot dogs and s'mores over the fire (though we did get a little wet). There was also the usual trip to the Astoria pool that was super-crowded this time. All in all, a very nice relaxing pre-holiday trip.

Bridget's Hair Style Contest

Bridget invited everyone to a Hair Styling Contest in her room. We had to come up with some wild hair, and then Bridget would judge the winner and runner-up. She finally decided that Tor's twin pigtails (which were supposed to look like ears on Batman's hood) were the winner, and Jillian's high bun (like Princess Leia) was the runner-up.

November Outside and Tunnel

 As soon as they had their snacks, they all headed outside to play before it got dark.  Climbing this tree was the last thing they did as it was pretty dark by then.  Daddy helped Tor sit in the tree as it was pretty high to climb by himself. 

After dinner Tor got all the chairs and lined them up for a long tunnel and then he made a bed on the top.  I helped him put blankets around the tunnel.  He thought it was pretty cool.  The girls also tried it out but he kept chasing them away since it was "his" house and tunnel.

People Drawings

This was something new from Tor - - drawing people with faces and bodies. Before, it's just been scribbles that only he knew what they were. He drew these at Grannie and Papa's house.

Puzzles

 

 

 

This morning Tor did Play-Doh for quite awhile-Star Wars ones of course.  Then I asked him if he'd like to do a puzzle.  These are somewhat easier since the picture is printed on the front so he just needed to find the matching pieces.  He started out slow but it didn't take him long to get the hang of it and soon he was looking for certain pieces to match.  Then he did another one like this one.  There weren't any more of these so we did small regular ones.  He now knew what to do.  All in all he must have worked for about an hour and a half.  Pretty good.  He's not ready yet to do them on his own but it did keep us both busy.



 He was pretty proud of his finished puzzle.

Bridget got ambitious and started making giant hearts on the driveway.  Then she drew and colored a turkey at the top and wrote "Happy Thanksgiving".  She wasn't too happy with the dogs and kids
running and riding over her picture but she pressed on.  She wanted me to take and print a picture with her in it.  She mounted the picture on a paper and made a card to give to her teacher.  Very nice!