Christmas Card 2013

Happy birthday to me

The big 35!

Ice skating

Mark's mom sent us a picture of some "skate buddies" that Christina's kids used at an ice rink in Germany.  They looked like little penguins, and the kids could hold on to them to help them stay standing as they skated. We looked online but couldn't find anything like it, so Mark made his own out of PVC pipe. It worked pretty well-- we still had to push Logan around the rink most of the time, but at least we had something to rest our arms on. 

Mark & Logan skating

Logan & the skate buddy

Chasing the puck

Ginny

Ginny has always seemed to enjoy kids. I remember when I was little, she used to let me take all of her shoes out of her closet and set them up on the stairs to play shoestore, she would make up elaborate bedtime stories featuring little girls named Kate when we had sleepovers, and she always kept my drawer at her house stocked with stickers or coloring books or some special treat. 

Despite being 95, Ginny still loves playing with my kids.  She has long conversations with Amelie, plays hide and seek with Logan, and always keeps a good stock of cookies to keep him (and me!) happy. 

Ginny & Amelie in matching sweaters

Roughhousing with Logan

Cuddles

Amelie's first food

Amelie is not a big fan of food. She gets this sort of disgusted look on her face and spits it out every time we try.  I can't really blame her, rice cereal doesn't look too tasty to me either.

Daycare Pics

 Here are a few pictures of how the kids spend their days at Tammy's.

Learning to sit in the high chair

Exersaucer

Gooball wears a bib all day

Practicing spelling

Practicing sitting skills

Tori and Amelie

Santa

We went to see Santa at the bookstore in town. This Santa is good, in theory, because he spends tons of time with each kid.  There are long discussions about Christmas gifts, reading of books, coloring. The problem is, Logan wants nothing to do with Santa.  Therefore, we spent an hour waiting for all the other kids to have their quality time with Santa, and then when it was our turn, it took about one minute to bribe Logan to get near Santa long enough for a picture, and then we were out of there.  Logan asked for an apple airplane with sprinkles and chocolate (we're still not quite sure how to make that happen) and a train engineer puzzle. 

Amelie was mildly interested.  She liked pulling on his beard at least.