The whole family slept in this morning. It was a treat to be able to get up and have a leisurely day around the house. Shecklet #1 assembled the weather station he received for his birthday. Later, the 4 kiddos played with the saint dolls that a group of ladies (myself included) painted. (They turned out pretty fantastic if I do say so myself!)
We had a crazy doorbell ring followed by a possible Nana sighting this evening. Out on front stoop, the kids were surprised to find colorful popcorn containers filled with blinking rings, confetti paper and gift cards to Target with Spot the dog toys attached. Such fun!
This girl is prepared for whatever water comes her way today. Jake’s response to my text with this picture was, “I knew one of my kids would be a boy scout.”
The view from above.
It’s one of those rare times when all four Shecklets are in the same room and there’s hardly a sound from anyone. (We just got home from an after school library stop.) I love how excited they are to have a set of new books!
Shecklet #4 was over-the-moon excited to help her daddy move the car from the driveway to the street.
We took the kids to an egg hunt at our old parish this morning. We arrived slightly after the event began and it looked like there were plenty of eggs to go around. Unfortunately, by the time we went inside, dropped off our food shelf donations and went back outside, all but a couple of eggs had been collected. I felt pretty bummed for my kids (especially since other children were walking around with baskets over-flowing with eggs) but they didn’t seem to mind. I really am proud of their behavior in situations like that. They could have easily thrown a tantrum or gotten emotional over not being able to find any eggs, but instead, they just rolled with it and moved on. Perhaps one silver-lining that they discovered once we went back in the building to have a treat and work on a couple of crafts, is that this year, they had REAL bunnies for the kids to have their photo taken with.
Three brothers in a suburb near our old house built an enormous snow turtle in their front yard. (Apparently they have made several snow sculptures in the past – wish we had known when we lived in the area!) I had the older Shecklets with me while I picked up Shecklet #3 from preschool today, so I decided to make a slight detour on our way home to see the turtle in person. The kids were pretty impressed!
Christmas at my parents’ house was lovely…tasty food, fun with family, laughter and surprises…
…until about 8:30, when we discovered that our dog, Cooper, was not feeling well. We quickly discovered that he had found a stash of chocolate somewhere in the house…enough to fill this tin:
After speaking with the after-hours emergency vet, we decided that we needed to bring him in. Since we had only driven one car to my parents’ house, my dad offered to take Cooper and me to the vet so Jake and the kids could stay and finish desert.
I’ll spare the details, but suffice it to say, we left two hours later with a dog with an empty stomach who, though he was shaking due to the caffeine in the chocolate, was going to be ok. Christmas 2014…one for the memory books!
