Winter Break Fun!

Winter break has gone by SO fast! In the blink of an eye, we're back in school tomorrow! Time to get back to the grind again. We drilled Daniel on his sight words one last time tonight and he knew all but one of them- Go, Daniel! He really is reading a lot these days, pointing out words while we read to him, reading words before us while we read to him, getting so brave and so on. So far so good! And SO fun!

Aside from all the Christmas fun we did the first week of break and the New Year's Eve fun we had this past week, we had play dates, checked out new toys and games, and even enjoyed some relatively warm fresh air, too, at the zoo, along with enjoying a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry one Sunday as well. We managed to keep busy and make time disappear somehow! Here are pictures of our fun throughout the past two weeks of Winter Break!

The day after Christmas was a warm day, like temps in the upper 40s, so we decided to get some much needed fresh air and head to the zoo (it was so "warm" even the zebras were outside, and we don't usually see them much in winter!). We all had a great time and loved getting outside a bit!

First we headed to the play zoo building, enjoying their yard first. We played in the side yard, and then explored the back yard before heading inside. We've never really played in the back yard before so this was fun!

Annabel smartly declared this "computer" (in the zoo director's office of the play zoo building) to be a touch screen "beputer" (her word for computer) because, as she pointed out, there was no mouse. Smart girl.

Annabel doesn't miss many opportunities to pose for pictures these days!

The kids had fun pretending to be Santa in this sleigh- Annabel is holding the reins in the first picture and in the next picture, she's standing up at the edge, dropping toys down the chimney.

More posing opportunities not to be missed!

Annabel loves to check the map and make sure we didn't miss anything!

One last photo op before we leave!

Daniel loved these gingerbread cookies that Grandpa Larry gave us for Christmas...every time Daniel ate one, we had to take a picture. And I couldn't help but share a few of them, because Daniel gave me such cute smiles!

Annabel got a "Boogie Board" e-writer for Christmas, basically a drawing/note board with an LCD screen...and the kids have loved drawing pictures on this board. They want me to take pictures of their pictures on here, too...so, more pictures to share yet again! The first one below is Daniel's- he drew me (the big figure on the left), him (on the bottom right), and Annabel (top right) and had me draw hearts between each person because he loves us. So cute.

Annabel drew a person and wrote her name completely backwards. And this isn't even all the pictures they've drawn of course. (You're welcome!)

The Saturday after Christmas, the kids declared, long about lunch time, that they'd like to go somewhere...where I asked?...to the Museum of Science and Industry they said. Well, we decided to take them the next day so we could enjoy a whole day there, not just a few hours, since we hadn't even eaten lunch yet or gotten out of pajamas when this came up (ahem, Daniel- he'd declared it pajama day earlier and I couldn't begrudge him that! we all need a pajama day now and then!). So, Sunday it was and off we went, taking Grandma Mary Kay and Grandpa Larry with us! We explored some of the same things as last time and also made sure to check out some of the areas we missed before. We had a great day and of course we had ice cream, too!

Another gingerbread man photo op! You'll notice Daniel ate it differently each time!

Magna Tiles are still a big hit in this house- the kids are always building structures with these!

Gingerbread man picture again- and such a great smile!

The kids both made these cool pictures from foam shapes they cut out of sticky-backed foam sheets. They worked hard at cutting the foam into different shapes and then sticking them next to each other to make pictures. I missed a picture of Daniel's, but he made a rocketship and declared the colors blue yellow and green to be the colors for his new bedroom when we move (someday), which was cute. Annabel made this picture below and wanted it stuck to the fridge...happy to oblige- it's so cool, whatever it is!

And today, this last day of break, Daniel decided he wanted to play "movie theater"- he drew a "movie" on a board complete with "speakers" set up next to the board, got out a tub of popcorn kernels and bags to put it in and cups for drinks, set up chairs, and we had to go the concession stand (kitchen table) place our order and then sit and wait for the movie to start. He watched with us, too. It was all so cute. And his movie- if you look closely, you can see it- is about a man playing music, so you see a man and those things around him are the music notes ("the only ones I know how to make" he said- but still, pretty good I thought!- I was impressed he even knew that!). He even put on the jazz CD for the music while we watched the movie. It was all so cute!

Of course I even have videos for you!

The first one is just a listening one, nothing to watch really, unless you like the way the monitor blips up and down, haha. Anyway, I always said that one of these days I'd tape record the kids on their monitors while they were trying to sleep, because they say such funny things sometimes! Well, one night, this was two nights before Christmas, Annabel was chatting away endlessly it seemed (this was at 9:30 PM as it was!), so I stopped the baking I was doing, and took a video. It was just too cute to pass up. No idea what she's really saying but it's still cute.

Annabel got this new game called Rory's Story Cubes for Christmas and the stories the kids come up with are SO cute. You roll 9 dice and then make up a story using the pictures that come up. The possibilities are endless. (I'm already eyeing a few of the expansion sets for birthdays or Easter!) Here are two of Annabel's stories...she's just too cute!