November

I guess I'll start right where I left off.  The rest of Brian's visit was busy and fun.  We took him to the Hollywood Boardwalk we like to visit.  As usual, we were planning to just go for lunch and maybe a dip of the toes…but that always turns into the kids swimming in their clothes. :)

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The next day, we hit up South Beach and then went back up to Ft Lauderdale to check out Las Olas.  It was our first "cold" day--it was only 70 degrees!

At some point about a month ago, Charlie decided he doesn't like sleeping anymore.  He has been taking 2-3 hours to go to sleep at night.  Sometimes it seems fearful--he will no longer sleep with his door closed, he needs his room to have lots of light, he wants certain toys out of his room before bedtime, etc.  Other times, he just seems to be a stinker.  We have been trying everything to get it sorted out (well, everything except what I think we really need to do, which is stop letting him nap in the afternoon).  

One of our creative solutions may have involved a tea party…with Sleepytime Tea. That was actually pretty successful.  We have repeated that strategy. :)

My mom made the kids popcorn balls like my Grandma Grieff used to make.  They devoured the toppings too quickly for me to get a good picture.

Would you believe Reese gets homework in preschool???  It seems little crazy to me, but she loves doing it, so I don't argue. 

We started preparing for Thanksgiving with a turkey craft. 

The kids have gotten some great packages from Grandma Mary & Grandpa Chuck with treats and crafts for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  This package was a stocking to start our holiday decorating.

I was watching Charlie play with his Toy Story toys. He kept asking me to take his clothes off (why do kids love being naked all the time??) and I told him no.  So, he thought he would take matters into his own hands.  

Which was going well, and he was feeling pretty smug.

Until he got stuck. :)

We spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house.  She and I spent the day Wednesday cooking and then we headed over there early on Thursday to finish things up.  It was so much fun cooking with her and celebrating with her family and Grandma Betty. 

My first turkey!  I was so proud. :)

The kids spent the rest of the day playing.

We were able to Skype with my mom and dad, which the kids really enjoyed. 

The next day, we got to work on our Christmas decorations.  Charlie was very helpful in taking everything to the couch with him to cuddle with while he watched Rudolph. :)

The next day, our Elf, Buddy, arrived from the North Pole.  As usual, he brought us snow covered donuts. :)

We are trying to teach Reese about money, so we recently started an allowance system for her.  She has a list of responsibilities she has to accomplish each day to earn a quarter for the day. She can earn up to $1.75 a week.  At the end of the week, 50 cents has to go to her piggy bank, and she can keep the rest to spend (usually on a pack of gum or a bag of popcorn at Target).  It's fun to watch her purchase something for herself. She enjoys paying and getting her receipt.  So cute. 

She saved up a few weeks and bought herself a new box of crayons and a case for them since all of our crayons are always in rough shape from a certain little boy…

We were so, so, SOOOOO proud of Reese last weekend.  Her school had their holiday show, and Reese was so excited about it.  Each class from her school had been assigned a country to decorate their class to look like, and to demonstrate their holiday celebration.  The kids spent the week traveling to each classroom (they even had little passports to mark off each country!) and experiencing the cultures and customs in each country.  Reese's room was assigned Africa, and they demonstrated Kwaanza celebrations in the holiday show. Reese told us the morning of the show that her teacher had asked her to stand at the microphone to lead her class because she knew the lines so well. :)

She had no fear or hesitation at all.  And the crowd was huge--several hundred people!  The class recited:

We are from Kenya, a country in East Africa. We celebrate Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa means the first bared fruit. Kwanzaa lasts for seven days. There are seven candles for each day. December 26th is the first day of Kwanzaa when the first candle is lit.  The others are lit each day after. I wish you a Happy Kwanzaa!

After the explanation of Kwanzaa, the students did an African dance. It was soooo cute!

We were so proud of her.  Seeing her confidence up on the stage was amazing.  She was pretty proud of herself too, which made it even better. :)

She made her list to Santa, and we mailed it off using our city's express mailbox to the North Pole.

Reese is asking for lipstick, makeup, shoes, hamsters, remote car, car ramp, and a Snow White dress.  She caught me a little off guard with her list. :) 

She wrote on the back that Charlie would like a toy. haha

Matt helped the kids plant the planter Chuck and Mary got Reese for her birthday. It had stayed empty before our move, and we finally remembered to get it planted!  We planted herbs since we don't know a thing about South Florida flowers, and the kids enjoy helping us pick the herbs when we are making dinner. :)

We also hit up some holiday events last weekend.  There is a church in town that has a huge area of lights set up. It was free and so cute.  They had little train rides, fake snow (which totally baffled Reese when she tried to pick some up), we met Santa walking around, and Elsa and Anna were there too. It was super fun. I'm sure we will go again!

My Aunt Christie has been sending the kids an online Advent calendar the last couple years.  They always enjoy watching me click on each day and helping them with the activities, but this year, Reese can do it all on her own, and she LOVES it.  I can't believe how natural it is for her to use the computer.  

We met up with one of my friends and her daughter last weekend.  The girls were fast friends.  They also have a little boy around Charlie's age, so hopefully we can set up a family playdate soon.  It's so awesome to be at a park in December.  The girls were even playing in the splash pad!

That night, we went to the tree lighting ceremony the next town over.  We were excited because it's a large equestrian town, and they were having a parade with the horses wearing Christmas lights, and Santa was going to be in the parade in a fire truck!  It was packed, parking was impossible, but we were excited!  The parade started…6 horses rode by…Santa drove by in the fire truck….and the parade was over.  Seriously maybe not even a 60 second parade!!!  Oh well, it gave us a good laugh. :)

My Uncle Ron flew down to visit on Tuesday.  We spent the afternoon over there yesterday, and we had fun playing catch. 

Ron had never seen the ocean, so I drove everyone over to Dania Beach Pier.  Ron and Grandma really enjoyed it. :)

And since most of you should have received your Christmas cards by now, I can share the rest of the pictures from that day!