Thanksgiving Vacation

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Susan's house in Sunriver. It took us awhile to get there because there had been a lot of snow in the mountains and we had to chain up. The kids were delighted when we got there because Susan had about a foot of snow. Finally they could build forts, sled, and have plenty of snow fights. The kids stayed outside literally from sun up to past dark playing in the snow.

At the house across the way there were huge icicles and the kids loved playing with them.

Our little Jedi.

Baby Huck loved being outside. He was so snug in his snowsuit he fell asleep when we were outside. I was pushing him around in his stroller and I could hear his snoring.

Susan was dog sitting two poodles. The kids loved it because they said there was a dog for each of them.

The following videos are really funny. The first

Snow Day

On Tuesday we woke up to find that school was canceled. The kids were so excited and even more thrilled to find out there was snow on the ground. We laughed that anyone outside of Oregon would think it is crazy that school is canceled for a dusting of snow, but here the roads are really slippery and to be honest most people don't know how to drive in this weather.

The kids ran out before they had even had breakfast. Midge and Leo were so disappointed they couldn't build a snow fort.

Here was baby Huck's first view of snow.

He wanted to be out with his siblings.

Huck was delighted to have his siblings home for the entire day to play with him. They would put him in this Tonka truck and push him around. It was like his little throne.

On Wednesday I was talking to my parents who were visiting and looked out the back window and saw this by our pond!

Fun at Preschool

The other night I ran upstairs to get Little Miss changed into pajamas. I had left Huck in the sun room. As I was getting her dressed I could hear Huck babbling and it sounded like he was getting closer to me. I was amazed because I had just left him and he would have had to climb across the kitchen, entry way, up three stairs to the landing and then started climbing our big flight of stairs, but sure enough he sounded like he was getting closer. I went to the stairs and saw him climbing them by himself. I yelled to the family and we all came and cheered him on. I had to get the camera and record the moment. Here is my little 8 month old at the top all proud of his efforts. Now where's the gate?

The week before was my turn to teach Little Miss's preschool. The theme was spontaneous delight - basically we had a lot of fun. I love teaching this group because I get to play. I blew up a ton of balloons the night before and we had a great time playing with them. I had the kids close their eyes and I dumped all the balloons on their head and they squealed with delight.

L-boy went along and gathered up all of the balloons and carried them around with him the entire time.

The kids love to sing so we always have to sing.

I read the kids Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. The story is about a peddler that carries his caps on his head. The kids then tried to balance a pillow on their heads and tried to walk like the peddler in the story.

Little Miss always loves to paint. So I decided to do a painting activity with the kids. We painted fall leaves and then pressed them onto paper. They loved it.

For snack we did air popped popcorn. C-boy had never seen this before and he was so excited.

I love this last video. If this isn't spontaneous delight I don't know what is.