Preschool Christmas Pageant

The 3 and 4 year old classes put on a beautiful Christmas pageant this year in the church sanctuary.  As with the Halloween performance, we were very impressed with the singing and how well the teachers were able to get about 40 preschoolers to line up and put on such an organized show!  The twins' class dressed as little lambs, and sweet little lambs they were!

Tree Decorating

It's been so long, so busy, and I have soooo many pictures and videos...let's see if I can get a couple good posts before we ring in 2015!  Starting with decorating the tree this year - the boys were very into it - trying to get their hands on as many ornaments as possible and overloading the lower branches with 3 or more at a time!  The process of course spanned over 2 days; we let them put a few on the first night after I got the lights up, then I took those down and finished the rest of the ornaments while they were sleeping.  The next morning I filled a tray with more ornaments for each boy to hang up.  They had no idea they were putting most of the same ones back on, except for their favorite choo choo train ornaments which we let them put in special spots way up high (or else they wouldn't stay on the tree).  I like this group of pictures - I think it captures the innocence of 2 and 3 year olds and how fun and magical this season is for them!

"Hey - that's MY branch!"

Nemo Train

Choo Choo Formation

Last Thursday we visited one of the boys' favorite indoor bouncy house playgrounds.  There aren't any rules (enforced at least) about going down the slides together, so I told them they should try coming down like a train.  It took a few tries to get it down, but after that they were on autopilot!  Owen was pretty set on keeping the train positions the same each time too - he was the engine of course, Oliver the coal car, and Spencer the little red caboose (which he loved because he was wearing a red shirt)!

Thanksgiving Day

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Grandbobby and Dee.  After a leisurely morning watching the parade on TV, we went downtown for a walk and to check out the holiday train display at the National Botanical Garden.  It was the first day the display was open to the public and we thought we might be facing some big crowds, but our mid-day timing seemed to be perfect as there were hardly any crowds at all.  The boys were in awe of the big bridges set high overhead and beautiful landscapes surrounding the trains.  There were many of their favorite character trains, including Thomas, Annie, Clarabel, Toby and James.  Oliver's favorite was the brightly colored dragon train.  While it was dry and cold outside, it was nice to be in the warm, jungle climate!  Afterward, we headed back home to have an early Thanksgiving dinner - the first for us as vegetarians.  Even though the Trader Joe's meatless turkey was intended to be the main course for Mommy and Daddy, it was so good that everyone had some and like it!  For the first time, all of the boys sat at the table with us without any highchairs or boosters.  Hard to believe how grown up they are now!