Oh Christmas Car on Guitar

We've been settling in to a routine around here in the past week or so. After dropping Nora off at school Lincoln comes home, usually goes potty and then promptly requests to call Lady and Grumps to hear the clock go ding dong and tell them about his morning accomplishments. They've also begun touring the Charlie Brown decorations in the kitchen. The star by far though, is the dinging and donging or ding no dong that comes on the half hour. Before this morning's call though he wanted to play guitar. He started with Oh Christmas Car, moved on to the ABC's and then decided that it was time to call Lady & Grumps to sing happy birthday to them - or Marty, Kristin, Keaton & Bexley - but they weren't home. Gotta love his musical creativity in combining Christmas and his love of transportation! This afternoon was Nora's first sink or swim with the big kids and I was pretty much blown away by the effort she put in to keeping up with them. She was the slowest and very much the smallest kid in the class but she worked so hard and did so well...the teacher was even a bit surprised and confirmed that her class and this level is where she belongs despite being a bit young. And, as happy as I am for Nora that she did so well and worked so hard to prove herself...she's never going to be let off the hook by her teachers again because they've now seen the reality of what she's capable of. After lessons I told her that what she's doing is a little closer to what swim team practice is like and asked her if she's still interested in swim team...there was a long pause and an "I don't know". Luckily she has plenty of time to figure it out! Haha!

Jack Frost in Florida

This doesn't happen often, but our little cold snap left us with the rare sight of frost on the ground this morning. On the way to school Nora insisted she didn't need warm clothes but upon getting to the car regretted her decision. Sure the frosted tips of grass didn't stick around for long after the sun started shining but it was kind of fun to see what was a familiar sight for me. The chilly temps were also a welcome sign for another fire in the fireplace tonight after volunteering! Christmas prep is continuing around here with the boys being troopers on trips to stores here and there, lots of Amazoning and some DIY projects to boot. I think we're just about all decorated but you better believe that all the bins and boxes are still sitting out around the house preventing it from feeling totally put together. One of these days we'll do it all!

Just a Little Drowzy

I'll wait here while you watch that hilariousness a few times. After a day spent outside while Kyle worked on the shed and I worked inside on a couple of Christmas present related projects. Nora and I snuck out for a bit to run some errands and then we came home to have dinner. Nora went to bed before she even had a chance to eat and as you can see here, Otto was having similar struggles, only he eventually rallied enough to finish his dinner. Why do weekends pass so quickly???! Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Santa Brought Some Cold!

As was expected, the front blew through last night (apparently grounding our elf's North Pole travels and causing him to stay put). The gusty winds did a bit of a number on our Christmas balls in the trees but otherwise all it did was drop the temperatures. From the mid-80's we had all week, the 50's we had today felt pretty darn chilly, but made for lovely atmosphere for Santa to drive through the neighborhood. Lincoln would only go out snuggled in the stroller under a blanket and Nora INSISTED on wearing her parka, despite my attempts to convince her she didn't need to.

Tonight was the real deal though...temps dropped quick and we got to have a wonderful fire in the fireplace. This part of Florida winter is definitely my favorite - I think!

Ready for the Weekend!

Just another day of having my face, and arms, and stomach grabbed, pinched and clawed at. Not going to lie, by Friday afternoon and evening I'm pretty much over it and ready for a little break. It was nice to catch up with a couple of our neighbors tonight while the kiddos got to enjoy the warm temps and play outside before the fronts come through this weekend. Heading into this weekend we're hoping to make progress inside and out and maybe even have a fire.

Looky Here!

Pictures of these 3 together, happy and still are hard to come by, and sure Lincoln isn't wearing any pants, but hey, I'll gladly take this one! This afternoon we broke up nap time as we do many Tuesdays and Thursdays for Nora to go to swimming lessons. Next week we'll be on a slightly different and later schedule though as she bumps up to a different level & age group. We're going to test it out and see how she does. Christmas prep is heating up with our days consisting of lots of errands being run whenever we're out and about. Luckily the boys are troopers and Lincoln manages to find fun in just about any store trip.

He Came!

He came! Nora was up for school bright and early this morning ready to see if St. Nick had stopped and filled up all the shoes she put out. She was pleasantly surprised but as usual full of questions. After scoping out what everyone got she was of course late to school. While Nora was doing her thing at school, Lincoln was once again hard at work in the playroom.

He's become a professional foamy sticker and decided to expand from paper to chairs. He was so proud of his work that I didn't have the heart to cut him off, or interrupt for more than a second to snap a few pictures. It's fun to watch him coming into his own in times when he can sneak out from under his sister's wing.