Ben's Gallery: Christmas Trees

Ben drew this picture on the way down to Grandpa and Grandma's house. It's a maze of Christmas trees. You have to find your way through the maze from the upper left to the small green tree. BUT watch out for the some of the trees they may trap you!! And then you can only escape by bonking them on the head!

The Trumpeter

Santa brought Ben a trumpet!

A Crowder Christmas

We are enjoying a Florida Christmas this year! We headed south on December 23rd and have been enjoying warm weather and sunshine!

Beautiful Tree

celebrating with Crowder eggnog

new golf bags! 

trumpeting the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa's present - a photo album

what could possibly be in this box?1? pom-poms, of course!

a favorite!

Santa came to FL!

Looking like a real golfer!

Fore!

loving the links!

Daddy, the caddy

Mommy, the other caddy

Staking claim to Julia's chair

laser tag! Gotcha!

Chillin'

Christmas Celebrations II

A few shots from Christmas at the Nadeau's!! 

Grandpa Rick with his strength trainers from Julia. Build those muscles!

hair styling'

What will you find in McElligot's Pool?

Christmas Celebrations I

We had a special visitor this past Saturday... Santa Claus made an early stop to our house to deliver some of the kids' gifts since we are not going to be home on Christmas Day. The kids were very surprised!

Patiently posing before opening the first present from Santa.

Julia's favorite present - a kitty cat from Benjamin named Pellie

Thanks Bro!

Andrew's new epee!

Thrilled with his Calico Critters!

As I'm writing this we have had a few Christmas celebrations so far and Benjamin has been delightful at each one. He is so excited about every single present! He, of course, looks forward to his own but is also thrilled to give them to others. It's adorable!

The Nutcracker

Our school schedule has been slowing down for the holidays. Well, maybe slowing down isn't the right word; we are spending less time on books and more time enjoying Christmas activities and spending time with friends.

Last week we had two outings that were focused on the Nutcracker ballet. On Monday, both kids and I attended a demonstration put on Festival Ballet. The dancers explained a little about the history of ballet, the story of the nutcracker, shared some costumes with us, and taught the kids a couple of dance routines from the ballet. Benjamin particularly enjoyed it and was one of the first to hop up when they asked for volunteers to come to the stage and participate in the dancing!

On Thursday, Julia and I attended the Festival Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker at the Providence Performing Arts Center. She loved trying to pick out the dancers that we had met on Monday.

Anna, Elizabeth, and Julia (with her dolphins)

After the play, she and I had a special lunch at the Duck and Bunny Snuggery (how appropriate a name for a lunch with Julia!) in Providence. It was nice to spend some quiet time together and get into the holiday spirit!

Christmas with Friends

A few pictures from various holidays activities over the past couple of weeks.

With Sarah and Elizabeth at Jordan's Christmas Village.

Adding what we're thankful for to the gratitude tree at co-op.

One of B's teachers reading to him at co-op.

Playing duck, duck, goose. It was Ben's idea to play and then they decided to play it in Spanish! So actually it's pato, pato,  ganso! I learn something new everyday!

Benj and Sarah building pyramids

Decked out for our holiday poetry teatime!

getting crafty!

time for hot chocolate

celebrating with friends! 

scones, cookies, hot chocolate and poetry - a recipe for success!