Randomness!

Here's a few random pics from over the past month or so.  Total randomness...enjoy!!!!

Charlotte's friend Lanie invited her over for a fancy Tea Party.  Char even asked me to curl her hair and put make up on her for the event!  

 Lanie was an awesome host!

Charlotte helping daddy make my favorite cake for my birthday

 Charlotte and her friend, Kailee, at school.  Adorable?  Yes I think so!

 Daddy reading Green Eggs and Ham before bed

Char playing dress up with Aunt Emily at Grandma Mary and Grandpa's House 

 Nate being silly

 Cousins!!!  Yeah, getting three of them to smile and stand still, not so much!!

 Nate and Grandma Judy's house!  He loves those noses!!!!

Charlotte wanted a special dinner...I am not a chef, but I made hot dog butterflies and dragonflies with crescent rolls...

Little Athletes

The kids just started a new session of sports a few weeks ago.  Charlotte has soccer and Nate has T-ball.  So, here are a few pictures of our little athletes!!!

A Very "Charlotte" Post

Yes, I know...I am a blog slacker, in every sense of the word.  The days just seem to fly by and, to be honest, my camera hasn't seen the light of day for a while.  This dreary weather is so uninspiring and so I just tend to not bring my camera places.  This year, just like last year, I am in charge of Charlotte's classroom memory book...I am the sucker that got stuck with it again. But, luckily for me...one of Charlotte's teachers is a big camera nerd like me.  She takes tons and tons of pics...so it sort of makes my job easy this year.  Today, she gave me a huge USB drive filled with thousands (literally) of pictures from this year so far.  So, I got a ton of pics of Charlotte that I had not seen before.  So, without further ado.....here are a TON of pics of Charlotte from her teacher!  (Sorry Nate...this post is a little one sided!)

Charlotte Painting

 Charlotte decorating the photo mat that was part of her Christmas gift to us

 Swinging in the fall

 Painting again

 "Skating" on paper plates

 Charlotte brought Fairy Bear to school for their teddy bear picnic.  She loves Fairy Bear because she made it at Build a Bear with Liz and Mike when we were at Navy Pier!

 This was the picture that was in our Christmas Photo frame

Learning to estimate and put things in numerical order

 The Annual Fun Run

 Silly!

 Using the 3D Magnetic "blocks" 

 Eating their homemade Gingerbread Cake after they found him.  As per the book, he escaped their classroom and led them on a hunt through the school.  He left taunting notes saying "you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"  He was finally located under the Headmaster's desk!  

 Learning about money

 During a visit from local farmers, learning to make rope

 Learning to peel apples

 Working hard!

 That's one long apple peel!

 Learning to graph using apples...how many of each color do they have, which color has the most, least, etc.

 Cutting up their apples to make applesauce

Swim Baby

Here's Charlotte before her swim lesson fooling around.  She's been trying to balance things on her head lately...yeah, I don't know either.  

Charlotte swimming 4.5 years old.....

Charlotte swimming....about 8 months

Charlotte Swimming

Starting Them Early....

You're never to young to learn to start appreciating wine....just kidding!!  We bought the kids some sparkling grape juice for New Year's Eve...but we ever got around to using it.  After the we went to the zoo on NYE, the kids went to bed early (I'll post some pics from the zoo in a different post) and we never got to toast.  So, last night, we got out the (plastic) wine glasses and let them have a special treat with dinner.  They were like, "MOM!!!  We DON'T want WINE!!!"  We explained that mommy and daddy would go to jail for that and we have no desire to see any of our state's fine correctional institutions any time soon...  After some initial hesitation, they thought it was rather tasty...and it paired well with hot dogs.  Here are some iPhone pics of the kids enjoying their fancy drink.

Nate likes the bouquet!

Like mother, like daughter

Daddy bought Charlotte this little number the other day.  See what happens when you send Daddy to the sports store for a Christmas present for someone...he comes home with a few extra items.  BUT...she wore this all day on Saturday and then on Sunday....they announced the end to the NHL strike.  Coincidence??  I think not.  

Sassy Blackhawk fan!

Not to be outdone...a little poser himself.  Also, Daddy was smart and decided straws would work better for their sparkling juice.

Silly!!!

Yum!

The nugget

Charlotte and the Nugget watching the snowfall.  It only lasted a bit, but they were hopeful for enough to make a snowman. I don't know...this might be the second year in a row of no snow for us!