Mena's Nativity

Mena's Sunday School class made these the last two Sundays of November.  The last Sunday was a daddy day so we had to talk to her dad about letting me take the girls to church and then bring them back to him.  Mena was worried Daddy would say no, but he said that was fine.  The girls are used to coming home with me after church so they were upset when I said they had to go back to their dad's.  They seemed to get over it pretty quickly when they saw their dad so I think it was all ok.  Mena wants to paint her angel white like some of the other kids did (she ran out of time) so we'll be doing that at home.

Christmas Tree

 

Thursday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Frye's to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Grandma Olson was there along with Peg, Jon, and Jake.  That evening Mom and I went Black Friday shopping so I could get the girls each a tablet for Christmas.  We spent the night and drove home on Friday.  We decorated our Christmas tree before I took the girls to their dad's for the rest of the holiday weekend.

Thanksgiving Feast

Rosemont Day Care had a Thanksgiving Feast that parents were invited to attend with our children.  Each of the girls had made a hat to look like the pilgrims.  Gene, Jessie, Holly, and I were there to eat with the girls.  It's getting easier to socialize with the two of them for my daughters' sake.

There were three in the bed...

Sunday night/Monday morning I had two little girls crawl into bed with me.  When my alarm went off, I had an arm under each of them.  I managed to get my arms out and shut off my alarm without waking them.  I took my shower and this is what they looked like when I came back to the bedroom.  Zonked out and spread out!  Such sweeties!

Mena Stories

While playing with her baby dolls over the weekend, I heard her singing:  "Hush little baby, don't you cry.  Mama's gonna buy you a shirt with Elsa."

Grandparents Day is this afternoon at kindergarten.  Last night at supper Mena asked me if Grandma and Papa had started driving yet.  I told her no, they wouldn't drive down until after lunch on Monday.  This morning while getting ready for school, she asked if they had started driving yet and I said no, not until after lunch.  Her response was to tell me that she didn't want them to be late.  She then reminded me that she had the apartment key clipped to her bag and she was going to leave it there until Grandma got there and she could take it off.  She is so excited for them to come to her school this afternoon!

Maggie's Friend Birthday Party

Emmery, Kylinn, Aurora, Haley, Mena, Holly, and Maggie are in the picture under the Happy Birthday sign.  Kaden was also at the party but didn't want to be in the picture.  The kids danced to "Let it Go" from the Frozen sound track.  Then we had an ice cube relay.  I remembered the candles (unlike at Mena's party) so we sang Happy Birthday and Maggie blew out her 4 candles.  It was a great Frozen party!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a picture of Maggie's and my Sunday School class with their turkey cookies.

What a crazy morning this turned out to be!  First of all, I've been kind of sick this week with a nasty cold that is just making everything in life more difficult.  I decided to sleep in through church and just pick the girls up in time for Sunday School.  Gene was willing to keep them a little longer than usual which I was thankful for.  I jumped in the car and drove over to pick up Mena and Maggie.  A few days earlier I had the remote start moved from my truck to my car so the car seats were in the truck.  Maggie opened the door and asked, "Mom, where's my car seat?"  Oh my gosh!  I couldn't take the kids any where so I took them back inside to Gene.  I drove to Target and bought two booster seats.  I then drove back to Gene's, got the girls, and drove to church.  I texted Cathy that I was going to be late so she was in my room reading the story about being thankful to my class.  I then took over to lead them in the project and in making these turkey cookies.  After class I told Cathy everything and she said she had two booster car seats that her daughter no longer used.  I took the car seats back to Target and got the free ones from Cathy.  Now I have seats in both vehicles and this won't happen again!!

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

I showed Mena what I bought for Maggie before her birthday.  Mena proceeded to tell Maggie, "I know what you're getting for your birthday!"  Thank goodness she didn't tell her what she was getting :)  Maggie was most excited about her new Elsa shirt.  She changed into her new clothes and we went out to eat at Valentino's.  The girls were excited that it was make your own pizza night!  I asked a server to take a picture of us since it was my daughter's birthday.  He proceeded to take 2 pictures of just Maggie and I and then asked, "Did you want your other daughter in the picture, too?"  Um, of course!  Seemed like a weird question but I just said, "yes" and he got this good one of all 3 of us.

First Report Card

Mena got her first report card and progress report for Kindergarten.  She got all 3s with a few 4s!  The progress report was good also.  The coordinator called me to discuss her IEP.  She's up for re-evaluation and she's currently performing on the low side of average.  She has "graduated" from special education and will receive her education full time in the classroom with the rest of her class.  We are so proud of how far Mena has come and how well she is doing!!

Olaf

I found a new guinea pig on Craig's List.  I picked him up Wednesday after my class was out.  I picked up the girls from daycare on Thursday and we discussed what to name him.  Maggie wanted to name him "Elsa."  I said that maybe we should pick a boy name rather than a girl name.  Mena suggested Hans and I asked if we wanted to name him after a character that makes bad choices.  We considered Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf.  I let the subject drop when the girls couldn't agree and later commented that he had a lot of white on him.  Both of the girls agreed that he should be called Olaf.

Daisy Girl Scouts

I am one of Mena's Daisy Girl Scout troop leaders.  Here is our troop working on a mural together.

Maggie's Family Birthday Party

Maggie is really into Frozen right now.  For her birthday she received a Frozen bag, a stuffed Olaf, an Elsa and Anna hat and glove set, a set of Frozen books, a Frozen board game, and a personal dvd player.  She picked out a Frozen birthday cake.  She was kind of nervous to blow out her candles, but she did it!

Aunt Beth snapped some good pictures of the kiddos!