Wordless Wednesday...

SNOW DAY!!!

Meet Charlie!

This is Charlie! There's a chance that some of you recognize Charlie, only know him with an alias! If you've ever heard of "The Elf on the Shelf", you know exactly what I'm talking about. For those that haven't, the jist of the story is that this is one of Santa's elves. Santa is SOOOOOO busy making toys for Xmas that he has lots of these little elf helpers out and about to keep an eye on naughty and nice behavior and each night after the kids are asleep, he zips off to the North Pole to give Santa their reports and get back in time to do it all over again the next day. The elves are in a different spot every day and can't be touched or they will lose their magic. Paxton really "got" the story and seems pretty impressed by the powers that Charlie possesses! Beckett? He like the book, but not sure he retained it all in that cute little head of his.

At any rate, each family names their own elves and they decided on Charlie--after Charlie Brown, of course! Thanks to Grandma for finding us Charlie =)

Beckett at swimming lessons...

not swimming. Can't get in the water? No problem. This kid can entertain himself. After dropping his Hot Wheel car onto the pool deck, after he was told he would (to be fair, he hung on to it a LOT longer than I thought he would. He likes to reenact the scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when Ron and Harry miss the train and borrow the flying car to catch up with it. It comes complete with dialouge, very entertaining). Then he discovered that the bleachers went up. And what 4 year old boy doesn't like to go up?

Swimming lessons!

Paxton did swimming lessons on campus this term--we've never done lessons at the public pool, but finally signed him up for ones INDOORS! We tried for Beckett as well, but his level filled up too fast =(

He's LOVED them and Saturday was his last one and we got to sit up in the observation deck and watch (and take pictures/videos). And luckily, they had the registration forms for the next term, so I think we've got a good chance of Paxton advancing a level and Beckett starting!

Fried Green Tomatoes

Last night we took Kurt's parents out for his Mom's B-day and as a thanks for ALL that they do for us. It's a fabulous place in historic downtown Galena, and if you're a "local" reader of my blog--you need to try it at least once!

I ordered the Alaskan King Crab Legs, and as you can see, they don't even fit on the plate!!! And they were DELISH! The guys got the prime rib special and Judy went with a pork selection with apples and potatoes--not much was left on any plate =)

We brought along very small gifts--just some framed photos of the kids, some from the Xmas card adventure and for Grandpa, a couple taken when the Vietnam moving wall was here this summer.

And so it begins....

Winter in Wisconsin, yay--or not. Today marked our first real snowfall of the season. We have had a flurry or two up to this point, but it's coming down for real now. All told, we have chances of ending up with about 5 inches by the time all is said and done. Drive carefully, folks!!

Yoga Master

A couple of times a week, the occupational and physical therapists at Paxton's school do yoga with the kids in each classroom. He is so cute when he does his poses for us!! The other night he was showing Arielle what he knows and I snapped away. She's not sure that everything he told her was entirely accurate, but I totally bought waterfall, tree, elephant, table and downward dog!!