Madeline's Family Gathering

Every Friday at Campus School, a class presents a skit about one of the life skills they stress during the school year.  Each class in the school gets a turn to perform once.  Madeline's class presented the skill of "Enthusiasm!"

It was really fun to watch them!  There were 3 kids who pretended to be elves, VERY enthusiastic elves!  It was hilarious!  These elves were trying to convince one student that enthusiasm has a wonderfully positive effect on people and yourself!

The video is at the bottom of this post!

As you can see, they were hamming it up for sure!  

They did a great job - it sure helps that Ms. Osias has a bachelor's degree in acting from NYU!  She definitely exemplifies enthusiasm each and every day and helps them learn how to perform!!

  

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas already!!!  

We spent Christmas with my side of the family in St. Louis the weekend before Christmas.  My mom just finished her physical therapy in Florida and was feeling so much better, they decided to come home the weekend we were there!  

Susanna getting one of Non's famous back scratches!

Mimi and Pop got a new dog!  She is adorable!  They named her Baby Girl!

Brad, Tiff and Sabrina...

Eli and Aunt Stephie...

Sus and Uncle Chris...

Morgen and Jake - only 6 more months until they get married!!

Mimi and Pop with all the grandkids!  They haven't seen each other in quite a while… everyone is so happy that Mimi has recovered so well from her fall!

Christmas Eve at our house...

Tradition of lighting the Advent Candle on Christmas Eve.

Madeline's gifts from Santa - white board, rainbow loom and Hermoine's wand!

Eli's gifts from Santa - remote control helicopter, walkie talkies, and a penguin glow light pillow pet!

Susanna's gifts from Santa - puzzles, "big girl" sippy cups, and a potty for her baby doll!

Tim's favorite gift - from the kids, a backscratcher!

I love my new slippers!!!  I wear them until they fall apart!

Madeline made Susanna a doll swing for Christmas out of yarn and a pair of underwear!

Eli making his volcano!

On to the Flacks for Christmas afternoon!

Trying out the new helicopter!

Parker and some new Wii games...

Granny!

Lauren Ashley has become a big Mississippi State fan!

The whole gang!

cuddles!

and more cuddles!

and a little tackling!

Merry Christmas!

Eli's Christmas Program

Every year, the Idlewild Kindergarten and Junior Kindergarten have a singing program!  They dress up in these cute choir robes and do such a great job!  Little Angel voices!

a little nervous at first

We were so proud of him for singing in front of such a big group!

Now, they are ready to disrobe!

Eli and his good friend, Payton!

 

His good friend Inhoo!

Merry Christmas, Mrs. Ward!!!

The Nutcracker

One of our family's favorite Christmas traditions is seeing The Nutcracker at The Orpheum! We love the ballet and our violin teacher plays in the orchestra - so we have a good time listening and watching! Ballet Memphis makes huge efforts so that all families can enjoy their shows. They offer $5 seats!!! So, we do that every year and end up with pretty good seats every time!  

This year, Eli went with his Kindergarten class!

We had our family tickets also, but I didn't think Eli would want to go again just 3 days later!  The year in between visits helps to build up the anticipation and excitement to see the show!!  So, we had a girls day with Lindsey and Mrs. Amy!

 

It was a great show, and the dancers came out at the end to greet everyone!

Fun tradition!

Ballet Parent Observation Class

We got to see one of Madeline's ballet classes!  At the end of the fall semester, Miss Rachel invites the parents to watch all the new skills the dancers have learned!

More than skill improvement - it brings me so much joy to watch her having so much fun!