Skip to main content

Little Bear Smiles

The week after a vacation is a bit painful. This week was no exception...we were all busy with work, school, random activities, and holiday joy. Only 17 more days until Christmas!

I'm happy to say that the Christmas shopping is 99% complete, hooray. The Christmas wrapping is 0% not complete, boo! Time to find a few hours and see how many of those gajillion gift bags in the basement can be used for this holiday.

We'll be baking our Christmas goodies next weekend, and also going to see The Nutcracker. After that, I think all we have left to do is enjoy the season and await the arrival of December 25.

Friday (Dec 6) was an exciting day for G...he learned all about St Nick at school, and the kids all received little treats in their shoes while they were there. I came home on Friday night and couldn't figure out why G's shoes were in front of the fireplace...now I get it! G even got a bonus visit from St Nick last night - he was over the moon when he woke up and realized that St Nick came again to visit him. I did let him know that he won't be back this year, but hopefully next year he'll pay another visit in 2020.

This week was Candy Cane Days at G's school. Kids can purchase candy canes for $0.25, and the money raised goes to Toys for Tots. Pretty awesome! G thought it was the best thing ever and bought candy canes almost every day. A few days he switched it up and bought pencils from the pencil machine at school (which does not support Toys for Tots, but he loves pencils, so...) My favorite moment was when he told me that he gave a candy cane to Julia (a classmate) because she didn't have any. Good job sharing, buddy!

G is a tough kid to raise with high emotions. I love moments like that, when I hear how sweet, compassionate, and giving he is. I have hope that we'll figure out how to help him wrangle his not-so-great emotions into something he can control.

G loves it when I make hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows and a candy cane...yummy!


We received grades for Trimester 1 for both of the kids. G's grades are as expected (high marks for organization, science, and math! social skills...not so high!) Ava received all A's with one A- in reading...nice job in middle school, kiddo! We're so proud of how hard both of these kids work.

Ava's looking forward to seeing Frozen 2 with some friends this afternoon, and I'm looking forward to a quick, quiet trip out of the house to finish up on the Christmas shopping. I'll get to 100% today for that piece, at least!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring Local Places

Last Sunday was the perfect day to explore an area that neither Arya nor I had been to before. We headed east to walk around the Vermillion Falls/River and Greenway area. The path was nicely paved, with lots of overhead shade from trees; there were so many families out on bikes and walking, and we had a nice view of the Vermillion River. Arya got some great pics, and I enjoyed spending time outdoors with my sweet girl. This weekend, G and I will be heading out to explore a creek area in a few towns just south of us. And I've already got an idea for another creek I want to walk by next month (it's a bit further away, and I'd rather put that aside until Arya is off at college) The tree leans to find the sun On the way home, we stopped at the DQ in another town (we have a love/hate relationship with the DQ in our town, so I wanted to avoid it.) The warm weather felt great, and we enjoyed some sweet treats while watching the world drive by. We're counting down the days unti...

What a Week

The weather has been unseasonably warm this fall, so we've been able to extend our outdoor projects just a bit.  This past week Scott's been working in the garden, cleaning everything out, and repairing the back wall of our garage.  Ava was such a good little helper, scooping up dirt, but still trying to keep her hands clean while doing it! I swear, a box is all she needs to make her happy. Princess Darla. Princess Darla has had enough.  I personally like how she and Ava have the same expressions in this picture. Apparently Spanky was bored - check out that yawn in the background! We went down to Grand Meadow this weekend, and as always, it was so fun to see Ava and Isabel play together.  They actually had several little conversations with each other - and they were so polite while doing so!  We even had them share a room last night...boy, that was a challenge.  I think they finally fell asleep around 10:00pm.  And of course, Ava wa...

Apples & Pumpkins 2026

Fall is such a fun and busy time for us. There's always something to look forward to with our annual fall fun activities! Last Saturday, we headed to Fireside Orchard, chatted with Darren and Tiff for a bit, and took home some goodies...apples, jellies, cider, and fudge. It was a perfect day to spend some time outside! On Tuesday night, we headed back to the Minnesota Zoo for the Jack O'Lantern Spectacular. This year's theme was trivia...and they changed up the layout and added some new activities. It's such a fun event, and we look forward to it each year! He was jumping in this pic, hence the awkward arm placement Waiting for our dinner to be made The wall of pumpkins Roblox Aliens MN Frost! "Where the Wild Things Are" Twilight Bob Ross Dolly Parton Big ol' spider! G was busy at school, Scott and I were busy at work, and Arya was busy at college and also trying to land a job this week. She had a 2nd interview this afternoon, so fingers crossed it went we...