The Nutcracker Ballet

The Little Miss and I had girly time a few weekends ago and we went to ballet! It was our very first time seeing the Nutcracker and we both enjoyed it. The San Jose Center of Performing Arts has a children's matinee which is a shortened version of the original Nutcracker. It is only ONE hour instead of the usual 2.5 hr performance. It was great for the kids and we plan to go as a family next year. I personally think I could not sit through the entire 2.5 hour show so this version is perfect.

We have been reading the Nutcracker story since it was one of their Advent countdown books and in the book (if you don't know the story) there is a Mouse King...(which dies) and on the drive down Little Miss specifically said "I no like the Mouse King mama...He scary" So when the Nutcracker & Mouse King were out greeting all the kids in the lobby she was NOT very happy to see him! She ran straight to a corner out of the way for him to pass.

Near that corner she ran to was a long table with tons of Nutcrackers, snow globes and christmas decorations. I really wanted to buy one for her but $12 for a new nutcracker is just outta Mommy's price range especially since we got the exact same thing at RiteAid for $3.99! No joke, the were the same thing.

As we waited for doors to open for our seats we grabbed a little snack from the concession and they had the cutest bags of cookies that we both ate up, chocolate covered shortbread YUM! Overall the ballet was great and she did really well. She was VERY excited anytime Clara (the main character) would dance on her tip toes, she would say very loudly "she dancing on tippy toes mama! yook yook!" (yook=LOOK) It was the cutest thing and a very fun day spent with my Little Miss.

Can we Build it?...yes.we.can!

A few weeks back when Cousin B was visiting we got each of the kids their own Gingerbread house kit from Costco. The best kit in my opinion if you are not willing to bake and shape things yourself. Tons of frosting and candy and you not only get a house, you get a christmas tree and TWO gingerbread people for $9.99!

Daddy helped the Little Miss and she basically ate a ton of candy while Daddy did all the work

I helped the Little Man who did it all on his own

And Cousin B got help from his Daddy. The kids had fun sampling all the candies and making a mess with frosting. Clean up wasn't too bad and I'd say the gingerbread decorating was a success!

Look Grandma Ely!

The kids are really excited about our newly decorated Rudolph car. They were giggling and wanted to show Grandma Ely what it looked like. Tah-dah! Daddy thought it was cute but for some reason he refuses to drive the car now.... I wonder why that is?? We copied one of our Clarin cousins and purchased this lovely car costume from Party City. I'm not sure if the Rudolph mobile will see Christmas since Daddy will be ducking down when we get funny looks from other people driving by. I will admit to feeling goofy for driving with it because I crack up everytime I get in and out of the car...but it sure does make our chirstmas songs in the car sound 100 times better!

ETA (edited to add): The poor Rudolph car no longer exsists...Daddy removed the antlers over the weekend and now we just have a red nosed car without the ears. Bah Humbug! LOL

Build and Grow

Once a month Lowe's has a FREE childrens workshop where you can build a little project with your kids. Each child recieves a free apron and earns a patch for the completed project. This past month both kids got to build a wooden snowman that can serve as a picture frame or giftcard holder.

Little Man was a pro and knew what he needed to do since it was his second time attending. As for the Little Miss, it was her first time but when we turned over the hammer to her she went to town!! She would keep pounding and pounding with the hammer but probably hit the actualy nail only 1 or 2 times.

With a little guidance both kids finished their projects safely and enjoyed wearing the cool goggles and using the mini hammers they loan out.

They each earned their Snowman patch for that day and mommy will be sewing it on for them soon. Some kids who attend these workshops come with aprons FULL of patches. Some are even running out of space. I'm sure both Little Man and the Little Miss will be filling up their aprons because Daddy is so excited about these workshops that he has already signed them up for the next two!!

Thanksgibbin's Party at school

Just had to share these two pictures from Little Man's preschool party. It was Mommy's day to volunteer in the classroom but since Daddy had the day off he graciously went into class and helped out so mommy could sleep in. Mommy had stayed out way past bedtime to watch the movie "New Moon" at midnight with her friends....something she will probably never do again....she can wait to watch it at a decent hour next time...June 2010 is when the next movie "Eclipse" comes out :)

Well Daddy had fun helping out and getting to see Little Man's best buds in class. There was a party at the end of the day and Little Miss LOVED the cupcakes of course! We had made it just in time for the food and to see if Daddy did a good job helping in class, which he did.

In class you could choose to be a pilgrim or an indian and here are my festive guys in their hats. Mommy and Little Miss wanted to be Pochahontas but they didn't have costumes for that, so we decided not to wear hats.

Happy Turkey Day

Here is the 10.5 lb bird I brined and cook for my family of 4 on Thanksgiving day. I used a new recipe (by Alton Brown) and followed that thing to a T...it came out very juicy but I think I should have left the foil off that was over the breast, that part wasn't a pretty roasted brown color. Oh well, it was yummy and different from my usual Reynolds Turkey bag that we use every year.

We had lots of left overs and I boiled up the bones to make Jook, a hawaiian/chinese favorite that is basically turkey soup with rice and seasonings. The kids loved that more than the actual turkey. All the hardwork in preparing a nice meal for the family and both kids weren't impressed with turkey for lunch or dinner.

On Thanksgiving morning I had planned to start our annual tradition of setting up our christmas tree & decorations with the kids. So one of the big ideas we had was to have each kid have alittle themed ornament for themselves. Little Man got Legos and Little Miss had some Hello Kitty ornaments that were on super clearance last year. We took the legos we already had and created little ornaments by tying ribbon on them! (I saw it in a magazine) You can't beat FREE ornaments right? plus the kids enjoyed making them.

Hanging the ornaments on the tree is another story. As you can imagine both kids put all the ornaments in one spot on the tree, which drives mommy nuts, so after a little convincing they spread them out and made it pretty for mommy. I know I shouldn't do that but they enjoyed moving it around and picking new spots for their ornaments.
The big tree is actually mommys tree and the kids have their own small tree that they can decorate however they please. This year instead of picking a specific theme for our big tree I decided to let the kids help and have their toys/favorite things on their. So tah-dah....legos & hello kitty along with some other favorites that haven't been put up yet.


And this is what the tree looks like! If time & patience is on my side we may make a garland of some sort to put around the tree this year. We'll get crafty and use pretty paper limks or maybe some foam beads that the kids love to craft with.

Tomorrow is December 1st....It's begining to look alot like Christmas!

Extreme Home Makeover...sort of

Tah-Dah!...we just repainted the house, nothing extreme. I wish it was one of those Extreme Home Makeover's because I would love a craft room all to myself and a bigger master bathroom, new floors & carpet, kitchen counters...the list can go on and on but we need to hit the lottery first. Bummer.

So this was the street view BEFORE, a 10yr old peachy beige & white


and the front door that was BLUE

and after 2days & 28 gallons of Kelly Moore paint, here is the AFTER
Body: Vallita
Trim: Bone white
Rain Gutters/Roof Trim: Dark Oxford Brown
It looks darker in these photos. We also painted the front porch rails Oxford Brown on recommendation from the painter. It's different from the usual all white rails.

and my absolute favorite part...a BLACK front door! I've always wanted a black door. Sure beats our old Blue one. We have a pretty backdrop for our annual first day of school shots now. Love it!

After driving around and stalking local neighborhoods, we really liked the modern color scheme of a few homes in the area. Alot of homes are being repainted and there were a few homes that really stood out..like a wonderful Lime yellow and bright orange. Yikes. Well the night before we were going to paint we thought our colors may be a little too dark and we called our painter to tell him our concerns...but he reassured us that its a great color scheme and very similar to all the homes we liked. I stood outside staring at our swatches for hours. You just cannot tell how your home will look until its done so you need to really be sure it's what you want....And it sure was. Our home is now one of the darkest ones on the block but we love it. No more orangey beige & blue door.

Now we will be focusing on the front yard. We just called to get an estimate on cutting back the trees and I would like to remove that crooked thing called a bush up against the house (left of the garage door) because no amount of trimming or shaping by the Mister will save that thing. I think it's time for the professionals...sorry honey. I have also been banned from touching the yard or starting new projects in the "garden" due to my failed experiments in the past. But I hope to change that after the husband lifts my gardening ban.