the final push towards Christmas break

Today is the end of a busy week and a busy first part of December.  I'm ready to be able to just sit around the house and not have to go to a sport practice, game, or boy scouts.  Here's a run down on the first part of December....

*basketball-after Cale's practice tonight (the Friday to start break), we will be off until Jan. 3rd.  They continue to improve and I'm pretty sure that Cale is carrying his team in scoring.  I haven't been to one of his games yet due to work, but I will be able to make most of the rest.  I see improvement with Marcus, too, from last year.  Another parent even said they thought he was getting better-which is really funny to me, because I can't tell if any of the other kids have improved, although there is the general improvement that being another year older brings.  Marcus had a double header last night.  Two games in a row on a school night-nice.  He was exhausted this morning, but managed to pull himself together for one more day of school.

*boy scouts-their Christmas party was on Wednesday.  Calling it organized chaos is charitable, to say the least.  This leader hung back and set up for one game.  I only have 2 kids in my group, so I only claimed a very small portion of the chaos.  They played a relay race game involving putting on oversized clothes (thank you to Andy for the loaners), they played some jumping game, did a craft and got awards.  The kids had fun and I'm pretty sure they just had cupcakes for dinner that night.

*preschool-their program was on Thursday night.  So, after watching Marcus's first BB game, I took Cale (along for the promise of dessert after the program), Ewan, Liam and Kella to church.  Liam DID NOT want to go to class and threw a tantrum of epic proportions.  I finally had to go get him to sit with me during the program.  He calmed down in time to go up on stage to sing with his class, which is nice because singing time is his favorite time at preschool.  There are a couple pictures of the kids on stage.  My camera is not awesome in low light, so you kind of have to look hard for the kids.

There's Ewan in the green.  He has on antlers, a red nose and a fluffy tail.  The look on his face when he walked into the auditorium was like, "I am slightly embarrassed to be dressed like this."

Ewan, again

Liam is the second one over in this picture.  It's hard to tell, but he did not want to wear his nice shirt, so he is sporting a blue tshirt with a yellow dragon on it that says "St. George Dragons".  He is also wearing an elf hat.  He did all the songs with the motions great.

Then, they got to meet Santa.  Cale asked who it was, really.  I said it was a Santa that reports back to the big guy.  Cale wasn't sold on that answer, so I told him to ask Santa.  He never did.  Marcus is starting to ask some questions, too.  But, so far, everyone is still a believer.

Liam had no problem climbing into Santa's lap

then Kella got a turn

and Cale

and here is Kella's new game-taking toys out of the bucket.  She loves it and we love that she is entertained.

I just need to get our Christmas cards out and finish some baking.  Then, Santa will be finishing up shopping for the little ones.  Busy, but fun times!