carousel

Before visiting Santa, we took a whirl on the Dulles carousel. It is beautiful and the boys love it.

santa is coming to town

Today we went to visit Santa at Dulles Town Center. The boys were so excited and had a very nice chat with Santa. They both asked for new train sets. Santa said he should be able to make that happen. Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho!Do you see how Jamie is holding onto Santa's finger? He was also touching Santa's fluffy coat. He liked the soft fur.

zoolights

Last night Granny Tina and I took Cameron to "Zoolights" at the National Zoo in DC. It is a wonderful evening event where they decorate the zoo with lots of light displays and open some of the animal houses so you can see the animals at night. We saw lots of the small mammals inside, include a sloth and an armadillo which Cameron loved! We also saw some of the big apes getting settled in for the night.

We went to the event with Ruby, Dave and Jean. Cameron was so excited to be out with Ruby at the zoo at night. The photos below are kind of funny. For some reason they had a dancing panda bear in a snow globe. The kids could dance with Panda and give him a high five. After a while Cameron said "that panda's wearing shoes!"... "no, way" I said, "yes!" said Cameron, "and pandas don't wear shoes mummy". I guess he figured it all out.

Here is Cameron giving the "panda" a high five.And here is Ruby wondering what is going on with a panda in a snow globe.Next was Granny and Cameron checking out the Komodo Dragon light display.

And this blue tree was just beautiful. Some of the trees were flashing on and off in time to Christmas music.Cameron and Ruby loved the big blue triceratops.And Ruby loved climbing all over the frog.At the end of the evening we all hopped into the minivan for the trip home. Cameron and Ruby were tired but had a great night at the zoo.

christmas moment

The boys had their school Christmas concert today. We all had a moment as we watched them sing their songs and try so hard to remember the words even though they were dealing with a little stage-fright.
Jamie's class was second on stage. He was great and did all the hand actions as well as singing Go Tell It On The Mountain. I thought he would be nervous with so many people watching but he got into the whole performance and seemed to enjoy himself.Cameron's class performed Hark the Herald Angels Sing and he looked very sweet on stage with his little friends and with his tinsel crown. His friend Chase is standing in front of him in the photo below and Chase was belting out the song - he told me the day before that he knew all the words!

christmas tree

We went down to see the National Christmas tree this evening. It is beautiful and is surrounded by miniature trains which the boys love.

Here you can see some the trains and the little villages they have set up.

And here are my boys with big smiles!

And here is the lovely tree. Cameron was amazed by such a big Christmas tree.
Then we came back to Reston for dinner and took a few photos in front of the Reston tree.
We also brought home our own tree today. Not quite as large as the National Christmas tree but it is very grand and when Granny Tina arrives tomorrow we will decorate it together.

One quick mum question - why do boys always have to chew on their winter coats?

letter S and the number 10

This week's art corner is brought to you by the letter S and the number 10.

Cameron's teachers have some great art projects - here is a snowman snowglobe with his name in glitter writing.
And for Jamie we have a dog with 10 spots.
The number 10.
And this is a lovely glittery christmas tree.Yesterday was another cold afternoon. The weather has been a bit wet and cold here. So we decided to do some cooking together. First we made cookies, taking turns to add raisins and stir them in, then we made pizza - what a great dinner!
Cameron and Jamie are very enthusiastic cooks so I hope this interest continues and soon they'll be making dinner for me!

candy canes

How happy can a little boy be?

hot goods - hot wheels

Yesterday, when Cameron was sitting on the sofa after school, he told me he brought home something from school. "It's for you, me and Jamie to play with," he said excitedly. "What did you bring?" I asked. Then out of his cargo trousers pocket came a small matchbox car. It was from school - Cameron had taken one of the cars without asking. Although it was sweet that he wanted to bring home something for us all to play with together I knew I needed to talk to him about taking things that didn't belong to him without asking. So we had a chat. He said he understood and this morning I made him take back the car and say sorry to his teachers. They were very sweet about it. So was the lesson learned by my 4 year old? Guess what Cameron brought home from school today?I will be looking very apologetic at school tomorrow as we do the same apology to his teachers.

art corner

I think I might have missed a couple of weeks of artwork but here are some of the latest masterpieces from school.

For Christmas we have a lovely Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. The antlers are Cameron's hand prints and the head is his footprint - what a fun idea.
He's been working on the letter G at school. G is for Granny - she'll be here in a week. G is also for George - Grant's brother, nephew, dad and of course the monkey Curious George.
Jamie has been working on his numbers. As I picked him up his friend Clare was picking the cheerios off her picture and eating them - eewwww - with glue too! Kids are so sweet.Jamie loves to do colouring.

pretend play

There's a cafe that we've found recently that has a great play area with an indoor slide and dress up clothes. Plus, they do art on a Monday - so today we went over there and Cameron and Jamie both did some sponge painting and dressing up. The part that cracks me up about Jamie is that he puts on princess shoes to go with his fireman coat and hat - and totters around in heels - he's so funny!Cameron was a police officer today and kept racing after drivers who were speeding. He wanted to stop them and give them tickets.
Many of my friends at home will be pleased to know that Cameron wants to be a nurse. He doesn't want to be the doctor he knows he wants to be a nurse. Last time we visited the doctor and the nurse gave him a vaccination it didn't put him off this future career. Brave boy!