Tahoe Gondola ride- Day 3

On our 3rd day in Tahoe, we bought a round-trip Gondola Ride.  There was not a lot of snow at Heavenly Resort- as you can see all the grass in the background.  The Gondola line was very long... but the 20-minute wait passed pretty quickly.  This was a 2nd day of snowboarding for Jenny & Jef and skiing for Alexia & Ryan.  We thought the kids would have fun experiencing a ride on the Gondola.  We also knew there was sledding & tubing at the top and we planned to do that.

John & Brielle each enjoyed a free, freshly-made doughnut while we waited :)

On our way up...

View from "The Deck", a scenic overlook stop on the Gondola route.

Tahoe ski lesson- Day 2

On Day 2 of our Tahoe trip, Brielle and John went skiing for the first time.  We signed them up for a day camp which included a morning snack, a one-hour lesson, lunch, indoor play time, outdoor snow play, and an afternoon snack.  We picked them up around 3:30.   They had a great day and were excited to tell us that they knew how to ski!  

My parents & I were able to watch most of the lesson.  The instructors told us it was okay, but asked us to keep a low profile and maybe "hide by a tree."  

While Brielle & John were skiing for the first time, so was Tim.  He did a full day adult ski lesson!

Tahoe trip- Day 1

Just before Christmas, we spent a fun week in South Lake Tahoe, California.  

On our 1st full day there, John, Brielle & I explored the town while Tim was on a trail run with Jenny, Jef, Alexia & Ryan.  They started their run in a State Park, followed a trail under the Gondola and ran along the scenic Tahoe Rim Trail.  

Down near our hotel, John & Brielle climbed on rocks, chased pigeons, and threw coins into the frozen fountain.

Checking out the ice skating rink:

Brielle's first "school lunch"

Yesterday, Brielle spent the morning in a Kindergarten class, and she had a great day!  They have a visit day for children who will be attending kindergarten in the coming school year.  There were about 6 other preschoolers with her in the kindergarten class for the morning, and then she went to preschool for the afternoon.  She brought home a folder full of art projects.  She said they sang songs, and that their "clean up" song is a different one than what she already knows.  Brielle also said that their "Pledge of Allegiance" and "Our Father" prayer are also different :).  Not sure about how those last 2 can be different from what she does in preschool, but I think they do some sign language with the "Our Father."

She ate her first lunch at school with the other kids.  When I asked her about lunch, she excitedly told me...

"Mom, we ate popcorn chicken for lunch!!  It was like little balls of chicken.  But there was NO popcorn inside it, just chicken.  But it is CALLED popcorn chicken... but there was not any pieces of popcorn in it."

Brielle's 1st Preschool Christmas Program

In mid- December, Brielle had her first Christmas program at school.  In the weeks leading up to it, she was very excited about it and kept telling us how she was going to be an angel.  Right after Thanksgiving they started learning & practicing all of their songs. Her class of 13 sang to parents, grandparents, siblings, other family members... and all the kindergarteners and 1st graders.  They sang at least 10 songs... it was so cute.  Brielle is the angel on the far left.  All of her preschool classmates did a great job singing :)

The angels: Brielle, Isabella, & Payton

Brielle

John's pink tie

John noticed his pink tie from Jenny & Jef's wedding (September 2010) hanging up high in my closet a couple weeks ago.  Though I'm referring to it as a "wedding" tie, he actually didn't wear it during the wedding... buttoning that very top button on his dress shirt PLUS the tie must not have been his idea of comfort at age 2... so he went for the more casual look :) 

So on this day, he had a fun time playing with his clip-on tie.  

He put it on his favorite pal, "Football Player"

 ... and then on his own t-shirt.

We didn't really discuss how it is supposed to go on a dress shirt... and this was a couple weeks ago.  

But then THIS morning we were getting ready for church, Brielle was picking out a dress to wear.  She likes to choose her own outfits, and especially to pick out dresses for church... whereas John usually wears a long sleeved t-shirt.  On church mornings, Brielle will often say, "John, don't you want to wear something more handsome?"  His usual reply... "No."  This morning, he wanted to wear his Superman t-shirt (which he has been wearing for the last couple days).  He agreed to not wear the velcro-attached cape to church, but he did plead to wear his pink tie clipped on to his Superman shirt.  So, we started explaining that it has to go on a shirt with buttons... but that didn't really hold up since he remembers (refer to photo above) that it can go on a shirt without buttons!  Tough to win that discussion with a 3 year old.   Well, somehow we created a diversion or changed the subject and he didn't wear his pink tie to church today.  :)

Painting at home

A fun indoor art project for Brielle & John... they each picked out a $1.00 wood craft at a local arts & craft store to be painted.  Brielle chose a horse and John chose an airplane.  We came home, got out the paint shirts, paint brushes, and paint and they went right to work.  They both did a great job, and their projects have been on display in their rooms for the last month :)

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Another Christmas season... another reason to do sugar cookie cutouts with John & Brielle :)

Making the dough

 Cutting them out

(John referred to the candy cane shape as a "J" the whole time) 

 Time for sprinkles

Tasting the sprinkles :)

Ready for the oven

 Finished product.... yum :)

Unpacking the Christmas boxes....

After we brought home our freshly cut Christmas tree, it was time to get out the boxes of Christmas items & decorations.   These sure are fun things to do with kids in the house :)

One of the highlights for John & Brielle were the dozen Christmas books that are packed away in those boxes.  They would get excited and say "I remember this one! I remember this one too!"  They couldn't wait to open the books up and look at all the pictures inside.  Bedtime stories were fun this last month too, as they were always very excited to choose a few special Christmas books for us to read :)

 After Tim & I got the lights on the tree, John & Brielle were ready to help with the ornaments.  Again, it was fun to see them remember some ornaments from last year.    They learned how heavy ornaments need stronger branches... and how to spread ornaments out in the tree.  I still did a little rearranging, of course, but not as much as I expected :).  We also talked about being careful with the ornaments.  Even though we have VERY few glass or breakable ornaments on our tree, if one dropped, they were quick to tell us "It didn't break!"  And no ornaments did break :)

They look deep in thought here... planning their next move :)

A final exciting project for the day... setting up their Little People Nativity Scene. 

Christmas Prep 2011

Time to play catch up...I had to purchase more storage space for all the photos on this blog!  

So here we go...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving:  After mass at Grandma & Grandpa B's church, there were fun activities for the kids including arts & crafts, Christmas cookie decorating, a Santa visit, doughnuts, and Christmas music (provided by Grandma Berning on the piano).

 The 3-year-old cousins: John, Lincoln & Karley.

Then we all set out to cut down our Christmas trees at a nearby tree farm.