Sunday, December 19, 2010

our angelic little lamb

Charlotte has participated in TWO Nativity plays this weekend. On Friday evening, her Kindergarten did one with all 80-100 of the 3-7 year olds. (Ambitious, huh?) Charlotte's class were the sheep and other animals. We thought she did really well, and she was VERY proud of herself. :)

Performing their first of 2 songs.

ALL of the Kindergarten children during the finale.
(Charlotte is on the lower mid-left of this photo.)

Charlotte and her best German buddy, Paula.


Singing "Hei und Stroh"
which as far as I can gather translates to "safe/warm and straw." I guess the animals would think a bed of straw a very good place for the infant Jesus to be placed? This is just the last minute of the song, I HAD to show you how Charlotte dances along when she isn't quite sure of the words. Awesome. :)

The Nativity at our church Christmas party was somewhat less successful. Charlotte (an angel) decided to have stage fright. Rob and I couldn't figure it out, but we think the difference was rehearsal time. At school they practiced all week, so Charlotte was prepared and knew what to do. At church, it was a much simpler production and the kids were just told to "act" their parts.
Now we know... Charlotte does not do improv.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

An ode to Rachel

Well, Rachel is feeling quite left out of our blog after having a glare on her face on my homemade for the holidays post, and we mustn't have that! So I decided to give you your very own post, Rachel. ;)

(A little bit of) Tom, Becky, Rob, Rachel, and Allyson in an old Anderson family photo.
We often mis-call Charlotte "Rachel" for some reason... partly because the letters are similar and partly because the people are similar we think. :)

Toby loved having private Yoga lessons from Aunt Rachel while we were in Utah.

Rachel with Toby, the Yogi Bear.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa Claus,

I was a good girl this year. And Toby thinks he was naughty [Toby yelling in the background "Nonny! Nonny!" in the style of Animal from the Muppets,] but he tries to be good. I would like a flashlight ["FLASHLIGHT TOO!"] and Toby does too.

I love you Santa. And I like your reindeer.

I want a pink flashlight and Toby wants a blue one.

CHA

Monday, December 13, 2010

Homemade for the holidays

I decided to be ambitious and do an "all-homemade-ornaments" tree this year. That way the kids can rearrange the ornaments all they want, and if stuff breaks I don't mind so much. We already had pine cones and gingerbread men we made last year. So we just did a couple more crafts to fill it out.

These are our family tree ornaments. I picked up these mini frames at Michael's when we were in the US and cut, or printed, photos of all of our family. Then I just attached some ribbon to hang them. The kiddos really love pointing out all of their "friends" and grandmas and grandpas. I love that we managed to get everyone, and Allen is the only one repeated twice... and Newel, Karolina, and Jack's photo is a drawing done by Karolina. (Sorry Rachel, there is a major glare on your face in this photo, but I promise you look great!)

These yarn ornaments I saw on Homemade Mamas and they were super easy. Charlotte helped me do them, but she didn't like the sticky glue. Sigh. We just tied on ribbons after popping the balloons and hung them on the tree. Cheap and cute, and kinda old-fashioned looking. I like it. ;)

Shhh, don't tell Toby!
This is the quilt I made him for Christmas this year. I turned the corner down so you could see the orange backside. I wanted it to be a little bit grown-up looking for the Little Man of the house. I think it turned out really cute with the quilting done with orange thread in diamonds.

One more secret photo!
This is the quilt I made for Charlotte this year. It's hard to see in the pic, but the quilting in the center is a square spiral that "twists" a bit.

The front has ladybugs and daisies, and the back is a blue/white checked gingham & white block, checkerboard pattern. I'm sure there will be many stuffed animal picnics happening on this one.

Charlotte enjoying our Pyramiden.
The heat from the candles makes a fan on top turn and the wise men and shepherds go around the mini-nativity scene in the center. No, I didn't make this!! I just loved the photo and wanted to share it. :)

Friday, December 03, 2010

Julie's travel tips

In airports and hotels, and at tourist destinations, we are constantly asked "How do you do it?" We are also greeted with comments like, "I'd die before traveling with 2 little kids." "I don't understand how they are still standing." and, my favorite, "Better you than me." And considering that we have been in 9 countries and on 17 airplanes in the past 2 years, I've decided to take a stab at writing down a few things that have worked for us. Here goes:


* Each kid gets their own backpack. In it they have their favorite stuffed animal for cuddling and comfort, snacks (healthy ones like fruit and crackers) and treats (unhealthy ones like lollipops and M&Ms,) a NEW book, a NEW sticker/coloring book, a small box of 4 crayons, a pair of headphones (for airplane movies,) and a few other toys (Toby usually gets cars, and Charlotte some little ponies.) They carry their own bags and they cannot open them until we say so.


* I carry a diaper bag with the diapers, wipes, sippy cups, snacks for grown-ups, and also a complete change of clothes for each kid. And sometimes also pajamas for each kid, cuz you never know.


* In airports we like to: ride the escalators, have the kids race from one spot to another (over and over again,) give the other passengers silly names (like Harriet and Tornado Man- nothing derogatory) watch airplanes, and discuss workers and what jobs we see them doing.


* On road trips we like to: make up stories (everybody can add in bits,) read books, look for things out the windows, and do the backpack thing. We don't have DVDs or handheld games in the car at all, though Santa may be changing that soon. ;)


* In hotels we like to: play ball (we bring a soft one with us,) have hot chocolate parties with the provided cups (bring some packets from home in your suitcase,) watch TV (we do rely on this pretty heavily in the evenings when we are exhausted,) jump on the bed, and let the kids look through photos on the camera.


*When waiting in lines we like to: give people funny names some more (I don't know why this is so amusing, but it works for us,) put the kids on our shoulders or backs to give them a break and a change of scenery (I'd be bored looking at people's knees for 30 minutes too,) have a snack, talk to strangers in line with you (I know, I'm a bad mom, but you can tell pretty quickly if people are toddler tolerant or not-- some really enjoy passing the time chatting with Charlotte or tossing a ball with Toby, and that gives us a mental break too.)


* At tourist sites we like to: play 'I Spy' and have the kids look for something (like 'pictures with horses' in an art museum, or 'blue flowers' in a garden,) celebrate when they are good at a "boring" place with an ice cream cone or fruit snack reward afterwards, and make sure to visit parks and playgrounds between destinations to burn off energy.


So those are a few things that we do. We are not completely meltdown-free on all of our adventures, but for the most part we have a good time together, and the kids enjoy it too. We hope they will have happy memories of all our family adventures together some day. :)




Waiting in the airport in Zadar, Croatia.

Nice playground in Bruges, Belgium.

There was a band playing in a pavilion nearby, so we got to listen to music too.

Bedtime stories in Grindelwald, Switzerland.