I love that Max’s teacher really appreciates him

Max has the best teacher this year. She is amazing. She knows his good traits and the things he needs to work on. The best part of this is that she nurtured both parts. She works extra hard with him and holds him accountable for writing. Then she turns around and recognizes his big heart and kind gestures with a note like this one below. 

Max was so proud of this note. He knows that she has given him 5 so far this year. She speaks Max and we are oh so lucky!

Dinner conversation with the kids

Max - “mommy, which would you give up for life peanut butter or coffee?”

Me- “neither”

max- “ You have to pick one”

Ellie- “I sure hope you pick peanut butter because I don’t want to see you without coffee.” (Said seriously and matter or factly)

They get me :)

Preserving art is such a challenge

This is Clair’s Christmas poster project for kindergarten. I’m proud of her work. 

When she proudly brought this home we tried hanging it from her door. It keeps falling down. I don’t want to throw it out and have no where to put it. So with my gift, here’s my attempt at preservation. 

I love all the millions of pieces of artwork that they produce. And preserving them always impossible or I will be in an episode of hoarders!

Nation snuggle day

Clair really loves snuggles. One day we were joking about how it would be great if there is a national day where all you did was snuggled. So I looked it up and found out that January 6 is actually officially national cuddles day. So we decided that would be our national snuggles day. This day has been anticipated and talked about ever since we discovered it’s existence back in December. As the day approached Clair was very excited. I will admit I was pretty excited to with the prospect of laying around in pajamas and snuggling all day. Clair is an amazing snuggle her. She is my snuggle buddy.

She came into my bed around midnight and said mommy it’s snuggle day I have to snuggle you. It started from there and went most of the day. She tried to get me up around eight and I said since it was snuggle day we stayed in bed all day. She proclaimed that she would need to place him today as well. I said “OK, why don’t you go into your room and play for an hour and then come back and get mommy and I’ll make breakfast.” And she did! That was a win-win solution for us all.

For most of the morning we lounged around we had a lazy breakfast and just relaxed. We had lots of snuggles.

Eventually I had to go to the weekly grocery shopping and I was able to convince clear to come with me for the first time in a while so we can continue to be together on national snuggle day. We went to Starbucks and got ourselves a little drink to celebrate national snuggles day.

Ellie also made chocolate chip cookies for her teacher, and Claire convinced her that we should use half of them to celebrate national snuggle day. So we did.

It was fun taking this random day and celebrating it in our family. Claire really knows how to celebrate something and make something normal into something special. She truly has an amazing gift for this.

Successful family New Year’s Eve party

This year we were alone for New Years. It wasn’t really by choice but we decided to make the most of it. 

I mandated a two hour nap time and it felt like a slow start after nap. But the kids were still super excited. 

We started with a family favorite meal - tacos. Everyone enjoyed it and the night started well. I even got help with family chores after. Then we started the games. 

The kids were in for laser tag. We had the most fun with that last year so we started. We lasted four games. Each had their drama.  We had 2 by 2 - boys vs girls. We called it and moved on. 

We moved on to some Explodinf Kittens, followed by a serious game of child’s banana grams! After that we headed to the basement for some Kinects! 

Kids then watched an episode of wild Kratz on the new system and soundbar. We rang in the new year with snacks, sparkling juice, and fancy glasses. 

The drama of the night was missing the ball dropping as I turned the channel at the wrong time on aunt Katie’s recommendation. Oops. Years for about 10 minutes while Clair tells me mommy broke my heart over and over. I pulled her back with some videos and snuggles. 

Everyone was in bed by 1 am and slept until 9 am - 10 or so. 

It was really a successful night!