Nana's Birthday and Country Store

 We celebrated Nana's birthday at the Bavarian on the Country Store Night.  Everyone gets tickets, if your number is called you get to pick a mysterious brown paper bag.  We had lots of winners at our table.  Ryan won some containers, Kelsey won tomato sauce, Kaitlyn won a can of sauce and David won a container. . . I was the biggest winner - 4 pounds of chicken breasts!  Crazy fun!

 We ended the night with Paul teaching the kids how to gamble with scratch off cards.  David was beside himself after he used his dollar and won nothing.  He burst into tears crying "I want my dollar back!"  Gambling lesson is done.

A Play Date for Ryan

 Ryan was very excited to have his friend Luke over for a play date this week.  They put some puzzles together, played air hockey and colored pictures.  Then we had some hot chocolate with graham crackers and LOTS of marshmallows.

On the Court at the BJC

 David got to go out onto the court at the Lady Lion's basketball game.  He participated in a game with a group of kids and the Nittany Lion.  The Nittany Lion (dressed as Santa Claus) took all of their shoes and but them in the center of the court.  The kids had to run to the center, find their shoes, put them on and then make a basket.

 David (red sweatpants) definitely had the speed, but not the shoe tying experience to win this game.

Gingerbread Houses

 The boys worked very hard to build their gingerbread houses this year.  I love this activity.  We tell the boys they have to go upstairs for quiet time and then get out all the candy and spread it out in the dining room.  When they come downstairs it's a great surprise.  (I love the quiet time part too.)

 Ryan is definitely the wild child.  He enjoyed eating the candy  as much as decorating with it.  He also enjoyed decorating his face.

 David took the decorating very seriously and was hard at work to create some patterns on his gingerbread house.  He tried to use as much candy as possible.

The houses were a great decoration for a week.  We went out to celebrate Nana's birthday on Friday night and came home to find them eaten.   We blamed Twix, but it could have been a bad elf.  

Preschool Christmas Program

Ryan did a great job of standing all the way through his preschool Christmas Program.  The church was packed and it was much warmer than normal for December, so the church was especially hot.  Ryan's cheeks were bright red and at one point he closed his eyes and started swaying.  It's didn't look good.  His teacher said they had their eyes on him in case he "went down".  :-)  Luckily he stayed up, just very quiet.  Of course he sang the whole way home.  He knew all the songs, just a little stage fright.  :-)

December Sleepover with cousins

We had the girls over for a sleepover in December.  We started the night with a trip to Rec Hall to see the Lady Lions play volleyball in the NCAA tournament.  We were lucky and got to see them win.  We stopped by the Lion Shrine on our way into the game.  

 Everyone was up bright and early on Sunday morning.  We got to work on a craft and decorated a wreath with stickers.  Kelsey decided to decorate her face.

 Kaitlyn and Ryan were the proudest of their accomplishments and the only ones who wanted their pictures taken in front of their finished products.  Very fun and very active sleepover with these four cousins!

Thursday Mornings with Ryan

 Thursday mornings with Ryan have been busy.  He started taking a gymnastics class and is really loving it.  He's been doing a great job of listening to his teachers and following their instructions.

 I think his favorite part of the class is having his friend David there.  He loves David.  They are in the same preschool class as well.  Ryan talks about his "friend David" all the time.  He likes having a "friend David" and a brother David.

 After gymnastics we head over to the science museum for story time and the hands on learning experience.  Ryan loves crafts and so far the kids activities have all involved constructing something or painting.  This week Ryan made leaf stamps.