wow

So much going on in this picture – from the flashlight headband, to the cartoon underwear, to the giant bruise on his leg. Just had to share.

Inner tubing

Sarah and I took the kids plus her exchange student, Deanna, to Snoqualmie to go inner tubing for the day. Kenzie and the older boys were independent most of the time. I saw her off the cliff once, and the rest of the time she was gone with the boys. Mason needed a little assistance getting back up the hill so he stuck close.

When we were done we swung by the falls for another photo opp. We later realized we should have gotten a taller passer-by to take our picture as you can’t actually see any of the falls behind us. You can, however, see that it was misty and our hair was a mess…clearly because of the falls.

Christmas Day

The Bolam family Christmas was in mid-December. The Averill family Christmas was the day after Christmas. So, this has been a long season. Christmas Day itself was mellow. We had our traditional Eggs Benedict breakfast with Grammy and Grampy. Kenzie, of course, puked because it’s too rich for her. Then we opened presents until we couldn’t do it anymore.

Cozy

Watching Frosty the Snowman.

Favorite gift

Was it the Wii game? Or the promise of a trip to Maui in May? Nope…the first bra.

She offered to let me take a picture for the blog if I let her spend the night at Grammy and Grampy’s, so here goes.

Grammy and Grampy versus Mario

Kids got new Wii games for Christmas. Grammy and Grampy both played, not sure either enjoyed it much, until Grammy started beating Grampy.

Dear Santa

Every year I think “this is the last year that MacKenzie will give up on the idea of Santa,” yet I am always surprised. I think this year she spent less time questioning it than last. I think she really wants to believe and so she isn’t pushing the issue too much. She plays it up every chance she gets, making sure that Mason is totally shut down if he starts to question. Here is the note that they co-authored on Christmas Eve. I especially like the “and my cat has been very good” part.

Kenzie explains what she saw on Christmas morning. Drama added for effect. They were a little hyped up for Christmas! (Thanks Mason for calling me out for not filling Cindy’s stocking.)

Crank caroling

I think we started a new tradition this year. We went to Liz and Casey’s for Christmas Eve dinner and then gathered around the piano and “crank caroled” to everyone who was on our speed dial. Our signature song was Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer, but we mixed it up a bit here and there.

Christmas pageant

Cindy was the author and director of the 2010 Christmas pageant at our church. She worked hard at it and it was very cute. Here is the last clip (MacKenzie is the cheerleader in the chair and Mason is the karate kid. The premise was that they were all toys under the Christmas tree that came to life to read the revised “Twas the Night before Christmas” poem.)

Mason grooves

Mason got really mad at me today when we were looking back at old pictures and he himself, at 2 years old, dressed in his sister’s ballerina costume. Maybe some day he won’t love this video either.

Ugly Christmas Sweater family

The faux hawk

 

Lauren gave Mason a new look.

growing

I took Mason in to work with me today after church. He was so tired he wedged himself behind my desk. It was a tight squeeze. When he woke up he said, “Mom, I grew during my nap and now I can’t get out.”

Student of the Week

Kenzie was the Clark Shark the week that it snowed. She was very worried that they weren’t going to be able to take her picture for the wall. Luckily, they did!

the snowman and the sun, by Mason

Secret of the Spa

Kenzie gave a book report on the Nancy Drew book “Secret of the Spa.” She got a “4” for her oral presentation, that we have heard at least that many times now. Depending on the audience, she can get very animated. She loves a good audience.

Cindy pointed out the "note to self" in her intro. She asks the question, "Ok, so who here has ever read a Nancy Drew book?" and then tells herself "watch everybody for 5 seconds."And then I also enjoyed the picture at the end when she is finished, she's very happy.

girls movie night

Kenzie invited Aisha and Maggie over to watch the Karate Kid. They started by making pizza from dough. After suggesting hand washing, I stayed out of the process, even when I heard Kenzie suggest “everybody take two giant handfuls of flour,” most of which ended up everywhere.
Aisha and Maggie are “best friends,” a term that I have come to loathe. After hearing them profess it three times in front of Kenzie I offered some sage advice…suggesting it might be better to open yourself up to many great friends instead of just one, that way you learn about more people and get introduced to more things. They both looked at me cross-eyed, but I’d like to believe I planted a seed. At least they didn’t boast their best-friendedness in front of me again.
We all had a fun night. They made ice cream sundaes and went home at 9:30, rather reluctantly. I thought it would be fun to have one of them over at a time for a slumber party, but then worried about the girl drama that might create. I’m not sure I’m ready for middle school again. But somehow I think Kenzie is better prepared than I. She's unphased by their comments and was just happy to have them over.

rock, paper, not fair

Kenzie had a homework assignment where she had to play 25 games of Rock, Paper, Scissors, track the results and answer the question, “was it fair?” My picture isn’t great, but here’s what she said:

No, this is not a fair way because my brother kept memorizing the routines I was doing. Even though I mixed them up. I could not have ANY luck. Except for a little beam of light that only lasted for 5 times and never came again. I gave up at twenty.

I’m so sad!!

Just kidding!

Conferences

Before conferences I always ask the kids some standard questions: (1) is there anything that you feel would help you learn better at school and (2) anything you’d rather me hear from you before your teacher tells me? Kenzie’s answer to number one was, “no, don’t change a thing” and Mason said, “well, my teacher does talk a lot.” The second question is a bit of a joke because in first grade Kenzie’s teacher told us about an “incident” and I’ve never let her live it down since I didn’t hear it from her. Mason didn’t get it. I said, “you know, any trips to the principal’s office I should be aware of? any fights on the playground? any arrests?” He looked at me, squinted his eyes, and shook his head in dismissal of me. Kenzie said, “Mom, when I’m in fourth grade I get to go to the conferences with you.” Dang, that’s only one year away and I’m going to lose a huge edge that comes with mystery.

Both kids are doing great in school. We started with Mason’s teacher, Ms. Danklefson. It was apparent that he is one of her favorites. Maybe she makes every parent feel this way. If so, we totally fell for it. But she had nothing but positives to say about him. Said he’s a real joy for her. He’s a leader when he needs to be but also a good group member. He’s focused and loves to learn. He’s happy and is a good influence in the classroom. She said that academically he’s in the upper middle quadrant. She thanked us for making the decision to put him in full-day kindergarten so she could have him in her class.

Kenzie’s teacher, Ms. Grage, also had great things to say. Kenzie always has a smile on her face, is always engaged in what they’re doing, and is an avid reader and writer. She’s placing midway through sixth grade on her reading, not a surprise as she loves it so much. Her opportunity is building her confidence in math. She got a low score on one of her open responses early in the year and seems to not be as interested in math because she thinks she’s not good at it, when in reality she’s doing fine. I would love to figure out how to get her to love math.

We gave them each a big hug and let them stay up a little later than usual as a reward for all the good things we heard.

Change

Lauren has given Kenzie a gift by teaching her to love to sing. It's something that neither Cindy nor I could do! Cindy gave her the love of Carrie Underwood. They came together today in a duet by Lauren and Kenzie singing, "Change."

Mason sat beside me the whole time singing right along.

I'm trying to get Kenzie to sing a duet with him, but somehow it's just not as special as singing with Lauren. Even if it's a Carrie Underwood song.

Hold still and smile. Please.

Screaming tree

First thing this morning Kenzie said, “Mom, I just know there is that perfect tree out there for us. You know, like it’s waiting for us, like it has our name on it.” So, we thought it would be appropriate to scream when we found it. Here it is!

We like going to Christmas Creek tree farm. Santa is very patient and allows us to take our own pictures and flash gang signs. Ho, ho, ho…

Squash Lasagna

We had a very nice, low key Thanksgiving. But, it wasn’t our best communicated, and certainly not the most traditional.

I’ve been working a ton of hours. A couple of months ago I took on a new job and just haven’t quite gotten my arms around it yet, so I’m not home as much as I’d like to be. Couple the long hours with the fact that this was the first year in many that I’m not eating meat meant I wasn’t exactly in the mood for cooking the whole bird and all its rituals. (I’m not sure my dad remembered this when he accepted my Thanksgiving invitation.) However, in the spirit of the season, I thought it would be nice if everyone else enjoyed the tradition.

Time kept passing, and I just couldn’t get my act together to plan the meal. I have several friends who have had a “Whole Foods Thanksgiving.” Meaning, the grocery store fixes everything and you just reheat! People have said it’s delicious, and this sounded fabulous to me. But my mom didn’t seem so convinced. When I told her I was going to do this, she said, “okay,” as if that word had three syllables.  And then the next day she bought a turkey. She said she was going to cook it and bring it up on Thanksgiving. That was fine. I just figured I would do the trimmings as we always do. I told her to bring it up and we would cook it that day.

The week passes, and then the day before Thanksgiving she asked, “what can I bring?” I said, “the bird is plenty!” She seemed a bit confused at my ignorance and said, “oh, honey, I thawed that bird a week ago and we had to eat it. We’ve been eating it for days now and are both tired of turkey.” I do remember that she mentioned cooking a turkey, but I didn’t put two and two together that she had cooked THAT bird. Oh well, too late for Whole Foods…chef’s choice now…and I pick squash lasagna. (My brother Mike called out of concern and said if I just put some sausage in it it would be fine.)

Then I noticed my dad’s Facebook status “Anybody ever heard of squash lasagna? That's for dinner and I can't wait to try it out after six glasses of vino..............” Hmm, perhaps he wasn’t so sick of turkey. Oh well, it wasn’t traditional, but it was a nice day. Jackie came over too, so it was just the seven of us, a relatively small Averill gathering, but we topped it off with football and desserts, so I think it rounded to a full day.

it just broke

Here's Mason's apology to Grandpa. Says he didn't throw it hard....Except somehow the window broke. Weird.

sweet girl

snowballs are hard

Just after June and Bob left for Sedro Woolley,  Mason launched a snowball at their truck. He hit it. I wonder how many pictures of broken glass we will have on this blog by the time he turns 18.

kenzaroonie desk

Cindy picked up a second hand desk for Kenzie. Together they painted it and put new knobs on. As you can see from the white board sign, she likes it a lot!

fort

Mason’s new bed doubles as a tree house. He loves it, and especially that he has glow-in-the-dark stars above the bed.

First snow

pony party

Our new neighbors have 4 and 7 year old girls, Anna and Alaina. It’s been great having them as the kids all get along fabulously. Last night Kenzie went to open gymnastics with them after hanging for much of the afternoon at their house. A few weeks ago Anna’s birthday party was at a pony farm.

Kenzie continues to love all animals, and holds steadfast to the notion that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

brown eyed girls

Since I’m stealing pictures now, why not another one? Or two or three?

ethiopian food

Now I’m shamelessly stealing pictures from Randy’s blog, but what the heck. I like this one where we celebrated the boys’ birthday at an Ethiopian restaurant in Seattle. It was the first time Kenzie or Mason (or Cindy or I) had eaten Ethiopian food.

sweetness

She’s faking it, he’s not.

special card

Grammy and Grampy sent Mason a Halloween card. He wrote them a thank-you note. It says “I like the card. From Mason. Do you like it?” I especially like the spelling of “do you like it.”

Obligatory pumpkin picture

Don’t look closely but it wasn’t taken at the pumpkin patch…that’s pavement under them at Carpinito Brothers vegetable stand.

But we did carve them this year! Half points?

Oh, and speaking of pumpkins…hello Maddie…