Christmas book, 2012

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Every space is a dance floor...

Although these pictures are blurry, I think it is more than obvious where Emma gets her graceful ballet moves from.  

Thank you Ella for taking his pictures for me to, "put on Netflix."

White Christmas Night :) Our first Blizzard.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Em 11
EG 8
ER 5

Scavenger Hunt with our friends!

The day school got out, we planned a scavenger hunt with our friends.  We all met up at Chick Fil A, then divided up into 3 teams- each with a driver/chaperon.  The rest of the moms stayed at Chick Fil A with the Littles so they could play.  Each team was given the list above and off they went.  Here were a few of the fun photos.  

Team 1:  Emma, Kellen, Emma Kate.  Driven by Burt

Team 2:  Lucy, Sophie, Deanne, Peyton, Lauren.  Driven by Kelly Church.

Team 3:  Elaina, EG, Sadie, Abby.  Driven by John Bunch.

Spelling out a word

N-O-E-L

A picture of everyone in the air at once.

Funny hats...

Everyone reading at same time...

We thought they had won because they came back first BUT team one actually ended up with the most points!  It was a close race between all 3 teams!!  AND, LOTS of fun!!

ON a firetruck= bonus points!!

 Everyone in air at same time.

 Entire team in pyramid.

 Duck Duck Goose in a store.

Silly hats...

  Everyone wearing glasses...

 Faces in a circle...

Everyone had a great time and we hope to make this a yearly event!

Eva Grace's Christmas play debut.

The Christmas play was fabulous.  Nanner directed it.  All girls were stars.  Eva Grace was the superstar, Em was the cowgirl "shooting" star, ER and Ella Mae were twin stars.  It was adorable, as always.

Paws & Claws!! Grinnin is not welcome to this party.

Our Christmas Shopping Trip... It got old.

We shipped all day!  Finally, the girls thought it was getting old! ha.  

 We found some Angry Bird bicycle helmets that made noises.  Emma, of course, LOVED these so we had to try them on....

...then we had to reenact some Angry Bird scenes, sound effects and all.  The passers by didn't think this was funny but I was crying from laughing so hard.

We were respectful and put the helmets back neatly like we found them.

Then we had to go to Lawn and Garden to find a shovel.  While we were there they had these AWESOME 3 wheeler trikes for big kids on display with all the bikes.  There was also plenty of area to test them out... and no one was in there.... so we all tested it out.  

 The town had seen enough of the Barretts so we got some pizza and a movie and went home to wrap some presents we purchased.  It was a trip that made our Christmas merry.

Makes you grin.

This dog really grins!

Grinnin Barrett, 7 months old.

Grinnin's first trip to the groomers

Before...

After...

The groomer and I argued about the bow size.  She wouldn't make them big.  She thought these were huge!!!  Can you believe it?  These were half the size I was trying to get her to do.  She wouldn't go any bigger.  Finally, Burt just made me hush and leave.  I need to go into the dog bow business.

School projects...

I don't know why I am incapable of helping the girls with a "normal" project.  I don't try to go above and beyond but it seems to always be the case.  Here is Eva Grace's project.  It is a timeline of her life.  SOMEHOW I missed the part where she only needed ONE picture from each year of life included.  Three full evenings and ink printer cartridges later, here was her finished project.  Not to take her credit, she did the work. I found and printed her pictures, then she cut, glued and captioned the timeline.  It was fun, as all projects are, but check out the projects above and below hers, all 3 received the same grade.

 Not to mention, both these projects were due during Nutcracker WEEK (8 performances).  This night they were displayed EG had ball practice and Emma had a Nutcracker performance so how we could stop by for 10 minutes surprises me still.

5th graders were responsible for 2 projects, the display board and the report.  I was very proud of Emma's research skills this time.  She was able to find most of her information on her own.  I just helped her organize it and helped with grammar.  (Isn't that funny, I helped with grammar! ha.  My grammar is terrible.  I would be so embarrassed if someone corrected my grammar on this blog)!

Emma was a Rifle Soldier in the Nutcracker 2012.

Emma started ballet last spring and has loved it all year.  She was in the Forum's production of Mary Poppins this Spring and The Nutcracker this fall.  She was one of 5 Rifle Soldiers in the Nutcracker.  There were 8 performances. Auditions were held in September, rehearsals began the first of October and ran through December.  It was a lot of hard work, but she loved it and has decided she wants to do it again next year.  I love watching her dance, she is very graceful.

These 2 girls were also rifle soldiers and from her school.

Backstage

The Cast of Act 1.

Several supporters came to see her perform and she had family at every show. Some of her supporters were Nanner, Poppy, Grandma, Granddad, Uncle Adam, Ms. Andrea, Sadie,  Daddy, Mrs. Amy Reed, Chloe, Berkley, Abby Bunch, and others.

One of Eva Grace's favorite Christmas traditions is coming to the Nutcracker.  She saw Sophie, Emma King, Lucy, and got to go twice.

Mrs. Andrea and Sadie brought Emma a Nutcracker book and a very nice candy bar bouquet.  She also got a rose :)

The Nutcracker has been a lot of fun! Emma has already decided she wants to do it again next year.  She is the first Rifle Soldier out during her first part. She is the second soldier out during her last part.

Ella upset about her part in the Christmas play

Our Thanksgiving Thankful Turkey

We made a thankful turkey this year.  Ella helped me make it :)  Most everyday we each added a feather of something we were thankful for.  At the end of the month our turkey was full. One of my most thankful things of this season was this turkey :)

Emma's feathers (age 10)

Ella's feathers, (age 5)  She is thankful for Amy, God, famule (family), Ella, iskrem (ice  cream), cand (candy), trka cups (turkey cups), presets (presents), my teachers, pebl (people), school

Eva Grace's Feathers (age 8)