Christmas up north!- Jo.

We made it into Columbus on the 16th, then mama and papa pawned us off on Grams and PawPaw so they could spend a night with the 601 guys. We didn't even notice they were gone.

I have a whole collection of Christmas dresses to wear.

PawPaw taught Henry how to shoot a gun (on the Wii). Look at this fearsome duo.

And we had plenty of sweets!

I was so excited to play with the big kids-until things got a little crazy.

For your pleasure, here's a video Henry took of June dancing. This is how June spends most of her time.

School program- Georgie.

The last thing to do before Christmas break is always the program at the Day School. This year was June's turn to take part.

The little sisters were sitting in the front row waiting for the program to start. This is my little buddy Ellie. We go running with our moms together. Mama made her hair bow.

Finally! June led her friends Lillie and Coleman in.

Hi!

James' kindergarten class led most of the program. They even played the bells.

Ellie's big brother Paul Carter carried the whole program. He sang the loudest of everyone.

Ellie wasn't impressed.

Finally it was June's turn.

They sang a song about Christmas trees. Papa was taking the video and I kept trying to get the camera.

Again, June picked out her outfit and it included her boots.

Not surprisingly, Santa Claus came. Where ISN'T this guy? (We saw him in a Wendy's in Kentucky. He gave us hand carved Christmas ornaments!)

Mama's favorite girl is Maddie. She and June are going to get in a LOT of trouble together when they are older.

We loaded up on the treats. My Christmas ensemble included my pretty dress and my favorite yellow raincoat.

Lille (with help from her mom) remains the sweetest little girl in the world. (Who knows why she's friends with June?) She brought June a princess book for her birthday. June LOVED it.

After the program, we threw the last few things in the van, pulled Henry out of school early and hit the road. Ohio or bust!

Children's Museum- Junie.

We were supposed to be getting ready to leave for Christmas vacation, so naturally mama decided to take us into Greenville for the morning. And there's no better place to go than the Children's Museum.

Note the boots and watches as armbands.

JoJo even got a cart in the store this time.

I'm making sure all the sales are rung up correctly.

Then Jo would steal the produce off the counter for her cart.

It's windy in here!

We took our buddy Finn and his mom. I think she may have been avoiding her Christmas responsibilities too.

What's better, we saw two more of our friends! How lucky are we that on December 15th, we were running around outside in our bare feet?

Greenville is such an awesome time.

Triple trouble.

Christmas in the Caribbean- Henry.

We finally got around to putting up the outside lights. Not that we had any good excuse not to. It's been consistently 70 degrees in SC.
Miss Leah sent down some awesome Melissa and Doug wooden food sets. The kids have had a great time making supper and throwing birthday parties with cookies.
This is so JoJo. Note the scraps on her cheek and forehead and the bloody nose.

It was so nice out one day after school, mama decided to walk over to papa's office. She forgot that the entire department was out for their Christmas lunch. June was very upset and proceeded to yell "Where's Papa? I DON'T HAVE A DADDY!" all the way through the building. And of course, JoJo was running and bit it as soon as she hit the concrete, getting this awesome bloody nose. Add on top of it mama was all sweaty from wearing a wool sweater (it really was cool that morning!). Maybe papa was lucky her wasn't there.

Nutcracker!- Mama.

Last year, June went to see the Nutcracker at a dance school in Columbus with Grams and Aunt Katie. She loved it.

So when we found out that tickets to the Nutcracker in Greenville were only $5, I decided to treat June to an afternoon out.

Granted, our $5 seats got us the second to last row in the balcony. But the Peace Center is fairly small and every seat in the house was great.

June was sooooooo excited and chose this special ballerina costume to wear out. (I swear, I made her put on a sweater and a coat too. After all it was only 50 degrees today.) June sat still through the whole performance. During intermission she talked non-stop about the ballerinas. Then she was so thrilled that the ballet started back up again, I had to physically restrain her to keep her from clapping the whole second half.

We parked 6 blocks away so we could see the sights on Main Street. They flooded a hotel plaza and set up an ice rink (no small feat when a cold day is still 50 degrees). And as always, downtown Greenville was lovely. And we used the money we saved on parking and got June this little tutu ornament. But I doubt it will every make it to the tree.

Did you know Santa gives rides on his sleigh before Christmas? It's gas powered now.

It's safe to assume June had a good time. She conked out on the ride home and then spent the rest of the evening (even after bedtime) singing the "March of the Wooden Soldiers" very loudly.

Sick again- JoJo.

It never fails. As soon as we pass one virus around the family, someone brings home another.

Henry was again the first to fall victim. All week, he would go lay down after school, play with the cool new game Grandma Seibert sent, and then fall fast asleep. And he's had a nasty cough, so bad that we actually took him to the doctor and got a strong cough medicine prescription. No more waking up at 3am to cough for 5 hours straight.

Mama was the only one to stay healthy this time. She used her afternoons to make a no-oven-required Ohio favorite: Buckeyes!

I took advantage of no one paying attention to me, crawled inside a cupboard and emerged victoriously with a bag of chips.

Henry spent time working on puzzles.

And June resisted naps. Mama has to spend about an hour sending June back to bed, but June always crashed eventually.

We've dabbled with just letting june give up her naps, but without fail, if she doesn't get a nap, she has a night terror after bedtime. Not worth it. (Plus, mama's not ready to give up her nap.)

And every day, mama has to go into our room to wake June up. How mean.

Party time!- June.

Finally, after months of planning (of Henry's part), Henry's birthday party finally started!

Guess how old he is?

We invited all of the neighbor boys over for a sleepover!

First things first- a scavenger hunt. And it started outside in the dark. Henry planned the whole hunt and wrote the clues (with mama's help).

The last clue was supposed to lead everyone to the table for cake, but mama had a trick up her sleeve. She had little racecar kits for everyone to build. But we learned the hard way that generic legos from the CVS are NOt as good as real legos. Luckily, the cake distracted everyone from the jenky bricks.

Mama says she may never make a cake again after everyone was so pumped about the Little Debbies.

Mama and Papa consider themselves to be pretty well learned in the game of snacks.

But there are a lot of things they haven't eaten in a number of years- including most Little Debbie products. (Darn you healthy lifestyle.)

Mama was burned last year with a gross Swiss Cake Roll. (Not as good as she remembered.)

But we're happy to say that Nutty Buddies are better than we remembered.

Wafers and delicious.

After cake, mama and papa locked us in the office with a DVD player and our sleeping bags. We watched Cars 2 and went to bed. Of the five kids, only James had to go home. It's hard calming down and going to sleep in a new place after a wild party.

But the best part about being friends with your neighbors is that you can come back bright and early for pancakes- complete with M&Ms and powdered sugar snow.