Gingerbread De-construction

Plotting their attack. 

Marble Run

Looks like Olivia knows what it is!!
Grampa King made the girls a marble run!!  

Under the Tree

and later we made pie! 

Christmas Eve

feeling a little bit of the magic...

Santa Came?

While the girls were playing with Grammy Michelle, across the street, Mommy wrapped Christmas presents. Thank you, Michele for the gift of time! 

When the girls came home, I had unpacked gifts from Aunties, and added our own under the tree and they noticed the change - right away! 

Mimi was sure Santa came while they were playing at Michele's. 

The Glitter Incident

So, yeah. Let's get the obvious out in the open: I wasn't watching.

The girls were at the kitchen table having a snack, while I did some other task, and when we all finished we were going to do a supervised glitter project. Only as I was coming into the kitchen I hear the dreaded:

"Oh, No! Here she comes!"

You just know it's not going to be good.
The only good thing (and it's a VERY good thing...) is that "Oh, No! Here she comes!" is a warning - a warning to compose, breathe, prepare, choose. And I am so very proud of myself. A week ago - I probably would have totally freaked.

They decided that they really wanted to have glittery dining room chairs.

I didn't freak. I did set a "glitter containment zone" and got the vacuum.

Breakfast at the Diner

I rallied the girls out of the house early one day last week and as a reward for their cooperation and good behavior all morning we went out for pancakes!
(A pretty good time to practice restaurant manners, too.)

and these holiday decorations made me grin.

tumbleweeds painted and stacked to look like snowmen. 

that's pretty funny.