Duck Pond

Ahhhh....And the day after Christmas. What do you do the day after Christmas? Well we met Daddy at his office and we went to the Parthenon and duck pond.

Daddy told me to get ready to take a picture, I snapped one right before he said 1,2, three and this is what I got. And this is what I got AFTER... They were shaking their little heineys at me. Ha ha ha!

We fed the ducks and saw turtles sun bathing.

I love this picture of the kids on this little bridge.

And I especially love how they became little trolls under the bridge.

Then Daddy walked them back to his office, while I drove the car over there.

It was such a beautiful day to go to the park!

Christmas Day

Like I said earlier, I was sick on Christmas Day. But I did get a few pictures. I enjoyed putting our Christmas cards on the tree this year.

I thought Greg did real well the night before to put them in matching jammies and even RED at that. I was too sick to even think about it.

Ashley's favorite was the Barbie Castle.

Aussie's favorite was all the littlest Pet Shop animals that Gramma got and the house that Nana got. Sorry Nana, they don't care anything about the "people" in the house. It is now a Littlest Pet Shop animal house. One thing I love about the house is that several of the small pieces are attached to the big piece.

Oh and about the house that Nana got- She gave Aussie a bathroom set to put in it. It was pretty funny to hear him say as he put his little animal in the shower, "a little privacy please."

And Mason's favorite toy (at least at that moment) was the Spiderman/ Sandman toy. Daddy said it was pretty cool. They built it together and played with it a bit. Mason liked everything. And if someone tried to play with one of his toys...THAT would be the toy that was his favorite or "his very bestest bestest toy".

Speaking of that...This morning Aussie and Ashley wanted to play with the tool table that Mason got from Gramma. Mason did not want to share, even though he wasn't playing with it. I made him share and this is what I saw. It cracked me up this morning. That's Ashley sawing her Barbie.

Ok and here is something else that made me laugh on Christmas Eve. (Hey I had to try.) It's a deer caught in headlights. (LOL!)

I think she wore it each time for 1.5 seconds.

"Don't even try to do that again!"

Lapbooks- The Night Before Christmas & Nativity

Well I have a LOT to post. So I'll start with the lapbooking projects we have been doing. We did 3 lapbooks over the last few weeks.

These two are from free lapbook sites, so we didn't do much different than what they gave us.

Here is the The Night Before Christmas Lapbook: I used the Homeschool share website as my resource.

The front has the poem pasted on it.

When you open it up, up in the left corner it has cards with all the reindeer names. The kids had to put these in alphabetical order and in the order they come in the poem/song.

On the bottom right it had a little booklet, "How many reindeer can you name?" And the kids had to write the names.

Aussie drew this cute picture of the reindeer, so we did his book slightly different.

In the middle was a booklet on Who is St. Nicholas. We read several stories and I had the kids write a little paragraph about him of what they remembered about him with my help on spelling.

On the bottom in the middle were vocabulary words. It was too hard for them to write the definitions of the words. So I told them what each word meant but then I had them copy the word and try to draw a picture of it.

On the top right was a Sugarplum matching game. And on the bottom right was Similes of Santa (described in the poem).

Then if you opened up the middle you see their letter to Santa on the right.

And on the left they had several pages of words they had to rhyme and make new words.

Also on the left was a little pop-out card of a Christmas tree that they made.

They LOVE looking at their completed projects.

The next lapbook was a really simple one that we got free off the Internet too. We got it here. It is a Nativity Lapbook. We supplemented with several Usborne Nativity books.

The last/ actually first lapbook we did over the last few weeks is on Christmas around the world. It is an original lapbook I put together from different things I found on the Internet. I'll show that to you another day, since I need to do one more thing to it.

Christmas

Hello out there!

We had a very nice Christmas, even though I was sick. (I'm feeling MUCH better now.)

I heard Aussie get up and wake up the other 2 around 7ish. I heard him say, "Wake up it's Christmas!!!" Then when the other two were up and out of bed ready to go downstairs, Aussie said, "I'm tired, I'm going back to bed." ???????????????????????????? I said to him, "You woke up the other two, don't you want to come downstairs and see the presents?" He said, " I just wanted them to know it was Christmas and I'm tired and I'm going back to bed." We went downstairs and Mason and Ashley got into their stockings, about 10 minutes later Aussie comes downstairs. He is so strange!

Anyway, I layed on the couch and watched them open their presents. They each took turns and brought them to the center of the room to open. I was very impressed that they took turns! They all had such a great time and they thanked us over and over again for the presents.

Since I wasn't feeling well, we didn't make Christmas cookies or the annual birthday cake for Jesus. I hope that we can make the cake today.

The pictures were taken on Sunday at church. The kids had on some of the "new" clothes passed down from another triplet family. We are so blessed!!!

Christmas is Coming

I am so excited for Christmas! I just wrapped all of the kids' presents. All I need are some bows from the $1 store and possibly 1 or 2 stocking stuffers. These kids are going to be so excited.

I am a little disappointed though, Aussie and Ashley found Ashley's big present. They didn't get a good look, but Ashley knows what it is. I don't know if I mentioned it here or not, but I found a Barbie house on Craigslist for $35. It is really nice and better than I thought it would be. And it all closes up to shut neatly.

Every year I think, with Gramma and Grampa, Nana and Papa, we just don't need to spend a lot. This year I thought I was going to actually do that, but I didn't. I got some great deals- so I am just tickled about Christmas this year.

I'm surprised the sewing bug didn't hit me this year. I'm kinda glad it didn't, but the kids have been asking me to make them some new clothes/costumes. You know those cowboy pants I made them last year? The boys LOVE them and wear them all the time and they are too short now. OH...they don't need another thing...they don't need another thing. (What would I make IF I did sew them something?)...they don't need another thing.

Oh by the way...we decided that Princess would NOT become a Greene. I just don't need 2 cats to sneeze over and yell at to get out of the Christmas tree.

I got some more beautiful clothes passed down from a friend of mine. I'll take pictures of the boys tomorrow to show you one awesome outfit they got. I need to think what I'll put on Ashley. Ok...time to cuddle with the kids. Talk to you soon!

a little update

I've got a cold.

My eyes and nose and throat are itchy and I'm tired.

The kids got their haircut today. They look nice. I need one but I need to find someone who will do a good job on my hair. I'm almost to the point of saying a bad haircut will look better than no haircut at all...."almost".

I finally got my Christmas cards sent last night. So they "should" arrive before Christmas. I still have 3 addresses I need on Greg's side of the family (Greg's brother Stephen- didn't he move?, Melissa and Kaitlin and I need an apt. # for Kristin).

The kids have been playing an old version of Zelda on our old computer. They are really excited because they have almost won the game. Tonight at the dinner table, Aussie's prayer included thanking God for the man who created Zelda.

I hope I feel better for Christmas!

Christmas Performances

Last night the kids did their play and ballet performance. It was so precious. I couldn't get very good pictures during the performances unfortunately. And I could just kick myself for not getting one of Mason. This picture at least has him in it. I took this picture during practice.

We were running so late to get there on time that I didn't get a picture of all three of them together. I did get a picture of Ashley and Aussie right after they got dressed in the bathroom of Pizza Hutt. But Mason was already back at the table. They were SO ADORABLE! People ooohed and ahhhed over my sweet little mice. And made nice comments on their hats. I felt so proud.

But more than the play the ballet performance was absolutely precious! I cried! I don't usually get emotional over stuff like this, but it was so moving! Ashley was so graceful and she sang along with the contemporary christian song they danced to. Austin did a good job too. After the practice earlier in the day, I thought that this was just going to be a laugh fest at his expense. But he straightened up for the performance and really did a good job.

I'm really proud of my kids! I sure wish I could have gotten better pictures though!

Letters to Santa

My children wrote their letter's to Santa today:

Dear Santa,

Can you please

give me a pony

littlest pet that's $10?

Aussie

_______________________________

Dear Santa,

I hope you

bring me presents.

I want a toy rockit

that goes in

the bathtub.

I love you

Mason

___________________________________

Dear Santa,

I know you give me

presents

I hope you still like

me if I know you

are not real.

yelhsA

___________________________________

Princess-to be or not to be a Greene?

OH NO!!!

A friend of mine just had a baby. The baby is a preemie, so they need to get rid of their 1 year old cat. It is gentle with her other 2 children who are younger than mine. She has had all her shots and is fixed. Her name is Princess.

I thought I had come to the conclusion that we just shouldn't take her in. The kids would love her and she would be a playmate for Kiki (hopefully). But what if she doesn't get along with Kiki, how much more of a mess will it be? I wonder if I will be telling 2 cats to get off the table. Am I going to have hair all over the place? Will my Mom ever visit me again (allergic)?

But just look at these pictures...(She just sent them to me last night) OH HELP! She is so adorable! And how can I NOT help a friend in NEED with a newborn preemie?

Mouseketeers!

Alright- Here is what you've all been waiting for. LOL! I almost ran out of gray thread, I thought I was going to have to go to Walmart to buy more before I could finish. But I decided to try to make the last set of ears with what I had left. I couldn't believe it was just enough. I did run out of plastic canvis for the ears and searched everywhere in my house to come up with an alternative. I think they turned out cute. But I don't know how to keep the ears from flapping over. It won't be bad for wearing, but for pictures it drives me crazy!

Last night the kids had a Christmas program at church. During one song the kids did sign language. Ashley was so cute!!! She signed Lord all the way to the floor.

Mason was completely dressed when he first started the program. Then when he came back for the second part he had his vest off. Then after the program, he took off his white shirt and put on his vest. (He had chewed on his shirt collar and got it wet).

Well dressed or not...they are stinkin' cute!

I'm so excited!

The kids are in a little Christmas play on Friday. And the parents are responsible for making/ getting the costumes. My children will be 3 little mice who squeak across the stage. The teacher said for them to wear grey or black sweatsuit, get some mouse ears, a tail and paint the little nose and whiskers on their faces. I looked at Target and who knows where else and finally found plain grey sweatsuits at WalMart. And I looked everywhere (even before Halloween) to find mouse ears, but I had no luck. So I knew I had to make them and I dreaded it. I REALLY REALLY did not want to have my boys wearing headbands with little ears on them. I dreaded it for so long that today I knew I had to make them. BUT THEN....(LIGHTBULB)...I had an idea! I'm so excited I can't stand it. I've got one made and I need to make 2 more, but YOU dear reader will have to wait until tomorrow or even Monday to find out what they are. :D

I'm doing the happy dance. I'm too excited to sleep, but I have a long day tomorrow and it's 1:00AM. I better go try to go to bed.

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

This is really cool! Enjoy!

Usborne Holiday Special

This weekend Usborne Books is having a Holiday Special. It starts tomorrow (December 7) and ends Monday December 10.

You can go here to see the whole selection of books that are in this special.

Dana bought the Classic Christmas over the Thanksgiving weekend sale and she says she loves the books. I missed out on that sale, so I'm really glad they are offering it again.

They also have the top 3 best sellers on sale.
I can Draw Animals for only $3.99
Sticker Dolly Dressing Dolls for $7.19
There's a Mouse About the House for $8.79 If you don't have this book, it would make a great stocking stuffer! All 3 of my kids just love it!

If you plan to take advantage of this sale, please pick a person hosting an e-show. It doesn't cost you anything extra and it blesses the person you order from. Thank you!