Olde Fashioned Christmas

After living in Ferndale for over five years, I figured it was high time we went to the Heritage Society's Olde Fashioned Christmas at Pioneer Park. Volunteer members of the Heritage Society dress in pioneer costumes, they decorate the historic log cabins and other buildings for the season, and have a TON of activities for the children (and adults!) to do. My cousin Lindsey also joined us, and I think everyone had a blast.

Sean and I liked the house with the dancing upstairs and the cookie making downstairs. Two of my favorite things in one house--maybe I could have been a pioneer.

The boys liked the school house best. That was where they could sit and write a letter to Santa. Guyan wrote quite a lot on his page, but wouldn't let us see it. He wanted it to be just between him and the big guy in red.

Owen wrote: "I HAv Bin GooD. Pleez cAn I HAv Bacoogons? frAm Owen"

The letters were then mailed off to Santa...I hope the big guy will let me know if there's anything I need to take care of off of Guyan's list.

Success!!!

Alert! Alert! The boys both played in a chess tournament today, and both won their first matches. While they didn't win a trophy or take home first prize or whatever, they left the tournament with a nice taste of success. Unfortunately, I wasn't too good with taking pictures...but take my word for it, the grins on their faces were priceless. Hurrah!!!

And to test your own skills...In the picture below, it is White's turn to move. Can you find the checkmate in two moves (that is, White moves, then Black, then White takes his second move to make Checkmate)?

Not for the Faint of Heart

Owen lost tooth number three last night. After getting ready for bed and brushing his teeth, he came downstairs all perplexed because he had twisted his tooth around and could not pull it out nor put it right again. It was pretty gruesome.

(I told you it was gruesome...if the last picture grossed you out, don't say I didn't warn you)

But when it did come out a few minutes later, it wasn't at all gruesome...I promise. It was pretty funny, and now the boys are busy planning how they will spend the $10,000 they know they'll win from America's Funniest Videos. They don't think the other tens of thousands of videos have a chance.

Going to the Theee-ahhhhh-tahhhh

Bellingham has a great place for live theatre--the Mount Baker Theatre. And even better, they have a fabulous series of performances for schools and education. A few months ago, I saw that "Charlotte's Web" would be playing. Great idea for Tuesday field trip day!

I got the last three tickets available for the show--one for Owen, one for me, and one for someone special with whom to share the event. We decided to invite our friend Amanda--Sean works with her father, I work out with her mother, and all the kids in both families get along swimmingly. It worked out perfect, and the three of us had a great time. Can't wait for more theee-ahhhh-tahhhh experiences!

New Nephew Nolan

Liz posted some pictures of Nolan on Facebook last night, as promised, but with the new fandangled changes Facebook has made, they didn't show up for me--I had to do some digging. Then I thought there might be quite a few of you out there that 1) don't "do" facebook; 2) if you do "do" facebook, might not be "Friends" with Liz and able to see her picture; or 3) you do "do" Facebook, you are "Friends" with her, and you still can't find the pictures...like me.

So here they are! Baby Nolan, less than 24 hours old!