Roger is ready to find a place for this ornament.
Roger is ready to find a place for this ornament.
Perhaps it will hang on the pear tree.
Alan decorated one of the little trees.
Jenny assembled the whole tree herself. She's our prime decorator.
Lisa decorated her dorm room a bit for the season.
Here's the other side of her room.
Jenny is at the far left for the Winter Concert.
She plays clarinet in the Symphonic Band.
The finale of the Winter Concert is the final performance
of the field show by the Marching Band in full uniform.
The pit sets up in front, the colorguard performs on the
stage, and the bulk of the band members fill the aisles.
The audience is thus immersed in the band for a really
thrilling performance.
Sarah and Alan study the directions to put together
some Lego cars.
Alan cuddles his baby doll.
Alan flipped himself up-side-down in the chair.
Roger and Glen play Star Lancer together as often as
Roger can talk Glen into it.
Meanwhile, Alan enjoys staging Hot Wheels crashes.
Alan asked me to make dirt-colored playdough for
construction purposes.
Roger's class made gingerbread houses at school.
Alan made a whole snow scene with playdough, sticks and paint.
Roger put together a set of MegaBlok ornaments for
his teacher, Miss Fernandez.
We hosted a gingie-fest for several of Roger's classmates on
the last day of school. Seated here are Roger, Alan,
Rachel, Paige and Amber.
Rachel helps her son Taylor get his cookie just right.
Roger is proud of the decorated gingies.
After working hard on the cookies, Roger and his friends
burned off excess energy. This wriggling pile includes
Taylor, Roger, Paige and Amber.
Alan really got into making and decorating playdough
ornaments.
Roger makes MegaBlok ornaments for Grandma and Grandpa.
Sarah made this sugar cookie tree for one of her friends.
And Jeff appreciated the gift.
Lisa daringly challenged Roger to a game of Podracer.
Lisa read a lot of Peach Hill Posse minutes over Winter Break.
Roger is supposed to read (or be read to) for at least
75 minutes each week.
Mother and Dad treated us to a birthday bash,
celebrating a whole year's worth all at once.
Alan rediscovered the old solar system mobile that
Daddy put together for me when I was Alan's age.
Sarah's lap is just big enough.
Shelton and Dottie sent me flowers for my birthday!
Irises were a major part of the arrangement.
Our little tangerine tree is doing well.
The yellow crocuses (croci?) are coming up and it's only January.
We toasted marshmallows at the park after school on January 15th.
I brought over the grill, charcoal, skewers, and 2 bags of marshmallows.
Other parents brought the graham crackers and chocolate for s'mores.
Seen here: Paige Burnell, Chase Tennant (Chris's older brother),
Christy (Brandon's mom), Chris Tennant, Brandon Shields,
Taylor Fry, Alan in the foreground,
and Rachel (Taylor's mom) with Emalee in the stroller, and Gillian (Colina's mom) with
Caleb in the background. Colina is in morning Kindergarten but she meets us at the
park sometimes because her mom knows Taylor's mom.
Alan turned 4 on January 28th.
We had dinner on his real birthday with
the McGreevys at Del Taco.
Then the party with friends was on Saturday.
Presents are fun!
He made hot dogs on his new grill from Lisa.
One of his larger presents was a play tent with
chair, sleeping bag, and flashlight.
His guests helped put it up in the dining room.
Alan directed from his new chair.
And finally he could get in.
Our pear tree is gearing up for a bumper crop.
Alan decided to draw Sarah a picture.
He says the letters are "Tonka Letters" and he drew them block style.
He started with his own name in pale blue, follwed by TONKA with the A above the
rest of the word, and then wrote SARAH, again with the H above.
The green lines are wind from a fan and the blue circles are bubbles.
Then he added a magenta race car. I think he told me the green filled-in
circles are nails. So not only is Alan writing letters, he is also designing fonts!
Jenny's guests for dinner to celebrate her 15th birthday: Emily, Keith, David, and Kurt.
Alan was very anxious for Jenny to open her presents. He had wrapped several things
himself. He had also drawn pictures of balloons to put up on the wall, since I wasn't
cooperating by putting up real ones.
Danny visited us all by himself while the rest of the McGreevys attended a wedding. We
set up a kiddie pool as a ball pit in the middle of the dining room.
When Glen wanted to take a walk at lunchtime, Alan took his baby doll along and took
good care of him, making sure that the sunshade was up.
Baby Doll (now named Junior by Alan), also went to the park.
Alan likes the swings at Peach Hill Park.
Jenny organized the boys to wash the car using their
new green and purple buckets.
Meanwhile, Sarah studied.
She and Alan took a break for a snack.
Jenny does her part during the Spring Band Concert.
She had a 4-measure solo at one point.
I sponsored a 'pirate day' in Roger's class. The excuse
was that Brandon, one of Roger's friends, was getting an
eyepatch to help correct a lazy eye condition. So as
part of pirate day, everyone got an eyepatch. We also
had sashes, hats, and foam daggers which they decorated.
I brought in a treasure chest full of pennies for
counting, too.