Dog sitting

Since our babysitter Jess is in Belgium with Adam this year, we are dog sitting for her doggie - Marley.  This is excellent practice since our puppy comes home on Monday...that's only 5 days!!  The kids have loved having Marley with us.  Savannah LOVES dressing Marley up in her sweatshirt.

 And they both take her out for walks a few times a day.

 The cats have even gotten used to her. I wonder how they will do when there's a crazy puppy in the house next week?!

Karate Ceremony

Last night was Gage's Karate Belt Ceremony.  He was sitting in line, and one by one, kids in his white belt group (Tiger Cubs) were called up to received their yellow belt. Well, they never called Gage and they moved on to green belt (the next belt level up from yellow). Low and behold, they called Gage. He skipped his yellow belt and went straight to green!  WOW!!

 Oopsies. Somewhere between the living room and the belt ceremony, Gage's white belt disappeared! 

 Here is is, bowing before receiving his belt.

Look at that....he skipped his yellow belt and was awarded a green belt. Go Gage!

 

 I think he was proud of himself, what do you think?

 

 

Crafts gone wrong!

Ah Pinterest. You give me such good ideas for kid crafts. But, sometimes things just go awry. Like today's ribbon tree craft. This is what it was supposed to look like:

So cute. Easy peasy. 

Well...this is what our best one looked like. 

Not so cute. It doesn't even rotely resemble a tree. Poor sad little excuse for a ribbon tree :-(

Karate

Gage just completed his first belt exam for karate...and he earned his yellow belt! Very proud of him :-)

XMAS countdown!

Our Christmas countdown has started! Every day the kids open an envelope for an activity or craft of some kind. 

We are running behind, though, so we just got to gingerbread houses today!

For the second year in a row...there was minimal fighting while decorating!! Yes!

Although most people build gingerbread houses, admire them, and nibble at them a little at a time...well...here at the Rapp house....

Tannehill

Savannah had a field trip today to Tannehill iron works state part.  It has long been on my list of things to do here in AL. It's the location of an old iron furnace. They have brought in old buildings (schools etc) to give a sense of the civil war period. She loved it.

Here she is trying to move a huge wheel in the museum.

Listening to a boy play the violin and talk about what XMAS was like during the civil war. He had them play some old fashioned games, and they sang songs. 

And here she is in the storytelling room. The girl leading the story asked what  the kids eat for Christmas every year. Savannah raised her hand and said "lobster". Everyone started laughing, and after we left she said she did not understand why people laughed. I had to explain that eating lobster on XMAS is it a tradition in the south!  It's our tradition , though!!

And here we are...listening to a soldier talk about his life. She was fascinated by that. 

So, it was a good day :-)

Superhero art

Every day, Gage comes home with a folder full of worksheets that he completed at school. My favorite part of looking at his schoolwork is turning them over to see what he drew on the back after he finished his work. It is always superheroes. Here's today's haul--

This is Batman and the Batplane

This is spiderman swinging from a web, fighting green goblin - who throws flaming pumpkins at people. And the bottom shows spiderman laughing at green goblin after he was thrown in jail.

This shows iceman freezing green goblin. And firestar shooting fire at green goblin. And spiderman surrounded by black smoke - because green goblin threw at smoke bomb at him, of course.

I love that he has these whole superhero scenes playing in his mid at school - so long as he does all of his work before he starts scribbling away, that is!

This is the xmen. beast - cyclops - wolverine - and their boss, Dr Xavier (the head of the xmen, who is in a wheelchair)

Zoo

It was a gorgeous fall day today (73), so we cruised up to the zoo.

My favorite thing there is feeding the lorikeets. I don't think they ever left Gage's head today!

The last time we were at the zoo...these pretty birds bit savannah - hard - but thankfully, she has forgotten about that!

She had 6 of them on her at one point!

Gage got a little tired of having birds on his head. Once he was finished with his cup of nectar, he stood with his hands covering his head to fend the birds off!

Not Savannah...she had me go back inside to buy another cup of nectar!

The flamingos are a close second. We love feeding these guys!

Snowy

Well, Snowy our elf is up to his usual shenanigans. The kids love him. Apparently, they both made things for Santa that they asked snowy to bring to the North Pole. Mommy failure...I have forgotten about it 2 nights in a row. I told them that they might need to leave Snowy a bag so he can carry his notes and crafts. Oops!!

Monopoly

Well, savannah desperately wanted to try playing monopoly, so we gave it a try. Well, this little real estate mogul was channeling her inner grandpa Rooney. She bought up everything that came her way, and somehow managed to always pass go to collect $200 before she went bankrupt. We never made it to the end of the game (because it takes hours!), but she managed to buy houses and rack up quite a fortune.

Now...if only Mommy had the patience to play the entire game out for her....

Glorious

Savannah does not remember trying pomegranate seeds before. So, I bought one, she helped me pick the seeds out, ate one - ate a whole handful - and declared "these little beauties are glorious"! I agree, girlie. Glad she is trying new things, unlike her brother. Mr. Picky pants.

Crazy hair

Guess what day it is at school today...

Crazy hair day!!

All I want for Christmas...

Savannah has been snaggletooth tooth lately...with one front tooth barely hanging on, and another one loose. Last night I told her "that thing is coming out tomorrow". What do you know...it fell out first thing this morning!  She was singing "all I want for Christmas is my one front tooth" :-)

Thankful tree

Today, I am posting this with thoughts of my Grandma Rooney in my heart. Gram is in ICU right now, on life support. 

Many of my blog posts are prompted by thinking that there are some family and friends who check our blog regularly - and Gram is one of them. I sometimes think of people logging onto our blog and hoping to see something new, only to be disappointed my the same old pictures because I haven't gotten around to posting something. So, today I am posting this for Gram, even though she can't see it right now.

Yesterday, savannah wanted to do a craft with me. I thought about handprint turkeys and toilet paper roll Indians. But, I decided on a "thankful tree".  

To be honest, there are many times that I feel like I could be a much better mom than I am. And, I would guess this is true for all moms. We are hard on ourselves because we want what is best for our families and our kids...but there's only so much of us to go around. But, now and then I feel good about the job I do as "mom". 

As we cut out and colored our thankful tree, I talked to the kids about how thanksgiving is all about being aware of the things we are thankful for.  We each jotted down something on a leaf - family - our health - our home.  Later that day, I walked outside and found the kids writing  and drawing the things they are thankful for in chalk on the driveway - without my prompting. We got silly - Gage said he is thankful for cinnamon and toast and his teacher. I said I was thankful for hot sauce and wine. Savannah said she was thankful for flowers - sunshine - and rain. 

It was one of those moments when I felt like the messages I send as a mom actually take hold with them and that I am a pretty good mom.

Today, as I was hurrying the kids to get ready for school, I realized they had taken a break to write on the thankful tree. Today, Gage is thankful for our cats and savannah for family. They scolded me for not writing my thankful leaf for the day. Not soon after, I got a phone call about Gram. 

So, today I am thankful for Gram. I am thankful for all the time I have had with her - the many hours I spent in the garden with her learning how to pinch back plants, how to tell a weed from a seedling, and how to divide a clump. I am thankful for her independent spirit - her tendency to speak her mind - her bottomless energy - her sense of family - her little touch of crazy - and that she made thousands of memories for me and my kids. So, today I am thankful for Gram - and I am hopeful that her fighting spirit will prevail because we have more memories to make.

Beach

Things have been very busy around here. So, we looked at the schedule and realized that we had an opening to squeeze in a beach trip. This is the BEST time of year to go. The weather is warm, the water is warm, and the beach is empty. We were able to get a house right on the beach......there is nothing better than watching the kids play in the sand at the bottom of the stairs while you sip wine on the deck and watch dolphins play in the waves. Just beautiful...

 

 It never fails...Gage is always on a quest to catch a seagull...

 We brought our babysitter (Adam's doctoral student) Jess with us...she does so much for us!

 I got a new camera for my birthday...and this was the perfect chance to test it out...

 I love this one...

 And this one....

 And this one..I couldn't decide which one I liked best, so I posted the all!

 Both kiddos got a little kite flying in one morning...

 Hard to believe that Adam's hat almost fits Gage!  That big head...is why I still pee my pants every time I laugh or sneeze ;-)

 No trip to Gulf Shores is complete without a stop at the Hangout, where we always stop to see our mermaid first!

 And take the obligatory hangout photo!

 They are growing up too fast!

 A little "we're so excited to be at the beach" dance

 A great family photo :-)

 

 We found "bird island" one morning :-)

 Sandbars are the best...

 Love this one too...

 a few shots around our house

 

 

 Feeding seagulls from our deck

 Here's Gage...heading out to our little beach spot...with a virgin strawberry daquiri in his hand :-)

 Catching sand crabs. I don't have a photo..but one night Savannah and I went out at night with our headlamps on and caught crabs -- a whole bucket of them!!! At least 25. It was so much fun :-)

 Our "sidewalk" :-)

 

 

 Cocktails on the deck

 Love it...

 Little feet :-)