'Twas the week before Christmas

The week before Christmas is always SO hectic! There are Christmas parties at work, at the kids' school... each requiring special food and certain gifts. I have to get coverage at school while I go to the preschool Christmas program... Meanwhile, I'm trying to finish all my last-minute shopping/crafting... There are haircuts and special outfits to get ready... As Mom likes to say, "It's a lot of work, but it's worth it!" And to top it off this year, we have an open position to fill at school and I squeezed in 4 interviews during the week too...

Lucas made a present at school for us! He was SO excited that we had to open it a few days before Christmas... Made a nice decoration!
Here are my little monkeys the morning of their school Christmas program! Too adorable!!!
At the program... My camera SUCKS in this lightning, but it's better than nothing!
Our bowling league holiday potluck... In case you hadn't heard, our team name is no longer "Making Waves". We've moved on to "Bowl So Hard"!!! How amazing is that?!?!?!???!!?
And Charlotte sneaking into the candy and helping herself...

Other December Happenings...

Just some other random December happenings...

We went to Rebecca's (the amazing student teacher I had last Spring) wedding...
We went to a Christmas party at another Rebecca's (the one in the classroom next to mine) house. She's also a Steelers fan - we try not to hold it against her too much. At least her hubby prefers the Ravens :) There was an ugly Christmas sweater contest. I DESPISE Christmas sweaters, so to protest, Tony and I wore authentic Hawaiian clothes that my mom was going to give to Goodwill. We won 2nd prize, losing to a pink bunny that was Ralphie from "The Christmas Story"... Not too shabby! The kids had a blast playing, doing crafts, and decorating cupcakes. Rebecca also hired one of our students at school to come do a magic show - he is amazing!
Charlotte had a nasty headcold that left her feeling under the weather for about a week...
She still liked trying on all her Christmas outfits though...
And doing more Christmas crafts with the neighbors...

Our Friday Sunrise...

Williams on ice...

Earlier this week, we took the kids ice skating for the first time. Tony and I haven't even been in the past 8 years... Open skating was from 7-9 p.m., so we made sure the kids both took good naps. We got there and got all "skated up". Me and Tony both took a few practice laps alone just to make sure we wouldn't immediately fall! Lucas held the wall with one hand, and one of us with the other. After a couple laps of that, he let go of the wall and just held one of our hands... Which worked just great for him! By the end, he was cruising along at a comfortable pace for me! He completely refused to skate alone on the open ice, even for 5 feet to make it to one of us. Oh well, next time...

Charlotte started the one hand on wall and holding us with the other too... Which she tired of quickly. We spent most of the night skating with her between our legs, skating ever so slowly. Talk about a back killer. She did have some freakishly good balance just standing still on the ice.
We took breaks often, and after about 1 hour and 20 minutes, Lottie quit completely. We spent the rest of the session taking turns rocking her on the bench while she whined, "I'm soooo tired"... That girl...
Oh, and there was just one fall that evening... Check it out!

Day Downtown

2 weekends ago, it was "Dollar Days" in downtown Baltimore. Admission to all the big attractions was only $1! I hadn't heard of it, but Tony found it online. First, we went to the Maryland Science Center. I hadn't been in at least 15 years... Not since my Mommom & Dada used to take me and Matt on our summer adventures. They've done a lot with it and made it more of a childrens' museum almost.

First, we used paintbrushes to clean sand off dinosaur bones...
Then, we did some examining of fossils...
Next, we went to learn about dino scales and the kids made some pictures and got their heads bit off :) We just couldn't resist that pic!
They dressed up as astronauts:
And played with a lot more cool stuff... In the planetarium, we even got to see a 20 minute holiday laser show!
Next, we walked to the other side of the harbor. By now, the place was getting packed! The aquarium had already closed ticket sales for the day!
Then we went to lunch at Dick's Dock Bar. It's a reastaurant we'd heard of and had been wanting to try. Essentially, the people that work there are supposed to be rude/sarcastic to the customers. If I were a waitress, it's the place I'd work! And they make you still hats with sayings on them. Mine said "I was really something before the kids", and Lucas' said "Dear Santa, Malibu Barbie please".
Then we headed to take a tour of the Torsk submarine next to the aquarium.
By the time we got done, we had to run back to the car and head to Rachel's 5th birthday party! Busy day...