Ewoks!

The girls were in a production of Star Wars in February. They loved it!

Sledding

It's officially winter here in South Dakota. I know this because a) the butter we leave out on the counter to be "soft" is rock hard in the morning b) my electric blanket is my best friend and c) when the forecast says temperatures will be above 40 degrees, we get really excited about how "nice" it's going to be. We've had two snows worth talking about, so yesterday we went up to hang out with friends in Custer and do some serious sledding. There were a few times we underestimated how fast and far they would go and our friends had to race after the sled to stop it from hitting the barn. After that we strategically placed adults at all risky areas.








So...other than that we are marking off days to Chrismtas, building our Lego advent calendar every night, and I am finished with classes for the semester after I turn in my last 3 assignments today and tomorrow. I am looking forward to a month off and engaging in all things Christmas.

Dear Santa

Linnaea and Elise decided to write letters to Santa today. Well, they dictated their lists to me and I wrote them down. Here are their lists, word for word. Please note these are not things we actually want them to have. It's just funny to see what they are thinking about.

Linnaea:

"piggy bank

roller skates

toy all black cat whose name is Ariel

Ariel doll with a white and pink dress and pink glass slippers and pink earrings

pink overalls with pink stars

glass thing like Sierra's thing

green computer that's real with a plug to plug it in

pink phone

baby with a cradle and a star nightgown"

Elise:

"another Ariel doll with a green dress

Cinderella doll, big like Ariel

Tiana doll

Briar Rose doll

glass thing like Rhiana

Hello Kitty doll

new bunny with a eye like Linnaea's [explanation: they both have identical bunnies, but Elise's bunny's string eye came unraveled and it hangs out]

Pinkalicious sticker book

purple phone

roller skates

Disney - write Disney on there so Santa knows we went to Disney

purple table

toy Santa

purple Briar Rose doll

purple booster seat

little table for Belle

little princess set like we got at the Toy Story store [explanation: the "Toy Story store" is actually Toys R' Us - we went there to get them Woody and Buzz dolls before we went to see Toy Story 3 two summers ago]

kitty toy one black and one purple

purple computer for us to play with"

Elise Singing

http://youtu.be/c6Fpf1T90Zk

Storybook Island

The girls got princess makeovers.

The Things Kids Say

Just had to note this funny conversation with Linnaea today. We're teaching her how to ride her bike, so I was walking next to her guiding her when she starts talking about getting bigger:

Linnaea: "When I get bigger, I can ride your bike, Mom."

Me: "Yes, when you get WAY bigger you can ride it."

Linnaea: "When I get stronger I can ride it."

Me: "Yes, you will get strong legs like Daddy's."

Linnaea: "But I'm probably going to get your arms."

Me: "What kind of arms do I have?"

Linnaea: "Your arms are kind of....kind of....sucked in."

I guess that's the nice way of saying I have bony arms.


And Elise was trying to steal black olives off the cutting board as I was cutting, and here was our conversation:

Me: "ELISE! What does Mommy have in her hand?"

Elise: "A sharp knife."

Me: "And what will happen if you put your hand in the way?"

Elise: "I'll get hurt, then you'll need to fix me with Fred."

Me: "Fred? Who's Fred?"

Elise: "No, fred. Like sew and fred." Oh. THREAD. She had just seen me use a needle and thread to sew Linnaea's Cinderella dress that morning.

Good Bye Winter...We Hope!

We have finally entered spring, at least we think. We have not put away our coats, boots, hats and gloves yet, just in case. I'm certain that as soon as we do it winter will return. In the meantime, we've been getting days in the 60s about every 2-3 days, and even a day or two in the 70s. Always windy, windy, windy. This weekend was like fall - rainy, dreary, and cold. But those nice days give us the strength to persevere!

Elise is doing really well at spelling and reading. She can read all words in the -at word family, most from the -et and -og families, and is very good at sounding other three-letter words out with our help and spelling them, too. She even arranged our magnetic letters to spell D-E-S-M-B-R and told us it was December. We were really impressed! Linnaea is really good at writing the letters but isn't showing as much interest in spelling as Elise is.



I found this picture hiding on my camera. It's the last snow we had back in March. The snow was finally wet enough for a snowman!





We went for a hike in Custer State Park on the first almost-80 degree day we had since October. It was beautiful! Here we are with our friends, Sierra and Bryce.





And here we are with Mommy.





Here we are on on of our 4 stream crossings. This is NOT the one Linnaea fell in.





Elise's new haircut. I love this picture and really wish it wasn't blurry!