Need I say more?

Don't think anything else needs to be said - except maybe - GO SKINS!

www.redskins.com/gameday/default.jsp?gameId=91

This picture best depicts the last month

EXHAUSTING!

So much to post and catch up on...

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.

The road to Christmas - Week 1

Last year was the first year that Andrew really understood Christmas and all the activities that lead up to the big day. So, this year we planned a flurry of activities beginning the weekend after Thanksgiving and leading right up to Christmas Eve. Of course, I forgot to factor in time for Mommy to get ready for Christmas! Guess that's my lesson learned for next year! Here's a quick look at the holiday fun we had:

The first weekend in December was filled with alot of activities. Saturday morning Andrew and I did a Candy Cane Hunt and Lunch with Santa with TAG and Olivia.

Andrew did not find many candy canes, but Olivia was nice enough to share several of the "winning" candy canes with Andrew so he could get a holiday tatoo and a little gift.

We headed home to decorate our gingerbread train. We've been decorating a train since Andrew was 2 and this year Andrew added a bit of his own decoration - several GI Joe figures were seated in the train with all the frosting and candy!

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Pump It Up in Leesburg to celebrate Hannah's birthday. Everyone had such a great time - kids and adults - someone mentioned that adults should rent out the place for adults only. I think that would be a great parent's night out!

After Hannah's birthday party, we headed into downtown Leesburg for the Christmas parade. We watched the parade last year and the kids loved it, so we made it an annual event. This year we had a special reason for going. Andrew, Olivia, Alexa and Samuel's teacher, Ms Katelyn, was in the parade with her dance troupe. So the kids had fun watching for Ms Katelyn and gathering up the candy that was thrown from the floats.

Sunday we were supposed to attend the annual Wolf Trap Christmas sing along with the Green's and the Satterpellaton's, but it was cold and rainy/sleety so we all opted for staying home - inside with a fire. We put up the Christmas tree and put the lights on it. I love putting up the Christmas tree, but HATE putting the lights on...next year we'll be purchasing an artificial tree WITH lights already on it!

Kindergarten insanity

I'm adding this to my list of things to blackmail Andrew with later in life. Andrew turns 5 next September which makes him eligible for kindergarten in Loudoun County - just barely (by 12 days!). While I do believe that Andrew will go to public school when he enters 1st grade, I feel like he needs to go to a private kindergarten. Loudoun County only does half day kindergarten, which means that Andrew would go to school for 2.5 hours per day and then be bussed over to Creme for after school care where I would still pay the same price for after school care as i do for him to go full time to kindergarten at Creme. And Andrew is terrible with change, so I don't want to send him to a new school for one year and then move him again when he goes to public school.
So, today is Creme's registration for 2008 kindergarten (beginning September 2008) and it's based on FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. Bear in mind that there are 54 kids in the 4 year old program now and at least 12 transitional kindergarten kids (kids who turned 5 after 9/30/2007), so the competition to get on of the 24 spots in the kindergarten class is tight. Last year parents showed up to stand in line at 4 am and the 2 classes were filled by noon. Olivia and Alexa are also eligible for and need to be at Creme kindergarten next year. As soon as the papers came out, TAG, Jen and I had e-mails flying around trying to plan for times to start camping out in order to ensure our kids get one of the coveted positions. We initially had planned that we would break the night into 2 shifts - the guys would handle midnight to 3 and then the girls would relieve them at 3 and remain until the kids were registered. Then, Jen realized that she was on travel - which meant that poor Brandon would have to pull both shifts.
Here's what ended up happening - Colin drove by Creme at 8 pm and 10 pm to see if anyone was waiting. Dan got in line at midnight and called Brandon and Colin each hour to give them the status on number of folks showing up. By the time the phone rang for the 2nd time at 2 am, I was awake and decided to head over to keep Dan company. By the time I got all the cold weather gear loaded into the car (it was 26 degrees here this morning!) and got to Creme building it was close to 3 am. I think Dan was very happy for some company. He was the first one to arrive and there was one other parent there before I arrived. Shortly after 3 am the parents started pouring into the parking lot with armloads of blankets, candy, donuts, coffee and chairs. Someone brought a radio and there were a couple of bathroom/coffee runs to 7-11 and Starbucks. TAG brought her camera and took pictures of all of us in our wintery weather gear. We were all very orderly - someone even created a list of everyone who was signing up in the order they arrived. By 5 am, there were 24 parents waiting patiently for Creme to open their doors at 6:30 and begin registration. I'm so thankful that is over...although the director of curriculum made a comment as i was registering about the letter that I would receive from the executive director that makes me nervous again. I guess I won't feel better until that stinking letter arrives next week!

Happy Birthday to Colin

Happy Birthday to my husband, Colin - better known in our social circle as Boot Camp Colin.
I love you honey!