Happy 4th Birthday Charlotte

Last month Charlotte turned 4 years old.  This has been a big year for Charlotte.  She got a new baby sister, started preschool, and has grown up so much! I interviewed her about her favorite things at age 4.

 What is your favorite color? green 

What is your favorite toy? baby dolls 

What is your favorite food? poptarts

What is your favorite tv show? Strawberry Shortcake

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? crackers with almond butter

What is your favorite outfit? Strawberry Shortcake pajamas

What is your favorite game? Headbanz

Charlotte is at such a fun age where she is learned so much and taking everything in.

What is your favorite snack? teddy grahams 

What is your favorite animal? zebras

What is your favorite song? Row Row Row Your Boat

Who is your best friend? Dean and Madison 

What is your favorite thing for breakfast? doughnuts

What is your favorite drink? milk

What is your favorite thing to play outside?  dig with a shovel and pail

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas and Halloween

What is your favorite thing to take to bed? my blankie (was there ever a doubt...) 


What do you want to be when you grow up? First she said a grown up, then a penguin,  then after some prompting and choices from me she chose a doctor. 

Winter Break

One of the best things about teaching is having holidays off with the kids.  We had two weeks at home together.  The first day of winter break I threw a kid's Christmas party at our house.  Friends in pajamas came to make Christmas crafts, decorate cookies, and just play together.

 

 

The week after Christmas we went to visit my family.  We even went to my Uncle's 60th birthday party and got to see lots of extended family. They had some fun minute-to-win-it games for the kids to play.

We also had lots of fun at home playing with new toys and old ones. 

I just had to throw in this last photo.  Apparently Charlotte was taking pictures of Trey one morning with my phone.  You can see Jay asleep in the background.  This is proof that he does sleep through anything!

Christmas Morning

I wrapped all the presents on December 23rd so when the kids woke up on Christmas Eve they were so excited about the presents under the tree.  It was hard to be patient and wait another day to open them! 

Santa brought Trey a robot, Charlotte a cash register, Esther an elephant toy that shoots out toy balls, and a stocking for each of them.

Coming down the stairs Christmas morning

Stockings were the first thing to be opened up. 

Next came the presents.  

 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I love everything about Christmas and the kids were so excited about decorating, celebrating, and enjoying the holiday season.

We got our tree up the end of Thanksgiving weekend.  The kids voted for colored lights again.

This cutie kept pulling off the bottom ornaments, lights and tree skirt.  I think she learned the word "NO!" because we told her that so much when she got near the tree.  

I had been eyeing this advent calendar from Pottery Barn Kids for a couple of years.  Right after Thanksgiving it went on sale so I finally bought it.  It is a perfect fit for our "Meaningful Christmas" ornaments that we put on the tree each day in December.  A few of the ornaments did not fit, so we wrote clues in the pocket instead and the kids had to find the ornament.

Charlotte's preschool had a float in the local Christmas parade.  She and Trey had a blast riding on the float and waving to everyone along the way.

This year we put up a Christmas tree in the kids' room.  They used it for their night light all of December and whenever they made an ornament at church or school it went straight on their very own tree.

I loved dressing up everyone in their Christmas outfits! 

Charlotte had a Christmas party at school and even Santa Clause came!

We took the big kids to Dollar General to pick out presents for each person in the family.  They both got really into picking the perfect gift for each person.  Then we helped them wrap their presents.

We celebrated Christmas a few days early with Jay's side of the family.  The kids loved their new cowboy/cowgirl dress up outfits, board game, and sleds!