Let the festivities begin...

The boys had their school Christmas show the other night. It is always a cute little play with the fifth graders having the speaking parts and the first through fourth graders in the chorus. I can't believe that next year Spencer will have a role in it.

Evan loves to dress up. He thinks wearing a tie and even a sport coat is about as awesome as it gets. When his teacher told the class to dress in their holiday best, he made sure to let me know. I ran out to Kohl's and found him a pair of dress pants and a sweater vest on sale with an additional twenty percent off coupon. I knew he would want a tie and we didn't have any Christmas ties or any black or gray traditional ties. The ties at Kohl's were not on sale except for a buy one get one half off deal. I didn't want two ties. I was about ready to give in and spend over twenty bucks on ties when I remembered this bow tie I picked up for Evan in October at my aunt's church yard sale in Wisconsin. He was thrilled. And also pretty stoked that other kids had ties on but he was the only one in a bow tie. I hope he continues to be eclectic in his clothes choices - I love his style.

Little sister would never miss an opportunity to ham it up with her brothers.

All of these shots are from far away with a less than stellar telephoto lens. They are not for framing, just for remembering.

The last song of the show is "Let there be peace on Earth" and as they sing they do the sign language for it.

Evan told me before the show that he was a little nervous that he didn't know all the hand motions. I told him just do his best and that I was sure that other kids felt the same way. Two of the teachers were out in the stage wings to watch if you got stuck and I could tell he was watching them a lot. He did a great job though - all the kids did.

Today Hailey had her class Christmas party. Trent took a personal day today to attend a funeral of one of his high school friends so he was able to come to the party for a bit before the service. Hailey felt pretty special to have both her mommy and daddy at her party.

She was also feeling special because I let her wear a Christmas broach that I used to wear as a little girl. Citing her Fancy Nancy books she told me that it was cool to wear an heirloom.

I was busy at the party trying to coordinate and help with the crafts so these are the three pictures I took. This one of Hailey with Olivia and Addison, two of her besties, listening to someones mom read a story made me laugh. They all kept bringing her books. She was probably thinking she wanted to be with her kid not hanging out with everyone elses!

We have more busy days in our near future. I hope to get some posts done before Christmas, but we shall see how it goes. At least there are two posts for December now.