Ice Skating and Snowflake Lane

The Christmas season continues and today was another success! We have been hitting all the seasonal spots, soaking in as much of the Christmas spirit as we can. We have even taken to detours through neighborhoods to look at people's lights and judge whether or not the people who live there have The Spirit! The Spirit is definitely alive in our house.

Since Val once took a month of ice skating lessons several decades ago and I have been to 4 hockey games in my life we decided that ice skating in Bellevue was a fantastic idea! We showed up early and got right in, which has been the story of the season because we seem to have missed the crush of the crowds everywhere we have gone. First ones in and when we leave the lines go on forever. I LOVE IT!

So, in classic Quiggle fashion, we laced up ours and the kids skates and as we got closer to the ice I expected refusal or at least hesitation. I got, "Let's go skating Dad!" from both Ty and Hailey. We proceeded to go round and round, hand in hand and somehow managed 1. Not to break any bones 2. Not to bruise any buns! I can honestly say I admire ice skaters more now than ever. I can't believe what those people are able to do on those awkward, uncomfortable skates! The kids loved it and I think we will refrain from bursting their bubbles that what they did was actually ice skating. Stand on skates while making rapid counterproductive motions with their feet while holding the hands of their parents who valiantly prevented their buns or heads from colliding with the hard frozen ice is more like it!

Well, durign snack after ice skating I looked at the forecast and our original plan for the music at Snowflake Lane looked like it had the potential to be a wet one. NO THANKS! So, we grabbed a bite to eat at Red Robin, checked out the Lego store and generally entertained ourselves for a couple of hours until the Snowflake Lane parade/whatever you call it began. We had a great time and it was well worth the all day trip. Hailey got pictures with a snowman, near a mouse, Rudolph and a

Now, I'm going to bed 'cuz my feet hurt!

Quiggle's On Ice!

Snowflake Lane!

The Best Little Drummer Boy ever!

Hailey hanging with her buddies!

The Snowflake Lane video experience. Feel the drums!

Hailey at School

Friday was the last day of school for both Hailey and Tyler. Tyler had jammie day at school which he was very excited about. He also was able to bring his teddy bear (they watched a short show) and didn't have to bring his red folder (which meant they weren't doing any "work"). Tyler thought it was a great did. They did fun things, had hot chocolate, and didn't have to do any school work.

Hailey's class invited parents in to join them for the last part of the day. At her age there isn't much parent involvement. For a lot of kids (excluding ) Hailey,k having mom around is too distracting and the kids start to get shy and withdraw to mom. So, it's nice when they invite us in. We were able to do several "stations" with the kids and then they sang us a song. Finally they had a "party" snack of pretzels with frosting and sprinkles to dip them in.

Playing Bingo. Sitting here at the table are 3 of the kids I hear her talk about often. Hudson, Lucas, and Addy (Addy also happens to be the daughter of someone Dave works with). There was also a play dough station, a beaded candy cane station, and a paint stamping station.

Class songs.

Ready for a yummy snack.

Memory Lane

A little trip down memory lane. I came across this video yesterday. It's from Nov '08 which means Hailey is around 19 months old. I remember trying to upload it at the time but it was way to big to load. Years later, I just brilliantly discovered I could upload it into our movie share program. This video floods me with different emotions. This seems like a lifetime ago. I so miss these moments and am so sad that I feel like I've forgotten most of them. I miss having little ones. But I don't miss the diapers, multiple wakings at night, and surprisingly, the naps. Outside of my walk down memory lane I was struck by how well Hailey communicated and talked at such a young age, her no nonsense attitude (if something is not right I'm going to let you know it) personality, as well as her sense of humor. And call me crazy but I think she might actually be "reading" the brand name on the crib :)...which as a side note is the kind of crib that is now outlawed. Oh the changing times.

Some key terms: "Ty Ty", "mimi "(binky), the alligator says chomp

I also miss my little lovebug. He's just cute and sweet.

It's a longer video but so glad I found it.

Sleepover

Tyler and Hailey had a sleepover in Ty's room the other night. Doesn't look very comfortable does it. No, Hailey did not make it all the way through the night.

Gingerbread Girl

Hailey made a Gingerbread girl named Hailey. It was herself, of course. She was ice skating. I love the curly hair.

Hailey's Christmas Program

Hailey preschool put on their annual Christmas program last weekend. Every class lines up on stage and does a song or poem and then the microphone is handed down the line for everyone to say their name. At the end all the kids come on stage to perform several songs together. The preschool program is always kind of interesting. The kids only kind of pay attention (they are very distracted by all that is going on around them) and don't really know the whole song.

I was curious to see Hailey on stage. Probably should be no surprise that she doesn't have any stage fright. She stood on that stage all business and belted out her song for the whole audience to hear. May be my biased ears but I'm pretty sure she carried the whole class for their 5 little frogs song.

Getting ready to sing. The boy on her left is Hudson. He's in her preschool class and we hear a lot about him. Apparently they are pretty good friends. The girl directly on her left is Amanda. Amanda isn't actually in her preschool class (she'd in the afternoon class) but is in Hailey's ballet class. Amanda seems to really like Hailey.

Ready to sing.

One green and speckled frog...... (the rest of the class has lost focus by this point)

"My name is Hailey, Merry Christmas"

Heeeeelp!

Group songs, Hailey is great at the hand motions/gestures.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas."

The red dress looked so cute on her....especially when you didn't witness the tears and tantrum at home about wanting to wear pants.

Decorating the Tree

Decorating the tree is a big deal around the Quiggle house. The kids love it. It's like Christmas is finally here. These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago now but fun to look at just the same. Tyler and Hailey helped Dave cut the binding off of the tree.

Tyler getting the tree all set.

Lights and beads up, now we are ready to decorate.

Tyler's favorite is putting up the star so once again that was his job this year.

Each year the kids get to pick out one new ornament. This year, Hailey picked out a bug.

Tyler picked a race car driver.

Last year the decorating was mostly done by Tyler. This year Hailey was ready to decorate too. They both worked hard and did a great job.

The finished tree.