preschool programs

I'm really not sure when my little man became old enough to have a school program, but I guess he did. Somewhere along the last twelve months my baby converted in to a preschooler. Right before my very eyes. This transformation can be proven when looking back at last year's photo albums, catching a glimpse of a snapshot hanging on the wall and most of all when watching an old video. He's grown up in to a big, but ever so little man. My three, "but almost four year old" as he constantly reminds me, marked off another checkpoint of growing up. The first school program. And he rocked it, if I do say so myself.


The children filed in class after class and sat in the church pews in front of us. As soon as I spotted Mason my heart filled with pride and a smile crept across my face involuntarily. He was dressed in his most festive attire, a Santa shirt and a Santa hat. Ready to sing the songs he'd practiced so studiously.


At last, his class took the stage. He was front and center. His bright eyes began to scour the sea of people and recording devices, he was searching for a familiar face.


And then, he found it. There we were.


He had spotted Mommy and Daddy, eyes bright, smiling back, ear to ear. I'm not sure who was more excited, Mason or us. I'm betting we win that one though. I wanted to run out mid song and hug him, shake him and shout to the audience "HE IS MINE. ISN'T HE WONDERFUL? LOOK AT HIS SMILE. CAN YOU HEAR HIS SWEET VOICE? HE KNOWS ALL THE WORDS AND HE'S SO SHY BUT HE'S UP THERE - GIVING IT HIS ALL AND SMILING AND FULL OF PRIDE, JOY AND HAPPINESS. AND HE'S MINE. MINE. MINE. CAN YOU BELIEVE I MADE HIM. ME. THE BEST THING I'VE EVER DONE. I'M NOT SHARING HIM OR HIS SWEET SMILING CHEEKS EITHER PEOPLE!!" I resisted that urge. But seriously, in that very moment my heart wanted to burst. Full of happiness. Full of pride. Joy. Full of love for this sweet preschool nugget, that is all mine.


The concert ended and we snapped a few more pictures. We headed out for a celebratory dinner. Celebrating awesomeness and our first school program under our belt.

gingerbread adventures.

Those gingerbread house boxes you see at the grocery and craft stores. Yeah those, they are total false advertisement. The people smiling and icing the house with ease. Mmhm, that does not happen. Here is a real adventure in gingerbread house making. Maybe I should send those companies these pictures, but then sales may drop.

First of all, we sent Michael to the store with the mission of BUY BOXED, EASY TO ASSEMBLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE KIT. Michael walks in shortly after confirmation that the gingerbread house was purchased. We open the box, sort the goodies in to bowls, but umm...where's the icing honey? Oh that's right, we got a kit with icing you have to MAKE. And by the way, you have to add a shit load more water than it says. And with two extremely giddy, excited, impatient kiddos waiting around it's not the easiest route to go. Look at the amount of icing dust they packaged!!

I ate The boys used every sticky drop.


A lot of preparation went in to the building of this gooey wonder. Okay, so really Michael skimmed at the directions and Mason was fully intent making out with his mixer beater. But occasionally pretended to be focused on the task at hand. As usual, Michael got super in to the activity and before it was all said in done, I'm pretty sure we decided he could surely become an architect like tomorrow if he wanted. In the North Pole at least.

Do you see where the real interest lies? The beater. He is planning his tongue attack with great detail and lust. ICING & CANDY. YUM.


Max did what Max does best. Ate. He indulged himself in icing, candy and blueberries. The dinner of a champion. This baby has a sweet tooth like NONE OTHER. Seriously, it baffles me how much sugar he can consume without puking. It does totally show in his boisterous, banshee behavior. So serious about icing, he was double fisting.


Alas, our sweet finished gingerbread house. Will you look at that perfection. Who needs windows and a snowy roof? I mean what more could you ask for, each side of the house is staying put. Apparently, that's good enough for us.

Santa Claus.

Santa Claus is such a crucial part of Christmas for little kids. In Mason's eyes he is the ONLY one bringing gifts. We never even made a big fuss over Santa, but he IS Christmas for Mason. I was excited that this year, Mason was old enough to get the notion behind the magic of this holiday. His exhilaration for Santa and reindeer and tree lights is endless. We had reservations for breakfast with the one and only - yup, pancakes with Santa Claus. Mason seemed pretty excited yet a little apprehensive to actually meet Santa. All fun and games when that big man in the red suit is just an abstract concept, a picture on the page of a book, ya know?

So breakfast with Santa approached last Saturday. Mr. Fancy pants one and two in their ties loaded up for a feast with the bearded man, Mason excited and Max having not the slightest clue of what was to come. A few mentions of "I'm going to ask Santa for ____" blurted from the backseat on the ride to eat, a few shrill screams from Max in regards to the tie he hated so much. Excitement abound.



When Santa finally came out, Mason was strangely uninterested. Max was paying so much attention to the chocolate chips sprinkled atop his stack of pancakes that a real reindeer standing on our table wouldn't have made for much distraction. I was a little bummed, no one even cared. Was I more excited than my children about Santa Claus? Apparently I was.



Max was less than thrilled. Completely distraught. Hysterical. He took one look back at the exhausted, characterless Santa Claus and lost himself. I couldn't help but laugh irritatingly and snap away, while my poor helpless toddler sat there reaching for help, desperate for his life. Mason stood back just watching it all, refusing to render aid to Max. I finally nudged him over towards Santa and he let out his famous, ear to ear grin just long enough for a picture. Then he briskly forfeited his space next to jolly (er...barely breathing) old, St. Nick. Max was bailed out of Santa's lap and we were done. Done with Santa.



So we like the idea of Santa Claus, sneaking in to our house while were all snuggled in bed, leaving lots of goodies beneath the tree. But meeting Santa, conversing with that man, no thank you.

eve.

'twas the night before christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring. not even a mouse.

well maybe a busy mommy and daddy elf were up helping santa get the G house all ready for a great christmas morning. every hour of missed sleep was worth it. all for THIS.

fa la la la la.

happy holidays and merry christmas from my family to yours!

adventures of a gingerbread house.

'tis the season to be...making gingerbread houses. mason was stoked, i was a little apprehensive and thank you to the make it easy kits we were set.

here are the marci & mason 5 simple steps to gingerbread house failure.

disclaimer: your toddler will have sticky hands and excess energy for approximately 68 hours after creation of gingerbread wonderfulness.

step 1:

ice roof and walls together with loads of icing, while licking your fingers deliciously. let "foundation" sit as long as possible.

step 2:

again use insane amounts of icing, glob on roof stickiness and spread with cheese knife (or any utensil that's not dirty in your dishwasher/sink).

step 3:

bust out the candy and release toddler in all of his or her excitement. try to limit amount that is eaten but don't be a grinch. what'd you expect? them to really decorate without eating it? riiight.

step 4:

toddler has lost interest. hope your roof doesn't collapse, like ours.

step 5:

if mommy didn't eat half the icing you're sweet house would be whole. maybe.

daddy m ended up fixing our house and decorated it himself. oh to be a kid again, even for thirty minutes while decorating your child's gingerbread house. that's what the holidays are for.

santa success.

we saw santa; they cautiously liked him. mason was a little confused as to why he couldn't get his toy he requested now. i mean after all he's been so good all year, even with the occasional meltdown. see mason, santa comes ONE night, not all of december, or all year like you may think. trust me, your getting what you asked for, just not today.what you didn't really think i got them to smile...did you?
by success i meant no one escorted us out of santa's workshop with screaming children.

oh christmas tree!

thursday night we got our tree all set up. mason had a blast helping this year, i love that he's getting old enough to partake in all the fun seasonal events and really gets it. he kept telling me while pointing to our fire place "that's where santa is coming down to bring me presents!" eh something like that huh? ;)nough talking here's the pretty tree and our cute new pottery barn stockings! i went traditional and simple because that's our style. i decided we'd start an annual tradition of letting the boys pick one ornament each year to add to our tree. this year mason picked a fireman santa, pretty fitting since he loves fireman stuff. max hasn't "picked one" i guess mason gets to pick one for him too! then mason hung some ornaments for us. like this. and this.

we "made" cookies. better yet, pillsbury made it easy. but they're JUST as yummy!

i got extra festive and had christmas music playing, on youtube. we're so 2009.
santa, we're ready!

oh, speaking of santa we're going to see him in a few hours. mason's already protesting sitting on his lap. this oughta be interesting.