How we spent our Christmas

If you don't want to see a boatload of images, turn back now!

You know I have a hard time narrowing down my images.  So in my attempt to share them all and reduce the overload a bit,I thought I would try to create some storyboards (which is still very new to me and the reason for the delay in sharing them.)

Now on to the day...which started very early.  At 06:00 Baba woke me up so I could get dressed and ready my camera.  At 06:10, the sound of feet could be heard emerging from someone's bedroom.  Enter Madeline, who graciously was willing to watch a show on TV while we waited for her brother to wake up.  At 06:15, we heard a very loud "Merry Christmas!" and in entered said brother.  Oh well.  By 06:17, the process of unwrapping had commenced.

The dumplings had made a few requests: legos, roller skates, clocks for their rooms, a baby doll, and a pedometer (for Caleb.  How cute!)  And just like the night before, Caleb quickly set to work on one of his lego sets.  Madeline got to work too.

Late morning found the arrival of my sister, Andy, their munchkins and Andy's parents, Phil and Marsha.  When Caleb opened his roller skates earlier, he had commented that we forgot his elbow and knee pads.  In actuality, his cousins had him covered.

Leah scored a cute pair of shoes.

My sister got a shirt we picked up while in NYC earlier this month (and a cookbook.)

Then it was off to Disney Vero for a delicious buffet.  The kidlets watched cartoons while we waited to be seated.

Josh got a little bit of love from all his adoring fans.

After a delicious and belt busting meal, the kids let out some steam by running around outside on the resort grounds.

This year they were roaring dinosaurs.

My sister and I had fun capturing each other capturing the kids.

And she (gasp) even managed to capture a shot of the four of us.  Yay!

We walked over to the beach.

And the fresh salt air found Patrick growing some new hair.

The kids managed to snooze on the drive back to the house, which meant they had plenty of more energy to burn off.

After eating some ham and Texas "caviar" (when we weren't even hungry), we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus  because my sister helped me salvage the butter cream frosting for His birthday cake.  Thank you, Deb! lol

I'm so thankful that my sister lives within driving distance so our kidlets can spend the holidays together.  I'm thankful for family and extended family.  And I'm thankful for God's love and grace and the gift of His precious Son!

I hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas!

Costumes and candy

This week the dumplings had a couple of opportunities to dress up and indulge in some candy eating.  Madeline's dance class had the chance to dress up during class this week.  I'm so glad they let us back there to snap a group photo.  Although she's partially hidden by sweet little pirate in front, you can see that she is a...drumroll please... Flamenco dancer.

I used McCalls 6418 to make the dress.

It really came together easily, although I didn't care for the zipper instructions.  So I just inserted it the way I wanted to.  It has three gathered layers for a lot of twirl power.  Gosh, I do love to sew for her.

Okay, back to the festivities...both kids had the opportunity to fill their bags with candy at our church's trunk or treat.  Caleb wanted to be an astronaut this year.  He loves to study science, so I'm not at all surprised by his costume choice.

Since it takes a long time to make your way through the line of trunks, we brought the stroller along.  Madeline was so funny getting her dress pulled up so she could sit comfortably. She's wearing six yards of fabric!

Madeline graciously let her brother rest in the stroller at times.  He's not a big gum chewer, but he thought he might chew some while he was waiting to move on to the next car.

Lollilops, of course, are never far from Madeline's mouth.  

Another favorite around these parts are Starbursts.  So we had some pretty happy kids.

And then after all the trunk or treating was over, the kids hit the bounce houses.  We actually packed a change of clothes for Madeline in case she couldn't bounce in her dress, but she did a fabulous job holding it up.  No wardrobe change was necessary.

Then it was time to head home.

And dig through each others bags at least one more time, looking for pieces to trade.

And there she goes again with another lollipop and her "I'm gonna look at my brother and pose" pose.

On Halloween night, we headed over to our friends' neighborhood to trick or treat with them.  This is how they passed out candy.

And here's our little candy eating crew.  The three big kids headed one way and the four little ones another.

The kids had a great time going door to door.  While a lot of people sat on their front porches passing candy out, some of them stayed inside and waited for little ones to ring the bell or knock. Well, Miss Madeline was so very eager to ring that bell.  She was too funny.

For more fun photos, stop by Lisa's blog.
Have a great weekend!!!