Tea with My Little Guy

Every year at the Montessori school he attends, the kids host their parents for a Holiday Tea. Starting in early December they are able to "choose" this activity as one of their daily "works" and practice serving and having tea with another student. Then they invite one parent to have tea with them. I have been lucky enough to go each year with The Little Guy and he really loves this event. The activity teaches them manners and it is really cute. I am sad that this was his last year for tea but it is something he loves and we share tea pretty often so I know we can continue doing this together.
I've already told JP to be ready for many years of tea with Pickle and now his next daughter. I am sure they will prefer to have tea with Daddy instead of Mommy!

Pickle Rolls Through 2

Pickle's birthday celebration lasted a week beginning with her actual birthday on Monday, the 23rd. She started the day by opening presents and enjoying some cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

And more present opening later in the day . . . And talking on the phone . . .
And finishing the day a with a dinner of waffles and bacon . . . And topped off with a cupcake!We had a small party for her the day after thanksgiving that resulted in MORE presents . . .
And of course cake!A final present arrived last week . . . a very large dog! It was and still is a HUGE hit with Pickle!

Decorating the Tree

This year's tree decorating was successful, but it has gone downhill since Sunday night. Our beautiful tree seems to be slowly getting undecorated by the smallest member of our household. It still smells great and the lights are pretty but it's a bit crowded with ornaments at the top now.




It also looks a little sad without presents under the tree but since we will be seeing our family this year, no gifts have been sent so it will be a little bare until Santa comes. This is probably a good thing as I am sure there are some little hands that think they need to unwrap presents as soon as they arrive!

Stormy

Our Simple House had an interesting (?), exciting (?), and exhausting (yes) night last night. We had a rare rainy day yesterday that started light and gradual increased in intensity to a good steady rain and steady wind by the time we went to bed. Now, we have those wonderful attic vent contraptions that sound like jet engines when the wind blows so it was already a pretty loud storm when we turned out the lights. Around 11:20 JP and I woke up to a loud bang and bright lights outside our window which turned out to be the transformer exploding . . . needless to say the power was now out. Now having the power out in the middle of the night really isn't a big deal because it's not like we are running our heat; except we do have a little space heater in Pickle's room because she has a hard time staying under her covers and will wake up indignent that she is cold. Last night she woke up indignant (and a wee bit scared) at all the loud noises going on outside.

The wind had also blown open the door to our old metal storage shed and it kept banging around. So from about 11:20 to 12:30 JP and I listened to the shed door bang, the wind blow, and Pickle wimper. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and he went outside to close the shed and discovered the utility company already at work in our alley!

Quiet finally came back to the house until about 5:30 this morning when the chainsaws began . . . evidence that the workmen were still hard at work. The power was on when we woke up but was cut again around 6:45 (miraculously after the coffee finished brewing) so we had some early play time with headlamps and candles. The kids were fascinated by the big bucket trucks in the alley and the many workmen involved. It was an exciting morning at our house for sure!

Here it is . . .

The big news that we've been keeping a secret . . . we're having another baby and SHE will be here by May. Yes, I said SHE . . . we found out yesterday that we'll be having another girl. So that's it. That's the reason I've been so out of the blogging world lately . . . something about being nauseated and tired for a few months. It took all my energy to get up, go to work, and help with the kids each night. Now, I am feeling much better and have lots of energy which is perfect for this time of year.

We told the kids last night. Pickle really doesn't get it just yet, but she does love babies so I know she will be excited to have her own in the house. The Little Guy said "awesome" so we got his stamp of approval. He seems to be really excited about "being a big brother again" and about Pickle being a big sister.

I'm also really excited that my brother and his wife are also expecting a baby at the same time as us. It will be a lot of fun to have cousins so close together!

Stay tuned for several posts coming this weekend/ next week . . . will share pictures of Pickle's various birthday celebrations as well as scenes from tree decorating which we plan to do this weekend. I am also working on a post with before and after pictures of our remodel which I've been promising to do for over a month now!