Random December Happenings

John totally crashed on Daddy's lap after his birthday party, and we actually put him in the car totally asleep at 5pm to drive him out to dinner with the family. He woke up about half-way there, a bit crabby, then realized where we were going and very quickly got all excited.

Uncle James, Grandma and Pa met us for a pizza dinner and relaxing on the docks. John was spoilt with more birthday presents - including a remote-controlled car that's almost as big as him. His very own Monster Truck!

We also had John's 3-year-old Kindy Christmas night during the month of December, just after his birthday. We got a picnic dinner and joined all the other Kindy families on the grassed area of his school for eating. Then the kids went down front and did a few songs for all of us. And lastly they each got to visit with Santa and received a special book present from him. John spent most of the evening chasing his little girlfriends around the playground.

The night before Sydney's last day of school we had a Welcome Picnic for all the new Kindy families (which we are because John started 4-year-old Kindy at the school where Sydney goes). They had a bouncy castle, the new sensory play yard was open, and some of the High School girls were doing face painting. Sydney had Christmas holly strewn across her face, and she's especially excited in the below picture (taken on the last day of Pre-Primary) because the Principal gave her permission not to wash it off. They have a very strict uniform policy at school, even down to the color of their hair clips, so to be able to wear the face paint to school was a huge treat.
Before December started I wrote out a list of Christmas-related activities we could do over the 25 days of Advent. We were give a Gingerbread House kit by some friends, so of course this activity made the list of things to do. Unfortunately I didn't mix up the frosting very well and it was a bit runny, so about 5 minutes after this photo was taken we heard a "crash" and the entire house had caved in on itself. The kids weren't disappointed at all because it meant I let them start eating it rather than waiting for several weeks to tuck in.