Xander's Holiday Concert

Xander's first grade class did a cute holiday program on school Friday morning.  He was in the "50's rock" number and did a really good job.  I posted a video from my youtube account.  Hopefully it works for you. (Xander is kind of in the back on the left of the video.)  

2 year old fun

Well, almost two that is.  Juliet turns 2 at the end of December, but she is already getting into trouble and throwing fits as good as any two year old.  During a 30min phone conversation she managed to dump a whole water bottle out on my bedroom rug, get into the toilet, and color herself green.  I must add that it could be worse, like red punch or drawing all over the walls.  Ella was on that level.

She sure is cute though and loves to do whatever Ella does--wearing her helmet.

 And hiding in random places.

Maggie's Harp Recital

Maggie had a harp recital today--her first one since starting harp about 12 months ago.  She did a great job with her piece called "Country Dance" by memory.  I took a picture with my iPhone of all the students.  It didn't turn out great, but it was all I had in my purse.  

Here are videos of Maggie playing her song.  I also recorded her teacher playing.  It was so incredible if you want to take a look.  She is the blond adult in the back row of the picture.  She has a Masters from a UK school in harp performance.

Christmas music

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. . . . NOT.  (An emphatic not because whenever I start singing that song around him, he is pretty emphatic that he wants other things.) I want a remote control heliocopter, or a fighter jet, or ninja legos.  

O Tannenbaum O Tannenbaum, how lovely are your branches. . . not to mention the lego village.

Ella's 4th Birthday

I guess I will take a big jump from Halloween to Ella's Birthday.  We did have a nice Thanksgiving holiday, feasting with the younger Bruschke's and Craig along with some friends from the ward, the Claytons.  Then on Friday we meant the Bruschke's on the east coast to enjoy Carl's Jr and some fun riding in a surrey and walking the dogs--in a Singapore thunderstorm.  We all got drenched, and then dried over the course of the meal.  It was great fun. No pictures though--so sad.


A few days later, we celebrated Ella's birthday.  She has talked about it for weeks and finally she got to celebrate with balloons, presents, cake a her brother and sisters.  There was only a major squall over the balloon with Juliet.  Telling her she would get one in a month on her birthday didn't work.  Nor did telling Ella to try and share it.  She had a "4" cake and as much pink as I could manage to make of her birthday, as she constantly reminds me that is her favorite color.

Family Picture

This was a casual attempt to get a decent family picture that is more currant than others.  It was so sunny before church that the pictures turned out a little darker than I would have liked.  This was the best one I guess.

Halloween

I must admit that Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays, but I'm a good enough sport and we made it through all the festivities yet another year.   It begins with picking pumpkins at the school "pumpkin patch;" very expensive pumpkins imported especially for the holiday I might add.  This orange variety doesn't exist here.  

Then the fun part.  Pumpkin guts we call it.

The final results.  They were supposed to make the face of their pumpkin for this picture. 

 School parties.  This is Xander's first grade class.  Ella got to go to the party and she just fit right in.  

Getting ready for trick-or-treating.  We had dinner with the Bruschke's then headed out into the mobs of people that crowd the streets of the little American community up here.  This year we had a bat, a pioneer, Harley man again, a witch, and 2 ninjas.

Maggie is on a no candy or junk food diet for a year so she handed out candy for Cami.  Abigail and Breann ended up selling water bottles towards the end of the night and made some money.  That was the highlight for her this year.

Hope your Halloween was as spooktacular as ours.