From Mom

Dear G,

If you must unravel the entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet, PLEASE make sure that there is another roll in the cabinet beforehand. That was a brand spanking new Charmin.

You are soooo lucky I have a box of Puffs.

Love,
Mom

Good Morning, St Nicholas

After talking about St. Nick, being good, and leaving a shoe out tonight, Gavin decided his puddle jumpers on the stairs would do him the best. He swears up and down that he has been good and that he will wake up to find Monster Trucks.

I had to explain again that this isn't Santa, and they would be small gifts, in his shoes.

Or maybe just a wee bit more....

 I had the best of intentions to be up before Gavin this morning. I wanted to get a snapshot of him discovering that St. Nick had made a stop here. Instead I woke up to, "Mommy!! Come down here! There's presents!!!"

 How could I sleep through the excitement and wonderment?!

 Oh yes....because I'm not 3. And I like sleep.
{Yaaaaaawn}
But I'm pretty bummed I missed this initial discovery expression.

 "Mommy!! He brought Monster trucks!"

 Someone must think you're being a good boy lately...

 Let's keep it up, big man!
St. Nick left this good kid TWO monster trucks, a Santa pez, new jammies and some cookie cutters.
(that most likely will never see the likes of cookie dough)
But pancakes...Oh yes.

 I did get to witness his face when he discovered Firehose this morning! I, OH SO WISH, I would have had my camera glued in front of my face to capture that look!
It. Was. Awesome!

And so is Firehouse. For making breakfast :)

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

O Christmas (window) Tree

O Christmas (window) tree...how lovely are you decorated! ♪

I believe this will be the last piece of our Winter window. 

For the big finale, this boy was able to use scissors!

 It's kinda a big deal!

 Since he is just a beginner, I cut out the tree and glued on some "trim" of red garland and hot pink candy canes while he took a quick nap the other day. Tonight he cut out all the decorations...

  ...and glued them on.

 It's beautiful!!

Now I just need to pull all the elements together and get it displayed!

Counting down til Santa

The countdown has begun!
Although I've had the Christmas countdown app on my phone since it read "92 sleeps until Christmas."
This countdown I saw on Pinterest.

I made it with scraps of paper and alphabet stickers I had on hand. (notice I ran out of similar E's)

In attempts to reuse it every year versus making a new one, my wonderful Mom laminated it for me and I picked up some Velcro sticky dots.

It's perfect...

...except for one thing.

I totally screwed up and put a 25th on there. Santa comes the night of the 24th! Oops.
Guess we will add a ball of white every night before bed for the next day. As Gavin would say, "Is that better?" :)

Hotdog People

Gavin hasn't been feeling well the last two days and barely touched food. But today he woke up with a strong craving for hotdogs. Unfortunately for him, I made him wait until lunch time. 

Fortunately for him, I thought it would be fun to give them a little pizazz!

Hotdog people!

 I made three cuts into uncooked dogs. 

When you boil them in water, they bend up just like arms and legs.

"Now what, Mommy?"

I tried to explain how to only push the noodles in a little bit, but after several noodles shoved all the way through or breaking off, I finally made an example for him.

 He caught on quick!

They were a hit along side of some extra hotdog pieces and noodles.

Only thing missing was a bottle of mustard so I could have dotted on a couple eyeballs!

Milk Jug Snowmen

There wasn't enough snow outside, but there was enough stuff inside to create these Frosty wannabes.

After school and work the other day, I quickly cut up some foam and paper scraps...

 Then let Gavin design his own.

 I even let him use the glue by himself.

 I made one too!

 Without assistance, he mimicked the same mouth I had created.

They are going to look GREAT in our window once I add some lights and our snowflakes :)

A Christmas Story

Fall holidays be derned, we've got Christmas on our minds now. The other morning I was checking my email and turned to see this:

Gavin has a Fisher Price nativity set which occasionally seems slightly irreverent (especially when the angel on top of the manger is replaced with, say, a sheep) but mostly it's cute.

 

He had lined up all the figures and was telling a story. "Awwww. Everyone loves the baby. Watch out for the car. Come here, doggy!" He kept telling his story and moving Mary around this way and that. I was pleased at how nicely he was playing. And then...

I guess I forgot about the part where Mary hops on a sports car and rides off into the distance.

Followed by Joseph in a pick-up.