Christmas tree

Even though our new house has much higher ceilings than our old, I've been saying for weeks that we were going to use our old tree this year.  But suddenly on Thursday (two days before we planned to put our tree up) I decided we needed a taller tree.  On Friday, we went and bought a 9' artificial tree. I spent HOURS on Saturday (between the Christmas parade and the church Christmas party) shaping the branches.  John and I hung nine strings of lights on it.  After supper, John put the star on top and we hung our new ornaments for this year.  We saved the rest of the decorating for Sunday evening. Sunday afternoon Mollie Grace's dance class performed at a local nursing home.  

    

 John had to put the star on the top of the tree this year.  No one else could reach.

 This year's new ornaments -- Rainbow Dash (from My Little Pony) for Mollie Grace and World War I Flying Ace Snoopy for Ben.

 Elmo for Annie.  (Why does she stick her tongue out when I take her picture?)

 John helped the kids put their ornaments on the tree (while I took pictures, of course).

 Mollie Grace and Ben both thought climbing the ladder was great so most of our ornaments are in the center of the tree.

 Mollie Grace is on the front row, third from the left.

 Same elf hat as yesterday but without the stuffing.

 Everyone has an Elmo from their 2-year-old Christmas.  They hung them all together.

 One at a time, we all quit decorating except Mollie Grace.  Up and down the ladder she went.  You can see our new family ornament near the top left of this picture.  We purchased an ornament from the Memphis Zoo to represent our move in 2015.

This is the area of the tree Annie decorated.

December

Wow, it's December and I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving.  Here are some things we've been doing that past couple of weeks.

 We saw Peter Pan performed at the Theater on the Square in Memphis.  Annie liked the dancing pirates.  Mollie enjoyed every minute of it.  Ben thought they sang too much.

 Mollie and Pippi in matching nightgowns with their hair rolled for church.

During the week of Thanksgiving, we spent two days with MV and Janey at Nana and Grandaddy's house and two days with Mama and Daddy, but I didn't take any pictures.  Fran's Aunt Beth took pictures of all the kids together for Nana and Grandaddy for Christmas.  I'm posting a few outtakes that won't be on our Christmas card or Nana and Grandaddy's wall.  No one cried this year (may be a first) but Annie did add excitement by sticking her tongue out.

 And roaring.

This is how Mollie Grace felt after 600 pictures (I'm not exaggerating.  Beth uploaded 629 pictures for us to choose from!)

 Ben made this crash test egg car.  The egg did not survive this test.  It only cracked slightly so we had it for breakfast the next morning.

 Perfecting his egg car.  Eventually he created one where the egg survived the crash. I think it was the fourth attempt.

 Mollie Grace made her own sandwich.  Turkey, cheese, and lettuce with a banana on top.

 Ben is playing indoor soccer.  A coach watching the rec games asked Ben to play on his indoor soccer team the Desoto County All-Stars.  His first game was Tuesday.  They won 3-2 against the Hernando Lightening.

 The field is astro turf and the spectators sit behind plexiglass.  The game only stops when someone scores.  There is not out of bounds.  They play off the walls.

 That's Ben with the ball.  They wear their DCSA (rec teams) uniforms.  Ben is still #2.

 Annie found Mollie's lipstick.

 And then another tube the next day!  Annie obviously loves lipstick.

 Today Mollie Grace rode in the Olive Branch Christmas Parade with her dance studio.  They were elves.

 There is a weird glare on this, but it's Mollie Grace on the float before the parade.

 Annie and I waiting for the parade to start.

 Still waiting! Mollie had to be there an hour and a half before the parade started.

 The CK Dance float.  I never saw Mollie Grace.

 The big girls danced behind the float.

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And finally there was Santa at the end of the parade.

Annie fell asleep in her stroller as we walked back to the high school to get Mollie Grace off the float.

Four Days

I didn't post last week.  I can't remember what we did.  There is nothing written on my calendar and I didn't take any pictures.  Maybe we just stayed home?  This week we've had a lot more going on.

 Monday night I walked into Mollie Grace's room and found her (and her doll) asleep on her bed in a laundry basket covered with blankets.  I was afraid she would flip off the bed so I rolled her out of the laundry basket and covered her up with one of the blankets.

 Playing the tin whistle in CC.  This is Ben's third year to do the tin whistle and he's finally figuring it out.

 Tuesday we had a Thanksgiving meal and program at CC.

 The whole group sang the Timeline song up to Jesus the Messiah and sang the Ten Commandments.  Each class presented some of their memory work.  Mollie Grace's class sang the Greek/Roman gods and Ben's sang the list of prepositions.  I tried to take pictures of their individual classes but everyone has glowing eyes and looks really scary.

 Mollie Grace modeling the outfit she put together Wednesday.

 Dropped off our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes on Wednesday.

 This morning we went to Homeschool Day at the Brooks Museum.  We did a scavenger hunt through the American Folk Art exhibit and then participated in the drop-in art studio.  They are creating "whimsical" sculptures.  Shockingly Ben's isn't very whimsical.  It's a car.

The art museum is just across the park from the zoo. We had a picnic lunch and then Ben attended a class for homeschoolers at the zoo.  They dissected a squid.  Mollie Grace, Annie, and I hung out for a couple of hours while Ben was in class.  This was Annie's favorite part of the zoo.  All evening she's told us, "I played in an egg."

Seriously, the day is nearly over.  This evening Ben had his first indoor soccer practice.  He was supposed to start Tuesday but it was canceled due to the forecast of bad weather.  The wind was blowing so hard that night that we opened the back door to look outside and I almost couldn't get it closed.

This Week

  

 Mollie Grace and Annie washing dishes in their Waffle House hats.

 Mollie Grace and Annie "making salad" with a friend at soccer.

 Ben's last fall soccer game was Monday night.  It was a make-up game from a rain-out the previous week and only four players showed up.  They borrowed a player from another team and tied 3-3.  (Marquis, Ben, Jaylen, and Carson)  Ben is playing indoor soccer this winter so soccer really isn't over for him.  His new team is supposed to begin practicing this week.

 MawMaw Wilma and PawPaw Sherman sent each of them McDonald's gift cards for their birthdays.  We used all of them Wednesday.  They were excited about their Peanuts Happy Meals.

 Everyone sliding at the McDonald's Play Place.

Since it's getting dark much earlier, the kids found new ways to play in the evenings.  Since it was warm, they did science experiments on the back porch.  Tuesday and Wednesday they used an entire gallon of vinegar making volcanos with baking soda.  Here they are making glow in the dark dough.  

Things got a little too wild on Thursday when Mollie Grace colored the slime they made with entire containers of green, yellow, and blue food coloring then chased the boys around the yard with green slime hands.  I discovered this after the fact and was so freaked out that they were all going to be green for days that I didn't even take a picture before I put Mollie Grace in the bathtub.  I had to run her fresh water three times but she came pretty clean.  The ends of her fingernails still have a green tint.  I had to apologize to both neighbors for sending home green children.  

 Annie loves to "make cookies" with Play Dough.

 Mollie Grace is wearing my pajamas and socks (instead of folding her socks, underwear, and pjs).

 Rosie is doing school with Mollie Grace.

 On Thursday we made bird feeders.  Since we only have one baby tree in our backyard.  We hung them on the fence near the tree in Cole's yard.  We're hoping to attract some birds into our yard to watch for science.

 Mollie Grace taking a picture of herself taking a picture in the mirror.

 On Saturday we all went to the Peanuts Movie.  This was John's first trip to the movies in a decade.  I think Ben laughed harder than any kid there.  Since he's read so many Peanuts comics, he got all the jokes.

 Mollie Grace asked me to roll her hair in sponge rollers before bed last night.