Ethan Skates!

Before you read this post, please know that:

1. We are not crazy hockey parents (yet). We do enjoy a good hockey game, but neither of us played (Amy-none, John - more of a spectator outside a little neighborhood goalie work in elementary school). We must, however, reserve the right to evolve into crazy hockey parents if Ethan pursues this sport. If this does occur, we will be crazy hockey parents with good manners and a well-grounded perspective on recreational sports, we promise.

2. We are not pushing our children in the direction we think they should go based on our unrealized childhood dreams of sports greatness.

To be truthful, we must admit we have actually been a bit "slow footed..." excuse the pun... couldn't resist...getting Ethan to the rink. He's been asking to take ice skating lessons since last winter and has been playing garage floor/driveway hockey with an old stick and puck of John's that he found in Grandpa Grilz's garage in the summer of 2006.

After a trip to the legendary Strauss Skate shop in St. Paul to be outfitted with new skates, elbow pads and helmet, E's dreams of ice became a reality last Saturday when he started ice skating lessons.


For the first lesson, the kids learned how to fall down safely, then practiced getting up/falling down, then tried to skate along a line the coach drew, and fall down safely on the target spot.

Here he goes...in the orange pants with the blue stripe. The kids learn in groups of four, which is really great.




So far, so good. Watching the coach draw the fall down spot.


Getting the hang of it!

Balance looks pretty good...

Wipe out! Even falling down is fun.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Decorating the tree this year was especially fun, and refreshingly easy...we are loving the almost five and two and two-thirds age stage with the kids. Everyone was in good spirits, there were plenty of ornaments to go around, each child had his/her own box of special ornaments to put on the tree and we played lovely Christmas music to set the decorating mood.

Ethan was very precise in ornament placement. He also loved hearing all the stories behind his and Mary Kate's ornaments as well as those about Mom and Dad's, Grandma and Grandpa Grilz's and Papa and Nana Wheeler's. All those stories made for a fairly long afternoon of decorating, but we really enjoyed telling the stories. For the past couple weeks, Ethan has been retelling some of the stories he heard and it's been fun to listen to his versions.



Mary Kate focused on reaching as high as she could every time she put an ornament on. The paper chain in this picture was created by the kids using paint and glitter. It is very beautiful and they are extremely proud of it.



And Daddy gave each one a ride to the top of the tree to put an ornament way up high.

Moms and Muffins

Every December, the preschool class hosts a special event for Moms called Moms and Muffins. The kids help the teachers make placemats, bake muffins and serve "tea" (apple juice in tea pots) for all the Moms.

This year's event was held on December 5th. It's a very special day and the kids were wonderful, treating the Moms as very special guests. Each child got to come out to the hallway to escort his/her Mom into the classroom and show her her place/place mat. All the children had such good manners, it made all of us Moms proud. And reminded us how much and how fast they've grown since our special Moms and Muffins day last year.

Story Time with Santa

The last two days here have below zero, which has limited outdoor activities. So since we're pretty much stuck in the house, it's a good time to post an update which is a bit overdue. Sorry!

Today we did actually venture out of the house to drop off the gifts we collected for a family through Trinity Mission. It warmed up to zero degrees from a morning low of 8 below, so we threw caution to the wind, warmed up the van, and made the 10 mile round trip to St. Andrew's and back home.

Some highlights of what we've been up to...way back on Dec. 2nd, the kids enjoyed story time with Santa at St. Andrew's. We got there a bit early to browse the book fair and the kids got seats right up in front.

I was wondering if MK would bolt when Santa arrived, but she loved every minute of story time with Santa. Until it was time to go sit on his knee. Not to go off on a huge tangent, here, but I am wondering who came up with the idea to put kids on the lap of a total stranger with an unnatural amount of facial hair in a shockingly red costume? Mary Kate did go up with Ethan and had a very brief chat with the big guy. But she was fairly luke warm in her enthusiasm for the whole sit on his lap/get up close and personal with a giant white beard portion of the event.

At the book fair, the kids got to write their name on a drawing slip for a special prize. After story time with Santa, the elf drew the names of four lucky kiddos who got a special gift from the pre-school...handed to them by Santa...you would not believe how silent that room got when the names were being drawn. After each name was announced all the kids (I'm guessing there were 60) got so excited for the winners...it was fabulous. Ethan's name was drawn, and he got to go up and receive a prize from Santa. In his package were two books...one he gave to MK...what a generous big brother.

Dad snapped a quick picture of the kids trying out the elf's stool before the festivites began. I think Ethan picked up on Mary Kate being new to this whole "Santa" thing, as he kept telling her, "It's OK, Mary Kate." He also stuck close by her side, showed her where to sit, and put his arm around her when they sat down.

Mary Kate shows off her cuteness...

And her silliness. This is her famous "fish lips" pose. Guess who taught her that? Aren't big brothers wonderful?

Ethan receiving the special present from Santa. His eyes got as big as saucers when his name was called. He couldn't believe he won!

Mary Kate decided to stick her fingers in her mouth the whole time we tried to get a picture with Santa. Classic nervous-kid behavior. We got her off Sant'as lap there pretty quick so as not to traumatize the poor kid, or start a massive toddler crying chain reaction.

After storytime, we had cookies and then went for a drive to look at Christmas lights. It was a great night!