Christmas Break, or The Rest of the Story

Christmas Break was supposed to be a great opportunity for Mac and me to make some Serious Headway into getting the house ready for putting on the market this spring.  Mac started off with the aforementioned master closet door project, which after many hours and layers of paint and spackle looks OK.  If you don't look too closely, you don't really notice that the door frame is slightly uneven.  And having bi fold doors is a BIG improvement over the unyielding slide things we had originally, years ago.

Mac "fitted" these bi fold doors into our closet opening (we had no doors at all!), and he put up the crown molding.  Crazy how much time this project took!!

Another project was clearing out the play room in the basement. This involved removing a very large bookcase which we called "The Tower of Pisa" because no matter what we did to this bookcase, it would always list over to one side. This bookcase has traveled with us from our first apartment, to the house in Yakima, and then across the country to the basement here. We decided it was time to just get rid of it!! And so we did. We also donated many of the unloved and unused toys, and we tried to declutter the basement play room... It's a work in progress.  Mac repainted the basement, and it looks nice and bright now. Alas, no pictures yet because while it looks nice, it's not quite THAT nice.

We tried to fit in some fun activities for the kids while we were all on break.  Steven and Isabel had a lot of swimming practices, most of which weren't so much fun.  Mac had a lot of trips to Home Depot, and I spent a lot of time trying to stay one step ahead of Mac and his projects... 

But we did fit in some genuinely Fun Stuff.  One day we took the kids to an indoor play area filled with giant bouncy type toys.

Steven's not quite too old to enjoy the slides!

Isabel spent a lot of time trying to capture that yellow flag.

She finally did, after about 15 minutes, and then she gave the flag to some of the younger kids.

Josie is fearless.

Luke was hard to find in this place since he ran around to all the toys so quickly- now you see him, now you don't...

Steven helped Josie climb to the top...

Checking out the view from way up there...

Playing is hard work...  We loved these cute water fountains- great for preschoolers but a tad too short for people over 40" tall.

Over break we also took the kids to Chuck E Cheese.  We rarely go there anymore (so tragic), so it is a treat for almost everyone when we do go.  I didn't manage to get any pictures of Luke there, as he was taking Full Advantage of video gaming and wasn't really in camera range, but I did get some pictures of the others...

Steven is sporting his new hat- University of Maryland gear.

The basketball machine was broken so they could shoot to their hearts content, no tokens required...  But sharing is always tough.

Who is that?  Looks like a bolt of lightning...

Maybe not EVERYONE was happy to be at Chuck E Cheese.

Those were really the Big Outings of Christmas break.  There were some random playdates and what not thrown in there, but mostly it was a working staycation!  Mac only had 7 days off.  No one really complained much about the lack of planned activities although since I'm the Cruise Director, I felt a little bit disappointed that I hadn't forced MORE fun times on everyone.

Mac took call over New Years Eve and New Years Day and he liked it SO MUCH that he kept on taking call for half of January.  Well, he took call all those days because that was the schedule more than because he loves taking call.  But nonetheless...  That's what happened to Fun Family Outings.  Nothing gets planned on a call day... 

So our big New Years Activities involved...  a special swim practice: The New Years' Distance Challenge.  Isabel and Steven both went to the challenge to see how far they could swim in 3 hours.  Fun, right?  Isabel ended up swimming 6500 meters (Woot!  That's a lot!!  She was expecting maybe 3500 meters, so achieving this number is a huge confidence boost for her!) and Steven hit 10,000 meters.  His blood sugar dropped down to the 40s while swimming the first hour (yikes) but after some juice, he kept on going.  He made his goal!  And no ER visits required, which is always a bonus.

Here are some other random Christmassy activities that we did, if not exactly during break...

Before break even started, we went to the Build a Bear Workshop, where they happened to be having a Very Big Sale.  The four kids were able to build their own bears for a fairly reasonable price, and the Super Deal included an outfit for the bears.  Building bears and dressing them up occupied the kids while Kate and Mac were visiting the Apple Store to get Kate's broken iPod replaced.  Win Win for everyone, especially the Visa.

Josie named her friend "Nina", and she was adamant that Nina would have a Tinkerbell Costume and a tiara.  Of course. 

Here is Luke with his friend, the Monkey who is a Padawan, just like Luke.  He named the monkey "George".  The lightsaber was an extra charge, OF COURSE!  But doesn't the little lightsaber just make the outfit?

Isabel and her beautiful polar bear, which she named "Katie".   Everyone say "Ahhhhhh!"

Steven's stuffed puppy dog (named "Harry")is an Oriole baseball player.  Steven prefers Orioles to the Nationals, and so I guess we can call this a souvenir?

Now, you may have noticed Steven's rather impressive hairdo.  This is the way his hair looked from morning to night, and no amount of gel could make it flat.  His hair had so much dried on chlorine from all the swimming.  It was just awful!  But after Christmas, we took an outing to a military base with a commissary and a PX (post exchange- more shopping but tax free HOOAH!), and Mac took The Boys to get haircuts by a real military barber while I took "the gels" shopping.  Happily Steven's hair looked 100% better and felt better after the haircut, but I'm pretty sure it will return to this state of defying gravity soon enough.

Another activity we did well after Christmas break was over (don't judge!) was building a gingerbread house village.  I found a very cute village set at Bed Bath and Beyond which allowed each kid to build their own little villa.  Believe me, getting them all to work on ONE house together would not be advisable...

What do you mean when you say the candies go ON the house?  Do you mean IN my mouth?

Clearly some candies got ON Josie's house.

Luke the character

He REALLY loves building stuff.

After the trauma of trying to get the house to stick together, which required several different rebuilds, Isabel finally succeeded in building a lovely house.

The architect...

And here is the village.  It takes a lot of frosting and a lot of candy to make a village.  Clockwise from the top left:  Josie, Luke, Steven, and Isabel.

And that was what we were up to for much of Christmas and January.  We had a fun Christmas, with a laid back schedule, but we managed to keep fairly busy and make some memories in the process!

Christmas Chaos part 2

We had a busy Christmas Eve, and a busy Christmas morning where we opened our Santa gifts, Mac made a Big Breakfast, and we just took it easy in general!

The kids were, of course, dying to get to the opening presents bit.  So, after a few hours, we decided to send them all downstairs where they were to wait until we had set up all the gifts and were prepared with our video cameras for The Grand Present Opening Celebration of 2011. 

Yes, that is an obnoxious amount of presents.  But there are 7 people in the family, and the tree is only a 4 footer!!  But still, over the top.

Once Mac and I had set up all the gifts, we had the kids run upstairs to get to it.  Every year we try to institute some type of organized gift-opening process.  This is hard to do with preschool aged kids!  If left unchecked, Josie will just unwrap everything in sight!  And with Mac manning the video camera only, I guess it's my job to be The Hammer and institute order.  It worked for a little while, and then like a fledgling democracy, it all just fell apart.  But I think everyone had fun...

Josie opens one present- a Pocahontas doll.  Ooooooohhhh.

This Angry Bird toy was WAY bigger than I expected it to be...  But Steven seems to love it.

Isabel asked for (and received) a LOT of books this year.  She loves all the American Girl "smart girls' guide to..." books.

Katie was a little amazed that I managed to buy her books she had read already (several times) and even one that she already owned but had lent out to a friend...  We sent the books back to Amazon, and she was able to pick out books she ACTUALLY wanted to read...

A boy and his stingray; it's a beautiful thing.

Anyway, the kids each got a Good Haul.  Their gifts occupied them for a while.  Here's a breakdown of their gifts-- at least what I can remember...

Josie:  Several "Little Critter" books, some Princess dolls, a Barbie, 3 sets of wooden play food (she LOVES to play with these), an electronic "touch pad" toy that she mostly ignores, and some other stuff that I can't remember right now...  Her special Secret Santa gift was from Steven, and he gave her a fairy dress-up outfit and a Princess Cell Phone toy which started to malfunction almost immediately, but she still uses it to talk to her imaginary friends to arrange playdates.

Luke:  Lots of Galactic Heroes (star wars) figures, the Skylanders video game (which was a HUGE hit), a shark and a tree frog Webkinz, the sting ray stuffed friend, and several books about marine life, which he loves.  His Secret Santa gift was from Isabel, who gave him a small Star Wars lego set and a light saber.

Isabel:  Lots and lots and lots of books.  Several Dear Dumb Diary type books, as well as the American Girl books, and some journals and stationary sets.  She also got some DS games, a barn-owl Webkinz, some headphones (that Kate wanted to steal right away), and some clothes and winter wear.  Her Secret Santa was Kate, and Kate got Isabel a dress from H&M.  Will Izzy ever wear it?  She says she will...

Steven:  Some lego sets, some books, a Webkinz Winter Fawn, some clothes (including some stuff from the University of Maryland which Steven is really into right now), the Harry Potter Wii game, and a Pirates of the Caribbean lego DS game.  Steven's Secret Santa was Luke, and Luke bought Steven an Angry Birds winter hat and some special candy from the special candy store in the mall.

Katie:  Gift cards were the main thing this year.  I got her the books which were a bomb, but she ended up getting books she wanted eventually.  I got her some bath stuff which she did not like (apparently she has never liked Sweet Pea scent from Bath and Body Works but I always give her Sweet Pea...).  I did get her a North Face fleece jacket (she took it back because it was too big), and two scarves.  I also got her several sets of little earrings since she decided to pierce her ears all the way up the cartilage.  She just did it "in her room" but she "was really careful" and "cleaned everything with alcohol wipes."  I'll touch back on this whole issue of cartilage earrings in a second, but to finish up the Christmas Presents for Kate, she DID manage to be happy with her replaced iPod even though it's an old one (3rd generation).  We replaced it for her just before Christmas at the Apple Store (Mac did this- Mac is a genius at getting people to do nice stuff for him-- and the guy allowed Kate to trade in her non-functioning 64 GB iPod touch for a NEW and functioning 64 GB iPod touch for only $79-- What happened to the OLD iPod (last year's Christmas gift)?  Well, Kate carried it with her to swimming inside her backpack and the shampoo in her swim bag exploded all over her iPod, so it's basically filled up with shampoo.  So toast.)  Kate's Secret Santa gift was Fancy Makeup from Josie- glittery eyeliner.  Kate has even given Josie makeovers using this glittery eyeliner.  Bonus.   

Anyway, to retouch on the Story of the Cartilage Piercings...

So anyway, Kate put in the new earrings from Christmas, and wore them CONSTANTLY for about 3 weeks, and then her ear "ate" one of the earrings.  Really gross!  Mac says he sees this all the time with cartilage piercings, and he was worried he was going to have to bring her into the clinic to get her ear drained and cleaned out.  The ear was swollen, the infection was spreading, and then Kate somehow pushed the earring out of her ear and removed it.  (For a girl who faints at the sight of other people's blood, she has a remarkably high threshold for grossness with her own blood, etc..)  Anyway,  Mac squeezed the pus out of it (gross gross gross) and Kate started on antibiotics...  Luckily the infection backed off quickly with the meds and the "intense cleaning".  I don't know what will happen to Kate's cartilage now though...  But the earrings for Christmas?  Probably not a gift she's going to wear again...

I got Mac a few things, including a headlamp for his dorky surgery stuff and what not.  He likes to wear headlamps instead of hold a flashlight in general.  I ordered him a laser pointer that he really wanted.  He picked it out in fact, so I don't know that it counts as a "gift".  I got him some DVDs that he's really not interested in watching, since they aren't involved with studying for his Boards and that's about all he's interested in watching... 

Mac gave me a couple of pairs of boots that I chose and ordered.  But he knew about it, and I've been enjoying my new boots. 

Anyway, it was a good Christmas...  Even Kate enjoyed her gifts after she returned everything she could!

Christmas Craziness part 1

It felt like Christmas came very early this year!  The kids had school on December 23, but Mac did not have to work.  He got a head start on some projects around the house, getting ready for the Big Move and (hopefully) a quick sale of our home. 

On December 24, the twins were involved in swim team activities almost all day long.  They started off with a fun practice, with lots of games and relays, followed by lunch at Cici's Pizza (amazing how much pizza Luke can eat-- truly.  He's a little guy, only weighs around 60 pounds, but he can eat at least 1 whole pizza all by himself PLUS cinnamon buns, etc., etc.).  Mac met us for pizza, having worked all morning on our master bedroom closet project.  Funny that wasn't even a project on My List...

After pizza, we headed over to a soup kitchen ran by a Catholic church in the area.  The church does not accept any state funding, so it's an interesting place.  It's really great, actually!  All the donations come directly from people from the community.  This ministry has been going on for years, and our swim coach has been a part of supporting it for ages.  About 20 kids from the team stuffed donated socks with all sorts of toiletries for the patrons of the soup kitchen.  The idea is that the homeless need to carry all their belongings with them at all times, and to have a sock filled with small trial sized toiletries is an easy thing for them to carry and to enjoy.  The kids also worked on Christmas cards to hand out while they were eating lunch.  It was a good time, and the kids really enjoyed it.  Josie even got into the spirit, and she loved stuffing socks, but she was a Very Tired Girl so we all headed home after stuffing socks.

Back home, Josie took a rest, the kids did their usual Wii-playing, and Mac went back to work on the closet doors.  We bought bifold doors to fit a 48" opening, but our opening was "just shy" and so...  Mac decided to Make It Fit.  He eventually did, after several days, and it is nice to finally have closet doors in our bedroom, but the project took over 3 weeks to complete... 

Also, on Christmas Eve, we made gingerbread cookies.  This was a big thing.  I had to get out the rolling pin and the cookie cutters and get to work.  I have never made gingerbread cookies, and I have never rolled out cookie dough and cut cookies with the kids before either. The kids had fun cutting their cookies out, and decorating them.  It made me remember making cookies with Great Grandma, of course!  The cookies were delicious, and it's a good thing we made them right before Santa came, otherwise I think he would've missed out entirely. 

Josie loved making gingerbread girls (or gingerbread gels as she pronounces it-- gels with a hard g, not to be confused with the stuff you put in Steven's hair to try to make it flat.

Isabel really loves baking!  And she was very careful about which cookie cutters to use.  And which decorations to use.  And how many cookies to make.  She's a cautious girl.

Luke did manage to get some cookie decorations on the actual cookies, even though it looks like the baking sheet got most of the sprinkles!  (Note to self:  use parchment paper.)  He made a good variety of gingerbread people- a whole village worth, in fact.

Steven was mostly interested in eating his cookies, but he did a great job decorating them as well...

Yummy!  You can see the different decorating styles of Luke and Josie.

So proud of her darlings!  She spent so much time making her cookies just perfect.

Christmas Eve was very busy.  At one point in the day, Mac remembered that he needed to go shopping.  So he took the kids out to Walmart (ugh) to buy a Christmas gift for me.  I may have finally convinced him that next year, if he wants to hit a home run in the gift department (or even if he wants to make a bunt) he should go to a store I actually will shop at.  I have no problem with Walmart necessarily, but I just can't stand the layout there and am always underwhelmed by the quality of stuff.  I am a Target girl.  What can I say...

We ended the day by putting out the gingerbread cookies for Santa...

Oops!  She forgot to sign her plate...

That's better.  And with a Sharpie, no less.  Perfect.

Since I can barely read this, I'm guessing most other people can not.  My ever humble Steven wrote:  "A cookie for Santa, From Steven the great." 

And here are the girls, under our amazing tree (amazingly puny!), imagining how thrilled Santa will be when he sees all those cookies!!  And Luke also left Santa a hand-crafted gift.  Santa appreciated that gesture, and left Luke a nice little thank-you note.

What else did Santa leave the kids?  Well, even though Kate did NOT leave Santa a cookie (she did deign to eat several of them), he did leave her a gift along with the gifts for her siblings.  Here is what they all got from Santa:

Josie:   Lollaloopsie dolls

Isabel:  a book called "The Double Dare Book for Girls"

Luke:  a Jedi costume

Steven:  a Large squishy Mariners ball-pillow thing

Kate:  a gift card to Charlotte Russe

Since we didn't have any plans for Christmas day, and had no where we needed to rush off to, we stayed in for the rest of the day.  Mac and I let the kids enjoy their Santa Gifts for a while...  Then came the time to open The Rest of the Presents...

Tom Dolan Invitational

Tom Dolan Invitational, December 8-11, University of Maryland

Steven has been training for the Tom Dolan Invitational ever since he qualified last spring.  He initially qualified in the 50 yard butterfly, then the 100 yd breast.  Over the course of this current swim season, he qualified for more events.  At Tom Dolan, he swam 7 events plus 2 relays, which was the maximum number of events he could have swum.  And really,  I wonder if that was too many events because the meet moved along quickly and he only had around 10 minutes of rest between events on most days!  He was quite exhausted by the end of the each day.

In all, it was a great experience.  Steven's coach likes to call this "The Fastest Kid Meet In America" and after watching some of the kids there, I can sort of believe it...  There are some amazing swimmers out there!  We saw some national age group records being broken, as in the kid swimming in that particular race was THE fastest kid in the age group in the USA.  So that's fun to see.

Steven was a little sick going in to the meet.  He started to get a cold with respiratory issues on Monday.  He had some asthma problems (for the first time in many years) on Wednesday, and we started him on a Z-Pack and some albuterol before at that time.  The meet started on Thursday, and he was still congested, but seemed to be getting better.  It's hard to swim when it's hard to breathe, but this is just one of those things.  I'm sure he wasn't the only kid there battling a cold!  Thankfully, his diabetes was in good control.  Sometimes when he gets sick his diabetes goes completely crazy, with huge spikes in blood sugar.  It was great that his numbers stayed around ideal throughout the entire weekend.  We have learned how to manage his diabetes during meets a little bit better than before as well, giving him extra insulin on meet days (we call it a "meet correction") as he tends to get nervous which inhibits the efficacy of regular doses of insulin.  It's a dynamic correction, based on his sugars each day...  I am finding that diabetes is really difficult to manage!  The main thing is to test often, and make adjustments sooner rather than later...  But I digress...  Back to the meet.

The weekend was long because the meet started on Thursday, but fortunately Steven didn't swim until Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  The meet was held at the University of Maryland, about 45 minutes away from our house (unless you hit traffic, which luckily we did not!).  It was a very nice venue, but a little bit intimidating for parents and kids.  They had a strict policy of keeping parents off of the pool deck.  When Steven walked in to the meet on the first day, he had to follow a path for swimmers and coaches while Josie and I followed a separate path for spectators.  Luckily a teammate of Steven's was there, so the boys were able to walk in to the pool area together.  Josie and I found our way to the stands, and from that vantage, the whole place was very impressive.  Here are some pictures from the first day of the meet:

Waiting for Warm ups

The team is waiting for warm ups to start.  Steven is the boy on the left of the picture- with gray goggles.  He was *very* nervous.

Swimmers in the water...  Steven's team is warming up in the far pool.

More warm ups, practicing starts now...

Can you spot him?  I doubt it!

How about now?  Trademark pre-race position, arms bent, elbows to his side, hands folded under his chin, black cap...  This is before the 50 breast.

There he is...  Almost up and ready to swim.  The 50 breast is one of his best events (the first event he did at the meet), so he was in one of the last heats.  There was barely any time between heats- this meet moved along very fast!

He ended up dropping almost 1 second on the 50 breast, which was really great.  He came in 22nd place.  Then he had a short rest before he went to swim the 50 fly.  He was so nervous!!  I recorded the races on our digital video recorder so that Mac could watch them at home, so I don't have any pictures from the actual races...  The fly went well.  His goal was to make finals...  Except that they didn't have finals for his age division, which we didn't realize until we got there!  Oh well...  He would have made finals, had there been any!!

Placing 15th in this meet is really great.  Just look at how close the times are, too.  They use computerized pads in the water to time the kids; human timers with old-fashioned stopwatches are just there for backups in case all the technological stuff misfires!

The fly was his last event on Friday.  He had more events on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday, he swam a relay at the start of the meet (he did the 50 fly in the relay), then he did the 100 Breast, the 50 Back, and the 200 IM (that's a 50 of each stroke- fly, back, breast, then free).  He dropped 0.22 seconds in the 100 breast, and stayed about the same for the other events.  On Sunday he started off the meet with a relay; this time everyone swam a 50 free.  Then he swam the 100 IM (dropped 3.56 seconds which is a pretty big drop), and the 100 fly.  He didn't drop for the fly.  By Sunday he was mostly better from the cold and respiratory issues, but he was pretty exhausted from the meet!  There really wasn't much rest time between events.  He complained that he didn't even get much time to play DoodleJump on the iPod or to finish a level of Plants vs Zombies on the DS...  Priorities...

On Sunday, we all went to the meet to watch the events.  Yes, even Katie!!  After the meet was wrapping up, Mr. Tom Dolan himself was in attendance to sign autographs.  Tom Dolan is an Olympian who won a couple of golds, and is involved in running a swim school out here somewhere and obviously supports this meet.  So, the kids lined up for a bit, and were able to meet Tom Dolan.  Unfortunately he wasn't wearing his medals! 

Here he is trying to get the spelling of "Isabel" correct...  Took a lot of concentration!  Everyone wants to make her a "Belle"!!

He is a very nice guy!  Steven had a special swim cap from the meet autographed "To Steven", and Tom Dolan signed the meet program to all of the kids (Luke, Isabel, and Steven).

After the meet, we went to IKEA for dinner and finally made our way home.  It was a long weekend, we thankfully did not have any traffic issues, and Steven survived his first Big Meet.  Good times.

Gerbils, Thanksgiving, and Swimming

Pancakes and Waffles, Pancakes is the brown gerbil, and Waffles is the black one.

Many things have happened in the last few weeks!!  Here's a quick run down of the Best of November...  And a little bit of December.

First, a few weeks ago, it was FINALLY Luke's turn to bring home the classroom pets, Pancakes and Waffles, for the weekend.  This was a Big Deal.  I'm pretty confidant that this will be The Big Event in Luke's mind for all of 2nd grade!

I picked up Pancakes and Waffles from Luke's teacher (we love her!) on Friday after school.  Luke and I warded of all the elementary kids who wanted to check out the gerbils-- *there's nothing to see here, keep moving*-- and once we made it through the mob to the car, we were able to bring those suckers home for some Good Times. 

First on the agenda:  cover the gerbil ground rules.  No gerbils out of the cage unless an adult is touching them.  No one feeds the gerbils anything except for Luke.  No one touches the gerbils unless an adult is there.  Gerbils can only come out of the cage in the bathroom, since there aren't many hiding spaces for them in there.  OK.  Ground rules covered.  Luke was verrrry serious about all the rules!  Now it was time for some Major Fun... 

What did we do with the gerbils?  We pretty much left them in their cage and looked at them.  Sometimes we gave them a toilet paper roll to chew on, or other various pieces of cardboard.  We did take them out to play every night after dinner- but only in the bathroom.  Good thing too, because Waffles, the black gerbil, is pretty sneaky and he has a way of escaping...

Anyway, here are some pictures from the fun:

Josie meets Pancakes

Izzy is holding Pancakes.  Waffles and Pancakes are chewing on a piece of cardboard in this picture.  They made a decent mess!



Luke can handle Waffles, the little escape artist. 

And for dinner on Saturday night?  Who could resist eating waffles!!  Ha Ha!!!

Anyway, we clearly had a good time with the gerbils.  Everyone in the family enjoyed them, but I think when we finally finish Mac's training, we'll go for a dog instead of gerbils!  Luke is planning to have gerbils as part of his own managerie when he's a grown up though.  Gerbils, cats, dogs, sting rays, sharks, and parrots. 

Anyway, the weekend of the gerbils, we also had a swim meet.  This was Isabel's first official swim meet.  I worked as a timer so that I could be on the deck when she was swimming (parents are usually banished to the stands during these meets-- there are just too many people on the pool deck!).  She came through my lane for two of her three races.  She was very nervous, but she did great!  Steven also swam in the meet, and dropped time in lots of events.  I didn't get any pictures from the meet since I was working as a timer...  Mac was going to take pictures on day 2 of the meet, but unfortunately Isabel got sick and couldn't swim the second day!!!  Steven did take pictures, but Mac just took video, so...  sorry Steven.  No pictures.   

The next weekend was Thanksgiving.  We had a very nice, relaxing day.  We stayed home, and I didn't even cook a proper bird (they didn't have any left when I went shopping!!).  But no problem- we had a turkey breast from Costco that was quite tasty!  Mac really didn't miss carving a Big Bird.  And I didn't miss the extra mess, or the dark meat...  So maybe just a turkey breast is the way to go?  On Thanksgiving Day, we went to the movies.  Since I didn't have a Big Bird to worry about, I went along with the family.  Usually I kick everyone out to go to the movies and I stay home.  It was kind of nice to go along for once!  We say "The Muppets".  It was fun- but smack dab in the middle of Josie's regular naptime.  She was quite tired by the end of the movie.  She held it together until we were all locked inside the car for the drive home.  Then we were able to listen to her mammoth meltdown during the drive home.  Nice.  She had a nap, after which we had the Big Dinner, and that was pretty much it! 

The rest of the weekend Steven and Isabel did a lot of swimming.  There were special swim practices, Christmas Tree decorating at the swim team coach's house, cookies, pizza, etc., etc.  Mac cleaned out the shed outside in preparation for The Big Move, and I cleaned up our front yard.  We also did some more sorting of stuff in the house, donating of stuff we don't need, and just general chores.  Nothing too exciting, but it was nice to have Mac home for the weekend! 

This brings us to this past weekend.  The kids had a swim meet AGAIN!  This is the busy time for the winter swim season.  Pretty soon it will settle down to just a lot of practices, and not many races...  The meet this weekend was the Christmas Championships meet.  Steven only swam in the Saturday session, since he is doing an invitational swim meet this weekend too, and enough is enough!  This was Isabel's second swim meet, and she was very nervous.  And she was sick.  She had a fever, sore throat, stuffy nose... 

Anyway, she really wanted to swim.  So we let her.  What can I say?  Her next meet isn't until mid-January.  She has been practicing hard and looking forward to this meet.  And she's 10, not 3.  She knows how to keep her germs to herself!  Plus The Doctor said it was OK!  

Anyway, after some motrin, her temp was down and she felt good to go...

I was there on the first day of the meet- Mac did the second.  This is a picture of the aquatic center where they swam. 

The girls all swam in the far pool, and the boys swam in this nearer pool.  There were 10 lanes for the girls, 8 for the boys.

Steven swam first in the meet, doing the 200 free.  This isn't his favorite event!  He did fine, but he didn't drop time from previous races.  He didn't make the finals (which I think he was just as happy about, because that meant he didn't need to swim the 200 free again that night!).  Next, Isabel had her first event of the meet:  the 50 yard butterfly.  She really started to catch on with the fly towards the end of the summer swim season, so she was looking forward to this particular event a lot.  She was so nervous though!!

Looking at the pool, waiting for her race to be called.

She's standing right behind the white flag in this picture.  She was so nervous.  First heat of the 50 fly!  She's next up on the starting blocks! 

There she is-- out in front of her heat!

And finishing strong.

She did it!  The meet went on and on...  She was still quite nervous for her next race (the 50 free), but having finished the 50 fly and done well, she was happy.  She was glad she swam.

Steven also swam the 100 back (which he ended up making finals in, and having to return to the pool in the night to swim in the finals.  He ended up in 5th place, and dropped a HUGE 9 seconds from his previous best time before this meet.)  Steven's last event was the last event of the session, the 200 Butterfly.  Why would anyone want to do 3 minutes of butterfly straight?  I don't know.  Ask Steven I guess.  He loves the fly, so that must help!!

Here are some pictures from this event. 

Faithful Isabel- cheering on Steven in the race!

Flying right along...  I think this is coming in at 75 yards of 200...

And finishing the race.  He ended up 5th in the race, which was great considering it was a 12 and Under event...  And only the 2nd time he's ever tried a 200 fly before.

Post race breakdown with the coach...

Who likes to keep a lighthearted attitude at the swim meets!

All in all, it's been a busy few weeks. 

We are now gearing up for Christmas.  We got out our extremely pathetic 4 ft tall Christmas Tree last night (Kate had to leave the room when Mac was "assembling" it.  She said "It's just so sad and pathetic!"  Haha!  It is indeed. It's not making The Cut and will be donated after this Christmas!).  We have some advent calendars out for the kids, and we are trying The Elf on The Shelf this year.  This is a program where a little stuffed elf watches the kids in the house during the day, flies home to Santa at night to report on what he's seen, and then flies back to your house the next day to continue spying.  The fact that the Elf was watching Josie as she threw a magnificent fit last night was probably the ONLY thing that caused her to stop and come to eat dinner...  She knew that the Elf (we named him James Bond which the kids don't understand at all) was watching her and will report back to Santa on her behavior...  She's no fool.

Tomorrow I will drag out the 2 boxes of Christmas decorations and knick knacks, we'll fancy up our living room, and we will decorate our pathetic tree.  Once it's covered with preschool-ish ornaments and other random plastic ornaments it will look so much less pathetic.  Everyone is pretty much just looking forward to the Green Pickle ornament which a teacher gave us a few years ago.  I need to look up the story behind the Green Pickle ornament...  The kids always get excited about it.  It could be that they are just excited about it because it is a Green Pickle ornament.  But I think there is a story that goes along with it... Who knows? 

In the midst of all this, I continue to try to pack up as much as I can for storage and for donating.  I've been sorting through books a lot lately.  It's very hard work, and tedious, and slow moving!  And I haven't even gotten to the kids' toys.  Shudder.