White Christmas

We have had a fairly mild and dry late fall, early winter so far.  Today we woke up to this:

Henry was running a fever, so it was good that we didn't have any big plans.  Last night we hunkered down and watched A Christmas Story:



Today we stayed home and hung out.  Jay made a yummy dinner and Henry took a two hour nap, as he was still feverish.  He seems to be on the mend, however, and is currently engaging in a Madden Tournament with Jay and William while Tessa and I stay clear upstairs.


We didn't do a ton of gifts this year but everyone got something that they had asked for and enjoys.  We were able to spend the day together with a minimum of arguing.  We had good food and plenty of treats.  It was nice.

Merry Christmas!

Summit School Happenings

We absolutely love the elementary school that William and Tessa attend.  The teachers and staff are amazing and we have had so many good experiences at Summit.  Both William and Tessa have had fun activities this month.

William is in the Gifted and Talented program at Summit and had to do a research project on a subject of his choice.  This year his topic was the French Revolution.  He did a lot of research and wrote a two page paper on the subject.  The culmination was a presenting a PowerPoint presentation on the subject to his 5th grade class.  He did a great job!

Tessa's 3rd Grade teacher has spent a bit of time during December teaching the kids about The Nutcracker.  They wrote reports, learned about dance and music and decorated their classroom with a nutcracker theme.  Today they performed a version of the story.  They all had parts with costumes.  Tessa was Marie/Clara and she did a great job!

We are so lucky to attend Summit Elementary!

William's 11th Birthday

Today is William's 11th Birthday.  To commemorate the occasion I decided to write down a few things about William as he turns 11.

• He is the most curious kid I know.  He is interested in so many things and takes the time to learn about them on his own time.  His interests are diverse and include sports, video games, astronomy, history and coin collecting.  
• He has been dying for his own electronic device and received an iPod touch for his birthday.  So far he loves it, although I hope it doesn't get too crazy.  This morning I called him upstairs to get ready for school and he texted me that he was coming.  Sigh.
• He is funny.  And not just funny as in "ha, ha" funny.  He is clever and creative when it comes to his sense of humor.  Anyone who knows William at all can attest to that.
• He is looking forward to going to middle school next year.  I'm not looking forward to having three kids at three different schools, but William is excited.

William is such a great kid.  He never wants a birthday party - he just wants to go out to dinner with our family.  This year he chose Buffalo Wild Wings.  Tonight we are having a cheesecake for his birthday dessert - no regular birthday cake for William!  

I kind of feel bad that he almost always has school on his birthday so it makes it hard to fit everything in on his actual birthday.  But he seems to like having his birthday dinner the weekend before, opening his gifts the night before (so he doesn't have to wait until the night of his birthday) and having cake (or cheesecake) after dinner on his actual birthday.  It kind of turns into William's birthday week of celebrating, which is fun.  

Happy birthday, William.  We love you!