Advent Calendar: Ornament Making

The Advent Calendar brought us stuff to make three new kinds of ornaments.  It came on a perfect day too.....a Sunday that we actually had NOTHING to do and it was freezing cold outside!!  I don't think any of us made it out of our pajamas all day....it was perfect!

They made candy canes with their names and/or initials, rudolph (somehow didn't get a picture of that one, and it was pretty darn cute!), and gumball machines (picked that one out for Jack and they all loves it!).

Jack's 1st Chess Tournament

Last Saturday Jack played in his first chess tournament.  This kid LOVES to play chess.....and his poor mother doesn't even know HOW to play chess (nor does she want to).  He stays after school one day a week for chess club and learns and plays there.  He will ask anyone and everyone to play chess with him at home.  The two that always give in and play are Dad and Grandma Jeanne.  I don't think Grandma Jeanne gets out our door without playing at least one game.  I, on the other hand, know nothing about chess, but according to Mike and Jeanne, he is getting pretty darn good.

Peyton use to play with him, but she won't play with him anymore.  I don't know if she finds the game boring, or if her brother was beating her too much....I'm not quite sure.

Anyway, he played in his first tournament and Grandma Jeanne and Mike took him.  Mike returned home an hour later.  Once they got there, they discovered that they don't let spectators in the room with the players during a match.  They are avoiding spectators given hints and clues to the players.  Annoying, but I'm sure it would happen, so I get it.....I guess.  So Grandma Jeanne stayed and kept us up to date via texts.  Jack lost his first match against a kid that lives for chess.  Jeanne was talking with this kid's grandparents during the match and they said that is all this kid does!!!  When the boys came out that kid told Jeanne, "he's good."  Jack gave him a run for his money, but made one mistake and lost.  Grandma helped him rebound by buying him some pizza.

He won his next 3 matches.  The kid he lost to ended up getting first place.  I don't really know how the scoring works in the chess world, but Jack had one loss, to the winner and placed 7th out of 23 for his age group (3rd and 4th graders).  Not too shabby of a start for his career in chess.

I asked him at dinner that night if he liked being a nerd.....his response, "no but I like being smart!"  HA!  GRREAT answer!!  His dad finished that conversation with letting him know that he was the president of the chess club, and also the captain of the football team.  :)  We are striving for well-roundedness, I guess!!  

St. Peter ended up getting 1st place in the tournament!!

The top 10 kids in each division won a medal.

Jack and his chess coach, Mrs. Dunn.

Advent Calendar: Ice Skating

On Friday the Advent Calendar sent us to Forest Park to ice skate.  The kids were excited all day!  They were excited when they left for school, excited when they got home from school, was more excited when Mike finally got home from work so we could go.....Mike on the other hand, had had a long day at work, and was not so excited.  HA!  We tried to bargain a movie night instead and they were having none of it.  So we bundled up and headed to Forest Park.  SOOOO glad we did, cause the kids had a blast!

Maddie was terrible at first, but by the end could do a little scooting all by herself and was very proud of herself!  Peyton could glide around from the time we got there.  And Jack......Jack is so funny!!  He was TERRIBLE then we got there.  Falling all over the place, but so determined!!!  After the first hour, he finally made it one full lap without falling, and he was all smiles and so proud!!  By the end of it, he was having a blast and gliding right along.

I missed the funny part of the night.  By the end of it, Maddie was literally falling asleep on her skates.  I went and sat down with her and within 5 minutes she was asleep on my lap.  But while Maddie and I were off in the corning sleeping.......Peyton must've been a little too cocky.  Mike said him and Jack were scooting along and Peyton had turned around to wait for them.  Once the boys got close to her, she replied, "SUCKER!!!" and was gonna dart off!!  Didn't work out like she had planned, as she WIPED out and then they boys scooted on by and got to holler "sucker" at her instead!!!  ha!!!

 This was Jack after her made his first lap without falling, hence the #1 he's holding up!  :)

This is Jack at the end.  See how "snowy" he looks.....this is proof of how much time Jack's body spends on the ice....HA!

Dad goes to Chicago, we go to the Zoo

Mike left last Sunday morning bright and early for a conference in Chicago.  We actually had NOTHING on the calendar for all day, miracle!!  The kids and I were lazy bums until about 2:00.  We then got dressed, bundled up, and headed to the zoo.  We walked around for a couple hours until the closed for Wild Lights.  We did get to catch a little glimpse of their lights for Wild Lights....wasn't quite as pretty since it was still light outside, but we saved some money and saw their lights anyway.  :)

We then went to Westborough for dinner and headed to 6:00 mass and called it a day!

Advent Calendar

In the past, I've usually just put chocolates in the advent calendar for each day.  This year, I decided to do more "experiences" than just chocolates.  There are still plenty of days for chocolates, as we don't always have time for an "experience" every day.  SO.....busy days, they get chocolates, days we have more time, they open the Calendar and find something that we will "do" that day.  The things we "do" can be little or big.....

The first one was as simple as making snowflakes to hang on sliding glass door to deck.  Something so little, but they loved it and loved making them and couldn't wait for them to dry to see them hang up!

Tree Decorating, 2016

The Friday after Thanksgiving the tree and decorations went up!  The kids had been chomping at the bit for 5 days!!  Mike had brought everything down from the attic the weekend before, and it was torturing them, just staring at the boxes.

Daisy made her grand appearance that night as well.  She was hanging off the top, front deck from a glowing Christmas ornament.  The kids thought it was great!!  Grandma Jeanne caught it on video and it was pretty funny!