decorating the tree

we got our christmas tree up (finally!) tonight. it was freezing outside, but the kids were troopers as we headed all the way to monmouth street in downtown newport to pick out the perfect tree. they were pretty excited about the whole process. greta tired quickly of hanging the ornaments. she broke an ornament while at someone's house this week, so she kept saying she only wanted to hang, 'the soft ones'. otto kept taking any ornament he could and shoving it into the branches at the front of the tree. when all the ornaments were hung, i started to close up the ornament bin. when i did this, otto started taking ornaments OFF the tree to put them back in the bin. the tree looks and smells fantastic. and yes, the majority of the ornaments are bunched at the bottom front of the tree. and we wouldn't have it any other way.

advent calendar

the kids have really gotten into the advent calendar this year. and by that, i mean that if you are not watching otto like a hawk, he can be found grabbing all the ornaments out of all the little pockets of the calendar. i feel like such a scrooge asking him to leave them in the pockets, but isn't that the point?
greta and otto have a little tree, and each day one of them gets to find the ornament in that day's 'pocket' on the advent calendar and hang the ornament on the tree as we count down to christmas. they love it. they love everything about it. often they will stop and look at the ornaments already hung on the tree. greta likes to speculate which ornament is in which pocket, and i think (in a simple way) she gets that we are using the calendar to mark the time until christmas.

easel

greta got an easel for her birthday, and the kids have been putting it to good use. i might even go as far as to say that otto enjoys it even more than greta does.

bingo bottles

here's otto enjoying some of the art supplies that greta got for her birthday. these have been a big hit with both kids!

big boy seat

in preparation for the arrival of baby #3, we moved otto from the highchair to a booster seat at the table. both kids thought this was pretty fun. we also realized that once this new baby outgrows the highchair, we will need a bigger table with more chairs!!

gymnastics

here are a few photos from greta's gymnastics class. we starting taking greta to cincinnati gymnastics academy (CGA) last winter, and she LOVED it. we took the summer off and started back at CGA this fall. the first class back was ROUGH. i mean, rough. new class, new teacher, new friends in the class. not to mention we previously went on friday mornings, so the gym was pretty much empty except for greta's class. now that she's in the 3 year old class, her class is on saturday mornings. and the gym is PACKED. there are so many classes going on, and many of the elite gymnasts are there too, which is neat to see. anyway, that first class was rough, but after that greta adjusted and now she loves going. it's pretty cool to see how she has improved over the course of a year. not only in the physical skills (she is pretty good at walking the balance beam), but she does great following directions and following a circuit. her teacher (miss candace) often has greta go first and then tells the other girls to "watch greta. do what greta does". here are just a few pictures of greta jumping and squatting on and off the mats. go greta!

christmas shopping