Xmas-travaganza!!

At Preschool Xmas party

 The *very* cool magnet made by Nadine's mom.  It's in a bottle cap!

The Krauter Gingerbread House making extravaganza/giant sugar party

 We got a kit from Ikea-- surprisingly tasty.  But the best part?  It came with Ikea instructions on assembly.  No Allen wrench, but pictures on how frosting was necessary.  

 When we came to Seattle and witnessed the first one of these events, many of these kids were much shorter.

 Ken Wear tossing blankets at Sam, who is in a full-on sugar frenzy.

 The Finished Product

GRANDAD=CHRISTMAS TRAIN!

 (Pants optional)

The men have a snack

Charlie at work on his AMAZING cashew brittle.  

Yeah, if you didn't get any, you need to start bribing him!

 Oh, and then we made a gingerbread train.

 We also decorated some Mary Kirby cookies

Pre-Xmas Lego action

 Christmas: Dressed for Adventure

 "Sam look up, we want to see your light."

"What light?"

 Sam and Holden refer to the lights as

"head flashers"

"Sam, there's one more present down in the garage."

"What is it?!"

"Let's go see!"

what is this...

 IT GOES!!

And now, we dance...

Again, pants optional.

I have some videos, but blogger is giving me problems with uploading.  I'll work on it. 

Okay, I've Been Shamed

By Tabitha, no less.  And the fact that Lisa and Dennis are posting new photos of darling Penelope every week.  So, I'm going to provide some photographic evidence of my kid.  The most embarassing thing is that most of these photos were taken by his preschool teacher.  Oh well.  These are in no particular order.  The oldest date back to June. 
(Cut us some slack-- we did buy a house!)

 Ian and Sam do something Very Important with cars.

 Sam with the chickens at Perkins School. 

 First day of school-- 9.12

He's gotten a haircut since then-- less of a shag, more of a little boy cut.  Consider it a way to tell the vintage of a given photo!

 Reading in the days before Halloween.  I like how bored the bee is.

 Checking out woodpecker holes with Teacher Carmen in June.

OH!  This one has a story! Teacher Sheila informs me that Sam had been sitting in the main kitchen with the boys (something like the shot below, which is from August) when he looked over to where the girls had congregated and determined he'd rather be over there.  So, clutching his lunchbox and slowly dragging the "toadstool" chair (very heavy) over to the ladies, he asked them to move over so he could have a spot.  I think his internal monologue was something along the lines of "Hellloooooo Laaaadies."

 Lunching with the Dudes.  6/12

 Keegan and Sam build a marble run

 Nathan, Sam and Cars

 Sam 3 and Sam Z play with the baby.

(Sam 3 is the other Sam at the school.  They tried to make him Sam 2, but he kept insisting that he was, in fact, 3 that it's just stuck.)

 Doing important preschool things

 More chickens.  They like the chickens.

 Sam and Nathan hugging (or strangling) wach other.

 Sam, Raileh and Keegan.  Something going on with hats.

 Sam, Nathan and Ian muck around with shaving cream and paint on top of water. I'm assured this is educational.

 Sam sharing his hat at show n' share.  This would be sometime last week.

 I'm told this is a Snake House.  Again, this is educational.  I guess they all made it. 



The Merry Month of May

First, some preschool...

Waiting for the bus



Storyteller visits Creative Kids



Painting

 Then some adventures in the park...

Sam:  Mama!  How do I climb this tree?

Sarah: I don't know?  How do you?

Sam: Can you help me?

Sarah: Uh, no. 

(brief pause while he peruses area for ideas)

Sam: OH! I'll use the STROLLER!



1.  Position stroller



2. Apply brake.



3. Mount stroller

 

4. Mount tree



Success! 

Some Saturday antics...

Two fuzzy headed boys

Meg uses Monk as a pillow

Waiting for the bus with Dad/Charlie.  C took both boys down 15th to see the giant cranes in the construction pits down there.  Then he bought them cupcakes.

A Holden grin captured on camera!  Rare.





And then he let them play at the spray park.


The End.

Another Friday with Mama/Sarah...at Honore, of course.

Holden on his glasses: "They work for me."





Sam guarding his swirly cookie



Sam wolfing his swirly cookie

I think most everyone knows that our friends Megan and Holden are our new roomates.  Circumstances dictated that Meg felt she needed to take me up on an offer of a place to be.  Considering she's basically raised my kid for the past year +, it isn't a hardship.  Meg's a single mom, so having two extra adults around materially improves her life.  We couldn't have gotten through the end of April without her and Holden on site to amuse, pick up and generally be awesome for us as we came and went.  So far, okay.  And the cats even seem to deal with each other! (Meg has Harrison-- aka "Tippy"-- the 3 legged tiger tom)