Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas Day

It'll take me this week to write about our Winter Vacation.  So, check back!

This year, we put in a special request to Santa to come early, since we would be in Bali on Christmas Day.  Luckily, Santa was happy to come early, because it's really the only way he can visit all the kids in the world.  He can't REALLY do it all in one night.

On the fourteenth, Maximo had a class party that the moms put together.  After school his class had another party to kick off the holidays.  It was really nice.  I really like his classmates and the other moms.
Playing a Christmas hat game

Doing a Christmas craft

Maximo, Jamie and Gaiska

The 30 minutes I escaped to join his class


The party after - Musical Chairs

Yusei, Kent and Maximo inside the musical chair ring

Playing with his classmates

Jamie and Maximo


Then we did our last minute shopping, grabbed sushi and gyoza for Christmas Eve dinner from the grocery store.

Santa came and we had a great morning of opening gifts from everyone.
Santa came!

Full Stockings

Santa's response


Opening the stockings








As you can see, it was a tiring day...


Then on Monday, we left for Bali.   More on that in the coming days...

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Max-isms

The stuff this kid says these days is a riot.

"When I drink the hot chocolate, it goes down into my ninnies (nipples) and then into my heart and it feels so good."

Sunday, December 09, 2012

Christmas Countdown - Day 8 & 9

They were SWEET!

We made Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees on Saturday:




and Gingerbread on Sunday:



Taking care of the flour explosion
... Just like his dad

And we'll leave you with Lola singing Jingle Bells.  She was singing (and talking) ALL day.  This isn't the best recording of her doing it, because she was more interested in watching the video of herself.


Saturday, December 08, 2012

A Very Merry Birthday



The day started with a Happy Birthday sung over pancakes.





Then she enjoyed cupcakes with her friends at Yume Club (I wish I had pics of this).

Then Maximo couldn't wait for Lola to open her presents, so he helped her get out of her shoes and jacket when we got home.



Then helped her open her presents... and play with them, of course.


We had a nice family dinner of homemade spaghetti and meatballs.

And then we enjoyed chocolate cake and ice cream.



Happy Birthday, Lola!  We love you!



Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Maximo the Artist

The past few months, Maximo's art has been really entertaining and getting more and more realistic.  He has gone through pads and pads of paper while we try to figure out what to keep and recycle, as he draws at home, at school, at after school care and has a lot of pieces.

We're starting to display a bit more in the house, and we have some piece archived with other special things, and we've been digitizing some of it.

This week, we had a really proud parent moment, when his art teacher contacted us to tell us that one of his pieces had been selected to be displayed at an international student art show in Kobe.  The class was working on still life and had seen some work done by Matisse, Magritte and Cezanne.  Ms. Elliott brought in three pieces of "autumn" fruit as their model.  Can you guess what fruits they were?

Anyhow, we're excited to go to the art show this weekend to see his work.

His favorite muses for his artwork are volcanoes, bats, rockets and rainbows.  He is starting to incorporate words into this art as well.

Here are some of his drawings from the past couple of weeks:

Our Apartment Building with Maximo on the 11th floor.
Hershey (the dog) is in his pen on the bottom right.

Around Halloween - A bat and Spidey


Bat Clapper and the moon and WORDS!

A funny art piece hanging in the wall outside Max's classroom.


Christmas Countdown - The next 3

Day 3 - Snowflake Magnets

Day  4 - Fork Painted Christmas Trees (and a Fun Frozen Banana Dessert-o)


Day 5 -  Snowflake Surprise (which was a hit, but what also could have been better, if I wasn't scrounging around my classroom looking for tidbits to put in it... and if I had found white crepe paper rather than use toilet paper.)