Mary and Anna got new beds from a furniture store with a giant chair.
Mary got to be the VIP for a week at school. She got to make a poster describing herself. She picked the pictures and wrote the captions.
I got to go to school with Mary on the last day of her VIP week. She described her poster for her classmates, and they all raised their hands to give her compliments like, "I like how you color," and, "I like how you play with me." Mary called on the children and, after each compliment, she very politely said, "Thank you." We brought a sewing-card activity for all the kids to do. I am amazed at how much Mary has already matured in school. She loves everything about kindergarten and has gained a lot of self-confidence.
Anna is modeling Mary's Native American costume from school, complete with papoose. Mary's Indian name was "Morning Star."
Austin potty trained himself. He is such an amazing little guy. After I told him how proud I was of him one morning, he told me to get the camera. "Take a picture mine!" he said.
Then he said, "Take a picture my toilet!" He was even fully clothed for the shot.
We enjoyed some backyard sledding after a winter storm.
We went down to my parents' after Thanksgiving. Austin was fascinated by the plane my dad is building. He kept telling me, "Want to see the airplane again!"
We took the kids to the movies for the first time with Grandma Joy. "Tangled" turned out to be a great choice, since the moments of peril and villainy were much milder than I expected.
We also visited with Great Grandpa Erickson. It was nice to see him.
On the way home, we got caught in a snowstorm and had to stay the night in a hotel. The kids were absolutely delighted. When we got home, Mary said, "I want to do the whole thing over again!"
