Ward Christmas Party

The children put on a nativity scene for our Christmas Party at church. They asked Emma to play the part of Mary. They asked a boy in her class to play the part of Joseph. Emma liked the idea until she found out she was supposed to walk arm in arm with "Joseph". As a solution, "Joseph" pulled his arm out of his sleeve and Emma held on the empty sleeve.

This was not the first time Emma has played a major role in a nativity scene. Here is a little gem when she played baby Jesus when she was 4 months old.

5th Grade Music Performance

This evening was the 5th Grade music performance. Emma had two special parts in the performance. She played the xylophone and the recorder for two songs. 

Geo Bee

Emma was invited to participate in the Geography Bee at school. She was one of 12 in her grade that participated. She didn't win, but I am proud of her for even qualifying. 

The first round was fairly easy, multiple choice questions about the states. The next rounds had several hard questions.

Where is the Lane_River located?

On what continent is the Baltic_Sea located?

What state produces the most broiler_chickens?

Where is the Great_Bear_Lake Brooks range located?

On what continent is the Iberian and Jutlan_Peninsula?

Where is the town of Bozeman?

What is the chain of volcanic_islands about 1200 miles west of Alaska?

What is the name of the nomatic_tribe located in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina and Chile?

How did you do?

Santa Claus is coming to town...

We love going to the DAR Christmas Open house. Mainly because of Santa Claus. He is THE Best! Though Emma did not want to sit on his lap this year.

On the 3rd floor is the Children's Museum. There is a room filled with colonial toys. I love looking at the mantle wall and the sliding marks on the floor. Makes me wonder what is behind that door!

We met up with the Rosenlunds there. The kids loved playing in the children's area that is full of colonial activities.

I loved this historical room with the hand-painted wallpaper.

Check out this historical kitchen. How would you like to prepare all your meals in there.

Piano Recital

Tonight was Emma's first Piano Recital with her new piano teacher. It was a much bigger group of students than she is used to. She still did a great job! Here she is with her teacher, Ellen Ortega.

Emma played two songs for the recital: Angels We Have Heard on High and Music Box Dancer. This is a video of the first song. The other video was much too big a file.

Happy Birthday Rebekah

Happy Birthday my sweet Rebekah!!

She wanted a Barbie Swan Lake cake. Here she is wearing her Swan Lake costume to match her cake. I decided this may be the last time she wants princesses for her birthday so I had better act now. I have been wanting to do these petite princess cakes for a few years now. So she got lots of little princess cakes. For he big "Barbie" cake I used a Wilton Doll Pick and a Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl.  For the petite princesses I used the actual Disney Princess polly pocket type dolls and Pampered Chef 1-cup prep bowls.

Rebekah got mostly all Brave (Princess Merida) stuff for her birthday. We invited the Williams and the Rosenlunds over to help us eat all of our birthday cakes. That's way too much cake for just the 4 of us! Most of the girls got their own petite princess which made them all very happy.

Hiking the AT

On the day after Thanksgiving, Clay planned to go hiking on the Appalachian Trail. He asked Emma if she would like to go. She said yes. He told her it would be about 10 miles and was she sure. She said yes. So off they went.

It was a beautiful sunny day, slightly warm and there was a lot to see.

Nice new trail shelters.

Beautiful view to the East. Had fun climbing on the rocks.

Emma was hesitant to get too close to the edge of the rock. Being careful is good!

Stopping for a snack break.

Just keep walking...

Lots of old rock formations along the A.T. Especially rocky in PA.

We finally made it back to the car. Should we just keep going?