Dino-Mite

As some of you may know, the boys LOVE to go to Downtown Los Angeles!!  They love the sites and sounds of the city.  So, I knew they'd really appreciate a chance to see Discover the Dinosaurs at the Los Angeles Convention Center yesterday.  All was well until we got there because the organizers were so unprepared.  There long lines and waits for all the activities, but the moving dinosaurs were really cool.  I wouldn't say that we'd go back next year if it came back because it wasn't worth the money we paid; however, the boys had a great time.  That's the most important part of the visit.

And, they came home with a souvenir.  We picked up a nice project for them at the gift shop.  As I type this, the Maureen and the boys are digging through a block of plaster to find glow in the dark dinosaur bones.  This should take them a while, so they should be easy to handle this afternoon.

Christmas Day

 

As usual, we had a few visitors in our bed rooom bright and early in the morning.  They were ever so excited because they knew what waited for them in the living room under the tree.  Actually, they were quite surprised to find a few gifts under the tree in their room.  They were excited and wanted to open them immediately, so they did.

Next, they moved onto the living room for some more presents.  "Santa" had blocked the hallway with some streamers, so they had to break through them to get to the presents.  First, they had to check out a note from Santa thanking the boys for the cookies they made for him.  Needless to say, they were so excited to see their presents; however, they were distracted by their stockings and wanted to open those first.  Maureen convinced them to open up their big presents first and then move on.  The theme this year was Crayola, Planes, the Octonauts, and Jake & the Neverland Pirates!  Thankfully, there wasn't a visit from the Krampus aka the Grumpus (as the boys call him).

Decorating the Tree (I Would Have Called It Tree Trimming, But I Already Used The Title)*

They had been clammoring to decorate the tree since we picked it up this morning, so they were ever so excited to finally get around to it.  Actually, they were excited to see the lights on the tree.  They wanted to help put the lights on the tree, but Maureen needed to do that by herself.

Once the lights were strung, it was time to start placing the ornaments.  John decided that he was going to build a train track around the tree.  As I type this, he is still doing it.  He's asking to build the tracks into the tree, but Maureen telling him that it is too heavy.  Young Nicholas Edward has been the stalwart helper for his mother.

Not surprisingly, the boys are doing their activities in the underwear.  They have some thing against wearing pants once they get home.  Anywho, Maureen said, "Let's make sure they are wearing pants next year."  They're still placing different ornaments on the tree and asking about presents.  It's going to be 10-more days of that.  God help us!

*Yes, we did have to put the star on twice.  They each wanted to put it at the top of the tree.

Nativity Fun

When I was younger, I liked to play with my parents' Italian Nativity set.  Needless to say, there were many chips and broken figures in said set.  I even placed my Yoda action figure in the bed of hay with Jesus every Christmas.  As you can see, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.  As you can see, Nicholas even sings a song about little baby Jesus.   It then segues into a talk about going to Mass on Christmas Day.  I like John's comment at the end regarding Nicholas' behavior at church.

Trimming the Tree

We headed to Home Depot this morning to pick up a Christmas tree.  John was a bit upset because he wanted to go to the OSH on La Brea, but it is still under construction.  He was crying and saying that he was ready to cancel Christmas because OSH wasn't open yet.  When Maureen turned onto Santa Monica Blvd., he changed his tune because he thought we were going home.

As we get to the tree area, there were only a couple of Home Depot associates attending to it.  Thankfully, a nice young man came over and picked out a great tree.  At first, John didn't want the tree because he said it was too small.  It was still banded together.  Once our helper opened it up, he was quite happy with the size.  We were in and out in about 20-minutes.  That's the quickest time we've ever spent buying a tree.

So, we get home and place the tree in the base and Maureen starts trimming some of the lower branches to clear the base.  Guess who grabbed their own scissors and started trimming and pruning a few branches.  Yes, the boys were quite helpful at that.

One More Birthday Post

Goldie, Our Latest Family Member

Somehow, Nicholas got it into his head that we were going to buy him a Betta fish for his birthday that was orange and that he was going to name Goldie after the goldfish on Peppa Pig.  Sure enough, we gave in and picked up a fish for him.  He was so excited to see that they had an orange fish that's like John's blue fish, Blue.  We even had to pick up some orange rocks for Goldie's new bowl.

Both boys saw all sorts of pets that they want.  Maureen was squirming when John asked for a pet rat like his old class pet, Jewel.  Nicholas passed on my faux offer to get a turtle because he's happy having one in his classroom.