A Visit with St. Nick

 We finally made it to see Santa this winter! Nothing like waiting till nearly the last minute! We braved the snow this afternoon and  drove out to Bellewood Acres to meet up with Santa. Clementine made a request or two while Dutch wasn't quite sure what to do!

 Then we hightailed it out front where the kids had noticed the hand carved ride-on rockers. A GIANT horse/donkey, a mini horse and a mini pig!

 Dutch is cautious in new situations (and not at all cautious when it comes to climbing chairs, couches and tables at home). Not for a single second did Dutch let go of Cameron's hand, he was pretty unsure what to do on these rockers!



Quoting Clem

Our girl. There aren't words to describe her cleverness or her sweet and tender soul. Here are some recent conversations from six year old Clementine:

-Today at the consignment store, I was browsing the racks while Clem played in the little toy area. She was alone in there for a bit, then a boy a bit  younger joined her.
"Hi! I"m Clementine! I just turned six years old!"
"I"m K. and I just turned four years old!"
K. went on to describe his upcoming birthday party while Clem told him that hers was Superhero themed.
"Do you like superheroes too?" she asks. "Because if you do, you'd like my dad. He's like the Hulk only he's not green. Just big."


-Last week her class got a new student. A girl! And it was BIG excitement around here. Clem couldn't wait to meet her and had a list of things to tell the new girl before the day began.
After school, I asked Clem what the new girl is like and she said "Let me think about it....I guess...she's really just like a rose with a big smile on it."


-At dinner one night she told Cam and I that her good friend in her class E. doesn't live with his dad because he's one of Santa's Elves. But not just ANY elf, E.'s dad is the TOP elf in Santa's workshop. So obviously E. is not only the luckiest little boy in all of the world, but he can't see his dad as often because he's up in the North Pole.

The BEST of Intentions

 This fall has been the season that shall forever be remembered as Ick Nast. We've had every single bug around and it's disgusting. In October, I got the flu that knocked me on my butt for a whopping 6 days with a fever hovering around 104. It was truly awful. Days after that, Dutch came down with croup. That, too, was awful and for varying reasons.

Mostly, because on that same day, I had *promised* Clementine that I would go on her first Kindergarten field trip with her class. Then, that morning, Dutch woke up gasping for breath. Mommy was no longer a field trip chaperone, but a freaked out, doctor calling machine.
Clem bravely headed out on her field trip with other moms and dads in tow. She minded not a single bit that I wasn't attending. But I did. And my heart hurt.

We were able to get Dutch assessed and treated with time to spare, so we darted toward the pumpkin patch as soon as we could, thinking there'd be PLENTY of chaperoning left to do!

We got there and scoured over the place for our girl in orange. We looked and looked and looked. After about a half an hour, we found her...lining up with her class to board the school bus back to Kindergarten. Womp womp.

I snapped a quick few pics and off they went. She had a great time with her friends on her first pumpkin patch. Dutch was healthy as can be. Those two things were all that mattered.

Clementine is SIX!

 My baby girl is 6 years old (and has been for over 2 weeks--I just can't get used to it)!! This year, she had her birthday party at the Family Interactive Gallery and we all had a blast. She, of course, choose a Superhero theme and I think everything went swimmingly.

In each of the pictures you can see the pink capes that my mom made each of the girls (thanks Mom!) and then each kiddo got to make their own mask at the party to protect their secret identities!

But mostly, they played and played. 

Even the baby boys played--not exactly *together* but they had a good time!

Then there was delicious cake (Avengers on the top, naturally). 

And LOTS of amazing presents! What a great day we all had celebrating this sweet, talented, smart, kind and tenderhearted little girl of ours. 

Kitchen Readers

Clementine age 2

Dutchy age 1.5

 

Both of our babies have found this spot to be ideal for a little light reading.

The Artist (known only as Clem)

Can you tell where Clem and I are in this picture? It's one of our FAVORITE places in the world. 

 Today Clementine's wonderful, amazing and awesome Kindergarten teacher sent home a packet of Clementine's writing/pictures from over the last month. It pretty much made my entire day.

Clem knew the class goal for the month: making sure there's a setting and drawing realistic bodies--no stick figures!
Clementine is also learning  how to label. She mostly labels names but you can see she definitely has setting down.

 I love the perspective of this one. In the bottom right hand corner she has labeled "me, mom." We are facing the movie screen watching the Minions movie. You can see the usher walking in the labeled door, other folks watching the movie and eating popcorn. This girl thinks of everything. I love it.

 No labels in this one but plenty of sun tan! She says this is a picture of Grandmpa helping her off of the sailboat. They are tan from being out sailing. Also, she couldn't find a pink crayon so she made due with orange.

 I knew exactly what this was before she could even tell me. Last year Cam and I made the mistake of taking her to the Halloween store. This was a YEAR ago. And she's still obviously terrified. She says she is clenching my hand as we walk by the spooky Frankenstein and mannequins.

 Here she labeled "Mom, Dush, em (me)." and we are shopping at another favorite place: TARGET!

But this one has to be my favorite. She's labeled herself and "Duch". I am resting in the blue gown. The nurse is wearing impractical shoes and the speech bubble reads "Isn't he cute".
"Dutch baby is getting born" is the title for this one. I asked her why Dutch's arms and legs are so wavy--she says those are fat rolls.

I can't get enough. I love this writer/artist so stinking much.

Princess Ball

 It's a charmed life Clementine leads. Today we got to go to the Skagit County Children's Museum's 2nd Annual Fall Ball fundraiser. I read about this even several months ago and saw that it fell just a week before Clementine's birthday. I knew we had to go. It worked out that Clem's buddy Taylor was able to come with us!

 I wasn't sure what to expect from what I'd read online. We got there a few minutes after the soiree had started. Rapunzel was sitting on the second floor with her hair dangling down. She greeted us and we went inside.
There were LOTS of little girls in there ready to meet princesses. My own little girl was not so ready. It was crowded, it was noisy, there was a lot going on. It took Clem a good half an hour and a plate full of goldfish crackers before she was ready to participate.
As the Princesses arrived to the ball, their own theme song blared from the speakers while streams of little girls swarmed each princess during their staggered arrivals. Clem clung to me desperately. By the 5th Princess' arrival, little girls were screaming like they were at a Justin Beiber concert. There was trampling. But not my girl, she was as close to me as she could possibly make herself. I honestly wasn't sure what to do.

And then Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) noticed Clementine and saw how anxious she was. Belle walked right up to Clementine and asked to have a dance with her. "Is she talking to me, mama?" Clem asked. And off she went.

And that was all she needed. 

Clementine met each of the rest of the Princesses and danced with just about every single one of them.
Here she is with Ariel.

 And Cinderella--who Clem spent a lot of the ball nearby. When we left, Cinderella even remembered her name.

 Here's Clementine dancing with Snow White.

 I don't know what this group was talking about but it was giggly and included a lot of "Bippity Boppity Boo."

 Clementine danced with Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.

 More Snow White.

She met Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog.

And did sassy pose with Rapunzel.

Clementine noticed, not surprisingly since she notices every little detail everywhere we go, that the food tables were themed. Like the beverage table was Beauty and the Beast themed with a rose under a glass dome, a teapot and sugar bowl modeled after the movie, books that Belle would have read placed around the table. The Rapunzel table had cookies lit up with Cherry Blossom lights, a floating lantern and her long "hair" draped behind the table. You get the idea.

We had a great time. The girls left the ball with huge smiles on their faces and so did Susan and I. Not only did we get to support the Children's Museum that we love, but the girls had such a BLAST.