Monday, December 21, 2020

Grace the Great

Today we celebrated Grandma Grace's life.  She was a strong, faithful and independent woman and passed away at the age of 97.  She was a tough cookie, and sometimes I channel her "get-it-done" attitude when I feel overwhelmed.  The funeral was very small due to COVID, and I think we were all disappointed that we could not really gather and pay tribute properly.  I am glad that she is at peace!

Grace the Great!
(several years ago when we were more vivacious!)

We are all very excited for Christmas this year.  Jamie and I love seeing the kids' excitement, it really is such a special time.  On Sundays we light our advent wreath and have a candlelight dinner.  Ben is very freaked out by the darkness, but the girls enjoy the special dinner.

Sitting still-ish

Jamie and the kids are done with school for now.  I'm trying to finish up some pressing things at work, but should be able to take several days off which I'm really looking forward to!

The girls made some pretty great snowman at a local park
(couldn't get enough snow from our own yard)

Not a big fan of snow so far


Jamie's Zoom setup for school... his students seem to enjoy it

Kiss audition

Maggie is obsessed wit her new furry vest
from Grandma... she's worn it like 4 times in a week

Should I be concerned with how model-y Maggie acts?

Arting with Daddy in a really uncomfortable spot

This is how Ben winks

This rocker has served us well over the years

Maggie likes to do some of the art lessons that Jamie teaches his students, and Maggie really enjoyed this one (a thaumatrope):


Evie can make a really funny yodeling sound and no one else in our family can seem to match it.  Try it, you'll see!

Ben still climbs everything.  We tried get rid of the kid chairs, but then he just starting using the taller kitchen chairs and getting into more trouble!  One day he climbed a kitchen chair and grabbed the stovetop a few minutes after I took a boiling pot off... he was fine, but I felt terrible.  Hopefully he learned that lesson.  So we continue to monitor as best we can...


I can't believe I forgot to post this last time!  For Maggie's birthday, all the Donoghues got together and bought a Cameo from Maggie's favorite actress (Willa from Zombies).  She was so thrilled to see this video, and the actress really took a lot of time to make a specialized greeting.  Gotta save this!


The girls could not have their normal Christmas concert this year, so they were required to do a sing-a-long at home and send a video to their teacher.  I loved watching them sing Silent Night together, so sweet:


Monday, December 7, 2020

Maggie Turns 8!

 Maggie celebrated her 8th birthday last Thursday!  We didn't get to have the sleepover party Maggie wanted, and she was convinced that this birthday would be totally boring.  We worked really hard to give her a special day, and I think we succeeded! 

Happy 8th Birthday, Maggie!
(she selected her "most fabulous" outfit)

We started the day eating chocolate chip pancakes with sausage, and opening some presents.  The girls "went to school" at the table and thankfully cranked through their work during the morning.  We had pepperoni pizza for lunch and once Daddy was done teaching, we started an elaborate treasure hunt.  Maggie loves to solve clues, so we created clues that led to her family and best friends all over town.  In the end, it took about five hours and we were pretty exhausted!  

Maggie solved a word puzzle that led us
to Andy and Katie's!

She unscrambled letters to learn the "Nora" was our next stop

They put up this awesome homemade sign for Maggie
(and probably more for Nora, whose birthday was 2 days later)

Maggie solved a math riddle to take us to 
7-11 for slurpees, then found a clue in our trunk
which took us to the school's playground 

Maggie broke a number/letter code to take us to
Tim Horton's for tim-bits, and then we found our way
to "Tiny Diamond's" biggest fan

The opposite of "Small" and "Girl" led us to Big Boy.
Aunt Amy brought the crew to meet us!

This was the best of like 20 photos...

A little limerick led us to Jordyn's house

Had to make a stop at one of our family faves - Yates!

Maggie solved a tricky word-search with leftover
letters directing us to "Luke's House"

Next clue led to the "oldest two in the family"
(pretty sure I meant to write "wisest", oops)

Love

Maggie received our garage door opener which
led us to our extremely cluttered and cold garage!

Maggie requested an Iron Man cake this year

I was especially proud of Evie throughout the day.  She was bummed a couple times that it wasn't her birthday, but she mostly supported and helped Maggie, and was happy to make her day special.

Making brownie's with Mama

Life is going well around here, just trying to get ready for whatever kind of Christmas we'll have this year!  The kids keep us running in circles, so there's not much time to dwell on anything!  The girls went back to school today, and I am so grateful.  It was super stressful and difficult to keep them on track with school while doing our own jobs at home; a little space is good for everyone!

Ben is such a funny guy, he makes me laugh so often!  I love his little phrases, he is becoming a really good communicator.  My favorite is the way he says "hello" when pretending to talk on the phone:


Maggie got a microscope from Grammer and Pops, and she is psyched.  I need to find some new stuff for her to look at.


Here's some other stuff:

This toy was always under our Christmas tree growing up,
one of my favorites to play with


Maggie's friend Katie had a virtual movie screening 
on Zoom for her birthday, dropped off cupcakes and 
favors ahead of time!

Spreading out the fake branches

This tree does a lot of heavy lifting

Our Fisher Price nativity still gets a lot of attention - 8 years strong!

Evie likes to sleep in braids for wavy hair

Time for a haircut to make it all one length!

Maggie opted to go a bit short this time,
and the stylist gave her waves which just tickled her

Why can't I go to a stylist?

We had a small but lovely Thanksgiving gathering at my parents
(missed the rest of our families though)

Pops made Christmas Milk for us to toast

Evie's art assignment on monochromatism
(shades/tints of green)