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:
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)
November has been a fun and busy month! I celebrated another year of life, and got spoiled by my family! Top gifts this year were a new Apple watch, a old-timey popcorn maker and a combo air fryer / instapot! I love food.
With my 3 babies on my birthday
COVID has consumed the country, so we are back to functioning from home. Jamie is teaching from home, the girls are virtual schooling at least until a week after Thanksgiving, and I'm supposed to work from home too. Thankfully Ben can go to daycare, because it is really difficult to keep the girls on track and answer all their questions while trying to do our own jobs!
Jamie spends most of his Sundays prepping for his week. Ben assists.
Not much else to report, so here's some photos of the kids:
Evie wants to do everything Maggie does
The girls sometimes play checkers. Sometimes they also add chess pieces and create a totally new (incomprehensible) game
Adventures with Elsa
Ben's bodyguard
Big fan of pizza
Hanging at the zoo on a gorgeous day
Trying to mooch some of Evie's dessert
Welcome to my humble abode, Henry
Evie trying to learn some drum skills
First day of snow!
We had to pretend to lose our telephone because Ben literally just wanted to talk on it non-stop. He can be pretty chatty!
