The Santa run-down

Here are the rest of the Santa visits Helaina has enjoyed this year.  The big guy has got to be exhausted by now.

One of the walk-through nights for Lights on the Lake.

At our town's tree lighting ceremony.

Family fun night at Helaina's school.

And finally, breakfast at McDonalds.

We sat at a booth so she could watch Santa as she ate her breakfast.  She was thrilled and kept waving at him during her meal.

Busy, busy, busy, but it's almost over.

When it comes to candy...

... more is always better - especially on a gingerbread house.  Take one candy-obsessed 5-year old, a giant tube of royal icing, decorating candy and a "blank" gingerbread house and you've got a messy, sugary, but oh-so-much-fun afternoon.

Let the icing mess begin.

One candy for the house, one candy for the artist.  I think she licked her fingers after every candy she placed in the super sweet icing.  Who knew brushing teeth would be a requirement after decorating a gingerbread house.

Helaina was very pleased with her creativity and use of all the candy that came with the kit, and some additional items from our cupboard.

I think the house looks good enough to eat!

"When can we eat it?" was her question after it was finished.  I told her that we had to keep it around until after Christmas and enjoy looking at it because it's so beautiful - then her and Joshua can break it to pieces and nibble away.

Breakfast with the big guy in red....

Helaina has had lots of Santa exposure this year.  She's seen him 7 times, been to 3 tree lighting ceremonies and had breakfast with him twice.  Jim and I are Santa-ed out.  We told Helaina that Santa was heading back to the North Pole to help the elves get ready for Christmas.  Phew!

The first breakfast was at the zoo.

Bacon, sausage, Santa and snakes - what could be better.

Santa made a grand entrance during breakfast and visited with the kids at each table.

Then he took his place near the Christmas tree and got down to business.

Of all the cute body paintings she could choose from, Helaina picked a Christmas snake.  While she was geting the snake painted on her hand, Helaina told the woman all the facts she knows about snakes.

She was SO excited when she found out there would be a real snake on display.  She listened intently and asked some questions.  "Do snakes have ears?"  She learned where they are on the snake and how well (or not so well) snakes can hear.

This is the snake that Helaina would not even get near the glass to view only a few months ago.  Now it's her best friend.  "Can I have a real snake for Christmas?  We can put a flashlight in it's cage so it stays warm."  Uummm, sorry sweetie, I know we try like heck to fulfill all your wishes, but that's one wish that won't come true - ever!

"Daddy, hold me up higher so I can see the snake."

One of my favorite exhibits at the zoo is the lion area.  The giant wall of glass provides an amazing view of the 3 lions, which are almost always laying around right in front of the glass in perfect view.  We have NEVER seen these lions be anything but passive when people are checking them out - that was until this time.  Helaina did her usual face-to-the-glass viewing and this lion immediately made a snarling face and swatted her huge paw directly at Helaina.  It scared the heck out of me but Helaina was not rattled in the least.  She thought it was funny.  "She's cranky today!" Helaina said.

I love this picture because of the look on the lion's face.  You can tell she was still snarling at Helaina.  That encounter really made me remember that these are wild animals and not as tame as they appear to be behind that glass. 

Prancer and Donner waiting to take Santa back to the North Pole.

The zoo has had the same Santa every year since we've been taking Helaina, and he's a good one.  Patient, takes time to talk to all the kids and seems to genuinely care.  This is a tidbit from her lengthy discussion with him:

Santa:  I see you have Christmas tree earrings on.  I like them.  Now who is that you have in your hair?

Helaina:  That's Elmo on my piggy tails.

Santa:  Oh, Elmo, right.  Are you married?
Helaina:  No (laughing).

Santa:  How old do you think you should be before you get married?

Helaina:  21.

At least - good girl!!!!!

She did great!!!

Oh man, what a show.  Helaina was the cutest little bluebird ever.  Backstage when we had to leave her to get to our seats she felt a few pre-show jitters, but once on stage she did great.  She was in 4 song and dance routines and it didn't take her long to feel at ease on stage - moving and grooving in true Helaina form.  She was adorable and hysterical all at the same time.  We've got great video that we'll post after Jim gets it on the computer.

Backstage before the show with Snow White.

Beaming after the show, so thrilled with her flowers.  Just look at that face.

It was a performance that brought tears to her Mommy's eyes.  I just kept thinking that when we brought her home from China she didn't say a word for the first 2 months.  When she did start speaking she struggled for so very long just to be understood.  And now she's singing her heart out on stage before an audience.  She is truly an amazing little girl.

A star is born ....

Tonight's the big night - Helaina's first play.  Yippee!  Just like the line in one of the songs, "can you feel the magic in the air". 

Her celebration cake is ready ...

... and so are her flowers.

Now, if only Mommy can stop being so nervous.  Helaina's fine - it's me with the butterflies in my stomach!

Dinomania

Our local kids museum had the traveling Dinomania exhibit in November and Helaina loved it.  She got to see the dinosaurs that she loves from one of her favorite cartoons the Land Before Time (an oldie but goodie).  Triceratops is her favorite dinosaur and it was the first one she saw when we entered the exhibit.  You can see the excitement on her cute little face.

We'd work our way through the exhibit but Helaina would always run back to the Momma and 2 baby triceratops.  She was very impressed that all the dinosaurs moved and roared.

"It's just like Topsie.", a dinosaur from the cartoon.

They were all pretty lifelike.

The eggs hatching was another favorite.  They moved as they "hatched" from the eggs.

My fav, the t-rex.

Can't leave without taking on the rock climbing wall.

This kid cracks me up.  She was trying to use these pulleys to lift 2 weights off the ground.  When she couldn't do it she layed on the ground and braced her feet and entire body, grunting all the way.  Determined little tike, isn't she.

The last weekend of November was still warm enough for some final visits to the parks.

The "shakey bridge" as Helaina calls it, and monkey bar mania.

Monkey bars are not just for swinging across.  Superman style down the slide.

Yah, November was a good month.  So much for that.  It's very cold, windy and snowy now.  The party's over.

Mailing Santa's Letter

We had a few extra minutes the other day before heading out to school so Helaina grabbed her letter to Santa and asked for a stamp.  By the way, she's wearing "Snakey" around her neck - her pet snake.  Helaina has recently become infatuated with snakes - this from the girl who wouldn't even stand next to the reptile's glass enclosure at the zoo.  More on the snake obsession some other time.

"Mom, I need a REAL stamp."

Mailing her letter on the way to the bus stop.

And by mailing, I mean her putting the letter in our mailbox on the way to the bus stop and me taking it out of the mailbox on my walk back to the house.

The envelope containint the all-important letter.

I think that Helaina thinks Santa's going to build a basketball court in our backyard overnight on December 24th.

Sunday morning heading into the dress rehearsal for the play Helaina will be in Saturday night.  We were instructed to take her to the side of the theater and look for the "artist entrance".  Artist entrance - ha, our little performance artist!

Just a glimpse of Helaina's feathery bluebird headband.  She was so excited to finally be at the theater in her costume and get her chance to be on stage.  I also thought she was a bit nervous or maybe slightly apprehensive when her dance instructor came to line up the woodland creatures and lead them on stage to practice.  Jim didn't think so, but I think you can see it in her face in this pic.  It didn't last for long though because when they came back in between their scenes she was smiling, laughing, jumping with excitement and totally thrilled.  I don't know who is more excited about this weekend's show, Helaina or Jim and I.
Funny Helaina:
Helaina asked me a question the other night at dinner and it was a question she knew the answer to.  I gave her my usual response.  "Helaina, you know the answer to that question.  Why did you ask it if you knew the answer?"  Her response:  "Just to aggravate you."  Okay.....

One of Helaina's 4th grade pals at our bus stop is on the bus patrol this week.  Helaina was explaining to Jim and I what the kids to when they are on the bus patrol.  Jim said to her "I'm going to be on your bus patrol."  Helaina said to him "You can't.  You're an old man."  Oh my gosh, cracked us up.

Helaina has asked a lot of questions about marriage recently.  "When will I get married?  Who will I marry?  Will you come to my wedding?  Will you buy me pretty flowers to hold?"  Lately she's expanded her daily 1,000 questions to babies.  Her most recent question centers around the fact that we've told her she has to be in love and married to her husband before she can have a baby (we can only pray!):  "How will the baby in my belly know if I'm married or not?"  Talk about forward thinking.

More November niceness

Shortly after Halloween we attended the zoo's annual Squishing of the Squash which was held on another nice day at the beginning of November.  There are pumpkins for the animals to play with as well as an underwater pumpkin carving demo in the penguin pool.

Joshua trying to get his small pumpkin out from behind the rock.  When he got it he walked around his enclosure holding it in his mouth.  We just love the lion exhibit at our zoo.  The entire area is enclosed with a floor-to-ceiling wall of glass and the lions are always hanging out near the glass.  It's so cool.

Helaina insisted on bringing her baby in to the zoo with her that day.  It's kind of a heavy doll and we tried to talk her out of it because we knew she'd get tired of toting it around and pawn it off on us.  We made it VERY clear to her that Jim and I weren't going to take it off her hands when she got tired of carrying the top-heavy doll.  The time eventually came: "Mommy, will you carry my baby?"  No.  "Daddy, will you carry my baby now?  She's too heavy."  Uh, no, told you so.  Meanies, aren't we.

Penguins are so cute, in an awkward kind of way.

How many divers does it take to carve a pumpkin under water?

Two.

Pretty cool.

Wild haired baby and Helaina on the teeny tiny elephant statue.

These lemurs were funny.  Their heads would almost turn in unison when someone walked by.

Our little actress, really.  Helaina saw one of her friends perform with our local children's theater over the summer in the production of Wonderland (as in Alice), and she begged to be able to sing and dance on stage just like her friend.  She absolutely loves to sing and dance and act out scenes from her favorite movies, so, suckers that we are, we signed her up.  Since September Helaina's been taking weekly classes at our local children's theater.  She has three 25-minute sessions each week.  Acting (yah, ha!), singing and dance.  She's had a blast and it's good for her.  Anyone who knows Helaina knows that she's exploding with energy and needs to release it some way.  Next weekend is her debut in the Rockin' Tale of Snow White.  She's playing one of the woodland animals (all the 5-year olds are woodland creatures).  Helaina's the bird, she has one line in the play, and is in several of the song and dance numbers with the entire cast and one song/dance routine with Snow White.  Thrilling for a 5-year old.  She's worked very hard learning the songs and the sometimes complicated dance routines.  Tomorrow is her dress rehearsal at the theater where they will perform.  Squeal!

Oh, yah.  That brings me to costume making.  I searched high and low for a bird costume around Halloween but no such luck.  I found Big Bird and the Angry Birds (whatever oddity those things are), but no "woodland creature" bird costume.  I checked every store and internet site I could find with no luck.  I DON'T sew, but I'm good with a hot glue gun so my internet search began.  I took ideas from several sites (Martha Stewart and "ask how" sites), combined them and came up with a vision.  Well, after MANY craft store visits (with enough miles put on my car to drive to Florida and back), trial and error mishaps, changes in plans, swearing, tears, frustrated phone calls to Jim, hot glued fingers, countless hours, late nights and actually having to cut one of the completed "wings" off the costume and start over again, I finished the bluebird "costume", wings and headband 2 days ago.  It took 26 felt squares, a million glue sticks, a few feathers, a lot of cursing and a bottle of L'Oreal hair color to cover up my newly sprouted (but well deserved) gray hairs.  I must say, though, it's exactly as I envisioned  and I'm pleased with it.  First time I tried it on Helaina she got a huge smile on her face, started flapping her "wings" and danced around the family room so it was worth it.  Man, what we won't do for our kids, huh?