Finally! There's Santa, taking a break from toy making! We hear this is Santa's last year waterskiing as age is finally taking its toll and he would rather relax in front of a warm fire with a hot toddy. It was very windy today and I'm sure the water was freezing, so Santa's plan sounds sensible to me.
Here is Eva in her special Christmas outfit. This came from Norway. Last year, Eva's class studied Norway for Global Studies and she was taken with the country and its clothes. She should get two years or so out of this beautiful embroidered wool pinafore. Wearing this dress around town is prompting Eva to practice social graces because everyone asks her about it and tells her she is pretty.
Camera phones are always with us, but they are just not very good. Cath shot this photo with her lousy Motorola phone at Harry's Tap Room in Arlington. Here is Bill with Eva (happy) and Lyra (oblivious).
Even though last night's recital was short and sweet, Will and Eva's piano instructor required the children to conform to her performance dress code. I asked Will and Eva to get themselves dressed appropriately, figuring they knew what that meant having performed in recitals before.
Eva is playing Christmas carols with piano teacher and performer, Julie Zupan. I liked the chamber music format of this recital. I don't have a good picture of Will playing piano because he played at the end and Lyra had lost all sense of decorum by then.
The barrier between the front of the house and the construction zone is temporarily down, so you can kind of see where this renovation is going. I wish I'd taken a picture of the floor before all the thermaply was put back down but I missed my chance.
The windows are finally in. There used to be a window on the lefthand wall and another to the right of the door. Now we have a larger window to the left of the door and the door is further to the right than it was. The old radiator is gone and we are looking forward to having heat in the back of the house!
Fireflies is our new kid friendly place to go eat. Eva loves the lemonade and live bluegrass on Sundays. Lyra loves her avocado though I brought that from home. I can't believe she ate the whole thing!
Every year, Will and Eva's school does a Christmas Chapel service on the last day before winter break begins. This children in first grade reenact the Christmas story. There are angels, shepherds, wise men, animals and Jesus' family. They practice for weeks learning their songs and special parts. One of the songs is Silent Night which they sing both in American Sign Language and the regular way. It is just beautiful!
I took this picture of Eva with one of her most favorite beaux, Jacob. Unfortunately, Jacob is not in her class this year and she misses him very much. In fact, the other day, I saw Jacob in the hallway....he said Hi, I said Hi and that Eva missed him a lot. He said "I know." A true Hans Solo moment! Jacob is a sweet boy and more than one person in the Phelps family has noticed a resemblance to Will at the same age.
Here are about 1/3 of the cousins on Thanksgiving day. Sydney wanted everyone to have a special hat to wear so we had lots of pilgrims and indians (native americans?) around the table. I can't believe Cherie was able to take such a good picture. Usually the more children you have the more difficult it is to get everyone to cooperate. Frank and family, we missed you!
Will and three of his buddies (and some other kids) made a short claymation movie last weekend (see earlier post for a link to the movie). Apparently, the kids started by making the clay figures, then wrote a story around the figures they had created. Will and his buddies are obsessed with small animals, so that is what they made. Will made the two gerbils on the left, the pumpkin and the chair. The gerbil on the far left never made it into the movie, but the bigger gerbil did (carrying the pumpkin in the movie) and was voiced by Will. Will also made and colored he chair, which was one of the props in the movie. (BTW, the gerbil on the left looks more like a demonic rat to me, but Will says it is a gerbil.)
I thought when the first round of demolition was complete our backyard looked like a mess, but now it is really bad. Our old brick patio has been pulled up, and the bricks are being recycled into the reconfigured rear wall of the house.
This is a closer in view of the photo above. We are reconfiguring the back wall from two windows and a center door to a wider door to the left (looked at from outside) and a single bigger window over what will be the sink inside. We also took out the (ugly) wall unit airconditioner that was built into the brick above the old kitchen door. I sure hope those 2x4's hold, they are supporting our bedroom.
This photo is taken looking out into the backyard from what will someday be the new kitchen. The ugly radiator will go - the new door frame is right behind where it is now. Heat in the new kitchen will be radiant, so no need to leave room for a radiator. The master bedroom is right above this room. With the night temperatures in the uppers 30s, and no insulation in the ceiling, our bedroom is getting mighty cold at night.
Eva decided we would be a cat family. Will decided he did not want to be part of the litter and dressed up as Alex Rider, the main character in a series of novels about a teenage spy in England. He didn't look dressed up but hey, spies look like everybody else! And I think he enjoyed explaining who he was.
Tehan (my running buddy) and I helped Eva sort through her candy to find the nut-free stuff. Poor Eva. We had to ditch half her candy.
Will has had his eye on this Lego kit for months and been saving his allowance for just as long. He finally earned enough money, with a little help from Auny Edie, to buy it this weekend. He put it together with one of his friends and is very proud of all their hard work!
