The Nelson Narrative

I stumbled upon free passes to the KidsQuest Children's Museum through our local library-score!  I've been wanting to take them there forever so I was thrilled to get free passes.  We went today and the girls really enjoyed it.  They only had certain days available, though, all weekdays, so Paul couldn't go with us.  But since it was for 4 people I was able to have a friend who is currently unemployed join us, but she couldn't stay long. Anyway, the big hits were the scarf shooter, water tables and this machine with gears and levers to manipulate balls through various chutes and holes.  Totally fun. We made polar bear claws   Playing with a boy at the scarf shooter Letting the machine blow the ball in the air Puppet show Colorful magnetic shapes Riding Clifford in the mall

Today I'm joining Amber and Neely's Fabulous Holiday Blog Challenge where the topic is Favorite Holiday Traditions.  Paul and I have enjoyed creating several Christmas traditions since we got married.  First, we always watch Christmas Vacation sometime during the Thanksgiving weekend.  Next, all 4 of us go to a local tree farm to select, cut down and purchase our Christmas Tree (aptly refered to as the Nelson Family Christmas Tree).  We used to do this the Friday after Thanksgiving, but in the last few years we've waited until the first weekend in December.  We spend most of the day the first Saturday in December getting our tree, putting it up and decorating it.  We also put up our outside lights that weekend. Last year we took the girls to see Santa for the first time, and that will become an annual tradition.  Finally, we always take a drive around the neighborhood one evening to look at all the lights.  And, of course, it woul...

I can't believe Thanksgiving weekend is over.  Those 4 days just flew by!  We went to my brother's house up in Mount Vernon for Thanksgiving and had a great time visiting my family.  The girls got to play with their 2nd cousins (whose mother is my niece/their 1st cousin) which is so fun for them. Friday we took them to their very first movie, The Muppets. They did pretty good, but not quite as good as I expected, considering that at home they would watch TV all day long if I let them and certainly never have an issue with sitting through an entire kids' movie.  I think if it had been an animated Disney/Pixar film they would have done just great, but they really don't "know" the Muppets so they liked 'em for awhile but got kind of bored toward the end.  I loved it. I grew up with and loved the Muppets so it had sentimental value for me.  Anyway, they liked it well enough and really enjoyed the whole experience of being in a theater and having...

I don't know what it is about evenings, but every night in the hours between dinner and bedtime the girls morph into something akin to this:  

We don't do a ton of playdates.  We might do one or two a month with my mom's group, and every once in awhile I might get together with another mom somewhere.  Other than that it's just storytime at the library, sunday school, the park, etc.  But lately we suddenly have a bunch of playdates on the calendar. Last Tuesday we had one with the mom's group to make Thanksgiving crafts.  I still maintain that glitter glue and 3-year-olds are not a good combination but at least it washes off easily :).  We (I helped) made some cute foam turkeys.  They love doing crafts and I'm sure we'll be doing tons more for Christmas. How cute are these? Mommy accidently put the feathers on the wrong side on the one on the left.  My bad. Stickers and glitter glue = hours of fun Friday we had a playdate at our house with another set of twins.  Boy/girl twins that are 2 1/2.  I met the mom through another friend.  T...

We are in the throes of searching for a preschool for the girls.  I thought I had it narrowed down but then I found a few more to check out and just today I got a flier in the mail for a brand new one just down the road, like literally 2 minutes away at a church we briefly attended when we first moved here.  I really want to find out more about that one, and hope maybe they're a little less expensive, but probably not.  They also have classes starting in January, so maybe I won't have to wait until September to get a few hours to myself a few days a week!  Not that I'm counting down or anything.  Besides, we maybe would wait until September anyway just to save money.  Anyway, I've been busy calling and emailing and we're hoping to make a decision soon so that we can get on a waiting list if need be.  Preschool already (well, not already.  Most kids their age started this year).  What happened to my babies?

The girls were so excited to go trick-or-treating last night.  They barely ate any dinner.  Our friend Jerri came over to help give out candy so we could both take them around the neighborhood, which was great, because usually I stay behind to give out candy and only daddy gets to take them. A fairy and a mermaid Olivia did NOT want to pose for a picture