Dance Recital

The Sunday before Thanksgiving Anna performed in her first dance recital. She was just so cute and did a great job. The recital was centered around mothers and grandmothers. Many grandmothers were there and on stage with the girls. Since we don't have any grandmothers nearby, I was going to be up there with Anna. I am not really the "on stage" type, but I was going to just deal with it. Well, Doug was asked to be an emcee, so I saw my ticket off the stage. Anna got to walk in with her Daddy, one of the 3 males involved, and she even got to stand by him between a couple songs.

Anna loved the dress she got to wear during her songs. She did a dance in both her ballet shoes and her tap shoes. (She LOVES her tap shoes. When she first got them, she wanted to wear them around the house constantly. I actually had to put them up high so they would be out of her sight and she would not put them on. Tap shoes get noisy when they are confined to the house.)


Towards the end of the recital, the girls got to relax a bit and put on their jammies. While they all changed into their jammies, the three Pastor emcees had their 5 minutes of fame. They performed their own special version of The 12 Days of Christmas. It was fun to watch them all be silly.

The girls then came back out and danced one song with a favorite stuffed animal. (Susie Lambie Pie made it onstage. For those of you wondering, that was one of my favorite stuffed animals when I was a little girl.) Then they finished with a silly song about getting jammies on.

We did have one "totally Anna" moment. After waiting with Doug backstage for her Rudolph song, she came back onstage. But, she didn't have her tap shoes. As I was giving the tap shoes to the teacher to put on, I notice Anna is starting to undress. Apparently she didn't want the dress on anymore...who knows! Anyway, Linda got her dress back on properly and the tap shoes and she was ready to dance. There were a couple in the audience that were paying attention to Doug and missed the "show" from Anna. What a character!!

Snow -- Already??

This morning woke up to snow on the ground. It is still coming down also. I know we are in MN, but I don't think we should be getting snow quite this early. Of course, Gabriel was so excited when I had him look out the window. Then when I told him that he would start school 2 hours late, he was even more excited. He got showered and dressed in record time this morning! All because he wanted dig out his snow pants and snow boots so he could play. The kids were out playing in the snow by 8:15am. They are a little on the odd side. It comes from Doug's side of the family though!! hahah

Anway, they had a blast, but did come in about an hour later because they were cold. As I mentioned it is still snowing and we have about 2 1/2 - 3 inches according to Gabe's ruler.

Anna had to make a snow angel and then EAT the fresh snow. Gabe went immediately to the garage and got his shovel. He is such a great helper!

Oh, when Gabe came in because he was getting cold, he excitedly told Doug, "Daddy, this means we can go sledding in a couple days!!"

Trick or Treat!

It was a great day this year for Trick or Treating. We had temps in the 50's so it was great! It did get cooler as the evening went on and my nose was chilled by the time we got home. On the flip side, Doug was getting hot as we were walking. Odd duck!

This year we had dueling clowns in our house. We had 2 clown costumes that happened to fit the kids perfectly this year. (Thank you to my big sister for that!!) We did have to get some fun curly clown hair. The kids even thought it would be fun to have their face painted. And, it actually stayed on!! Anna wanted red lips, but Gabe decided he didn't want red lips.

The kids had fun going around town and got lots of goodies. We went to the nursing home in town and that was fun. One resident handing out candy had a clown wig on also. She thought it was so neat that she matched the kids. So precious.

They were not so impressed with anyone with a scary mask on. We tried to stear clear of the scary looking houses or kids. We did have a few people handing out candy wearing masks, and it spooked them a bit.

Taco Tuesday - 2008

Last night we had the annual Taco Tuesday at preschool. This time it was Anna's turn to be up in front of everyone. She had a blast and did great! She even got to stand next to Zoey for the event. They sang songs and recited 2 Bible verses. Mrs Harms also had them answer questions about the Bible stories they have learned about.

The evening started out with a taco supper. They had a great turnout and we had to stand in line for a while. I had gone over early and helped fry out all the hamburger. I think I ended up frying 8 lbs and my wrist sure did hurt.

After supper, we moved upstairs in the Church for the program. Doug started out the program by introducing himself and talking a little about his time with the kids each week. Then, he went upstairs with the video camera while I stayed in the pews to take pictures. The pictures didn't turn out that well, because I was so far back the flash didn't do so good. Oh well, everything can't be perfect. Not in the Minton household at least. hahah

After the program, Anna showed us the artwork she made for the evening. She made a Noah's Ark with a rainbow. She also made a "self portrait" with curly yarn for her hair. Very cute if I may say so myself.

Fall Leaves...already

This past weekend was a little warmer again and the kids wanted to rake leaves. We didn't really have a chance, so Doug took off work an hour early to play in the leaves with the kids. Isn't that sweet?? Anyway, we made a big pile and the kids had a blast. Gabe thought the best part was us swinging him by his arms and legs and dropping him in the pile. Anna wasn't too sure about that so we just each had one of her arms and swung her in the pile.

Doug tripped the kids a few times and they landed in the leaves. Once Gabe landed face first. He got up giggling, but did have to lift up his shirt to get the leaves off his belly. It was just too funny.

Looking at the pile of leaves that we were able to make, then looking at the tree in our backyard which is still basically full, we still have lots of time left for playing and working with the leaves. But, it is such a pretty shade of yellow, I just had to take a picture for you all to see.

Now, we are caught up with the pictures I had on camera.

Fun at the Farm

A couple weeks ago, we headed out to the farm again. (My kids would go everyday if I let them.) This time it was for a new and exciting adventure. They got to take a ride on the combine with Dave to get some corn. Gabe thought the best thing was the camera on the tractor to see behind them. Anna was just excited to be in the tractor. (As you can tell, it doesn't take much to keep my kids happy.) Then Ricky took Doug out in another tractor to check on them and he got to drive it back from the field. Doug had fun driving and was apparently fighting the urge to sing "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." I just stayed back with the girls and stayed warm by the fire.

I forgot the mention they LOVE playing with Murphy, the dog. They would really like a dog at home, but we just don't have the ourdoor space for a dog. I just tell them they can play with Murphy at the farm. Am I mean or what?!?

Gabriel Milestones

A couple weeks after school started, Gabe came home very excited. He had finally mastered the Art of Skipping! Now, we had been working on learning to skip for about a year but his little feet just kept getting tangled up with each other. For those of you that know my hubby, this will not come as a surprise. Doug can't skip either. I was a little shocked about that. Now, Gabriel is trying to teach Daddy how to skip so he won't feel left out.

I just had to take a little video of Gabe skipping (finally) because he is just so happy and likes to skip all over the place. Enjoy!!

You may notice that he can even skip through our big pile of leaves. You may even notice that my strange child has no shoes on. It was a nice day out, but he still had on a shirt and sweatshirt, but didn't want shoes on. Whatever!!

Our other major milestone was learning to tie his shoes. Apparently they have a big shoe at school and they have been working on learning to tie. He mastered it and got a certificate and a treat! He was more excited about the Skittles he got to bring home. I don't have pictures of that yet, but I will take some for the scrapbook...since he does already have a certificate. Now, before you start laughing at me, remember that some moms scrapbook their kids Potty Training. I did not do that, basically because I didn't have a desire to document that. =)