The Return of Adventures!! SWEET!!!

Since we moved to Ogden, Heidi Anne has been very hesitant towards the idea of adventures. If given a choice between exploring our new area or staying home, she has been picking home. That is not my normal Heidi Anne. To say the least things have been a little blah for the first time since I was pregnant with her.
Little did I know salvation was on its way, in the form of my friend Valerie. She came back to the area for the Christmas season to visit her family. She has 4 children 3 and under. She is a pro at traveling, adventures, and adventures with kids. She invited us to come along on a trip to the train museum and the Christmas Village.
Oh my gosh! When Heidi Anne heard that we would be going somewhere with Valerie's family she couldn't wait to go. She started to do a count down. That Saturday she just kept asking, "Can we go now?" "Is it time?" Heidi Anne was jumping at the bit so we headed out a little earlier than planned. Just to have her eager to go somewhere was so refreshing! 

Heidi Anne had a ton of fun at the Train Museum, which also had a car museum, gun museum, a mini cowboy museum, and an art gallery. The lobby alone was lovely to look at, so lovely many families were getting family photos done there and someone even had a reception going on too. Heidi Anne LOVED getting Pressed Pennies. Great little keepsakes for adventures and they only cost 51 cents. Take that overpriced gift shop!

After the Train Museum we had sandwiches. Again, Valerie's professional traveler shined though. They already had all the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches put together, some pre cut carrots, water, oranges and apples.  Then we went to the Christmas Village. Which reminded Heidi Anne of the Logan Pumpkin Walk, only it's in Ogden and they are supercute playhouses. You can look inside them and they are all decorated like window shop displays used to be back in the day.  

We got to go on a hayride pulled by two big horses! Heidi Anne went to sit down and promptly jumped back up crying. She just kept whimpering "Pokey!". It took me a few seconds but then it came together, the hay was poking her when she tried to sit. Once she finally picked to sit on my lap she was much happier. Then the horses started to make their way down the street as we all sang Christmas Carols.

One scene will stay with me from that lovely ride. We're all singing songs and having fun when I noticed a young waiter hunched over and slowly walking down the sidewalk. As we got closer I noticed a dark figure hanging onto the corner of his arm. This young waiter was helping an elderly homeless man down the sidewalk as we were singing "Away in a Manger", and I thought "Now that young man is a shinning example of Christmas spirit, he lives it."

Heidi Anne noticed that there were people in some of the buildings and had fun waving to them as we passed by. She said she felt like she was in a parade with people looking down from their HUGE buildings at us. Yes, anything with three or more stories is "HUGE", you can't tell she grew up in a small town, can ya? 

OH How I have MISSED This!! 

Heidi Anne - The Littlest Angel

On Saturday afternoon Heidi Anne had her Christmas pageant practice. This year she was an angel, all the girls aged 5-7 were angels. It was the same part my sister and I frequently got when we were younger. My granny made a lovely white gown, with golden rick-rack edges. I've kept mine my whole life. 

She's wearing that very same gown now. I love how things my Granny made for me as a child are now used by my own little angel.

I didn't have a halo or anything of that nature. So I improvised. I had fun putting her hair in a crown braid with two yellow bows on each side of her head. It looked better than any halo. Then we put a little makeup on her. She wanted her cheeks to have "Those dots like the dolly has in the Nutcracker." We haven't seen the Nutcracker in a YEAR!! But I knew what she meant. 

 She turned out to be the smallest angel. I forget how short and tiny she is. Then she is place with other 5-7 year olds. I also learned my camera does "black and white" when there is poor lighting. I think it was cute. Your typical Christmas pageant with lots of shy, fidgety, little kids. But she had fun.

Afterwards, we had a Christmas dinner at church. I snapped a picture of Char and Heidi Anne waiting for food.  

Decorating With NO Funding - Filter Angels and Snow Flakes

Heidi Anne Reading to Ana Rose

I don't talk about money often. Let's just say we aren't even doing a Christmas tree this year and it's not because I want to save a tree.  However, Heidi Anne is still excited for Christmas. She's been reading "The Littlest Angel" (one of my FAVORITE kid books) and "Madeline's Christmas" to anyone and everything.

A MUST Read!! 

Did I mention she now loves Ski Hats? 

Heidi Anne wanted to decorate for Christmas. I surprised her after school yesterday by having a table set up for making crafts. Coffee Filters (you can make so many crafts from them!), colored paper, normal printer paper, fun scissors, pipe cleaners, glitter, glue, and a hot glue gun. 
She put on her sweetest face when she saw the craft surprise. I had to get a picture, just look at those bright blue eyes, golden wheat blonde hair in pigtails, and sweet smile. 

 We made a lot of snow flakes. They were perfect for hanging round the apartment (as long as the cat leaves them alone. 
After we made a lot of snow flakes we made angels! Cotton balls, coffee filters, and pipe cleaners never looked so good! She says the ribbons around their neck are really "little angel arms". We made one for each person in the family. 

Then she made some little angels for her teacher, for her friend, and the last is to show the other kids at recess what "My Momma makes with me!" She went on to tell me, "The other kids say that Moms don't do fun, messy things with kids. I tell them, "Well, my Momma makes messy crafts with me!" 

Heidi Anne Angel

It's nice to know that we can still have fun and keep the spirit of Christmas when we're flat broke. Sometimes those can be the most rewarding times. (At least that's what I like to tell myself). 

Momma Angel

Daddy Angel

Heidi Anne Says....

I will admit I was rather hesitant about Heidi Anne going to full day Kindergarten. I was worried it was going to be to much for her. Back in Logan her class time was roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes, with a class of 35 children. (The total amount of kindergarteners was roughly 200 kids!) She was already in a after-school resource program as well. Apparently she was behind, she loved learning her classmates native language then learning her own. She was learning more Arabic, Russian, and Spanish than English.

At her new school there are only 18 other children in her class. I am amazed at the progress she's been making. She can read words, do some basic math, and her grammar is improving. Yet, I am still surprised at the things she says.

Like yesterday when I picked her up from school. The first thing she said was "Momma! Guess what we learned about today?" So I just started saying silly things like "That you have a nose! That it's almost Christmas?" Heidi Anne proudly says "Nope! We learned about periods! It's so exciting!" 
(Yes, my eyes bulged out like a cartoon character, Will E. Coyote would have been very impressed with me). 
I told myself deep breaths. 
I cleared my throat, "So what did you learn about periods?" 
"They are those dots at the end of a sentence! And we learned about question marks and explanation marks, but those are for when you're really happy or yelling."--Crisis adverted!

Later that day I was talking with Char and asked if he had any "iders" for dinner. From the hallway we hear "Momma, you're not pronouncing it right. It's Idea, III-DEE-A, not I-Dear." 

I know her reading has greatly improved, we read a lot of Dr. Seuss books. When we read I will read I like to test her reading by saying the wrong word. She'll correct me. Last night we read Green Eggs and Ham. I would say things "Would he, could he out of box?" She'll laugh and read "Noo, it says Would YOU, could YOU IN A box. You silly Mommy! You need my help."