Christmas Activities Around Town

Chase watches the Christmas Parade with the babes.

Caleb decorates cookies at a local gas station.

James, Caleb and Lizzy pet Prancer the reindeer .

The little ladies take in the parade.

Jayden and Caleb discuss who gets the red or yellow 'vette.

Thank you Liberty Accounting for the awesome hats. We ended up with a lot of useful things from the parade that I've enjoyed carrying around in the car and finding under beds and couches.

WOW! Caleb wins big in the Reflections contest

Caleb receives notification that he won!

Here he is with 3 ribbons.

Caleb's artwork entry.

Caleb's Photography entry.

Caleb's literature entry-a haiku about flag football.

I signed up to be on the Reflections committee at the Elementary school this year. With our school being pretty new, it is the first year they have done the contest. I was assigned the publicity task as a committee member and with one week left until the entry deadline discovered we only had 6 entries. I called my nephew Jayden (who attends the same elementary) to come over and create entries with Corbin and Caleb in an effort to boost the totals. The 3 of them worked hard and came up with some very nice art projects. The following day I further encouraged Caleb to enter the Photography and Literature categories. Luckily when the deadline day arrived we had close to 100 entries turned in! The projects were collected, sorted and shipped off to the 3 different judging groups.

About 2 weeks later Caleb came home with 3 very nice announcements. We were quite surprised to find out Caleb had won in all 3 categories. At first I was a little embarrassed, not wanting to come across as a 'stage mom' type who makes their kindergartner enter all 3 categories of a contest and also at people thinking the judging process was tainted.

Caleb was so pleased about his wins and insisted on meeting his brothers at their bus stops to tell them the good news. He also made phone calls to Grandpa & Grandma Hawkes to announce the big news! With big brothers winning trophies and ribbons and getting to participate in a variety of activities, this has been a very big deal for Caleb.

Wrestling with my acceptance of this sport

Carter celebrates victory with his teammates that also placed at the district tournament.

Carter stands on the award podium accepting the 3rd place medal.

I never understood Wrestling. First of all, the uniforms are the ugliest things I have ever seen. Brad Pitt would look nerdy in one. I can remember guys in high school wearing sweatsuits around with the hoods on trying not to eat so they could 'make weight'. Why would they torture themselves so they could put on that unitard (I know, singlet) and roll around with another guy in a singlet and then end up with cauliflower ear when they're older? Weird.

You can only imagine my reaction when my sons came home and asked me to fill out the permission forms for wrestling. Ugggh.

I must admit I have gained an appreciation for wrestling. I have faithfully gone and cheered my boys on at every one of their matches. I've washed and air dried their singlets. While I still don't understand the scoring system and admit I cringe a little every time I see them walk onto the mat in their singlet, I am very proud of all the hard work they put in and the positive effects they've experienced being on a team, learning to be a good sport in defeat and victory, and feeling the satisfaction that comes from giving something your all.

Now I'm looking forward to next year's wrestling season.

What a day!

What do these 4 pictures have in common?

Unfortunately, me. (Except my Suburban is older and the police cars said Caldwell and not Port Angeles).

The other day I took Chloe and Caleb out to Cost Plus to do a quick errand. Chloe fell asleep in the car so when I got there I decide to get her stroller out so she can stay sleeping while we walk through the store. I leave the car running (it's cold) and hop out to get the stroller. When I get around back the back door is locked. I go back to my driver side to push the unlock button and almost trip over Caleb who has hopped out without his coat. Guess what? My drivers door is locked as are all the other doors. Somehow Caleb locked them when he hopped out. My cell phone, purse, Caleb's coat and everything are locked in my running car along with sleeping little Chloe. Caleb and I run into Cost Plus and tell them our predicament. They call 911 and within minutes two police cars show up and tell me they no longer carry slim-jim equipment but the firefighters do and they will be arriving soon. The firefighters then show up in their giant, red, not so inconspicuous truck and go to work on the passenger side and drivers side locks simultaneously. Caleb who has no coat and is too afraid to sit in a warm Police car watches the action from a dining set display inside Cost Plus. I run back and forth between Cost Plus to check on him and the Suburban to make sure Chloe is still okay. The Cost Plus manager was nice enough to give him a gourmet imported root beer (that Caleb later told me tasted like barf). Luckily Chloe never woke up and after 45 minutes of trying to unlock the doors with their expensive 'kit tools', one of the firemen was able to go through the very back window with a coat hanger and hit the unlock button. Oh,what a day.

Christmas is coming

And this proves it -- my sisters-in-law, Karin & Melinda, my sister Haley, and I worked on advent calendars over Thanksgiving break. Thanks to my mom for coming up with the idea and having the supplies for us. It was so much fun.