Ellie the Elf

Ellie, our Elf on the Shelf, has come for another visit.  The last time we saw Ellie was on Emilia's birthday.  She came with Lego Advent calendars for Emilia and Beau.




She also hung out on some pictures in our living room the next day.

She turned our milk green (which Emilia then drank), made some steps with marshmallows and had a snack in the refrigerator.  She left us a note saying it was too hot here and she needed to cool off.


She pretended to be a flower.

She got out a puzzle and solved it throughout the day.  Emilia and Beau showed her how to do it when they got up but then took it back apart for her to solve.

She made a flour angel.  Helpful hint for any other elves reading this… use salt.  It isn't as messy!

Whispering secrets to the troll.  The day before she was having a conversation on the desk with Leo and Quincy (Little Einsteins).

Ellie also hid in our cooking utensils but I forgot to get a picture of her there.  Then yesterday she was suspended from the lights in the kitchen using twine.  She went from the window above the kitchen sink, across all 3 lights and ended at the cabinet above the refrigerator.  I sure am glad she used a binder clip as a safety harness!

Picture with Santa

Beau loves Santa this year and was so excited to first see him at the library Christmas party and then at the mall on Sunday.  We were prepared for the long lines we usually see but we walked right in.  The kids told Santa what they wanted, they posed for pictures and then got some reindeers ears, coloring book and crayons.  Santa wasn't that old and fat but the kids loved it and there was no line, complaints about waiting or listening to meltdowns of other kids.  There were elves working along the outside of Santa's room; some were baking, making toys, and reading letters.

And my all time favorite Santa picture.  Emilia was 8 months old and Santa was perfect!

Beau's swim lessons

Beau swimming around chasing the plastic ball (yes on a noodle) 

Jumping off the side (the other kid in his class wasn't there)

Cheese! 

Practicing kicking 

Head down 

Arms up to dive 

Blowing bubbles 

Splash! 

Starfish float.  Beau gets upset that he can't practice this in the bathtub. 

Surfing at the end of class

Beau playing tennis

 

Balancing the tennis ball 

While balancing the ball, they work on their tennis vocabulary.  They had to walk to the different lines when it was called out. 

Practicing control of the ball.  Pushing it to your partner. 

Squishing it to stop the ball. 

Drop the ball and swing.  Beau's not quite coordinated enough for this move yet! 

Drop the ball and catch it in the bowl.  He liked this one! 

Balancing the tennis ball on the racquet.  Beau was pretty good this and kept up with their coach.  Then he got to lead the line. 

It's always a good day when Beau gets to go to the park to play in the sand and run after ducks.

O Christmas Tree

When Chris and I bought our first house, the previous owner left her Christmas Tree in the attic.  It was a huge 9 foot tree that we put in our front window for 7 Christmases.  We had the highest ceilings in our little one story and we ended up putting the tree on another base that raised it another foot or so.  But this tree was not pre lit with lights.  We had to put it together every year, branch by color-coded branch.  Lights were strung row by row until the top.

When we moved to our next house, we didn't have a great place for the tree.  It was almost as tall as our 10-ft ceilings once the snowman was at the top.  Every year we looked for a pre-lit tree but every year we talked ourselves out of it.  Finally last year, we took the plunge.  A beautiful pre-lit slim line tree came home with us after some back and forth and finally the encouragement from my great and talented friend Amanda.  Of course we all know by know what happened after Christmas last year… We moved to Australia…  And Australia has different power so it didn't cross our minds to take it.  I have a beautiful, new grey and white linen tree skirt in storage that has never been used!

So this year we bought a 4-ft tree and decided on a whole new theme.  Instead of my red, silver and chartreuse balls with snowman ornaments, we would go aqua and silver with Australian animals.
We put it up last weekend since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving and it's spring so everything is all whack-a-doodle about Christmas in the summer.

The Sydney Opera House and Kookaberra

Koala, Crocodile and Platypus 

Penguin and White Kangaroo 

Echidna and Brown Kangaroo 

On the far right, you can see Beau's airplane with Santa