HOLIDAY ROUND UP

Well we have finally come to a New Year! The last two months of 2013 were filled with holiday tradition, visits from friends, and tons of laughter. Here is a run down  of the things we've seen and done the past two months.

Tia Arhima came to town for Thanks giving weekend and we headed out to Babyland General to the Cabbage Patch Kids hospital. It was all decorated so nicely. The kiddos loved looking at all the ornaments on the trees and listening to the carolers. Good times.

Of course Khyri finds the tiiiiiiiny section dedicated to "boy toys" and of course... Kielle loves the trucks. *sigh* 2 hours in the car. Imma need for you guys to stay focused on these string haired dolls please! We can see trucks and stuff at doggone Toys R Us up the block.

They even had life sized Cabbage Patch Kids walking around. Khyri was not feeling these giant things AT ALL...

 Kielle however was freely giving out hugs :-) Well half hugs - with a thumb...

We colored in a picture and wrote a short note to Santa.

... and had a tea party.

Me and my two baby dolls :-)

At home we did some Thanksgiving crafts. We made hand turkeys using leaves, berries, and acorns that we found at the playground.

We made A LOT of turkeys! LOL

Papa Dot sent Christmas newsletters for the kiddos to read. Khyri enjoyed his... Kielle asked where's the present. SMH.

 Everyday this winter Kielle has worn boot. EVERY. day.

 

Khyri's Pre-K class put on a Holiday show at school. His first debut! They sang "Jingle Bells", "We wish you a Merry Christmas", "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", and "Feliz Navidad". They were asked to wear Red, Green or White. I like how Khyri's in green - standing out from the crowd :-)

Clearly you have to have some bells when singing "Jingle Bells"!

"You better not pout I'm telling you why..."

 I don't know what song this is... but my baby's got the moves DOWN PAT!

Of course after it was all done, Khyri was completely over it :-) ahhahaha.. on to the next activity please.

Check out Baby Boy SANGING :-) We gotta work on his stage presence though.. I mean he was so focused he didn't crack a smile until the very end. LOL.

HALLOWEEN HAPPINESS!

A whole month to dress up!! What could be better???!?!?! October means... HALLOWEEN :-)

The Mosleys were in a serious Halloween Tailspin this year. I swear we kicked into Halloween gear October 1st. Even before we had the costumes, we pulled out new Halloween pajamas and decorated the house "Mosley style". We painted some signs and went to the pumpkin patch with friends. The kids had a great time using paint, ribbon, glitter, and felt decorating their pumpkins.

We then headed out to hit as many harvest festivals and parades as possible to get into the Halloween/Fall spirit. Khyri and Kielle both picked out their costumes this year; Khyri was Batman and Kielle was Minnie Mouse. *sidenote* I really wanted Kielle to be Strawberry Shortcake. Maybe next year.

One of our first trips was to the annual Smyrna Fall festival. We saw our favorite marionette guy Peter Hart and played on some of the jumpy houses and rides. We sprung for the kiddos to make sand crafts too.

Mid October I took Kielle to Barnes and Noble for their Halloween event. This was the first year I've gone so I didn't know what to expect. Free events are often touch and go. You never know if its going to be a good experience or not. 

The event started off with a "Scary" storytelling time. The reader was dressed as a character from the book "Where the Wild Things Are". She read four short books that required crowd participation which was good for Kielle - she's a fidgeter :-)

After story time, the costumed cuties colored in treat bags and prepared for trick or treating in the store.

There were different stations set up around the store like at the information desk, at the Starbucks counter, etc. This was Kielle's first time trick or treating so she was a little confused. After she got her first treat Kielle was ready to go. I had to convince her that we needed to keep in line so we could get more treats!

Out of 7 stations, Kielle only made it to 2. Yes two. When we got into the car Kielle had  a lollipop and a tootsie roll candy. This was still good prep for Halloween. I'm glad we had this dry run ahead of time.

The festivities at Little Apron Academy started off with a Halloween parade, and me and the hubby were front and center - of course :-) Its really a big deal. All of the teachers get dressed up and the kids don their best superhero, princess, and fireman costumes.

Following the parade, the school continued with a pumpkin decorating contest. Each classroom decorated a pumpkin and then each pumpkin was judged. I know as a parent I'm supposed to favor my childrens' pumpkins, but I gotta admit that I like the Papa Smurf pumpkin that was done by another class. Its just super cute :-)

Khyri's class designed their pumpkin after their favorite storybook character "Splat the Cat"

 

 I kept asking Kielle which pumpkin belonged to her class, but she kept pointing to each one saying "happy jack-o-lantern" hahahahahah BTW every pumpkin is a "happy jack-o-lantern" to Kielle.

The school continued the festivities with a fall festival where Kielle got her face painted and played in an area designated solely for throwing hay! How much fun is that!?!?

We had one more practice run two days before Halloween at the Kroger event. Now last year I was not impressed at all with Kroger or the mall in terms of trick or treating. The employees weren't dressed up, and they didn't have enough candy for the kids. This year!?! - this year Kroger came correct! We didn't wear our costumes, but instead opted for our favorite dress up hats. I even rocked everyone's favorite Dr. Seuss hat :-)

Khyri really rocked Kroger's "stack 'em high" game. He was able to stack 11 Oreo cookies in 10 seconds and won special treats. They also had a coloring station and an area where you had to guess how many plastic fangs were inside a bowl. Kroger had about 10 stations throughout the store. We practiced saying "trick or treat" at each station. We needed to gear up for the big day :-)

On October 31st as night set in, we headed down to Palmetto,GA to trick or treat with our friend Mikey. I have never been real trick or treating - although I had no idea what I was doing was bootleg... hahahaha. Growing up in Harlem, we trick or treated in the apartment building going from floor to floor, so this was whole going outside in the elements and walking along the street was new to me. I loved it all! It was just like the movies! You walk up to houses with lights on and the kiddos shout, "Trick or Treat". Just perfect. Of course, picky pal Khyri wants to start asking people, "What do you have?" huh!?!? I need for you not to be choosy about the type of candy you receive young man. hmph. I mean seriously, Khyri actually told one woman, "No I had Twix yesterday." Talk about embarrassed?!?! So clearly we still have some Trick or treating etiquette to review before next October.

Batman and his superhero crew!

The weather was perfect for trick or treating. The kids were allowed 5 pieces of candy and then I was a sugar junky sneaking treats every moment I had ;-) After statying out late with friends and retiring the costumes for the night *because surely they have been pulled out since* we settled into bed under the protection of...

SUPER DAD!

*yes my hubby photo shopped NYC in the background... hahahaha I don't think the Smyrna skyline would've looked half as good*

CLIMB TIME

The cold weather is starting to move in and the natives are getting restless. To burn some energy, the kiddos have started climbing on EVERYTHING. Instead of climbing on the furniture, we head out door. Khyri has decided that his "mountain" of choice is our neighbor's tree. 

He absolutely loves this thing!I told my neighbor that we may have to cut down the tree so Khyri will stay out of it :-)

Honestly though, I don't mind him climbing up there - if I'm watching him. My only issue is that Kielle wants to do everything Khyri does - and that I am not ok with!
  
Kielle can be super uncoordinated at times ahhahaha! She moves so fast trying to keep up with Khyri that she trips all the time. She does not need to be in anybody's tree! ahahahhah. I would never leave baby girl out, so we found a nice place for her to climb as well at a local playground.

It's fun to just hang your cares away :-)

PICTURE PERFECT?

I remember class picture day pretty vividly from my childhood. I remember getting to have my bangs curled and wearing may favorite sweater, dress, or skirt. I looked forward to picture day every year.

Kindergarten - See me on the right!?! My jeans are CRISP!

Khyri and Kielle both had class pictures last week. In preparation, we practiced smiling and posing for the whole week before. They also practiced sitting for the pictures in school. So I surely thought we were in the clear.

Khyri's photos went smoothly. I think he went a little overboard with the smile... which turend out borderline psycho-ish, but I'm still quite pleased :-)

He is such a big boy!

Although I can't really be surprised seeing as this was my smile when I got my graduate degree...






Things didn't go as smoothly for baby girl...

It started off quite nice. She looked super cute in her class picture. She's sitting cross legged, back straight, and a nice clear smile.

But then it was time to move to the individual pictures. I don't know if it was the props or the lights, or maybe the combination of both - but girlfriend was not having it! They were scheduled to take photos at 10:30am. I got a call at 12pm. "Ms. Mosley, Kielle is having difficulty taking photos. She is not happy at all and has been crying. Do you want to reschedule and have her take photos in the spring?" Nope. She looks picture perfect today. I'm on the way.

So I get there and she starts cheesing because she thinks we're just going home. I take her upstairs and as soon as I open the door to the photo room the tears start flowing. Mind you the photographers remembered her as soon as I walked in. I swear I peeped some rolling eyes, but I can't be mad I know she probably gave them the real "whatfor". I was like, "Dang Kielle you're making a not-so-nice name for yourself already." hahahahaha. I tried and tried ... and tried to get her to calm down, but nothing was working. I sang some songs. I pulled out her Doc McStuffins stethoscope. It was looking real bleak. But then she got tired and I saw my "in". I whispered to the photographer get ready and I finally got her to calm down for half a second. We got this:

*sigh* at least her hair looked cute. ahhahahahahhaha