Firetruck Santa 2008

Every year the volunteer fire company in our little town drives around in their firetrucks & ambulances with lights flashing and sirens blaring, giving Santa a ride through the neighborhoods as he waves to the kids and his "elves" pass out candy canes.  This year we went to a friend's house and made a small donation to the fire company to have Firetruck Santa make a personal visit to the kids.

When we got to the friend's house, Anna and Cara kept looking up in the sky asking if we saw Santa yet.  After playing with their friends for awhile (there are 3 girls in the other family right around the same age), we heard the sirens.  All the kids piled by the front door to see the firetruck pull up with lights flashing, and Santa stepped out.  There was MUCH excitement!

 He passed out candy canes to all the girls (most of which got broken before we left), and each one took a turn on his lap.  Anna talked to Santa so quietly I couldn't really hear what she was saying.  Cara didn't really care to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas; instead, she introduced him to everyone in the room: "that's my sister; that's my daddy; that's my mommy; that's Lauren," etc.  I'm sure Santa was enthralled!

Anecdote of the day

Today after playing at the park, we got some chicken Mcnuggets and fries from McDonald's.  As usual, I got some sweet & sour sauce to use just in case the girls didn't finish their nuggets.  We must have played hard enough to make the girls hungry, because they both ate all their nuggets, which is rare.

This time, though, Anna actually asked to have some of the sweet & sour sauce, which is a first, because she never tries anything new and has always just eaten her nuggets plain or with ketchup. She actually liked it, too, which surprised me.  I asked if she liked it and said that it's called sweet and sour sauce, and she said "Yeah!  It's apple sauce for your chicken!"  Ok, I guess it's the right color…

I know it's been awhile since I've written anything - life's been very busy, work's been busy and frustrating.  I plan to write some entries to catch up on what the girls have been up to the last couple of months.  Today I uploaded a bunch of new pictures to our photo gallery for the last couple months, so you can enjoy those in the meantime.  They're under Day-to-Day->2008 Summer, Day-to-Day->2008 Fall, and Vacations and Trips->2008 IndianaIllinois.

Montgomery County Fair 2008

Tonight we took the girls to the Montgomery County Fair.  We haven't been able to take them to any of the local carnivals this summer, so we wanted to be sure to take them.  Anna loved the ferris wheel last year and had been talking about it for awhile.  This time, Cara was able to ride with us.  She really liked the ferris wheel, too, and kept saying she wanted to do it again.  I can't remember without looking if Cara rode the merry-go-round last year or not, but this year she really enjoyed it, too.  She had to sit out and watch Anna go on the "jet skis" by herself, though, since she wasn't tall enough yet. The only drama we had was when we were leaving.  Nobody wanted to go home!

Montgomery County is the county south of us.  I always thought the name of OUR county's fair was a little grandiose: "The Great Frederick Fair."  I discovered that there must be a rivalry between counties regarding who has the best one, because down there, theirs is called "The Spectacular Montogmery County Fair."

More pics are in our photo gallery under Day-to-Day, 2008 Summer.  Here are a few videos of the girls having fun at the fair:

Little shopper

There's a grocery store that Beth likes to use, when possible, because they have little miniature shopping carts for kids to push around.  I think it's a great idea.  Anna insists on having her cart, and only her cart, loaded up with the groceries.

And completely unrelated to that, the other night Anna found my noise-cancelling headphones and tried them on.  She was very pleased that they could make it so she couldn't hear the thunder, and said, "I love your ear muscles, daddy!"

The Money Store

A friend asked Beth the other day if we were going to sign Anna up for soccer.  Anna had said something about dancing before, so Beth asked her if she wanted to be a soccer player or if she wanted to dance.  Anna replied, "I want to be a dancing ballerina in my tutu!"  She loves this tutu - everything with the tutu these days.  Beth said that we'll have to ask daddy because dancing costs a lot of money.

Apparently Anna had been thinking about it the rest of the day, because that night at bedtime, she asked Beth again if she could dance, and was very distressed when Beth said, "We'll see, we have to ask daddy" again.  Anna then made the suggestion, "But daddy could just buy some money to have for the dancing!"  Hmm, that would be nice depending on their prices, but a money tree would be better.  Maybe it's time for a little lesson on money and an allowance…

Anna's new bling

We got a package from Lelo and Abuela Menendez today, for Anna's birthday.  She was very excited about the crown and the jewelry and couldn't wait to put it on.  When we asked if she wanted to draw a thank-you card, she said, "Yes, but I want the crown first!"  So she put on her crown, the necklace, the earrings, the jewelry… the only thing missing was the princess dress, but she didn't want to try it on, "because I'm already wearing my crab shirt."  She'll try it on later, she says.

The next big hit was the fishing game.  Anna, Cara, and I pretty much played it until it was time for bed.  We'll pull out the sticker books, the leapfrog pad (which I hope Anna likes so she can start learning to read!), etc., later on when they're not thinking of fishing.  The girls say, "Thank you!"

 

Israel Tour 2008 - Part 7

Church of the Annunciation

This is Part 7 of my account of our tour to Israel with The National Christian Choir.  This entry begins with our visit to the Church of the Annunciation, then to Beit Shean, Jericho, and finally arriving in Jerusalem with a stopover in Bethlehem.  To start at the beginning, click here.  All my Israel pictures and videos are in the photo gallery under Vacations and Trips, then 2008 Israel.

Day 5 - Church of the Annunciation

We started out the day by visiting the Church of the Annunciation, which is the traditional site where the angel appeared to Mary and announced that she would give birth to Jesus.  I have to say that I was impressed with the churches that they built on many of the traditional sites.  I thought they were beautiful, and they were also great places for our group of 300 to sing in. Since this was where Jesus' name was announced, we sang Holy is His Name by John Michael Talbot - a very nice choral arrangement that sounded fantastic in this church.