Pauly the Elf

Meet Pauly, our Elf on the Shelf.  He arrived when we were away for Thanksgiving and was waiting for us when we got home.

We read the story he brought with him, then Katherine gave him his name, turning on his magic.  He watches the kids during the day and flies back to the North Pole each night to give Santa a report on how they were.  No one can touch him or his magic might go away.  When we wake up in the morning, he's somewhere new and Katherine goes to find him. Here is what he's been up to so far since arriving in our house:

Fishing for goldfish crackers...

 Riding the trains...

 Ziplining across the kitchen...

 Driving Barbie's car...

 Sitting in the sunroom light (unfortunately he didn't do a thing about replacing that bulb -ha!) ...

 Sitting in our Advent calendar...

 Replaced all of our faces with his own in our family picture...

 Diving into the mini M&Ms...

 Making snow angels (in sugar)...

Pauly has been a lot of fun for us all so far!

We've got an elf!

This is definitely one of our favorite times of the year - beautiful fall days, Thanksgiving (my personal favorite) and Christmas.  Our Christmas preparations this year have involved a special visitor, our "Elf on the Shelf" ... more on that later.

The kids have been busy, busy, busy - sometimes playing so much they end up like this:

Proof we have the most tolerant dog around ...  Poor guy is definitely making it to Santa's "nice" list.

We went shopping at Ann Taylor Loft, and she always looks forward to trying on things with "the jewelry lady", one of the workers there who loves Katherine and only has sons so she really enjoys playing jewelry dress-up with Katherine.

We had a playdate with Riley and Jonah, and Sarah helped us make these adorable turkey cookies before Thanksgiving.  Cookies combined with a craft - Katherine's two favorite things!  She was a happy girl.

 Daniel was really happy to have so many cars and other boyish toys to play with.  Mack the truck didn't leave his hand the whole time we were there!

Katherine was just about as excited for Thanksgiving as I was, so we did a few turkey activities.  We made this turkey craft together with her handprints as the feathers.

Katherine was snack girl at school just before Thanksgiving so I made these cookies for her to bring in.  They were a hit with the four-year-olds!

Daniel and I took advantage of a beautiful fall morning when Katherine was in school and went to Cedar Creek playground. 

We lucked out with nice weather for an afternoon playdate with their friend Will (our former neighbor).  Katherine had fun on his playground, while D loved his dumptruck.

"Maybe if Jonah's not looking, I can snag his lion..."

Nana came up for a midweek visit.  It was so fun to be able to have a "regular" day together.  We went to storytime at the library, then Wegmans for a few groceries and lunch, then a little more playtime at home and stories before naps.

Daniel went through a few weeks of being CRAZY for the Virginia Tech books that Sarah bought for us before Katherine was born.  I think we read "Hello, Hokie Bird" a few dozen times!

Katherine's pre-K class had a very special Thanksgiving program for us.  Brendan was able to take the morning off of work and be there, and I think she really enjoyed having him too.  One of the table decorations were turkeys where each kid said what they were thankful for.

Katherine's ready for her part of "Pilgrim, pilgrim, what do you see?", their Thanksgiving version of Eric Carle's "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?".  Her line was "I see a hard winter, tough as can be."

A quick hat change and she's gone from pilgrim to Indian!

One little two little three little Indians...

Each kid had a turkey sign where the turkey urged people to eat something other than turkey for Thanksgiving.  Katherine made her turkey say "Eat more lollipops!"

We took a family trip up to Breinigsville Park - aka "the pirate ship playground".

Katherine wore the new owl hat that I made for her.

Ahoy!  Captain Katherine is at the helm.

It's been such a relief for us that Daniel has been enjoying the nursery at church.  A few months ago, Jacob (the son of D's favorite nursery lady) found that goldfish crackers can fit into the tentacles of the Dr. Octopus toy there and fed them to Daniel like that.  He has been happy there since!  Jacob really plays great with Daniel, they're pals.

Number one item on Daniel's Christmas wish list - Rock Star Mickey!  He loses.his.mind. whenever he sees this toy in a store or on TV. 

Every once in a while, they play together with no fighting for several minutes.  Gotta snap a picture because it never lasts long!

We had a great trip to Nana and Grump's new condo in Newark for Thanksgiving.  Daniel tried to help Aunt Loo with her homework. 

Since he's not actually fluent in ASL, he had to abandon that plan and go get smooches from Nana instead. 

Katherine was giddy in anticipation of Josh and Alyssa arriving!

Alyssa and Katherine were quick buddies and had a lot of fun playing together.

Nana and all three of her kids!  I think the last time we were all together was almost four years ago and Katherine was a little baby.

We had lunch at Cosi after we arrived, conveniently located right downstairs in Nana's building.

Daniel loved the elevator.  It's all fun and games until someone presses the "help" button and someone comes on the speaker to check if everyone is okay...

Daniel planted himself between Nana and Grumps in hopes of mooching off their snacks.

I'll take that, Grumps!

The girls played with Alyssa's Nintendo DS.

Daniel cared more about better positioning himself to share Grumps's snack!

Nana with all her kids and grandkids - first time we've all been together.

Hugs for Uncle Josh, who unfortunately for him got nicknamed "Uncle Cowpie" by the end of the visit.

We traveled to Stevensville, MD for Thanksgiving dinner to Nana's cousin Hass's house.  There were about 60 people for dinner.  It's really an amazing production to pull that off, everyone sitting down at the same time in their beautiful home, eating with real china, glasses and silverware, three huge turkeys, and no one coordinating side dishes yet having a great variety and plenty of everything each year.  All that goes into making it my favorite holiday!

The kids had fun playing outside before dinner.  Probably a bit colder than Alyssa is used to in Florida, but really nice for November up north!

Nana, her sister Carol, and their cousin and our hostess, Hass.

Hass's dog and Aunt Carol's dog were running around outside and Daniel LOVED them!  He kept asking for "more doggies! more doggies!".

Lucky Daniel, there was more dogs!  Randy brought his dog too.  Daniel and Marley loved to be in the middle of a game of catch between my cousin Charlie and his girlfriend Caroline.  He really liked Caroline!

D cracking up at the dogs playing.

Katherine and Alyssa (and a few other kids) had fun tossing the Osage oranges from their tree into the bay.

Katherine and Uncle "Cowpie"

Ready to explore Main Street Newark on Friday after Thanksgiving.

First stop was SAS Cupcakes, a great little cupcake and candy store just across the street from their condo.

Yumm...

Next we went to Yogoberry.  Katherine thought that was about the coolest place ever!  They have about a dozen flavors of frozen yogurt that you serve yourself and them pick your toppings from a huge toppings bar of candies, fruit, etc.  Brendan thought it was the coolest place ever also.  ;)

Thumbs up for Yogoberry!

Katherine and Daniel got to see all three of their cousins in one day!  After we got back home on Friday and picked up Inky from the kennel, we headed to Gram and Grandpa's house where Emily and Andrew were visiting.  D and Andrew relaxed and watched some Dora together.

All of Gram and Grandpa's grandkids!

Happy boy

Katherine tried out the giant lollipop she got at SAS Cupcakes.  She thought it was pretty great that it was the same size as her face.

What's better than a long holiday weekend?  One more day off!  Brendan took Monday off and we made a trip to Please Touch Museum.  Raise your hand if you're excited to go to Please Touch!

Driving the Septa bus

Daniel didn't want to leave the lobby when we got there.  He knows the water exhibit is to the right and wanted it right.away.  No saving it to the end this time like we normally do!

Katherine was anxious to get to her favorite exhibit, Alice in Wonderland.

Gotta stop and share the fake pie with the goose, it's part of D's routine!

Smurfs!

Commander Katherine aboard the space shuttle, same like Josh used to do!

Silly girl redirecting the air to style her hair.

Water time!  This is always a big hit with both kids, and the reason for packing spare outfits.

After baths last night, Katherine ran into Daniel's room.  I walked in to see her reading the Bible to him.  Sweetest.thing.ever. and I'm so glad I had my phone in my pocket to catch it.