Oh Jia...

I love Jia's big heart and sense of responsibility. Today, she:

1) asked for mittens for her friend who doesn't have any (a friend who receives food from the school to cover the weekends, and Jia realized she likely can't afford them);
2) arrived in the house before I did (after visiting with the neighbors), discovered that our dog dumped the kitchen trash, and cleaned it all up before I arrived; and
3) says she wishes she could be sick instead of Willa because she feels so bad for her. (Despite their bickering!)

Speaking of Willa being sick (she was out for a week with the flu), apparently there was a rumor going around first grade that she was dead. One kid asked Jia what Willa's last words were. Their conversation went like this:

Jia: She didn't die.
Kid: But, what were her last words?
Jia: Well, okay. They were, "I'm sick."

I'm not sure Jia did enough to dispel that rumor.

Preparing for Christmas

The girls did a great job on our tree:

We also had fun decorating the tree at my parents' house:

And Willa had fun posing our elf!

Retro Toys

The girls learned all about the toys we grew up with at the Toys of the 50's, 60's and 70's exhibit today! Jia liked the Slinky and Willa liked the Sit 'n Spin. And they both made pet rocks!

We loved watching the toy ads from the 70's.

Willa added the last section to this lego Foshay tower!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so very much to be thankful for...happy thanksgiving!

They made this centerpiece!

All of Mac's turkeys had three eyes!

And Han made a zombie turkey!

Chocolate pinecones...yum!

Helping the Homeless

There are many homeless people who stand on street corners in our city. I organized a group of nine families to make bags of supplies that we could hand out when we saw them. We made sixty care packages in all! Each bag included socks, a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, a granola bar, applesauce, lip balm, tissues, band-aids, a comb, and information on local resources. We then split the bags up amongst the families.

The kids were all very excited to do this, and did a terrific job.

Volunteering and Community Involvement

We volunteered with an organization called Matter. I was very proud of our hard-working girls and their friends. We spent hours packing medical supplies for Liberia to fight Ebola and preparing meals for local children who are hungry.

 

  Jia is in a community involvement class at school and she and her classmates served dinner to the homeless residents of Our Saviour's Housing. Her teacher had the kids do all the work and they did a great job.  The kids sat with the residents for dessert and joked and chatted. 

 We are proud of our caring kids!

Willa is 7!

Happy 7th birthday to our wonderful Willa! We are so thankful for you. You are a high-energy force of nature. You would eat guacamole and spinach quiche for every meal if you could. You have a huge heart with a soft spot for animals. You are our resident cuddlebug. Tonight, we celebrated by visiting the life-sized Barbie Dreamhouse. And lucky us, we were the only ones there!