Give me the Fairy Tale

Recently Emma had to complete a fairy tale book report. While her only requirements were that it had to be one that was not "typical". She wanted one they had not talked about in class or had not heard any of the other students visiting about it at lunch or recess. Since her project was due first, she truly did have lots of choices. We decided on The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Funny little story about three goats facing a giant of sorts just attempting to get to better food across the bridge. Sort of warped in a way, as they all three sort of threw each other under the bus, the youngest one told the troll to eat the middle one, and the middle one told the troll to eat the oldest one and the oldest one, he took care of the troll and they all ended up getting to the other side. What is interesting is sometimes I feel that story has valid application to our family. My husband works very hard for our family and will continue to do so, but there are times when perhaps it is left to him to fight off the trolls of the world just so he too can get to the other side. There are always going to be struggles in our lives and in our current economic situation the chances of that going on will be the case. But one thing that I may have added to the Billy Goats Gruff fairy tale are the younger goats thanking the oldest for taking care of them and perhaps an apology for throwing him under the bus!

The Little Chefs

We had an extra two days of Winter vacation than most in our area, so we made the most of it and had a double playdate on Monday. Emma met a friend in her class this year, Peyton, and she has a little brother that is also in Kindergarten. While Cole and Luke are not in the same class, both families have children 14 months apart with the girls as the oldest and the boys as the youngest. How fun is that? When I first found out that I would be having Luke, I naively thought that I was the only one outside of teenagers that had an unexpected pregnancy. Funny thing is, I have met more and more people that have either on purpose or otherwise had their children less than or just over a year apart. Well it couldn't have been more fun to have a family at our school with kids the same age for the creation of a great playdate. Peyton and Cole came over in the morning and the "little chefs" created masterpiece pizzas for lunch. Then all 4 kids went to spend the afternoon at their house. While Adam napped, I enjoyed a quiet house! Enjoy the pictures and Happy New Year 2009!