Christmas with The Parkers

It has become something of a tradition for us to have dinner with Grandfather, Gran-Gran and the extended Parker family the weekend before Christmas.  We always look forward to a a FEW servings of Jeff's Great Aunt Myrtis' "Jambalaya" and spending time together.  You can definitely tell The boys very much enjoyed their gifts.  Thanks for a great night Grandfather and Gran-Gran!

Miss Reno's Christmas Party 2013

Don't know why I ever get nervous but of course the Christmas party this morning was a pretty big success!  We had breakfast foods, did some Christmas crafts and enjoyed our visit from "Glitter" and "Shimmer" the elves all the way from the North Pole!  They read the kids some books and even took their last minute requests to Santa. Preston asked for a "trein" and "a bel from the rinder" on his list.  Hmmm.....and to all a good night  :)

Breakfast with Santa 2013

We are so grateful to be part of the community of Squire Creek.  Really, it is just a blessing.  The LENGTHS they go to that make things like "Breakfast with Santa" happen are incredible.  The kids have a ball. They see all of their friends, or as Preston put it "everyone I KNOW was there :)" Getting a good picture of the two of them is pretty  much impossible, but I think we got some good candid shots. Preston added something to his Christmas list today on Santa's lap: an ant farm.  Hmmmmm, so I guess Santa still has some shopping to do?!?

Merry Merry!

CES Book Character Day

I'm just going to be brutally honest:  I put ZERO effort into Book Character day.  We have had some MAJOR issues going on with the house the past week or so and with Christmas activities and a little extra work and being a little under the weather I just was not up to the task of a super awesome costume.  As you can see we recycled from Halloween...which was fine with Preston.  Pictured is his sweet classmate Audrey Kate who won the whole school with her Pippi Longstocking.  I will know to step it up next year :).....

Jolly Ol' St. Nick

Thought we would do a trial run with Santa at CTB and GUESS WHAT?? John Cole was ALL ABOUT going up to "Ho Ho" and Preston was so into it he brought a toy catalog to give Santa some illustrations.  Said catalog is also very well marked with "Preston" and "JC" on the respective pages.  (Preston took it upon himself to pick out some things for John Cole--he is such a sweet boy!)

Hope you are having a great Christmas season.  We are BUSY...but I wouldn't have it any other way :)

The "Candy Caper"

About a month ago a letter came home in Preston's folder about the CES Science Fair.  Projects were NOT mandatory until 2nd grade.  I LOVE a Science project.  Of course Preston entered.  His ( ok it was ALL my idea but a 5 year old using "hypothesis" in in a sentence is impressive in my book!) idea was to have a selection of over-the-counter medications and candy that looked identical to see if kids could tell the difference.  Ideally (aka with no strep throat and quasi stomach bug) we would have done this experiment at Daddy's bank with all Kindergarten kids only one at a time...but real life set in.  Mucho thanks to our sweet neighbors for participating in the project on a random Monday afternoon after tennis :)

PRESTON'S (no joke it's what HE said) hypothesis was the kids could NOT tell the difference between the OTC meds and candy.  The hypothesis was proven wrong.  (In my opinion the best outcome.) 86% of our responses were correct.  Our youngest subjects got the most incorrect responses--a 10 year old knows a Peanut M&M!  Next year we (MOMMY!) plans to expand our experiment to more drugs and younger children.

Oh yeah--he won first place. Not sure now much competition he had...but a win is a win in my book!  So proud of my Preston Luke Parker!

**If you look closely in the last pic (Sent from our SWEET Ms. Reno) you will see his classmates clapping for him after his win.  Super duper sweet!

Black Friday at Sci-Port

I'm not fond of eating my words so I guess I won't say I will "NEVER" be a Black Friday shopper, but unless it is at a decent hour I just don't do the Thanksgiving night/wee morning hours shopping thing.  No judgement.  I just don't want to do it.  I'm normally decorating my house on Black Friday, but considering I still have furniture to chalk paint/have re-upholstered/pick up all over Louisiana the Christmas decor will be SPARSE at our house this year.  (Think construction paper garland.....) But that is another post entirely...

Jeff actually had a little work this am but we didn't set an alarm and had a leisurely morning.  We met up with Daddy in town and left Ruston around 10:30 to see the LEGO exhibit at Sci-Port.  Not sure if I have posted this but if you didn't know Preston is obsessed (and I think talented) with Legos.  We have been buying every toy for him you can imagine for 5 years and Legos are the first thing he has truly shown interest in.  So when we heard this "Castle" exhibit was in Shreveport we knew we had to make it. 

It was a GREAT day to go to Sci-Port.  I have been on random weekdays where there were so many school children the people NOT there on a class trip were almost overlooked.  Not today.  We got to really participate in a lot of the exhibits and of course build LOTS of Legos. Loved this day with my boys. 

** I did get a little retail therapy in with a short Target run.  Traffic on Youree was awful. After Sci-Port we hit 1-20 home :) **

** Preston went with Daddy to the duck camp tonight for his first actual "hunt" in the morning.  NO GUN FOR PRESTON!  Hope they have a blast!!!**