Just a little Anastasia Cheer

Only the other Russia Moms will get the true humor in this story. But the other day as we were riding in the car, Anastasia, points at the tights on her legs and asks, "Why in Russia they make me wear these everyday?" "Well, they thought you were always cold." She looks at me like I'm crazy-------"Well, I'm NOT always cold."

Yesterday we were at the mall shopping for shoes for her. When I finally found a pair that worked and were the right size and told her we could buy them, she said, "You make my feelings good Mama, thank you!"
P.S. She needed new shoes because she doesn't wear her braces anymore!!!

We took the kids to a local event called "Walk Through Bethleham" She has so many questions about Jesus, and I try to answer her questions, but her lack of vocabulary and sometimes just her lack of wordly experience and what reality is and isn't, I can tell a lot of it is not making sense to her. I explained to her that we would be going to see what it was like when Jesus was here on earth, a long long time ago.
So we pull into the church where the event takes place and her mouth drops open and she looks sooooooo serious and she looks at me and says, "This is where Jesus lives?"
Then as we are walking through, they have different shops set up like a marketplace setting, animals, etc... And she wants to know how the animals have lived there so long, and who takes care of all the shops, etc... I repeatedly tell her that this is just pretend, like a show, like a movie. She is thinking this stuff has been here since Jesus was here. Finally I think she understands, and we get to the end where they have a live Nativity, and she looks at me and says, "Oh, so, the babys they put in there grow up to be Jesuss" Yes, that is Jesus in plural. (how do you spell that)
Poor thing, I guess I'm not a very good teacher, but we are still plugging along.

Our Family Photo Shoot

My dear friend helped us take family pictures this past weekend, man it is hard to get 3 kids to cooperate! Now I need to get my Christmas cards done, ha!

Happy Birthday!!!

NOT
I'm not real sure how she thought she was going to pull this off since I'm in her classroom every morning. But yesterday morning Anastasia's teacher says something to the effect, "is today's Anastasia's Birthday?" I know the look on my face was very puzzled, why in the world would she think today was her birthday?? According to Mrs. G, Little Ms. Thing had started bragging about her birthday around Dec. 1st, telling them that her birthday is Dec. 8th. Obviously very convincingly so. Since Anastasia was added to the class her birthday was on the chart on the wall, and the teacher had not really thought to double check, I mean every 7 year old knows when their birthday is coming up. Immediatley Anastasia's head goes down. "Anastasia, when is your birthday?" I asked her. "After Christmas", she replied. "When after Christmas?" I asked. See I know she knows exactly when her birthday is, she talks about it constantly. "February", "When in February Anastasia?" "February 2nd Mommy"

The classroom sings if it's your birthday and you get a treat bag from the teacher. I know my daughter and she wanted that attention AND that treat bag. I was so disappointed in her for lying, and for lying for such a selfish reason. Some people think this was cute, I did not. Lying is not something we have had a big problem with so I was surprised by this. Then when we got home and I told her she had to tell me why she did it, not because I didn't know, but because I knew it was important for her to say it. She absolutely refused, she said she was not going to say it becuase she didn't want to get in trouble. She knew the more she refused to say it the bigger the trouble would be, she stuck by the fact that she forgot when her birthday was. Finally she did tell me why she did it.
She didn't have a good morning this morning either. Hopefully when I pick her up from school today she will have had a better day.

Disney Pics Cont...

The one of Gary and the kids that's kinda dark is us waiting to get on The Tower Of Terror, I couldn't even believe Cooper was tall enough to ride it! Cooper and Anastasia were both terrorified by it...then they wanted to do it again, this was the entire families favorite ride.
The boys got to do the Jedi Training Camp, at first Cody wimped out (his shyness got the best of him), then he decided to do it, and since Cooper had already gotten through the line, we had to wait another round, so Cooper graciously let someone go ahead of him and waited another 45 minutes, undoubtedly they will remember this cool experience for a long time. The got lightsaber training by whoever that one guy is, all while wearing a star wars cloke, then they each go to battle Darth Vader one by one, on stage, how cool is that!

Disney Pics

Finally some pics from our vacation. We did a character dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, the evil stepsisters, and evil stepmother. The dinner was a hit with all the kids, the evil step sisters and mother were a hoot, so the boys enjoyed the dinner as much as Anastasia. Plus she shares the name of one of the evil stepsisters. Then the Cinderella that was at Magic Kingdom the day before that she met and talked to was the same one at the dinner, and she remembered Anastasia, so Anastasia thought that was the best. Definitly added to the experience!! She loves Cindrella the best.

Sorry

I know the title of my last post says, Disney, Thanksgiving, etc... And all I wrote about was Disney. I had good intentions, but when I went to go attach the pictures for Disney, I couldn't find all the pictures I had downloaded, I'm not feeling great, so I gave up. I'm still not feeling great, so it may be a couple days. Sorry!!

Disney, Thanksgiving, etc..

I know everyone is eager to hear how Disney went. We had a blast! All the kids wanted to do everything, there was not one thing they were scared to ride. There were some things Cooper and/or Anastasia were too short for, but Cody was tall enough for everything. I'm a ride lover, especially roller coasters, and hubby is not, so I enjoyed having someone to go with. By fair the scariest ride was Tower of Terror, I still can't believe all the children went on it....twice. Anastasia sat next to me for that one and part of the ride was dark, but when there was light, the look of terror on that girls face, then she wanted to ride it again!
Anastasia was so excited to meet the Princesses, especially Cinderella, then the next day when we did a character dinner with Cinderella, her step sisters, step mother and Prince Charming, Cinderella had remembered her from the day before!! How cool is that.
The boys waited over an hour to do the Jedi training experience. They only take the first 15 kids in line, and they each get Jedi training, then they get to battle Darth Vader one by one up on stage. How cool is that. Cooper was all about it, Cody almost let his shyness get the best of him, but decided to go at the last minute.
We stayed on a very early schedule, we were in the bed by 9:30 almost every night, and I must say their behavior was great the entire trip.
We got to meet up with same great friends of ours for the day, we used to live by them in FL, and they just happened to be at Disney the same time as us. That was a added bonus to our trip!! It was really great to get to spend some time with them.