Family Time & Christmas

Lots of playtime/family time for us over the holidays.  The kids enjoyed the time playing and we enjoyed a Christmas of continuing some of our Diamond family traditions.  Wednesday morning the kids had a party at their Montessori school in the morning and then we came home for naps.  Jack and Kara's class sang a song but neither Jack nor Kara participated because once they saw mom and dad on the front row they wanted to come join us.  Ainsley sang with her class and then the older class sang - that is when Jack decided he was ready to perform and stood in front of the older kids and danced and then took a seat among them and clapped his hands while they sang.  Very cute to say the least.

 A few pictures of the kids fooling around....

 

 

 

One of the most notable happenings over the  past few days is Jack and Kara have been playing together well intermittently.  We were able to catch a couple of the times on film :-)  (Interactions still frequently result in biting, pulling hair, pushing, pinching, screaming, etc, but we at least see progress and think they might not hate each other!) 

 

 

A tradition of ours (borrowed from the Capps side) is having chili on Christmas eve.  We were happy to find that Jack and Kara like chili (so does Ainsley) so we are able to continue our tradition.  We couldn't find Fritos on the island this year, but substituted with Tostidos.

 

Christmas eve we headed out at dusk to look at the Christmas lights on Orchard and look for Santa.  This is Jack just after getting his shoes on and getting ready for the elevator...

 

Orchard Road looks a bit like Clark Griswald decorated for Christmas but still fun to look at.  

 

Christmas tree outside Ion...

 

 

Inside the Christmas tree...

 

Most kids look at the tree, our Jack was more interested in the fire extenguisher...

 

 

 

Back at the Four Seasons...Christmas Eve and all is quiet...

 

Christmas morning.  Twins were up at 6:15, Ainsley was up at 6:45 so that is when the opening began!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ainsley and Kara playing dress up...

 

26 December marks 18 months for Jack & Kara.  Happy half birthday to our sweet and crazy youngest!

Sibling Love

Two exciting developments for us this week:
1) Ainsley and Kara not only play well together, but they also communicate with each other now.  They understand each other and can play for quite a while on their own.  Makes us so proud :-)
2) Jack and Kara were able to play together without fighting twice over the weekend!  They shared snack, played in the house together, laughed at each other, and even played golf together with Jack's golf game.  Truly a huge milestone!  No hair was pulled, no biting, no hitting...a few shoving incidents, but we're not complaining!!  (By the way, Jack was the instigator in the shoving, for a change!)

We discoverd that Kara LOVES M&M's

Focus on how cute the kids are here, not how mommy looks :-)

Look at these girls plaing so nice with their baby dolls.  Jack high-tailed it out of the room when the dolls came out.

Ainsley stuffed herself in the kitchen cabinet and J&K thought it was hysterical!

Random Pictures

Just some pictures we took playing outside.  Only one picture I feel the need to interpret -- the second picture down, Ainsley is talking to Kara and Jack is eating dirt.  That about sums up how these kids roll.

Happy Birthday Ainsley

Ainsley turned three on Friday!  She had a small party at her school during the day and then a party at our apartment complex in the evening.  She had a really good birthday.

Ainsley's classmates singing happy birthday to her before she passed out cupcakes

For her actual party we invited some of her friends to have pizza and cake.  She specifically requested a Shrek and Fiona cake (her favorite movie is Shrek).  When she saw the cake for the first time she stared at it in facination for 20 minutes.  To say she loved it doesn't do it justice.