Hockey Jamboree

Seeming absolutely appropriate for Hockey Day in MN, Meredith played in her first jamboree with Woodbury.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited she was.  Now a jamboree with a bunch of 5-year-olds isn't really a game but more of a scrimmage.  They send out 5 players at a time with 1 goalie and they each skate for 90 seconds before they send the next 5 players out.  They rotate goalies and at this age, there isn't a real goalie; not one that wears special pads, etc. 

Meredith skated really well!  No goals were scored by her, but I don't think her team even scored a goal?  Maybe they did.  They don't keep score:)

Here are a bunch of pictures from the Jamboree.  Meredith wears #15. 

She is in the middle of the picture here.  

She is second from the right on the bench in this picture.  

Here she is playing goalie.  

Some puck action around the net.  She made a really good block when she was goalie.  

Grandma and Grandpa Schwake came.  Here's Anna wearing her cute, new outfit she got for Christmas.  

Christmas

Well, we made it through the holidays.  I have a love-hate relationship with that time of year.  I do love the holidays.  I love the food, cookies, gifts, time of giving, Christmas lights, etc.  But I hate the crowds at Super Target when all I want to do is get some groceries.  I hate waiting 10 minutes just to park my car.  I actually did most of my shopping online this year and it was most pleasant!  

Anyhow, Christmas was good.  Meredith is back in school and she is having a great time having playdates with some other kids in the neighborhood.  We are in the process of registering her for kindergarten!  She loves playing hockey and we have seen so much improvement since she started back in October.  

Anna is talking up a storm.  She must have 15-20 words.  She even has a 2-word phrase - mo cwacka (more cracker).  Everything that is food is a cracker to her.  She giggles when she burps and farts.  It's fun to see her little personality develop.  She's stubborn.  She screeches all day long - basically whenever Meredith touches her.  She is teething all four of her 1st molars.  The two upper ones have cut through and the two bottom ones are hugely swollen and will probably pop through any day.  I just signed her up for a 2's program starting in the fall where Meredith goes to preschool.  How is she going to be old enough for that already???

Here are a few photos from Christmas.  Most are dark, out of focus,  and do not feature faces.  

Meredith, Anna, and cousin Bowen with Grandma.  

Opening a gift.  

Every year, Meredith passes out all the presents and Grandpa helps her read the tags.  

The three littles.  

The Hello Kitty umbrella was a huge hit.  

This was funny although you can't tell from the picture.  My cousin Mary Jo got a Coach purse and wallet as a gift and Anna came over and just started looking at it and crying.  

Christmas Day's loot from Santa.  After that, we Skyped with Grandma & Grandpa Carlson and Uncle Scott and opened more gifts.  Then Lois stopped in for a visit as well before we headed back to the farm.  

Again, trying to get a nice picture of the girls but this is the best I can get.  

Random Holiday Stuff

Before I post Christmas pictures (most likely in a couple weeks- ha!) I thought I'd share a few pictures leading up to the holidays.  

Here is our Christmas card photo for anyone who didn't get a card.  We actually took this on a warm day in November sometime.  It's extremely hard to get a picture of them both looking, and smiling.  One I had to bribe and the other...well, you get what you get.  

We took the girls to see Santa at the Burnsville Mall.  It was a different Santa than we have seen since Meredith was a little baby.  It makes me wonder where the other one went?  Anyhow, after paying around $30 to get the digital file and a couple prints, this is the result.  Out of focus and dark.  And the proverbial screaming child.  I think next year we'll try the free Santa at Byerly's.  

Here is the rare picture of Greg & I all cleaned up.  We were headed out to Greg's work holiday party.  

Meredith had her Christmas program for pre-school.  It was absolutely adorable.  There were 3-year-old and 4-year-old, and 5-year old classes singing.  That's Mer in the middle in the red dress.  

The following week, adults were invited into her classroom to help make gingerbread houses.  We sampled cookies the class had made as well.  

Florida Part IV

For the rest of our trip, we just kind of hung out.  We played shuffleboard, pickle ball, and bochee ball. The men golfed.  We ate out and bought a did a little Christmas shopping.  

On the way home, our plane changed twice before our trip even started so our seats we had all together kind of got ruined because they gave us new seat assignments each time.  Our seats ended up being about 10 rows apart.  Greg had the pleasure of taking care of the baby beast on the way home while I sat about 10 rows up with Meredith.  Surprisingly, she did quite well again and there was no prolonged crying or fussiness.  Thank goodness!  See, all smiles!  

Florida Part III

On Day 3 of or trip to Florida, we visited Uncle Donald's Farm (or Old MacDonalds Farm as we referred to it as).  It's just a farm on the outskirts of The Villages.  But not just any farm.  Actually it was more like a zoo.  You want to see Chickens?  They have 30 different kinds.  You want ducks?  They have 20 kinds.  Geese, swans, rabbits, goats, ostriches, cows, pigs, horses, wild cats, owls, birds, and many other varieties of wild animals.  They had a lot more than I expected.  

My favorite chicken.  So cute!!  

This little one was sleepy.  

Meredith had a blast feeding the animals.  

Another one of my favorite, fluffy chickens.  I think it was a Frizzle chicken.  

We took a hayride out to the pasture and we fed cows.  Since I was the farm girl, I was designated to lead the way on all this so you will see me in a lot of pictures.  

Yep, there I am feeding the cows.  And petting our kitty friend who joined us on the wagon ride.  

Since we were the only ones there, Meredith got to do a lot of things like hold this chicken. 

And pet this goat.  

And milk this goat.  I milked the goat too.  

Here we are waiting to feed a baby goat.  

Awwww, so cute.  This little girl was only two weeks old.