So from our family to yours, hope you are off to a very happy new chair. :)
That's right - my little baby boy is 5 today! And as he said, "I REALLY am a BIG brother now because I'm 5 years old! But it doesn't really feel much different than 4." We had a nice day celebrating with Kellen. 
He started the day a bit grumpy and resistant to the idea of deciding what he wanted to do today. He didn't want to go out to eat - he wanted to eat pizza here. He wanted to play games, but he said there weren't very many people here. Then it dawned on us that he still thinks it's not his birthday until he has a party with cake, and he thought we were asking him to plan his own party, which was too overwhelming for him! So we decided to go ahead and do cake and presents after lunch, complete with a decorated table, and after that his attitude was much improved! He declared that now he was 5 and he was excited that it was finally his birthday! So we had cupcakes and presents, played with his new kid-sized frisbee golf set and rode the swings in the backyard, went for a walk at Umstead Park, and then had dinner at Fat Daddy's (his choice).
Here are a couple clips from Kellen's first real jam session with Mr. Chris and Mr. Joe on Christmas. Kellen originally said his band was going to be called "Hard Rock," but after he saw his videos he said the name of the group was "Kitchen Band." Doesn't the second song just make you want to sit back with a cup of coffee? I'm fully expecting to see them headlining at a Starbucks this year!
Hi-Hat's Christmas list was as follows: 1) Electric guitar 2) iphone 3)surprises. One of those items was just not going to happen, but he had convinced himself that there most certainly would be an iphone under the tree on Christmas morning. We had the kids take turns picking a present from under the tree and reading the tag to see who got to open it. So we slowly opened presents one by one. Each time it was Hi-Hat's turn to pick, he carefully looked for packages that were about the right size to contain an iphone. It was a little heartbreaking to watch his little face fall each time a gift was opened to reveal something else - puzzles, socks, books, headphones, etc. 
He FINALLY went for the largest package which happened to have his name on it, and suddenly things were looking up! Hi-Hat got his very own kid-sized shiny blue electric guitar, complete with amp, st
rap, case, stand and headphones! He's been rocking out ever since. Oh, and the sad iphone tale has a somewhat humorous ending. In addition to drums and guitars, Hi-Hat is obsessed with traffic cones. He has a few and treats them as prized possessions (gotta love preschoolers). One of the last things he opened was a new traffic cone, this one with the letter "i" on it. He seemed puzzled. So I explained that Santa must have gotten confused this year when Hi-Hat read him his list. He thought Hi-Hat said "i-CONE," not i-phone (this was my brilliant idea the night before and I thought it would either go over really well or be a huge disaster). Hi-Hat bought it and thought that was pretty funny and quite acceptable. He's been proudly showing off his new i-cone to everyone he's seen since yesterday. The mind of a preschooler's mother must always be in overdrive!
This year there were two things Addie wanted for Christmas - "a candy machine" and "What's in Ned's Head." We got many blank stares from people when she gave this reply to the usual question, "what do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas." Both are items she saw in a toy catalog months ago and has been hoping for ever since. The candy machine is "the claw" game you see at arcades where you have to
maneuver a metal claw using a joystick to grab and win prizes. She saw a miniature desk-top version filled with candy and decided she had to have it! "What's in Ned's Head" is a tactile game that consists of a large, plush, crazy looking head filled with weird objects. You draw a card and have to reach into Ned's ears or mouth and feel around until you think you have found the item on the card (i.e. a dirty diaper, a frog, a spider, Ned's lost lunch, you get the idea...) Gross, but right up her ally! She and I have had fun playing it for 2 days, though Kellen wrinkles his nose at it and says he'll never reach inside Ned's head. Addie also got a new big girl bike to replace the tiny little 10-inch that she still insists on riding. She says the new bike is pretty, but she wants to ride her old little bike forever. Guess we'll save the new one for Ellary.
Addie was particularly proud of the gift she picked out for Geof - a framed picture of herself. She picked out the picture and frame herself and told Geof he was to put it in his office. We delivered it to Blue Cross today, and Addie found the perfect spot for it on his desk.
I've decided to divide my posts by kid, so I'll start with Ellary since this was her first Christmas! All the kids slept in, with Kellen waking at 8:30 and the girls following soon after. We made Kellen and Addie wait at the top of the stairs (just as my parents made us do) so we could check things out under the tree, but rather than have Ellary sit at the top of the stairs with K&A, she got to come down with us. She didn't seem to notice the change in the living room, but she was happy to sit and pose for pictures! She has become a very steady sitter over the last week, so we just sat her on the floor and let her take in all the Christmas morning fun. She was very interested in pulling tissue paper out of her packages, and she seemed to like the new toys she got - a new butterfly spinner, jumbo pop beads, baby legos, plush books, and a new baby doll. She was particularly interested in how everything tasted. Each new gift went right in the mouth. She also chewed on a candy cane for a while, but I don't think she ever got through the wrapper. She tried to eat her baby doll's head, but when she decided it was just too large for anything other than licking, she decided poking the doll's eyes would be a much more interesting activity. Ellary went down for a nap around 10:00, so she missed a lot of the package opening, but she didn't seem too upset about it! All in all, we think she had a very nice first Christmas!
Hope you are having a Very Merry Christmas! It's a gray, chilly, rainy day here, so a nice day to stay inside and enjoy the new treats that were left under the tree. Geof and Kellen worked on a new "Mars Mission" Lego set this morning, and Addie and I worked several puzzles and played "What's in Ned's Head." Kellen is now singing and playing his new electric guitar, and Ellary is napping. I'll put up pictures from yesterday in a series of posts to follow later today or tomorrow, but I don't want to spend all day sitting in front of the computer!! :)
