Jillian's Christmas Program

Jillian's school had their annual Christmas Program. It is my ABSOLUTE favorite thing that they do at her school.  The teachers work all month to teach the kids all the songs and dance moves.  And wouldn't you know it, our kid is a H-A-M!

Jillian asked to wear her favorite dress, her golden dress from her 3rd birthday.  She looked so pretty!

This year, her class performed with the older kids too, so Jillian and Jackson's class sang their songs together.  And thank goodness for that because Julian had to be in Houston for school work, but the Malnars got the performance on video so that Julian (and all our family) can see it.

She did so good, singing all of the lyrics and doing all the dance moves.

After it was over, we took a quick family photo.

And here are the stars of the show, Jillian, Jackson, and Andrew.

She looks like such a little grown up in this picture *tear*

I can't wait for the Christmas program again next year to see Jillian perform again...and because I think a certain little boy named Alex will get to be in the program, too.  I can't wait!!!  

O Christmas Tree

The house transformation for Christmas has begun.  We are slowly but surely making our way through all the rooms in the house to get them all decked out for the Christmas season.  Over the past 2 nights, we worked to put up the kids' Christmas trees.

Julian and Jillian put up her tree last night, and I can tell that it really brightens her day.  

Jillian and her Christmas tree - Christmas  2014

Where did the time go?!

Jillian and her Christmas tree 2011, 2012, 2013

As for Bubsy, we got him a tree last year, but never really found the right ornaments to deck out his tree.  But trusty Target came through again and we found these adorable woodland creatures that were perfect for him.

And I don't know if Jillian was more excited to put up her tree or to help put up his.  

Once I assembled the tree, I put the first ornament on.  Alex is a fast learner and he got right to work on adding the rest of them on.  

Jillian had already spent the night giving names to all of the animals.  So Alex would put one on, and Jillian would go rearrange it... "Alex, Robbie the Reindeer wants to be next to Ballie the Bear."

What resulted was a cute little tree for Alex's room.  Once we put everything on, I figured out that there are still more trimming that we can add to his tree, but all in good time.

How I love thee, O Christmas Tree,

And the little people you belong to!

Eat, Drink, and Be Scary

Last weekend, we had the Annual Halloween Party with our friends at our house.  It was the first of the Halloween festivities this season, which means that it was the first time Jillian and Alex got to wear their costumes.  

We have been asking Jillian since August what she wanted to be for Halloween this year.  She came up with a lot of ideas, and she was originally determined for her to be Minnie Mouse and Alex to be Mickey Mouse again.  I knew it was going to take a great costume idea to stray her away from using the same idea as last year.  

It was a no-brainer when I thought that she could be Queen Elsa and Bubs could be Olaf from Frozen.  As soon as I mentioned this to her as an option, she could think of nothing else!  

 

I knew there were going to be a million other little Elsas out there on Halloween...surely none would be as beautiful as mine!  

And our Olaf was the cutest little snowman around!  

Some people are worth melting for, and he definitely melted my heart!

As I was getting ready to host this year's Halloween party, I turned to trusty Pinterest for some party ideas.  And of course I found tons.  I made mummy hot dogs, ghost bananas, orange pumpkins, and monster yogurts (not pictured).  And of course no party is complete without cupcakes and goodie bags.  The other families brought lots of treats to add to the party fare too!

Everyone ate, drank, and enjoyed each other's company.  We stopped to snap a few family shots.

The Skows

The Malnars

The kids ate a lot of sweets and needed to burn off some sugar energy.  Jillian ran around serenading everyone to "Let it Go."

And we played a mummy game where the daddies mummified their kids, then they had to dance the monster mash, and hug their "mummies."  It was great fun for all most!

Elsa and Buzz ended the night with a dance.  The kids have been coming home telling us that they practiced their wedding dance at school.  They were excited to show us their moves, complete with a dip.  

It was a festive good time and we can't wait to host the Halloween party next year!

Silly Jilly: Sunshine Days

Happy First Day of School to everyone!  Today was Jillian's first day in a new class, the Sunshine class!  

We have been talking up her new class for quite some time now because Jillian does better at adapting to something when she knows it is coming (don't all kids?!).  So at school and at home, we've been talking to her a lot about how much fun she's going to have in her new class and how much she is going to learn.  

In order to be ready for the big day, we told Jillian that she would get to wear a pretty, new dress and fun, new shoes to her first day of Sunshine.  She was very excited to get to put on her purple dress and purple shoes from Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Manda.  And of course, Bubsy had to dress up too!  Don't they look so cute?!

I think the new dress/shoes thing worked because Jillian was excited to go to school this morning.  We stopped for a quick picture in front of the school.  

It's funny because it feels like her first day of a new class happened just yesterday.  While her smile and her hands-on-the hips pose may be the same, she has gotten so much bigger and smarter since this same time last year (and so much more full of personality).

Then it was time to head in.  We went to her class first, but she decided that she'd rather go drop Bubs off instead.

Alex just recently transitioned into his new class, but it's been a little bit of a rough transition for him.  For the first week, he would cry everyday we left him.  He is adjusting better now, and I think it's because we get him there right on time to sit down and eat breakfast, and he loves eating.

Bubsy in his chair, ready to eat!

I was a little worried that taking Bubs first was just a stall tactic by Jillian to avoid going into her new class.  We stopped for a picture in front of her new door and she still seemed happy and excited.

Once we got into her class, I could tell that she got a little nervous.  But I was fully prepared for this so I had saved one last surprise for her.  I got her a Minnie Mouse that could be clipped onto her backpack.  I took it out, put it on, and told her that now she could have a little Minnie Mouse with her all day at school.  I told Jillian that Minnie was excited to get to be in the Sunshine class and that she would learn, listen, and be right there with her every step of the way in her new class.  It seemed to be just the extra little support she needed to turn the nervousness into excitement.  (#momwin)

After a few twenty kisses and hugs, she went and sat down, ready to start her new adventure with her new teachers.  She started learning the new song and dance right away.

Truth be told, I stood outside her door and watched her for a few minutes.  Half of me was wanting to make sure that she was ok, and the other half of me was wanting to make sure that I was ok.  After a few tears in my eyes, and after seeing her settle right back into school, it was time to leave her in the care and trust of her new teachers.

Silly Jilly, you have a lot of Sunshine Days ahead of you!  We can't wait to see all the new things you will learn in your new class.

A Whale of a First Birthday

For Bubsy's first birthday, we decided to celebrate his milestone by hitting the road.  My family was coming in via train and so we decided to meet in San Antonio.  I drove with both kids on Alex's actual birthday and we met up to show the birthday boy a good time.

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandsons

 The night of his birthday, we went down to the River Walk to have dinner.  But I think these girls had more fun getting to see each other and spend quality cousin time together.  

Jillian and Lauren

We called it a night so that we could get up and go to Sea World the next day.  We got there as early as we possibly could with 4 kids and 5 adults in tow.  

We enjoyed a few of the shows with the animals, but they really weren't enough to keep the kids attention.  

After the show, we put the bigger kids on a little ride all on their own.

Birthday boy Bubsy was more than happy to stay with Mommy though.

The heat was a little too much for everyone, so we decided to grab lunch and cool off.  The kids loved showing off their Shamu hats.

We braved the heat again and ran into a couple cool characters.  

Jillian loved getting to meet Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Ernie, Burt, and Zoe from Sesame Street.  Baby Mikey even got in on the fun!

This little guy slept through the characters, but was all smiles once he woke up from his nap.

We decided to end the day with some splash time at the Bay of Play area in the middle of Sea World.  

We put the kids in their swimsuits and let them run loose.  They spent over an hour, splashing and sploshing and just being kids.  It was the most fun of the day to see them enjoying themselves and interacting a lot with one another.  And it was a great way to escape the Texas heat!

We had a great time at Sea World celebrating Alex's first birthday!

Silly Jilly: "I Think I Can, I Think I Can"

The Acostas just got back from family vacation.  We went to New Braunfels and we went to Schlitterbaun one day while we were there.  My mom agreed to stay back with Bubsy, so Julian and I went with Jillian and my brother and sister to enjoy the day at the water park.

I was convinced that we would spend a good majority of our day in the kiddie pools or taking turns watching Jillian on little slides.  But as soon as we got to the park, we went straight to one of the rides.  Jillian did such a great job on her first ride and she was so happy riding in her own tube.  She smiled and giggled the whole time as we held on to her tube through the whole ride. 

For our second ride, we climbed to the top of a 4-story tube slide.  As we were on our way up, we looked around and there weren't any other kids in line that were as little as her.  The higher we climbed, the more nervous we got.  Jillian would need to ride in her own tube, down 4 stories, in a dark tunnel, all alone!  

I didn't want Jillian to be nervous and I didn't want her to know that we were feeling anxious too.  So we just kept pumping her up and hyping up the ride.  We got all the way to the top and I came close to turning her around and walking down the 4 flights of stairs.  

But I asked her when we were about to turn around if she was wanted to still go down the slide.  She turned to me and Julian and said "I think I can, I think I can."  And just like that, our brave girl went down the ride, shrieking and laughing the whole time.  Any apprehension we had was gone.  We told her we were so proud of her!

The rest of the day at Schlitterbahn was amazing!  We went on a ton of rides with our brave girl and she had the time of her life.  I am sure that these are memories that will last a lifetime for her and for us.

Silly little brave Jilly! Hope you enjoyed our time at Schlitterbahn!!!