Maddie's Birthday Party!

We went to Dimple Dell Recreation Center yesterday afternoon to celebrate Skyler's classmate Maddie's birthday.  There were games, pizza, candy, cake, cupcakes and most importantly, SWIMMING!!!!

Skyler with Artemis.  Note how they intertwined their balloons.  :)

In the pool.

This was a bittersweet moment, Mommy didn't need to get into the water this time and he was able to swim by himself.

Getting out to have some cake.

Cake time!

Back to swimming!  Going down the waterslide.

Here he comes!

Splash!

Dreidel!

For the second year in a row, Skyler is celebrating Hanukah and playing with his Dreidel and lighting a candle on the Menorah each night.

Spinning the Dreidel with Mommy.

Christmas program.

Wednesday evening we headed back out to school to see Skyler's 1st grade class perform their Christmas program.  It was excellent and Skyler was even selected to read to everyone.  After the program, it was time to see Santa!

The kids all looked so nice dressed up.

Santa!

Hoar Frost in the yard.

Our winter temperature inversion is particularly bad this time.  One highlight(?) of the inversion is the Hoar Frost that forms from the moist overnight air.

Pinyon.

Sequoia.

Smoke Bush.

Smoke Bush blossom remains.

Detail of a mystery tree branch.

Working hard.

Skyler says when he goes to school, he goes to work!

Writing in one of his workbooks.

Happy Birthday Mommy!!!

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday with everyone at our house.

I mad an applesauce cake from scratch complete with homemade maple frosting.

Skyler helped her blow out the candles and make a wish.

Gingerbread house!

Skyler got to go to G & G's house yesterday afternoon and while he was there, they assembled a gingerbread house from a kit.  Skyler was delighted (as usual) when he came home to show us his handiwork.   All photos courtesy of Grandma and taken at her house.

Front view.  He built the tree and even added a doorbell.

The "solar" roof according to Skyler.  He really wants us to get a Tesla solar roof when we replace our roof in the next few years.

Rear view.

The non-solar side of the roof.  So cute!

New playground.

We dropped off pet donations at the city's annual donation drive at the animal shelter yesterday morning.  Afterwards, we headed over to the Sierra Newbold Playground.  Skyler had a wonderful time and even Mommy was caught playing.  I kept thinking about Sierra and how she was the same age as Skyler is now when she was murdered in 2012.  :(

He had the place all to himself.

Looking devious.

Clowning around.

Whee!

Laughing with great delight!

😢

Sun loving animals.

Winter means low sunlight and that means the pets like to lay in the warm sunshine.  This has become a daily habit for them this last week.

Mornings they like the front door sun.

Eddy cat likes to lay on top of the futon in the afternoon sun.

"Is Mommy home?"

Skyler came into the kitchen after school last night and asked me for a cup.  I gladly gave him on thinking he just needed a drink.  Nope!  He was using it to listen for Mommy coming home through the door.

Pretty clever!

Fit!

Throwing a fit over putting his jammies on!

He started laughing hysterically after I threatened to send a video of him having a fit to Artemis.  I didn't have to send any video...

Kid Reports.

Skyler's school sends us daily "reports" that show what he's doing in the classroom.  Monday, we got a picture of him working on his nouns used in sentences in class.

Working on his carpet on the radiant heated floor.

Air Force One!

It flew right over our house yesterday!  Too bad it had our current president on board... :(

Here it comes!

Flaps down.

It looked like it was going to fall out of the sky it was flying so slow.

Interesting antennae on the horizontal stabilizer.

Final approach getting ready to drop landing gear.

Landing gear coming down.

Desert Sunset.

Saturday evening's sunset did not disappoint.

Wow!

'Tis the season.

We picked Skyler up from school Friday afternoon and headed out to Farmer Luke's place to pick out our Christmas tree.  Since Skyler was 3 we've been getting our trees from Luke.  His tree lot is probably the most "sincere" tree lot in town.  Skyler loves running around all the trees and playing on the antique tractors.

Kitty is still hanging around the farm.  Skyler got to pet him for a while.

On the old Farmall tractor.

Foot on the clutch.

Another old Farmall.

We ended up with a White Fir this year.

Mommy and Skyler decorated it yesterday morning.  The Polar Express made its seasonal debut as well.

Skating.

Mommy signed Skyler up for ice skating lessons out at the Utah Olympic Oval.  He is loving ice skating!  I tagged along with the two of them Thursday evening and got to see him skate.

Waiting for his skates at the rental counter.  He wore his helmet in the car and all the way into the skating oval!

On the ice.

Skating with his class.  His teacher is an Australian Olympic figure skater.

Following her instructions.

Impressed.

Mom and I were blown away by Skyler's classwork yesterday.  He is doing addition with carrying of the one's!  He showed us his math works, his money works, and some spelling works.  We left as he was leading group reading.  What a smarty!

Adding up the money using plastic coins.