The Fulk Family

Kennedy had her long awaited performance of Yes, Virginia last night. It went great and she is very much looking forward to the start of a new musical theatre season in just a few weeks.

After her performance my dad and Kim invited us to have breakfast with Santa at their club. I'm surprised Reese sits willingly on Santa's lap. She even told him she wanted lego for Christmas. And he must have been listening because when we went back to dad's house she got Cinderella lego from Dad and Kim. Emerson wouldn't talk to him though. She was feeling shy.

The kids (and our neighbour Uirim who does everything with them) making their annual gingerbread house. Parker started crying when we were getting near the end a declared it "just a mess house".

Last weekend we had our neighbours over for a Christmas party and all the kids spent the night. Reese didn't want to be in this picture.

Chad heard a kitten in the back yard for awhile and took pity on it and put food out for it. He slowly moved the food closer to the house and eventually in to the sun room. It was really cold the weekend and the poor thing was starving and freezing I'm sure. The kids LOVED it but unfortunately Chad and I are both allergic to cats so our neighbour found a new home for it.

We stopped at Bass Pro Shop to get a free picture with Santa on the way up to pick out Kennedy's Christmas present outside Winston Salem and see the lights at Tanglewood with Chad's parents. There were quite a few fun things set up for the kids to do at Bass Pro Shop. They had so much fun shooting!

Emerson would not go in this picture. She's going through a phase that if I'm not in the picture she's not going to be in it either. And you all know how much I love having my picture taken!

That's why I'm in this one, E would not cooperate without me there.

The past month has been a very busy one for us. We have 4 kids in 8 activities which is much more than we've ever had going at once before, plus Parker, Emerson and Reese go to speech twice a week. We have at least one activity and often more every day of the week except Sunday which is of course church which sort of counts because we have to be ready and out the door for that too. Kennedy, Emerson & Reese are doing dance. Parker is doing flag football. Emerson and Kennedy are playing soccer. And Kennedy is in a musical theatre class and also a class at the School of Theatre Training. Of all of them I'd have to say Reese loves her ballet class the most. She asks to go every day. I was worried that since she is still uber attached there would be no way she would stay in the class by herself but she has and she love love loves "allet" as she calls it. Kennedy is also loving her musical theatre class. She got the role of Charlotte in their Christmas production of Yes Virginia There Is A Santa Claus and she is working hard on learning her lines and her solo!

This is my first year doing school with 3 of the kids. It's going as well as it could I think. Emerson is not thrilled about sitting down to school but after she puts up her initial fuss every day she sits down and does it with me. I really love to read and Kennedy so far really hasn't shared that passion but today she didn't want to put one of her assigned books down to leave the house because it was "just getting to the best part". That made me so happy to hear!! Reese has gotten much better at keeping herself entertained and also likes to come and sit with us sometimes and listen when I'm reading.

Emerson's not too sure about soccer. She and Kennedy begged to play. After watching Parker play for 3 seasons they thought it would be fun. Chad and I were not looking forward to spending most of the day each Saturday at the YMCA fields for three games but they really wanted to play so we agreed. She spends a LOT of time trying to bear hug/tackle/hold hands with/irritate her teammates and staring in to the sky and anywhere that is not the ball. She was also unhappy that when she was goalie last week the ball never came her away. Like really unhappy about that! She seemed to feel that was reason enough to give up on soccer. She seems to enjoy it when she's on the field though so hopefully the rest of the season goes alright.

Parker wanted to play tackle football but we decided he should play flag first. I think we should have gone with tackle! Flag seems kind of pointless to me. Some of the boys on his team have played for several years and are very good at throwing/catching. Poor Park has had not experience and is feeling rather badly about that. We've been working on his throwing this week though and it's improved a lot. Now if he would just try catching. He says the ball is too hard and it hurts and he really just likes chasing people and pulling off their flags.

There is a lot of sitting and waiting for three practices and three games. At least it's cooling off a bit now in the mornings/evenings.

Kennedy turned 9 on September 8th. She wanted to go to Boston again instead of having a birthday party/presents so she just got this one little present she'd been asking for. She named him Waddles, put a necklace on him and brought him to Boston with us. Waddles got her a lot of attention in the airport and plane. Kennedy loves attention! She still feels like she doesn't get enough from me and she loved having a weekend of being the center of mommy and auntie Lara's attention. I didn't take very many pictures and I don't think Lara did either but we'll try to find a few.

Chad took the kids to his parents church's family fun day again this year. They have gone the past several years and it has turned in to a day that all of us look forward to. The kids enjoy all the fun activities and seeing their grandparents and I enjoy having some very, very rare time to myself. Like most stay at home/homeschooling moms I am almost never alone. I love being with my family pretty much every minute of every day and I wouldn't change that for the world but I also enjoy a little alone time once in awhile. It's shocking how much I can get done around the house when I'm by myself.