the next beethoven

while we were at nonie's house, livi discovered her new passion...the piano. the whole weekend she was trying to pull herself up onto the piano bench to play. she loooooooves the piano, she doesn't get tired of playing & her songs sound really, really good. looks like next year i'll be writing to santa to bring livi her very own piano...she better be nice & not naughty (good luck with that, we know our livi)

christmas concert

nonie & helpa decided to play a christmas concert for us & they have been practicing for days & couldn't wait to show off. nonie was amazing on the piano & helpa was really awesome on his harmonica, they played over 7 songs. everyone was really excited when i jumped in to lend my vocals on some of the songs... we had so, so, so much fun. next year we're going to get a playlist together a little early & really wow our audience.

international winter festival

every year at school we have a winter festival and this year we made it an international one, we had our families bake all sorts of dishes of our ethnicity...we ate from all around the world. we even made flags, snowmen & clay dishes from all the countries. i did mexico because that is where my momo is from, i made this really awesome clay sculpture of a taco with beans and rice. my friend is from greece & he made a really cool clay bottle of olive oil. my favorite part of our winter festival is every year we get 10,000 lbs of snow brought in for all of us & our families to play in... how cool is that?! it's the perfect way to get our holiday started!

snowflakes

this year since i've been learning all about snowflakes at school, i told mommy i wanted livi and i to make snowflake christmas tree ornaments for all of our teachers. we had such a great time & got really, really messy making them, there was glue & glitter everywhere. mommy is still washing it out of our hair (hee hee) because it wouldn't be fun if we didn't decorate ourselves too ...yea, mommy didn't buy that either. i hope all of our teachers like them & think of us when they look at their tree. merry christmas, we love all of you & thank you for taking care of us and making us smarter.

candy cane crunch

since everyone has been asking me for my easy peasy candy cane crunch recipe,here it is. enjoy & have fun!!!

all you need is:
30 mini candy canes
12 ounces vanilla candy coating broken into pieces

1. unwrap candy canes, & place in a zip-top freezer bag. seal bag, removing as much air as you can. wrap the bag in a kitchen towel, & crush candies using a rolling pin.

2. place candy coating in a big microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH 1min & 30 sec or until coating looks like it's just beginning to melt. stir candy coating until smooth. stir in crushed candy canes.

3. spread mixture evenly onto a 15x10 inch jelly-roll pan lined with wax paper. chill in the refrigerator 30 mins or until candy is firm; break into pieces.

store in an airtight container up to 1 month. makes 1 pound of candy.

holiday dance recital

tonight was my holiday dance recital, it was so much fun to show all of our friends & family how hard we've been working in dance class. we did awesome, we were so good, we danced to "car wash" (i will never forget this song for as long as i live, i heard it over & over & over & over) that must be a really famous song because the whole audience got excited when the clapping started at the beginning of it. i tell ya it was a good thing ms. cookie put pink tape on the floor & told the audience they couldn't cross over it or i think they would have been on the stage with us dancing...they loved it. one of the best things of our dance was that we didn't have to wear our dance uniform, we got to dress hip-hop & funky, that was really fun. mommy got me some fake purple hair & braided it in with my real hair, i loved it (i slept with it still in) & it looked sooooooooo cool. after our recital it was time for cookies, punch & santa.

where is santa's pants

since daddy decorates the outside of our house, he gets to decide how he wants it to look every year. you can see all of daddy's hard work with the lights he had to get up on the roof a lot! one day when daddy was out shopping he saw this HUGE santa being chased up a 8 foot tall christmas tree by a doggy & it was love at first site, so of course it came home with him. daddy didn't tell mommy what he bought he wanted to surprise her & let me tell you...it did. he he he. livi & i love it, we think it's hilarious & all of our neighbors think it's pretty funny to live next door to the santa with the missing pants.

dear santa

mommy & i sat down last night to write a very berry important letter...a letter to santa claus. i told him all of the things i really wanted & then i told him, he could bring anything else he thought i might like. as i was ending the letter it hit me- livi can't write how in the world is santa going to know what to bring her. i asked mommy if it was ok if i wrote santa for livi, she said of course. so i asked santa to bring livi a doll, a kitchen set & i asked santa to bring her more hair (she doesn't have enough for me to play with). mommy was a lil concerned about the last wish, she doesn't believe santa can bring hair for livi (what does she know), i told her santa claus can do anything. still mommy said maybe i should ask for something else for her & i told her ok, i'll just ask santa to bring livi a wig if he can't bring her hair. after my letter was written, it was time to put it in a very special envelope covered in stickers so santa would know it's from me. i asked mommy to take it to the stamp place to make sure it got taken care with the special stamps that go all the way to the north pole & then it'll be sent on its way. i can't wait for santa to get it!!!

have a rockin holiday

christmas tree farm

today is one of my favorite days of the year, the day of our annual cutting down of our christmas tree. we drove to a huge christmas tree farm where they have more trees than i can count & i can count really high. santa (not the real one, just one of his helpers) is there giving out candy canes (my favorite) & there's a christmas choo choo train that we ride on that takes us around the whole farm!!! they sell delicious hot chocolate to keep you warm & we needed that today it was 39 degrees outside... i was frozen like a popsicle stick. daddy was teasing mommy about how much winter gear could she pack just to pick out a christmas tree... 8 coats, 5 hats, 4 pairs of mittens, 3 extra pairs of socks, 2 scarves & a partridge in a pear tree. mommy is silly, but she wanted to make sure we stayed warm...thanks mommy for trying. after all the fun stuff it was time to get down to the nitty gritty, it was time for daddy & i to find our perfect tree. now if you us, daddy & i are very, very picky...our tree has to be PERFECT! don't worry after going all over the (huge) farm many, many, many times we narrowed it down to 7 trees... at this point livi was a lil cranky from being so cold so we cut down the closet one to us. we took our tree up tp the front where they put it put it on this crazy machine that shook its sillies out & tied it together, then it was time to load it on top of daddy's truck for the ride home.

vote for me!!!!

I have great news! i have been chosen as a final contestant for the costume contest from Kiwi Magazine!

please, please, please take a couple of seconds out of your time to go on the following site and vote for Ella (me), i'm the amazing green dragon fly!


http://www.kiwimagonline.com/contests/diycostumes/voting.php

p.s. you can vote more than once if you would like to...hint hint

again this is the costume you saw me making in progress on earlier posts that i made all by myself at school for my fall festival. i picked out the fabrics & decorations so it would be extra sparkly. the hardest part was making my wings they are made out of coat hangers, but they came out great. my favorite part is my googley eyes, they're super fun. thank you for voting & i hope you like it.

snow

guess what...it snowed today, all day long. it was snowing so much (well a lot for texas), that my school closed early & even mommy's work closed early too . so we came home & played in the snow for about 5 mins & then we were done...i tell you it was cooooooooold outside. i was soooo cold i forgot to catch a snow flake on my tongue, i'm trying to work up the nerve to bundle up & go back out there & catch one, wish me luck!