2015 Turkey Trot

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turkey trot
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Well, here’s a long overdue post! On Thanksgiving Day, we ran the Turkey Trot. Dylan and I did the 10K together and Tom and Cameron did the 5K (with Chloe in the stroller).

It was cold out there! But, after about a half a mile, Dylan was already warmed up enough to take off his jacket. All things considered (getting up at 6am, being in the cold, doing a 10K without training), he did great. He had such a great attitude and we just had fun yappin’ it up together on the course.

As with the Wharf to Wharf, we employed a strategy of running a bit and then walking. But, as you can see, once Dylan saw the finish line, he was sprinting like a champ!


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love this guy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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it was tough
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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cameron
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Meanwhile, Cameron was lookin’ pretty good during her own run (although, I heard she was pretty tired — no doubt, getting up at the crack of dawn is no fun!)!


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high steppin’
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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chloe’s personal course
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Chloe ended up missing her run because he and Cameron took a while to return AND, of all of the annoying things, the organizers kicked off the kids’ races 5-10 minutes early.


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woot!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I asked Tom to ask for her participant’s medal anyway and I loved the fact that Chloe did not want to have anything to do with it until she actually ran her race!

Dylan was there at the “finish line” to drape her medal over her head!


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Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We didn’t linger for too much longer. We picked up some swag for the kids then headed to Lola’s for tons and tons of food!

This event has gotten so big that we’re not really sure we’ll do it again! We may opt to stay local instead, but we’ll see where our feet will want to take us next year!


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our feet
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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selfie at the start
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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post-race lightrail ride
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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still heading back to the car
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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tree set-up, 12/12

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engineering team
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After the girls finished up their dance class, we came home and started setting up the tree in earnest! It wasn’t long before the train was set up and running!


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tree is still clear
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Not long after the train tracks were set up, we started bringing Lola’s old Holiday Village buildings up from the garage. In this picture, the floor beneath the tree is still visible; now, it’s super ma-duper filled up with buildings and snow and little figurines and such!

The kids did the whole village design. They decided where to put the buildings, Dylan put in all of the lights, Cameron made snowballs and snow drifts and everyone put down all of the little accessories (newsboy, tree lot, choir, etc). I love how it captures their imaginations!


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here comes the train!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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decorating
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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Chloe’s ornament
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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Chanukah – Night 7, 12/12

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7th night of Chanukah
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Night 7 love.


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menorah time
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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chloe
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Chloe lights all of her candles every night!


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Hour of Code – 12/13

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cameron and her buddy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We did an hour of code again this year and, this time, we invited Cameron’s old preschool buddy to join us.

At first, Cameron was a bit reluctant to do it (oh, the horrors of gender socialization), but at the end of the event when I asked her what she thought of it she said, “oh, it was the best!” And, that made my day.


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dylan
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

While Cameron and the younger kids (K. and her buddy J.) did the Infinity Play Lab module, Dylan and T. did the new Star Wars module which involved an introduction to Javascript–it was still blocks, but at one point, I noticed that T. was actually typing in function names. Sheer awesome.

At the beginning of the session, I introduced just 2 concepts that I knew they’d use in their modules — algorithms and loops. I asked the kids if they’d remembered what an algorithm was (from last year) and Dylan immediately popped out of his seat and started demonstarting while explaning precisely what an algorithm is. I loved it.


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cameron’s sign
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Despite her early protests, Cameron actually got pretty excited about the event and made a sign for us!

I was pretty pleased with the event. The big kids went on to play Minecraft and the little ones continued on with the Frozen module (which K. and Cameron had started to do last year). It was fun to watch the kids so engaged. I’m hoping to capitalize on the momentum of the event and have Cameron and Dylan do a bit more during winter break. We’ll see if we actually get some time to spend on it.


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Dylan’s Winter piano recital – 12/13

Here’s Dylan playing “Oh, Come All Ye Faithful” in a duet with his piano teacher. He did a pretty good job considering he has been avoiding practicing piano like the plague lately! In any event, this piece was so short, Tom and the girls arrived too late to hear it! He was 3rd in the line-up and we had just been finishing up our Hour of Code session and were engaged in deep conversation with A. when we realized it was time for us to take Dylan to his event! Dylan and I went on ahead while Tom got the girls into their shoes and jackets, etc. They were only about 10 minutes behind us, but they missed Dylan’s song probably only by about a minute or so!

Incidentally, Cameron has been playing piano since September and she is already making great strides. About 12 lessons or so in and she’s already able to read notes and has already moved on to chord progressions. I’m not sure why she wasn’t asked to participate in this recital — maybe because their teacher thought it would be too overwhelming for her — but she, too, has a couple of holiday tunes she’s been playing. It’s been lovely listening to them practice.
L1020113

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Cameron loses Tooth #2! 11/25

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tooth 2
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron’s second lost tooth was not far behind the first one–just one week later!! I knew it was coming out soon because there wasn’t much space between those two little choppers and I was certain that big tooth would just shove the remaining lower front tooth right out of its place!


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heading to rehearsal
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Luckily, it fell out at home instead of during Nutcracker rehearsal (I imagine it would have been tough to find it if it fell on the dance floor!)


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The Ballet Bun
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I’m throwing this picture in, gratuitously…I’m improving that ballet bun! But, I still need a finer-tooth comb to really get rid of the gaps!


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Cameron lost her tooth! – 11/18

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the first lost tooth
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron lost her first tooth! This one was wiggly for a really long time and it finally came out, pretty unexpectedly!!! She had just come to Dylan’s classroom to meet us (it was my volunteer day) and, in her own words, “I was skipping around in circles…and it fell out!”. Luckily, we spotted it on the ground outside of Dylan’s classroom before the stampede of 4th graders got out and put it at risk of getting kicked or stuck to the bottom of someone’s shoe!


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Our Dragon Leader

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our dragon leader
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan (and Maya) was selected to be a Dragon Leader for the school. He was nominated by the counselor and his teacher and had to participate in some sort of “training.” This was all very, very cute. He was very excited about his role and, on this 4th day of Chanukah, he was out there for the first time, monitoring for conflicts and so on.

The previous week (or so), he was coaching Cameron on how to resolve a conflict she was having with her classmate (“Cameron, tell me what happened…without blaming”). I loved it. He’s such a good egg, this one. And, he looks cute in his little vest, too!


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4th Night of Chanukah

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4th night of Chanukah
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

On the 4th night of Chanukah, Dylan also had his winter concert. The place was packed and even though Chloe and I got a seat on the disgusting cafeteria floor right in front of all of the kids, I still couldn’t see Dylan!

Throughout the performance, I caught brief glimpses of his right ear for fractions of a second at a time. I didn’t bother to record the show since I couldn’t see my son anyway.

If I sound grumpy about it, it’s because I was (as was Tom!). The music teacher had the 4th graders file out of the room and then didn’t have them brought in for the Holiday songs portion of the show until they were half-way through the LAST SONG OF THE CONCERT. What bad planning. Plus, it was a fire marshal’s worst nightmare. Anyway, they clearly need a new venue and a better way of lining up the kids and better organization in getting the kids to the stage! I still can’t believe the music teacher didn’t wait until all of the kids had returned before continuing on with the show!!!


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back home
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Well, back home, we had a late dinner by menorah-light!


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happy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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eager to decorate
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

And, as you can see, this little one was eager to start decorating! At this point, we hadn’t even brought up any of the boxes from the garage!


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5th Night of Chanukah

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painting a dreidel
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Night 5, the kids got little paint-your-own dreidel kits…and they did not delay in getting to them!!!


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painting painting
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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more painting
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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at the menorahs
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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dinner by menorah-light
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We enjoyed dinner by candlelight on each night of Chanukah! So pretty….


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