Tea with Mrs. Claus

Mrs. Claus came into town to have tea with a bunch of lucky children. After some yummy cookies and hot chocolate and her reading some Christmas stories to the kids, she opened the floor for questions. Billy and JJ led the way with some very probing inquiries....

JJ? - Why is Santa Magic
A- That is too hard for me to explain right now.

Billy ? - Where was Santa born?
A- In the North Pole Area

JJ?- Who is the best elf?
A- The doll makers do the best she thinks...and an Elf nammed Shorty (who is actualy very tall) is the biggest slacker!

Billy? - Does Santa have GPS?
A- No, she does not think so!

JJ? - Does Santa give you any presents?
A- Yes, he gave her the socks she was wearing

Billy? - What is the name of the newest Reindeer at the North Pole?
A- She does not know..she stays away from the reindeer stable because it is stinky! But, an interesting fact is all the famous reindeer in the song are now retired and live a good life eating hay all winter long!

Billy? - Were you famous on the plane when you rode here?
A- Nobody seemed to notice her!

Mrs. Claus picked both boys out of the crowd for different reasons....JJ because of how well he was sitting and listening to the stories and his good manners and Billy for all of his great questions...she remembered them both from last year, and wondered if Billy spent he whole year developing his list of questions for her! I think if she reports back to Santa, it will be a great report on both of them. For Real!

A letter to Santa...

Dear Santa -

I hope you have enough time to make my toys. I rally am happy you bring us these toys. Your wife, Mrs. Claus is very nice. I really liked her cookies. Now I am going to tell you what I want (look on the back of my letter too!)
-BB gun
-Soda Machine
-New ipod
-Red Bull
-Monster drink
-Wii games

But what I want most is a DOG and it's supplies! I have permission from my mom. I hope this is not too much to ask you. If you cannot get me these things (I know you probably cannot bring them all) that's fine and you can bring me something else.

From: Billy

PS- Do you know what people are thinking?

Dear Santa

Dear Santa-

I love you Santa Claus. Mrs. Claus is so nice, I met her twice! This is what I would like for Christmas:

-A Cream Soda machine
-A Water park in my backyard with a slide so high it goes up into outer space.
-An action figure of you so I know what you look like.
-A Root Beer Machine
-A room on top of me and Billy's room that has an amusement park and a gym with a bunch of mats you can stack and jump off of.
-A new Wii game with Santa Claus in it
-An Ice Cream Shop

I love You-
JJ

PS - I hope the elves do not freak out about this list because I know they can build all of these things for me...if they just try!

A funny Billiy and JJ Antedote!

The above picture was one of 5 on our Christmas Card for the year which is background to this story.

We have a set of friends that we typically see through the summer and then again on breaks. The mom is in Minnie's book club - and she has two boys of similar age and activity level as Billy and JJ. But, they go to different schools on different schedules so during the school year we are not as in contact as much. So lucky us when we were able to meet them last week to Roller Skate (Billy and JJ's new favorite hobby, by the way). And, we heard this story.

When the youngest boy opened our Christmas card, he went running to his mom, pointing at this picture and said, "Hey mom, look...Billy and JJ like each other now!" I guess he just remember the times over the summer when they argued, and not all the lovey dovey times!

But, we have proof on this blog...Billy and JJ not only like each other - but they have fabulous adventures together (that sometime involve a difference of opinion!)

Snow Day....

And the best part about it is....
School is already called off for tomorrow too!

Christmas Pagent

Staring Wiseman Billy...and the Sheppard JJ!

Our first snow...

Less than an inch and freezing cold...but that does not stop Billy and JJ from a few snowboarding runs....

All About My Birthday

I had a great birthday...with 3 parties. The first one was at school, and we decorated gingerbread cookies. Can you guess why it looks like I have blood in my mouth...it is just fake blood because it is icing from the decorating! My big party was at the Wellness Center where I got lots of cool presents from my friends. It was a hockey party and we were the Virginia Bears Hockey Team. I designed our uniforms. I was number 8...JJ was number 5 because those are our ages. We also jumped from higher mats to lower mats. I hit my b**t one time and almost cracked my neck another time. My last party was with my family at Den and Dee's house where I got more really awesome presents from everyone...plus snowboarding lessons in Janurary from Mom Mom and Pa! My birthday was awesome!!!

Billy is 8

See these two picutres? What is the difference? The one on the left is the last one taken as a 7 year old Billy...the one of the right is the first taken as an 8 year old Billy. My, how he has grown!
**As a side note, I told JJ to say something behind me to make Billy smile in his 8 year old shot...and without missing a beat, he yelled...'Chicken Poop'!

Here is Billy's account of his last day as a 7 year old:

"Tomorrow is my birhday. Today I am still 7. This is what happened: I had a guy come in and talk to us from Jamestown about Indians. It was cool. Then I had drama after school. And then mom said me and JJ could have McDonalds for dinner as a special treat which was really cool. We had fun at dinner...laughing about something Bevis said that we saw on Youtube. Then we made gingerbread cookies to take to my class for tomorrow. My birthday party is also tomorrow. It is going to be fun. I am excited.

O Christmas Tree

Here ye Here ye....A change to Billy and JJ blog. Billy is now typing in his own blogs!
This morning we went to my teachers christmas tree farm and cut down a tree,it was very fun.It is called Carter Coffman christmas tree farm. And my teachars name is mrs.coffman. We got a big tree. Mrs.coffman is a great teacher(& has great chistmas tree farm).I helped cut down the tree & when we setted up the tree Mickey cussed a lot. IT WAS VERY FUN.

**Unfortunately we do not have a picture from the Christmas tree farm to post because Minnie had an accident with her memory card. But here is our tree in full glory. It is tilted with a big hole and sometimes the lights dont work. But it is ours....and we love it!

Giving Thanks....

We are a little behind on this post, but we did travel to Ohio for Thanksgiving Holiday. Our family has so much to be Thankful for...mostly each other. Here is Billy and JJ's lists for 2010:

Billy: "I'm thankful for football, sports, friends, God, family and hockey!"

JJ: "I am thankful Christmas is coming (and there are only 22 more days, I know that from school...and tomorrow there will only be 21), learning to spell words, books, French Toast, Good TV shows (like Arthur) and my family."

Party in the USA

Billy was asked to be apart of a group at his school that met last week to repaint the Map of the United States on the playground. Local college students also helped. Here is his summary:

"I painted the map with a bunch of other kids. The states I painted were Michigan, Colorado and New Mexico. One kid fell into the paint in Texas and got orange all over his butt. It was really funny."

Adventures in Skating

We are on a 'commit to be fit' kick - trying to get the kids to exercise at least 2x/week. We mostly go swimming, but recently found a great activity we all love...rollerskating. All of us need a little bit of practice...but thus far we are all commited to mastering the art.

According to JJ: "I think it is fun. I love it and also I love it when I go with friends and have people to help me. I actually think I am really talented at skating. And swimming."

JJ's work of Art

JJ has his first piece of artwork in a public forum: on the wall of SSES! It was an assigment on different lines and shapes in making his fish. He chose to focus more on the jellyfish in the picture than the actual fish...but is the artists perogative!

He is none too pleased about this picture as #1 we had to go in early to school this day for Billy's choir rehersal and he missed the bus...and then #2 notice his leather jacket and spiked hair...it was the 50th day of school so they had a sock-hop and were to dress ad kids in the 1950'. He does not like change so therefore did not like to play dress up!

What is up this fall? Billy's FALL!

Billy was home from school for two days last week because of an injury at school. Bad news for him, but good news for The Adventures of Billy and JJ because he had time to finally add a blog update:

From Billy:
"So, guess what happened in PE? My friend knocked the air out of me and I passed out He was trying to get in front of me to be first in line for lunch. I got a concussion and might have had a seizure....at least Mrs. M said I did (one of his PE teachers). I went to the hospital and I missed two days of school. All of my friends were worried and so was my teacher. I was in the hospital for almost 3 hours."

Minnie's Reunion in Ohio

Minnie, JJ and Billy trecked to Ohio again last week for a reunion at Minnie's College with her swim team. As usual there were many adventures of Billy and JJ throughout the trip...here are the top 5 of each boy:

Billy
#5 - The room I created at Mom Mom and Pa's
#4 - Drinking Red Bull on the roadtrip
#3 - Kenyon
#2 - Going off the High Dive
#1 - Playing Hockey across the street

JJ:
#5 - The Works
#4 - Mom Mom
#3 - Whit's
#2 - Going off the diving board
#1 - Learning to spell J-E-E-P

The Great Outdoors....

Mickey had a work picnic waaaaaay back in the mountains on another glorious fall day. Billy and JJ had some adventures in fishing....and look what Mickey caught!

Pumpkin Patch

A glorious fall day at the pumpkin patch...what more could we ask for?

D-E-L-T-A

Since JJ has started school, he is constantly with paper and writing utensil...either drawing pictures (or more likely) putting down a series of letters on paper and asking, 'What does this spell?' The answer is always a made up word, or usually nothing ...because it is a series of consonants so I am unable to sound anything out! But, last week, he came up with a winner! DELTA is what he spelled on his page. His joy at spelling a word is overflowing. Now I am finding pieces of paper all over the house with his word on it....including my birthday card! I wonder if this means he will be an airline pilot...or live in Mississippi!

Check one more off the 40 before 40 for Minnie

Climbing Old Rag...a near 10 mile hike near Madison, Virginia

Despite a killer attack toad...and a 5 foot black snake, we survived!

How do Billy and JJ fit into this adventure? Well, they had adventures of their own on the Zip Line at Nana and Pops...pictures to follow in a later post...

PLUS Billy informed me that my initial identification of the said critter that attacked me on the trail was not a frog, but actually a toad. He has been studying them in 2nd grade...and here is some of the wisdom he imparted to me...frogs are usually greener, toads more brownish...frogs live in the water...toads only need to live close to water to keep their skin moist. They drink through their skin! Who knew!

JJ's First Field Trip

JJ had his first field trip in Kindergarten yesterday, and Minnie was so happy to go with his class. The trip was up to Big Meadows on Skyline Drive...and we went out into the woods to learn about our 5 senses....

We heard lots of crunching of leaves and sticks..plus noises of wind and birds.
We saw lots of colors...JJ and his friend had to find something red, which at first was hard...until we discovered some red berries up in a tree.
The teachers brought different bottles of smelly things...the kids closed their eyes and tried to identify things like mint and syrup.
The kids went around the forest floor to feel different things...hard, soft, rough, smooth etc.
Finally, they tasted their trail mix...a friendship snack that each kid contributed something towards...JJ brought banana chips...which I believe was the least popular item!
It was a good time...and what even made it more exciting is right during our picnic lunch, a deer walked right by the whole class!

Grandparents Day

And Billy and JJ are blessed with 4 of the best...and 2 'Great' Ones!

In their words:

Mom Mom and Pa - "I love them because they are really great at being grandparents. It is fun when they come visit...but even more fun when we visit them. It takes a really long time to get there, but when we do, it is really fun!" - Billy

Nana and Pop - "I love Nana and Pop. I like their house. They have lots of toys there. I like it when they buy me lots of toys. - JJ

Dutch and Maw - "I like to eat at their house. Maw makes French Toast every time! Dutch plays lots of fun games with me...and I really like to go into his basement" - JJ

Virgina Beach

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Despite thinking he might prevent our trip to the Beach, Earl passed by and left behind him beautiful weather....and perfect boogie boarding waves! Here are our favorite memories of the trip....with the above pictures as illustration of our great weekend.

Mickey - Our sunset picnic
Minnie - Riding the waves with the boys...and great picture taking conditions
Billy - Big Waves, The Hilton Pool, Getting our Dogs
JJ - Getting our dogs....definetly not the sand in my bu**!

**JJ's comment brings us to a long lasting memory for us all - when we were rising off at the public spicot at the beach...and he pulled his suit down to get the sand out of his bu**! Another favorite memory was JJ's surfing the waves and a big one came and knocked him down so hard, it turned him over and pulled his suit almost off!!!