breakfast with mary and joseph

the day the kids (especially mason) have been waiting to come for months is finally here - breakfast with mary and joseph!  i think part of the excitement is to see "miss r" who was mason's preschool teacher last year and works with the high school youth at this church (the youth actually put on the breakfast).  our kids have, seriously, been talking about this for months.  a few weeks ago i let mason ask miss r when it was going to be this year.  to our disappointment, she said that they weren't going to do it this year.  but then she quickly decided that they would go for it when she saw the disappointment on mason's face.

so today was the day.  unfortunately, the weather was going to be pretty bad.  we went out to run our errands early because the weather was going to get worse as the day went on (and it did).  but i think that the weather kept turn out fairly low at the breakfast.  

we had a great time and the kids were just in heaven.  first we ate a few pancakes and oranges with a little chocolate milk.

and then it was off to make birthday crowns decorated with stickers and crayons.

we even let manning in on the fun, but he spent most of his time ripping up maddux' instead of decorating his own.

next it was time to hear the christmas story.  mason and madelyn were the first ones ready to go and got a front row seat.  i actually had to ask madelyn to back up (to where she is in the picture) because she was almost on "mary's" feet!  mason answered most of the questions about the christmas story which was really sweet to hear.  the other adults in the room were very surprised that the kids knew so many of the answers (mainly mason and another boy who was in his class last year).

then they had the kids sing and dance to a "j-o-y" go fish song.

we have the handprint ornaments from last year on the tree and had a great time making a complete set of four this year.  miss r said that it will be so neat for us to be able to compare how much their hands have grown.

manning was devastated that he couldn't keep using the brown paint to cover his hand. 

most of the small group who attended.

 all of the kids were given a gift bag when it was time to go and they were all very happy about that!

before we left, i had to get a picture of mason with miss r.  we just learned that she has taken a job with campus crusade for christ and won't return to the preschool after the holidays.  we are super excited for her but very sad to not get to see her or for maddux and manning to have her in future years.  i think mason has a crush on her.  he waits to say hello to her every day after school.  friday all three boys were giving her hug after hug before we could go home.  i am so upset that i didn't take any pictures, but about two months ago mason drew several hearts (maybe five), colored them and cut them out.  he put them all into an envelope for miss r and planned to give them to her at the mary and joseph breakfast.  i tried to talk him into giving it to her sooner because i was afraid manning might tear it up or that he would loose it.  he was certain that he wanted to bring it today.  in fact, he asked me last night to remind him if he forgot and asked me the same thing when he woke up this morning.  it was just so very sweet.  we are going to miss her!  love.