just elfin' around

jack's teacher, miss luisa, has been reading "the elf on the shelf" to his class every day and jack is, well, obsessed. and thats probably an understatement. his class voted and named their elf Peppermint and every morning he talks about the possible places that peppermint could be hiding. then when he gets home all he talks about is where he found peppermint, what he told peppermint, what he showed peppermint, etc. 

so, being the gracious mother that i am 

(HAhaHA)

 i broke down and bought an elf for our house.

i wish i could have video taped jacks reaction when i picked him up from school and he saw the book in his seat. it was SO worth the money.

naming our little elf was way more dramatic than it should have been. but i suppose when you are adding a new member to the family, these things should be taken seriously.

jack and i both wanted cinnamon, but ellie wanted george. 

when we asked chris, he didn't like either of those and wanted bart (go figure!). 

so we put the three names in a bowl and had charlie pick one and when i read it, tears were shed. so we decided to think about it over night and talk about it in the morning. tears were shed again because the kids couldn't wait that long for a name. so after chris and i tossed around a couple names we decided on skippy.

and skippy has already gotten into some mischief!

if you don't own the book (go buy it), each night skippy goes to santa and reports on the kids. so each morning, he is hiding in a new place for the kids to find.

my friend katie sent me a list of fun things for skippy to do and already he has: 

toilet papered the living room 

(forgot pics- darn it), 

been reading books,

taken a bath,

and

drawn funny faces on top of our pictures with dry erase markers.

there is always some evidence that let's us know that it was skippy. like the end of the TP in his hands, or the dry-erase marker in his arms.

the kids are having so much fun with this, and i must admit that i am having just as much fun, if not more.

can't wait to see what other mischief skippy has up his sleeve :)

(if you have an elf and would like me to e-mail you the list of funny things, let me know!)

and, just because they are too sweet...

 charlie and sophie, cooking up some yumminess.