Ahhhhhhhh

Isn't this what Christmas break is all about...a fire and a good book. The current choice is one of the Hardy Boys books.  Scott will probably finish it today or tomorrow.  We need to go to the library and stock up for Christmas break!!  

Presents!

As part if a new tradition, I decided to place the presents under the tree on the last day of school. The presents were there when they got home from school and it was an exciting way to start Christmas break.

Amanda immediately decided that she needed to wrap presents for her "kids". She took old bags and tissue paper and spent the better part of the evening wrapping. She even put tags in the bags with the kids' names. When she was done the bags went under the tree with the others and I have a feeling we will unwrap them on Christmas morning!

Her favorite imaginary friend, Anna, has the big bag on the left and Merry's is the glitter bag on the right. I'm as excited as the "kids" to see what is in them.

Of course I don't really expect them to sit untouched for four more days! I'm sure there will be more unwrapping and wrapping today. Who knows...we may celebrate Christmas every day between now and March!

Tiger Cubs

Andrew was so excited to finally join Cub Scouts this year as a Tiger Cub.  For a six-year-old, one of the most exciting parts of the year is earning the Bobcat Badge.  The Den Leaders paint your face, with each color representing a different aspect of scouting.

Such a proud boy, embarking on his scouting journey.

Gingerbread

We embarked on an ambitious gingerbread project this year...a nativity scene.  When I was little, we built and decorated gingerbread houses every year.  I think my Mom did most of the work.

I have only ever done houses from kits with my children.  But, my Mom found this great set deep in a cabinet of her house when she was cleaning out and I thought it would be fun to try this year.

The boys did quite a bit of work.  

Aren't the shapes cute!  I loved the camels and sheep.

Decorating was fun.  The boys chose the colors they wanted.  We kept the decorating simple.

Even though our finished product looked nothing like the cover of the box, we were pretty excited about our little Nativity scene.  The only major disaster was that the gingerbread was not strong enough to serve as the stable walls.  We had to slide some cardboard in there for extra support.

I think we'll try this again next year.  

As we waited for the gingerbread to bake and cool, Scott decided he really wanted to make cookies with the cookie press.  (Actually, I made the mistake of calling it a cookie gun.  That set off a battle of cookie gun vs. Nerf gun.  I'm not sure who won.)

When the battle ended, Scott set off to make the cookies by himself.  I was making dinner and had declared that we did not have time to make any more cookies, but he was persistent.  So I called out ingredients and he put the cookies together.  And they tasted great!  

Family Game Night

The idea of family game nights never excited me when the kids were younger.  While I loved spending time together, I just could not handle multiple rounds of Candy Land and Hi Ho Cherry-O.  I'd much rather do a craft or bake cookies.

But now is a whole different story.  My boys are master Dominos players and it is quite fun to spend an evening playing.  It is competitive.  

Last night, we graduated from the Double Six set to the Double Nine set.  That means we have to use more advance addition skills, but the potential for big scores is greater.  It was a fun evening. 

A dress and aprons

I love to sew.  I love the creative process.  I love taking a yard (or two) of fabric and turning it into something to wear or use.  And the more I sew, the more I love it.

I would not have made these statements 10 years ago, when I could barely sew a straight stitch.  But practice has made it easier and now, if I see something in the store and balk at the price, I immediately consider how I can make it at home.  

A favorite project of mine is making matching outfits for Amanda and Merry.  Here are their Christmas dresses.  (Disclaimer...I only made Amanda's dress.  I was short on fabric, so my Mom volunteered to take the scraps and piece together a dress for Merry.  I pulled all of the scraps from the trash can and let her work her magic.  She did a great job!)

Sewing takes time and time is limited, so other projects fall by the wayside.  I still don't have Christmas cards printed or gifts purchased, but I can rest knowing that the dress is finished.  

On Friday I got this crazy idea to use some fabric from my stash and "whip up" some aprons for my cousin and her daughter, who were coming over to bake on Saturday morning.  So, instead of cleaning the house or prepping the baking ingredients or making the soup or watching a movie with the family, I sewed in my office, humming along with Pandora Christmas music.  It was a wonderful evening.  And here are two of the finished products.

I found the pattern here.  Of course, since I was using fabric and not tea towels, I had to hem all sides, but the cuts were the same.  If I were to do the project again, I would use ribbon (as I did with the girls' aprons) and not fabric for the tie.  I think I would also add a little ruffle to the bottom.  

The great thing about these is they wrapped themselves.  They looked so pretty in a basket on the counter when everyone arrived.

Here we are ready to bake.  

Mary, Anna and Amanda mixing macaroons

The boys did not get pink polka-dot aprons, but they were just as active in the kitchen while we baked. Andrew and Daniel mixed, rolled and dipped the Buckeyes, while Scott was in charge of the toffee.  After a while, all of the kids disappeared outside while the adults finished the almond cookies (and our wonderful conversations.)

Thanksgiving Season and Christmas Season

Last Monday Andrew hopped off the bus completely exasperated.  Before I could even say "How was your day," he began to tell me how it wasn't Christmas season yet.  

"I've been trying to tell people all day that it is STILL Turkey Season!!!!!!"

Oh sweet son...I agree.  Why rush Christmas, especially when we have an extra week before Christmas?  To me, Christmas begins Dec. 1 or on the first Sunday of Advent.  

So we kept our Thanksgiving decorations up all week...

...and began to decorate the house today for Christmas.  To be quite honest, it was not an easy day.  We are all fighting the flu.  Not really crummy enough to be in bed all day, but certainly not as much energy as normal.  But, there were some highlights in the day.

At one point I looked in the living room and Amanda was so excited that Merry was sitting on Santa's lap!

Being the good Mama that she is, she was diligently taking pictures (as I was diligently taking pictures of her and Merry.)

Later in the day (after several outfit changes), Amanda was a big help in putting ornaments on the tree.  In her enthusiasm, she broke three.  Oh well.

Can you tell who decorated most of the tree?  All of the ornaments are at the bottom.

We have yet to put the angel on the top.  I'll probably wait until everyone is feeling better to get all of us in the picture.  

Ready for Halloween

My least favorite holiday has one redeeming feature - I get to be crafty and create costumes for the kids.  Normally it's a really last-minute creation, but this year I was finished on Friday.  

Andrew wanted to be Angry Bird - Black Bird Space.  We found the picture of the plush animal and I used it to make his costume.  

I think it turned out pretty well.  If I was to do it all over again, I would probably make the orange belly much bigger, but I didn't realize the size difference until everything was sewed on.  Andrew LOVES it.  He is so excited.  

Amanda will be a bride.  This was also a fun costume to make.  I found some dress fabric where I only had to make the back seam and add the ribbon straps.  Then, I found some lace to make her veil and sewed it on a headband.  It is much heavier than I expected, so we'll have to find a way to secure it to her head.  But, what bride doesn't have 100 bobby pins in her hair?

Scott is making his own costume.  He has put together a Spy Kit from ideas he got from his Eyewitness Spy Book.  Some of his gadgets he created with Legos.  Others he found when he raided the toy boxes.  The costume isn't very exciting, but the gadgets are.  I can't wait to see him in action.

Fun Friday Craft

In my Community Bible Study class, we are studying the book of Hebrews.  It's a weighty book.  Really good.  Really rich.  Really deep.  Really academic.

But, the kids' study is really good and really rich and really fun.  I teach the 1st-3rd grade kids and we are having a great time learning truths about Jesus.  

This week's study covered 2:10-3:6.  We spent our teaching time focused on 2:17, discussing how Jesus was made like us, fully human in every way.  He knows every joy and every sorrow that we experience.  

We tried to imagine what it would be like to teach someone how to swim without water.  You should have seen the kids demonstrating swimming strokes on the carpet in our room (but not diving!)  We realized that you could explain until you were blue in the face, but they wouldn't have a complete picture of swimming until they were in the water, partially weightless, and soaking wet.  In the same way, because Jesus was fully human, He has a complete picture of everything we experience.  It was a really fun truth to teach these kids.

But our craft time focused on 3:5-6 - Jesus is over God's house.  We gave the kids big pieces of paper and magazines so they could design their own houses.  They loved it and were still working diligently when their Moms came to pick them up.  

I thought Amanda would also love that craft, so we decided to spend our Fun Friday creating a home.  The best part was that all of the clippings came from this week's junk mail - Lowes, Publix, Kohl's, and Bed, Bath & Beyond all sent us ads this week.  Together, we were able to find pictures to make an entire house.   

I have to admit that I was really impressed with Amanda's cutting and gluing skills.  These are supplies that are kept on a high shelf, so she doesn't have much practice.  I guess I'm going to have to pull them down more often, because she proved herself very competent today!

Here is the finished product.  I want you to notice the "mom" in the pink shirt.  It was not my first choice for a Mom.  I was looking for someone more domestic, but Amanda stopped at her picture and said, "NO, this is IT!  She HAS to have heels." Where did she come up with that idea that Moms wear heels...certainly not from me.

Also, her kitchen has matching black appliances.  She was about to cut out a white dishwasher from our Lowe's ad, but realized that it needed to match the refrigerator that she already had.

The family in this house has already decorated for Christmas, but they are set to have a Halloween party, complete with a pumpkin cake and Capri Suns.  At one point Amanda asked if I thought she had enough food.
 

We hung it so it draped behind the couch, so she could use it for a Barbie backdrop.  I'm definitely doing this craft again.  Maybe next time we'll make a grocery store.  Or, we could create cabinets and closets to put food and clothes behind.  The possibilities are endless.  

Homework - all about me!

Amanda brought home her very first homework assignment.  She was so excited to have homework, just like her brothers.  I wonder when that excitement will wear off?  Probably when homework isn't as much fun as this assignment.

We were asked to decorate the paper doll to represent Amanda.  (She kept calling it the "human."  "I'm decorating my human.")

We decided to dress the doll in her favorite heart dress and give her a Merry doll to hold (also with the matching dress.)

The best part is that we used red glitter to match Amanda's glitter Dorothy shoes.  (The pink socks were Amanda's unique addition.)

She wore the outfit to school and brought Merry for just a few minutes to show her teachers.  I took Merry home and left the teachers with a very excited and slightly wild child.

Just as exciting was Andrew's "All About Me" homework.  He was instructed to decorate a poster with information about himself and include the paper plate for a face.  Andrew is very creative and loves crafts.  He was so excited when I gave him permission to sift through "Mama's" craft drawer for his supplies.  (That's the off-limits drawer of things that require supervision.)

After much discussion, he decided to add the arms and feet.  He included pictures of our family, our dog and him holding a Lego creation, as well as drawings of his favorite food (hot dogs).

But the most fun came when I pulled out the glitter pens.  He very carefully decorated every available white space.

The end result was beautiful.

Well, not quite home alone

Amanda set her babies up in their "school" behind Derrick's chair before she left for preschool today.  They are dressed and ready for the day.  Each has her bag.  I'm glad I'm not home alone. 

Home Alone

I've now been a parent for 8 years, 4 months and 24 days.

That's 3,068 days.

Or 73,608 hours.

And I can probably count on one hand the number of hours I've spent alone in my house.

Sure, I've spent many hours away from my kids, from the years spent working to vacations with Derrick to just an hour trip to the grocery store.  But I rarely get to spend time alone in my house.  The babysitter or grandparents or my husband always stay here so I can get away.  But not so often do they go away so I can stay here.

But today starts a new era for me.  It is Amanda's first day of preschool!

She was so excited that she wanted to leave as soon as she awoke this morning.  But first we had to take the brothers to school.  Then we ate breakfast.  Dressed.  Brushed our teeth and hair.  Dressed Merry and the other babies.  Got them ready for school.  Packed our backpack.  Took pictures at the house.  

Finally, it was time to go.  School starts at 9:00 and we were in the car rider line at 8:50.  As we left home, Amanda debated whether she wanted me to drop her off in car rider or take her inside.  She finally decided that she wanted to ride the bus!  I told her that she would have to wait for Kindergarten for that.  She settled for a drop off.

When we arrived, she jumped out of the car and flashed a big smile and wave before marching confidently to her classroom.  
 

I missed my little companion when I went to Aldi & Sams, but am really enjoying getting some tasks done at the house now.  It is so quiet.  But I know she is having a great time, and I look forward to her chatter at lunch as she recounts all of the activities of the day.  

Paper dolls

I've had fun today putting together paper dolls for my mother-on-law's birthday. Thanks to my friend's Cricut machine, they were easy and fun to make. I love a project that makes me smile while I work. This picture from when she was four sure makes me smile. And I love that she is holding a doll in the real picture. She has always loved dolls and that is what makes this paper doll party favor so special.

4th of July evening

Firework shows are always tricky to plan for.  You have to arrive early enough to stake out a spot, but if you arrive too early the kids get bored.  So this year, I thought we would have some fun with glow sticks.  

Here is my USA Cutie.  She picked out her own patriotic outfit for the big day.  The kids had a great time running around this great big field for a while. 

But when boredom hit and it was starting to get dark, I pulled out the glow sticks.  Boy, were they are hit!  We had a great time posing for pictures and creating new costumes.  

Finally, the show started.  I didn't get any pictures, but it was a great show.  And, as a bonus, we even were able to see two other area shows from where we sat.

Happy 4th of July!

We began today with a Red, White & Blue breakfast...cherries, milk and blueberries.  We also had some delicious Coffee Chocolate Chip Muffins with cream cheese.  Yum!

We are hoping to end the day at the pool and then off to a local fireworks show.  It should be a great day of celebrating our country.

Freecycle

 We don't give or take much from Freecycle, but occasionally I find a gem...

The other day a woman posted that she was giving away dog boots.  I jumped on it.

I have been joking with my family for years that Farley needs boots to wear on muddy days.  Maybe the whole idea of "taking your shoes off at the door" can apply to him and we'll have less dirt to sweep.

We laughed so hard as we tried his new shoes on him and watched him prance around on the concrete.

But he seemed to be OK with them.  They didn't interfere with his ball-fetching.

Derrick wondered why the lady only had seven.  I think the reason is demonstrated below...they tend to get left behind in the thrill of the chase.

Fun stuff.