Yesterday I went and helped out in Sydney's preschool class for about an hour while they were making ornaments. The recipe was a little bit odd. 1 cup Cinnamon, 3 Tbs Applesauce, 2 Tbsp Elmers Glue. It made a delicious smelling paste that the kids could roll out and cut just like regular cookie dough.They made gingerbread cookies, nutcracker, stars, and such. They all had lots of fun and I am excited to get the final results. They have to dry first. Apparently they won't get moldy either. So bizarre. But the classroom smelled great when we were done.
So the other day Emily asked me if we had any Christmas movies, and I realized that other than Polar Express we really don't have any other ones-oh I forgot we also have A Christmas Story. Anyone have any good recommendations for the 3-5 crowd? I don;t think we have rented the Grinch yet, either versions, or the Santa Claus trio for them. Thanks!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Cinnamon Applesauce & Glue
Yesterday I went and helped out in Sydney's preschool class for about an hour while they were making ornaments. The recipe was a little bit odd. 1 cup Cinnamon, 3 Tbs Applesauce, 2 Tbsp Elmers Glue. It made a delicious smelling paste that the kids could roll out and cut just like regular cookie dough.They made gingerbread cookies, nutcracker, stars, and such. They all had lots of fun and I am excited to get the final results. They have to dry first. Apparently they won't get moldy either. So bizarre. But the classroom smelled great when we were done.
So the other day Emily asked me if we had any Christmas movies, and I realized that other than Polar Express we really don't have any other ones-oh I forgot we also have A Christmas Story. Anyone have any good recommendations for the 3-5 crowd? I don;t think we have rented the Grinch yet, either versions, or the Santa Claus trio for them. Thanks!
So the other day Emily asked me if we had any Christmas movies, and I realized that other than Polar Express we really don't have any other ones-oh I forgot we also have A Christmas Story. Anyone have any good recommendations for the 3-5 crowd? I don;t think we have rented the Grinch yet, either versions, or the Santa Claus trio for them. Thanks!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The tree
Someone somewhere must have decided the quickest way to ruin holiday joy would be the invention of the christmas tree light. We have an artificial tree. We normally get it up about 2 weeks before Christmas, but this year I decided in my push to actually enjoy the holidays to do it earlier. Silly me. We got out the decorations & tree Sunday night, but it got late and we put the kids to bed promising to put up the decorations on Monday for Family Home Evening.
On Monday night we got the tree assembled but not lit. Last year I spent about 1 1/2 hours stringing the tree then unstringing it having not tested the lights before I started, so I was eager to not do that this year. I tested them separately and together and they worked mostly-a few bulbs here or there on most strands and one whole strand was dead. I like to work from the bottom of the tree and go up having the lights lit as you work. Karl wanted to go from the top down-not lit while working with his method. We ran out of lights. Always eager to conquer a challenge Karl spent about an hour fixing the other light strand, wrapped it round the tree and plugged it in. The tree was striped. Sections of it worked, others were dead.
Again the girls went to bed with the promise that tomorrow we would decorate with ornaments. I went to the store today to buy more lights. I brought them home and started trying to figure out the 3d light puzzle. Oddly enough while I was unstringing the sections I decided to plug them in again. I was able to get a whole unlit section back and running again. Yeah me! Now I had to wrap it back round the tree. I was able to do that with both the unlit sections so the whole thing is lit up nicely. Now I just have to get the kids to clean their room so we can do ornaments. But by now, I have lost a little of that magical feeling. Oh well. I will crank up some carols and start tossing on the glass bulbs!
On Monday night we got the tree assembled but not lit. Last year I spent about 1 1/2 hours stringing the tree then unstringing it having not tested the lights before I started, so I was eager to not do that this year. I tested them separately and together and they worked mostly-a few bulbs here or there on most strands and one whole strand was dead. I like to work from the bottom of the tree and go up having the lights lit as you work. Karl wanted to go from the top down-not lit while working with his method. We ran out of lights. Always eager to conquer a challenge Karl spent about an hour fixing the other light strand, wrapped it round the tree and plugged it in. The tree was striped. Sections of it worked, others were dead.
Again the girls went to bed with the promise that tomorrow we would decorate with ornaments. I went to the store today to buy more lights. I brought them home and started trying to figure out the 3d light puzzle. Oddly enough while I was unstringing the sections I decided to plug them in again. I was able to get a whole unlit section back and running again. Yeah me! Now I had to wrap it back round the tree. I was able to do that with both the unlit sections so the whole thing is lit up nicely. Now I just have to get the kids to clean their room so we can do ornaments. But by now, I have lost a little of that magical feeling. Oh well. I will crank up some carols and start tossing on the glass bulbs!
The tree
Someone somewhere must have decided the quickest way to ruin holiday joy would be the invention of the christmas tree light. We have an artificial tree. We normally get it up about 2 weeks before Christmas, but this year I decided in my push to actually enjoy the holidays to do it earlier. Silly me. We got out the decorations & tree Sunday night, but it got late and we put the kids to bed promising to put up the decorations on Monday for Family Home Evening.
On Monday night we got the tree assembled but not lit. Last year I spent about 1 1/2 hours stringing the tree then unstringing it having not tested the lights before I started, so I was eager to not do that this year. I tested them separately and together and they worked mostly-a few bulbs here or there on most strands and one whole strand was dead. I like to work from the bottom of the tree and go up having the lights lit as you work. Karl wanted to go from the top down-not lit while working with his method. We ran out of lights. Always eager to conquer a challenge Karl spent about an hour fixing the other light strand, wrapped it round the tree and plugged it in. The tree was striped. Sections of it worked, others were dead.
Again the girls went to bed with the promise that tomorrow we would decorate with ornaments. I went to the store today to buy more lights. I brought them home and started trying to figure out the 3d light puzzle. Oddly enough while I was unstringing the sections I decided to plug them in again. I was able to get a whole unlit section back and running again. Yeah me! Now I had to wrap it back round the tree. I was able to do that with both the unlit sections so the whole thing is lit up nicely. Now I just have to get the kids to clean their room so we can do ornaments. But by now, I have lost a little of that magical feeling. Oh well. I will crank up some carols and start tossing on the glass bulbs!
On Monday night we got the tree assembled but not lit. Last year I spent about 1 1/2 hours stringing the tree then unstringing it having not tested the lights before I started, so I was eager to not do that this year. I tested them separately and together and they worked mostly-a few bulbs here or there on most strands and one whole strand was dead. I like to work from the bottom of the tree and go up having the lights lit as you work. Karl wanted to go from the top down-not lit while working with his method. We ran out of lights. Always eager to conquer a challenge Karl spent about an hour fixing the other light strand, wrapped it round the tree and plugged it in. The tree was striped. Sections of it worked, others were dead.
Again the girls went to bed with the promise that tomorrow we would decorate with ornaments. I went to the store today to buy more lights. I brought them home and started trying to figure out the 3d light puzzle. Oddly enough while I was unstringing the sections I decided to plug them in again. I was able to get a whole unlit section back and running again. Yeah me! Now I had to wrap it back round the tree. I was able to do that with both the unlit sections so the whole thing is lit up nicely. Now I just have to get the kids to clean their room so we can do ornaments. But by now, I have lost a little of that magical feeling. Oh well. I will crank up some carols and start tossing on the glass bulbs!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
We are Home!
Saturday was a long day in the car!! We made it safely home with a minimum of traffic thankfully! We definitely made good use for the laptop scouting out the traffic on the route. We had great cooperation from the girls and they were good sports about the 12 hours in the car. Emily got sick on the way home, but seems better tonight. (I'd like to know what made McDonald's Co. create the current toys for their happy meals that they have right now! Who wants a toy that shoots the head off and shoots 3 cards all over the room when you push a little lever? What happened to good old action figures with moveable arms? But why am I thinking a happy meal should be useful?
We were very happy that we could go on our trip. Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful (and there were no embarrassing comments from the kiddos this year! In fact they were delightfully well behaved! Yeah girls!) and it was fun staying in our hotel, swimming with April, Gary, & Caleb, and visiting the nearby Butterfly Museum and seeing all the beautiful butterflies literally flying around your head.I have never seen so many species of butterflies and so many colors! I'll post some pictures very soon!
The cats were quite happy to see us when we came home and showed their love today by offering us two dead mice. They were so proud. Yuck.
We are going to try and get our Family letter out on time this year, so if you think we might not have your address email or otherwise, feel free to email me and let me know what your info is so I can update our/my address book.
We were very happy that we could go on our trip. Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful (and there were no embarrassing comments from the kiddos this year! In fact they were delightfully well behaved! Yeah girls!) and it was fun staying in our hotel, swimming with April, Gary, & Caleb, and visiting the nearby Butterfly Museum and seeing all the beautiful butterflies literally flying around your head.I have never seen so many species of butterflies and so many colors! I'll post some pictures very soon!
The cats were quite happy to see us when we came home and showed their love today by offering us two dead mice. They were so proud. Yuck.
We are going to try and get our Family letter out on time this year, so if you think we might not have your address email or otherwise, feel free to email me and let me know what your info is so I can update our/my address book.
We are Home!
Saturday was a long day in the car!! We made it safely home with a minimum of traffic thankfully! We definitely made good use for the laptop scouting out the traffic on the route. We had great cooperation from the girls and they were good sports about the 12 hours in the car. Emily got sick on the way home, but seems better tonight. (I'd like to know what made McDonald's Co. create the current toys for their happy meals that they have right now! Who wants a toy that shoots the head off and shoots 3 cards all over the room when you push a little lever? What happened to good old action figures with moveable arms? But why am I thinking a happy meal should be useful?
We were very happy that we could go on our trip. Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful (and there were no embarrassing comments from the kiddos this year! In fact they were delightfully well behaved! Yeah girls!) and it was fun staying in our hotel, swimming with April, Gary, & Caleb, and visiting the nearby Butterfly Museum and seeing all the beautiful butterflies literally flying around your head.I have never seen so many species of butterflies and so many colors! I'll post some pictures very soon!
The cats were quite happy to see us when we came home and showed their love today by offering us two dead mice. They were so proud. Yuck.
We are going to try and get our Family letter out on time this year, so if you think we might not have your address email or otherwise, feel free to email me and let me know what your info is so I can update our/my address book.
We were very happy that we could go on our trip. Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful (and there were no embarrassing comments from the kiddos this year! In fact they were delightfully well behaved! Yeah girls!) and it was fun staying in our hotel, swimming with April, Gary, & Caleb, and visiting the nearby Butterfly Museum and seeing all the beautiful butterflies literally flying around your head.I have never seen so many species of butterflies and so many colors! I'll post some pictures very soon!
The cats were quite happy to see us when we came home and showed their love today by offering us two dead mice. They were so proud. Yuck.
We are going to try and get our Family letter out on time this year, so if you think we might not have your address email or otherwise, feel free to email me and let me know what your info is so I can update our/my address book.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Road Tripping
Day 1
It took us 1 hour to make it farther than 3 miles from home. It wasn't just the bit of traffic we hit, but more the number of time we had to return home for different reasons. We got on anf off the same highway 3 times before finalling getting underway. traffic wasn't too bad getting to April's house, but it was late when we finally got there and it took the girls about an hour to actually settle down and go to sleep. That and Emily kept trying to fling her lungs outside her body.
Day 2
We left the house at 9am and it is almost 6pm and we are still an hour and a half away from the hotel. AHHHHHHHH. Maybe I should mention how much I dislike holiday traffic. On the other hand I did find gummy coca-cola bottles at a gas station. I used to love those as a child and had not seen them for years. Funny though, they didn't taste the same to me. But they were still pretty good.
Things that are not fun on roadtrips:
Kids can finally put in place the Don't watch too much TV rule.-Talk about timing
Kids can try playing 1 person I spy at the same time-results-two unhappy and loud kids and 1 unhappy mom
Every possible car can be on the road from the CT border onward causing it to take more than 3 times as long as usual to get through
Things that are fun:
Blogging on a laptop in a car
Singing songs as a family-granted it is the same favorite 3, but since it stopped a possible melt down, who cares
Using Google maps to plot traffic jams.
Shrek 2 in the back seat(such a great soundtrack) and it's better than hearing but not seeing Shrek 3
It took us 1 hour to make it farther than 3 miles from home. It wasn't just the bit of traffic we hit, but more the number of time we had to return home for different reasons. We got on anf off the same highway 3 times before finalling getting underway. traffic wasn't too bad getting to April's house, but it was late when we finally got there and it took the girls about an hour to actually settle down and go to sleep. That and Emily kept trying to fling her lungs outside her body.
Day 2
We left the house at 9am and it is almost 6pm and we are still an hour and a half away from the hotel. AHHHHHHHH. Maybe I should mention how much I dislike holiday traffic. On the other hand I did find gummy coca-cola bottles at a gas station. I used to love those as a child and had not seen them for years. Funny though, they didn't taste the same to me. But they were still pretty good.
Things that are not fun on roadtrips:
Kids can finally put in place the Don't watch too much TV rule.-Talk about timing
Kids can try playing 1 person I spy at the same time-results-two unhappy and loud kids and 1 unhappy mom
Every possible car can be on the road from the CT border onward causing it to take more than 3 times as long as usual to get through
Things that are fun:
Blogging on a laptop in a car
Singing songs as a family-granted it is the same favorite 3, but since it stopped a possible melt down, who cares
Using Google maps to plot traffic jams.
Shrek 2 in the back seat(such a great soundtrack) and it's better than hearing but not seeing Shrek 3
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