Happy New Year!

SANTA CAME!!!

We started a tradition with our kids a long time ago, that Christmas Eve dinner is pancakes. Usually Santa pancakes.

With whipped cream and cherry pie filling and M&Ms for the eyes and mouth. They look forward to it every year now. Good tradition--easy for Mom and Dad!

This is our Christmas tree that the kids so lovingly decorated... and redecorated. You can just make out the cookies and milk. Santa's favorite cookies are Mint Oreos.

Santa brought new bikes for the kids. They are still trying to figure out how santa got those bikes down the chimney.

(You can see on the couch behind the bikes---new pillows for everyone!)

Santa also brought Jingle for our family. Jill would see that little dog everytime we went to the store and want to stop and pet it and listen to it bark. Good job Santa!

Then, of course they had to go outside and try out their new bikes. Squirt still needs to figure out pedaling, but she loves just sitting on it too.

They are all so excited to have bikes that fit them. Their old ones were getting way too small!!

All in all it was a pretty good Christmas. And after Christmas, we were able to visit with family. My sister who lives in the middle of nowhere came to visit. We hadn't seen her family in 2 years. My parents came down as well. It was fun to see everyone. Then, once they left, we went up to Preston to see hubby's brother and his family. We haven't seen them in almost 2 years too. Now it's new years and we are back to just hanging out!

Gettin' Ready for Christmas

This year, the kids all agreed on one shirt for their Christmas shirt. And, although it did involve sewing on 8 buttons (which I loathe!), I love my children and did it anyway. The kids wore them to the Church Christmas party, and again to pick a Christmas tree.

You can't really see the boy's but his reindeer has a bowtie instead of a hair (antler?) bow. And yes, they are all Rudolph. I wasn't about to start that fight!

We went to the Tree Lot in town that had Mater. It was pretty cool, but I couldn't bring myself to pay that much for a tree for only 2 weeks. Maybe if we'd gotten in 2 weeks ago, but not for just 2 weeks. But the kids loved Mater.

Do you like Squirt's new 'camera smile?' We brought our Rite Aid tree home and, after hubby put the lights on, we let the kids go at it. They did pretty well. It's nice that the boy can reach to top part. And there is only one glass ornament on it, so I am okay with it being in the TV room downstairs.

Happily Playing

First of all, who knew we had so many penguins?!!

Secondly, thank goodness we do, since it kept Squirt busy for 30 minutes while I made dinner.

Line 'em up...

Lay 'em down...

It's not a penguin massacre. It's a penguin slumber party.

Getting Ready For Christmas

Last year, we had this glass built in showcase thing where we put our advent calendar. Since we moved, I had to get creative. A trip to the dollar store, where I bought 2 spools of ribbon and a pack of clothespins and we were set. Then, I stayed up until midnight trying to get it all in the order I wanted and stuffing the bags full of candy. But, it's done and the kids are loving it!

(Munchkin helped me pin all the bags up multiple times as they kept falling!)

The kids wanted Christmas shirts again this year. Since I had to redeem myself from the reindeer craft fail of 2010, I went with reindeer again. The boy was surprisingly excited about it. Even begging to sew the button eyes on. However, since most of my crafting is done while my children sleep, his sewing career will have to start later.

(they all picked out their own ribbon for the bows and fabric for the bowtie)

I am in the Primary Presidency at church and this year we are doing a little program at the Ward Christmas dinner. The boy was chosen to be a wiseman. He asked me if I could make him a beard. I thought it would be so funny for the wisemen to have these beards, so I made three. I was kind of afraid to tell the Primary president for fear she wouldn't want the beards, but she found out and asked me to make one more for the innkeeper.

(Munchkin modeling the innkeeper beard)

The boy insisted on a black scraggly one. I had fun coming up with the shapes of the bottoms of the beards.

So far this December we have:

1. written letters to Santa on a cute printable--I had them write their top 5 wants

2. Made paper countdown chains

3. Cut out about a million snowflakes

4. Make a gingerbread man craft while eating gingerbread marshmallows

5. Watched a Rudolph movie while coloring Rudolph pictures

6. Had hot chocolate with marshmallows through red and white striped straws

7. Read a Christmas story and got 4 new Christmas books. One of them is a Mickey Mouse one but I guess it still counts.

In other news, I had my crown on my tooth replaced this week. I got it on our 5 year anniversary (5.5 years ago) and it has been hurting me for about 3 years. In the two days I have had the temp. crown, it feels so much better already! It's not cold sensitive anymore. Can I just say I love my dentist?! And I love that we have a Flex spending card to pay for it all with! This year a crown, next year Lasik for hubby.

Awesome Monday

This morning, we went to Ikea to get some spice racks for bookshelves for the kids' rooms. We left our house right after the kids went to school. We got to Ikea around 9am. Guess what time Ikea opens. 10am. So we drove around Riverton looking for a park. We found one with a merry-go-round. Munchkin wanted to go fast but Squirt was on and I wasn't sure she'd hold on very well. So I got on with her. Hubby pushed us pretty fast and both girls loved it. Me? Not so much. I hadn't eaten breakfast and I was so sick!!! I even considered eating some of hubby's sunflower seeds to just put something in my stomach. I took me most of the morning and into the afternoon before I felt better. Getting old sucks!

So at 10 am we went back to Ikea and they are all out of the spice racks. For two weeks. Oh well. I got to wander around Ikea for a bit and the girls got a spinny ride on their carts from Hubby.

Since the kids went back to school, I have been running a lot of errands with the two littles. So, inevitably the two younger ones have been getting some treats that the older ones are missing out on. Like a cheap toy or treat after a trip to the store. Or a kid's meal after a long trip to the store to keep them awake on the car ride home. So the older two were feeling left out. I wanted to bring up all the things they got when they were little and the other two weren't born yet, but I didn't. So hubby pulled them out of school today and surprised them with lunch. They picked a pizza buffet and then got to get a toy at the dollar store. (We also didn't tell them that since we were running late home from Ikea, the two little girls got McDonalds for lunch.) Then we took them to Classic Skate for a while which turned into dinner...which none of them ate! Let's just say that Thumbelina is the best skater out of all of us. I only ate it once, but the boy spent most of his time on the floor. Luckily, for our pride, we were the only ones there. But they have a whole new play area with bounce houses and a climbing thing that the kids loved!

It was probably the best day ever...and Squirt went to bed at 6:30.

Back to School, Back to School...

School started this week. Just before the summer fighting drove me completely insane!!!

Thumbelina started 2nd grade. She likes her teacher and has a bunch of friends in her class. She has already gotten to Yellow Card for talking. Oh well. That was her main problem last year. I have them write apology letters if they don't behave. It worked for the boy last year, but Thumbelina really likes writing notes so I'm not sure it will work with her.


My boy is in 3rd grade. His teacher seems really nice. No homework this first week-so he really liked that! He also sits right next to the girl he has a crush on. He was "totally embarrassed" when I kissed him on his forehead the first day of school. Oh well.

And this one who can't stand for the camera to be out without taking a picture of her! (or her bear in this case!)

Munchkin will start Preschool in a couple weeks so her picture will be up then.

Squash Invasion

Fried zucchini, zucchini cookies (with butterscotch chips for the very first time), zucchini muffins, and sauteed zucchini and yellow squash for dinner tonight, and I am still behind! Time to get to grating and freezing!

Spray Paint Stenciling

Thumbelina has a birthday party to go to for a boy in her class. And while I have a million girl present ideas, boy ideas are hard for me. The invitation was a Mario Bros one, so I went off of that. I found a Mario keychain on super clearance a while back, so I decided to pair that with a Mario shirt he could wear. I printed off a picture, and spent some quality time with my craft knife. So much time, however, that hubby told me, (and I quote) "we need to get you one of those cutter machines that you want---how much are they?" Anyway, after about a hour with the freezer paper, craft knife and iron, I had it ready...but I was too tired to find my fabric paint. So I took it outside and spray painted it:

And after all that cutting, I couldn't bear to throw away the part of the stencil I didn't use---so Thumbelina got a shirt too:
Thumbelina loves her shirt and I hope her friend likes his too. I also got a Cars puzzle, Cars Pez, and a magnifying glass to throw in the bag with the shirt and keychain.

Now that is done and I am so excited that hubby is finally onboard with the Silhouette!!!

Solution to Summer Confusion

Days of the Week shirts for the boy! He wore Monday yesterday and got lots of laughs. Dollar store Ts, freezer paper and paint. Now, if I can keep up with the laundry, we might have a fighting chance at knowing what day it is this summer!

Rainbow Suncatcher

This is the project that won runner-up in The Color my Summer Contest. Wanna make one, too? Here's how:

Ever feel bad about throwing away plastic cups? And during the summer, with all the birthdays, pool parties, BBQ and picnics-- well, that's a whole lot of cups! Since most events that we are attending this summer are pot-luck, I volunteer to bring the cups. That way, I can buy the right ones (wink!) and use them for this awesome project!

Which ones are the right ones? Well, type 6 recycling plastic is the same as shrinky dinks! So I bought a rainbow of cups in the transparent colors (about 25 per pack). After a couple of events, and with a bag and sign for recycling the cups, I had enough to make this sun catcher!

First, start with clean cups. The kind I had were octagonal but had a circular base. I punctured the base with pointed scissors and then cut around the circle to take the base of the cup off.

At the top of the cup, I used a hole punch to put two holes directly across from each other. These will allow you to string them together later. I used jelly roll pans and an oven at 120 degrees celsius (250 degrees farenheit.) I lined my pans with parchment paper and placed the cups TOP SIDE DOWN with the hole from cutting off the base pointing up. You don't have to space them out much-- they don't really spread as they melt. If your oven is already hot, it only takes about 2 minutes or so for the cups to melt. If they aren't completely flat, just use a spatula right after you take them out to flatten them. I have granite counter tops, so I just scooped them off the cookie sheet and let them cool on the counter. They are still a little flimsy right out of the oven, so I wouldn't use a cookie rack to cool them.

Once cooled (which only takes a second), I used gold yarn to string them up with an outer circular layer and an inner one. For the top of the chandelier, I used a clock box from Ikea, spray painted yellow.

Since it was octagonal, I decided that it would be easiest to have 8 strings of discs for the outer ring and 8 (staggered in between the original 8) for the inner ring. . The outer ring has 5 discs (one of each color) and the inner ring has 7 discs, so that they would hang down a little more.

I used a different order for colors for the inner ring so that the colors would mix between the two layers.

So- all total you will need 8x5=40 cups for the outer layer and 8x7=56 for the inner layer, or total 96 cups.

It's not evenly distributed between the 5 colors, so decide on your color scheme first to see which colors you'll need I left one end of the string of discs a little longer (tied the other end to the last disc) and then used a needle to thread it through the painted box. I tied adjoining strings together using a square knot, just to keep them from slipping out. Well go back and hot glue everything in place once everything is attached to the box.

Since clock boxes have a central circle, I used an extra plastic ring with yarn tied to it (and hot-glued into place on the box) to hang the whole contraption by stringing it up through that hole.

Then, hang by a window and enjoy!
*****UPDATE***** My sister made this project during her time in the UAE.  When she showed me, I found some small transparent cups and was able to melt those, but I haven't done any since, so I am not sure where to get them.  I have seen some transparent cups at the dollar store but now sure if they are #6 or not.  I hope you can find some cups since this is such a cute project.  If you do find some cups, please let us know where you got them.  Thanks :)

Artists Collection

My wall is filled with end of the school year projects brought home this week. Munchkin is getting upset that her pictures got bumped.

I told her she just had to draw me a new one and we would tack it up.

Craft Fail...and Redemption

I was at the dollar store yesterday getting the last of the fillers for my summer bucket and I saw the t-shirts. I picked up 5 different colors for the boy. I thought it'd be funny to make him day of the week shirts. Since he wore the back one today, it became the Friday shirt. And since it was black I wanted to bleach the stencil on it. I got a little over zealous with the bleach and had to retouch the black with paint and sharpie! Oh well, he likes it!

But I redeemed myself with Wednesday's shirt.

Paint is easier than bleach today.

Only three more shirts to go.

Last Day Love For Teachers

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Hurrah for summer! We wanted to leave our teachers with some end of the school year love. I made them some M&M cookies and found this cute poem online.

Put a pretty ribbon on it and you're good to go! We have loved the kids' teachers this year. I am super sad that Thumbelina won't be able to have the boy's teacher next year since she is moving to a different school. And I knew how to be her room mom!! Happy Summer teachers!!

Summer Starts Tomorrow

We are homebound this summer since hubby is nearly out of vacation days. So I bought one of those giant buckets and filled it up with fun summer stuff for the kids to do.

We are also having theme days. One day we will go to the library, one day the pool, one day will be a cooking day. All of the kids will have a bit of schoolwork to do each day. Reading and math for the school kids. Beginning reading for Munchkin. We are making a reading chart for the summer where the kids can color the number of minutes they read each day to earn certain prizes at certain levels. I think the grand prize will be Lagoon at the end of the summer.

Hopefully, with this plan I will make it through the summer with my sanity!