Today Addison turned five-years-old! I really can't quite believe that she's five already (or, that I actually have a five-year-old!)
Addison was very pleased that it was her birthday & told anyone she could. No harm in that, it even earned her a package of cupcakes!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
They're gone!
Most all hints of yellow & gold are now shoved into a rubbermaid bin to be stored in the attic until next year.
The girls are thrilled with the Christmas decorations, especially the nativities & advent calendar. I'm really looking forward to starting some Christmas crafts with them, including cookie baking!
I'm also really glad we're on our break from class meetings now. I love the meetings, but, it does take a lot of work. I'll admit it's really nice not spending my Monday nights with last minute lesson planning & loading up the van! (not to mention the early Tuesday mornings!) Of course, we're still doing all of our school work at home, but, the way Classical Conversations works is that we meet for 24 weeks out of the year & go over new material. I love love LOVE that we get the busy holiday season off to just focus on everything at home!
Our science project for this past quarter was to put together the parts of a human body. Each week we learned different parts & the kids colored them. At the end of the six weeks we assembled the bodies on outlines of the kids bodies (we traced each of them onto a big roll of paper).
Let's just say it was a LOT. OF. WORK.
It was an awesome project & I loved it, but, truth be told, I'd have a very difficult time getting myself to do something like this with the kids if we were doing it on our own at home (maybe I feel that way just because they're still so young?) Addison was on her hunting trip with Ray during our final week of class so she & I assembled her body on Thanksgiving.
By the time I did this with Addison it was my third time assembling one of these & it was a breeze! I did one of myself to show my students & then helped my students put theirs together. I'm much more familiar with human anatomy now than I was six weeks ago!
If anyone wants to take on this project at home we used the My Body book. All of the body parts with instructions for the layout are in the book so that you can photocopy them as needed.
The girls are thrilled with the Christmas decorations, especially the nativities & advent calendar. I'm really looking forward to starting some Christmas crafts with them, including cookie baking!
I'm also really glad we're on our break from class meetings now. I love the meetings, but, it does take a lot of work. I'll admit it's really nice not spending my Monday nights with last minute lesson planning & loading up the van! (not to mention the early Tuesday mornings!) Of course, we're still doing all of our school work at home, but, the way Classical Conversations works is that we meet for 24 weeks out of the year & go over new material. I love love LOVE that we get the busy holiday season off to just focus on everything at home!
Our science project for this past quarter was to put together the parts of a human body. Each week we learned different parts & the kids colored them. At the end of the six weeks we assembled the bodies on outlines of the kids bodies (we traced each of them onto a big roll of paper).
Let's just say it was a LOT. OF. WORK.
It was an awesome project & I loved it, but, truth be told, I'd have a very difficult time getting myself to do something like this with the kids if we were doing it on our own at home (maybe I feel that way just because they're still so young?) Addison was on her hunting trip with Ray during our final week of class so she & I assembled her body on Thanksgiving.
By the time I did this with Addison it was my third time assembling one of these & it was a breeze! I did one of myself to show my students & then helped my students put theirs together. I'm much more familiar with human anatomy now than I was six weeks ago!
If anyone wants to take on this project at home we used the My Body book. All of the body parts with instructions for the layout are in the book so that you can photocopy them as needed.
Monday, November 28, 2011
It Looks Like October Threw Up On My Buffet
I like to take the weekend after Thanksgiving to put up my Christmas decorations, but, I just couldn't get the mojo up to do it this time.
Instead I finally went into the attic this morning & pulled down the bins of Christmas decorations & gathered up all of the Autumn decor & piled it on the buffet table. I bought some much longed for Autumn decor this year (those huge over-priced pumpkins! more garland!) when they were 50-60% off at Michael's plus an extra 25% off with a coupon. I could finally justify the purchase when they were that inexpensive! Now, I need a new larger bin to store everything in.
So, tonight, October is still resting on the buffet.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
6:00 pm
The past few days have been wonderful for family time. Ray automatically had off of work with the city and this was also our holiday off with our job making reservations.
It was truly nice to take our time & just be. There was an elevated level of patience in our home and it was quite relaxing. You see, for the past several years, most of our days are scheduled around 6:00pm. At 6:00 either Ray or I will get on the phones in the back office and take calls until midnight. The job requires silence in the rest of the house or we can get in trouble with our supervisors - which also adds to the stress, especially when the kids have meltdowns before bed time.
Beginning work at 6 also means a very early dinner for all of us. It also means we don't make plans with anyone or go out to any events together. I'm not trying to sound depressing or down or anything, we've just had to grow quite accustomed to planning our days so that they wrap up by 6.
Which, honestly, it now feels very strange when we have a "free" day when we don't have to be at home & in the office by 6 in the evening.
Yesterday was just such a day & we took some time in the morning to go to the park together. Kate had just discovered this hat &, despite the warm weather, insisted on wearing it.
Addison & Ray played "follow the leader" with Addison as the leader. I don't know where she gets some of these poses!
The girls were not too keen o the lizard that Ray caught. Clay, being a typical boy, had no qualms about trying to grab it in Ray's hand.
Later in the day we all went to Target so that the girls could get a special birthday drink from Starbucks. They thought they were hot stuff walking around with their own whipped cream topped drinks!
And, then, as the magical six o'clock hour rolled around we didn't have to go home, but, instead, went to the mall to watch the Christmas tree light & music show. Luxurious!
If you look really closely in this photo you might be able to see "snow." Yes, even though it was 79 degrees outside, we will make it snow! The funny thing is that all of us Floridians totally love it and the crowd "oohs" & "aahs."
Once at home we put the kids to bed and had one of our eat-junk-food-&-watch-a-movie date nights. In this case, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep on the sofa at 9!
Tonight it was back to the early dinner, make coffee, get Clay to bed & start work at 6:00 routine. I'm really ready for us to have flexible evenings not solely dedicated to work, but there's a part of me that thinks it will take a bit of adjustment to get used to that freedom & new routine when the day comes.
It was truly nice to take our time & just be. There was an elevated level of patience in our home and it was quite relaxing. You see, for the past several years, most of our days are scheduled around 6:00pm. At 6:00 either Ray or I will get on the phones in the back office and take calls until midnight. The job requires silence in the rest of the house or we can get in trouble with our supervisors - which also adds to the stress, especially when the kids have meltdowns before bed time.
Beginning work at 6 also means a very early dinner for all of us. It also means we don't make plans with anyone or go out to any events together. I'm not trying to sound depressing or down or anything, we've just had to grow quite accustomed to planning our days so that they wrap up by 6.
Which, honestly, it now feels very strange when we have a "free" day when we don't have to be at home & in the office by 6 in the evening.
Yesterday was just such a day & we took some time in the morning to go to the park together. Kate had just discovered this hat &, despite the warm weather, insisted on wearing it.
Addison & Ray played "follow the leader" with Addison as the leader. I don't know where she gets some of these poses!
The girls were not too keen o the lizard that Ray caught. Clay, being a typical boy, had no qualms about trying to grab it in Ray's hand.
Later in the day we all went to Target so that the girls could get a special birthday drink from Starbucks. They thought they were hot stuff walking around with their own whipped cream topped drinks!
And, then, as the magical six o'clock hour rolled around we didn't have to go home, but, instead, went to the mall to watch the Christmas tree light & music show. Luxurious!
If you look really closely in this photo you might be able to see "snow." Yes, even though it was 79 degrees outside, we will make it snow! The funny thing is that all of us Floridians totally love it and the crowd "oohs" & "aahs."
Once at home we put the kids to bed and had one of our eat-junk-food-&-watch-a-movie date nights. In this case, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep on the sofa at 9!
Tonight it was back to the early dinner, make coffee, get Clay to bed & start work at 6:00 routine. I'm really ready for us to have flexible evenings not solely dedicated to work, but there's a part of me that thinks it will take a bit of adjustment to get used to that freedom & new routine when the day comes.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Chocolate and Pumpkin
Yesterday was a most delightful Thanksgiving for our family. Gone was the rush of trying to get to every place we had to be on time. Instead, the night before I made us this delicious Kringle to eat for breakfast & in the morning I also made some pigs in a blanket (yes, me. There's a first time for everything!)
We spent the morning with the parade on, probably actually watching more of it than I have in the past several years combined. Addison really loved the Broadway numbers (always my favorite part) & especially loved to dance along with the Rockettes.
In the early afternoon Ray took all of the kids to see his dad's family while I finished getting things ready around the house. His mom's side of the family began to arrive around 4pm. I made us french bread & fondue in a cute little sugar pumpkin for an appetizer. (I must've scraped out too much of the pulp & ended up with a tiny hole in the bottom of the pumpkin!)
The girls & I also made these adorable little acorn treats for everyone. Cute & yummy!
I totally had fun dressing the table for dinner. I used an idea I saw in Real Simple magazine for kumquat place cards. How cute are these?
It wasn't until dinner was over & I was looking at the photos that I even noticed the kumquats & napkins matched the tablecloth & table runner. It just worked out that way!
Our crowd was super small this year so we had enough space for the adults at the "fancy" table & for the kids to have their own coloring table.
I was really hoping for our family to get a nice enough photo for "Christmas card" quality, but, by the time we were all dressed & ready it was dark & the lighting was horrible.
Even with the lighting I was happy to get a new photo with a portion of Ray's mom's side of the family (it's near impossible to get everyone together so this will have to do for now)
We ended the night by sending up another floating lantern. It was less windy this time & the lantern actually went up more above us rather than flying off towards the woods as it did at the birthday party. Beautiful! Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!
We spent the morning with the parade on, probably actually watching more of it than I have in the past several years combined. Addison really loved the Broadway numbers (always my favorite part) & especially loved to dance along with the Rockettes.
In the early afternoon Ray took all of the kids to see his dad's family while I finished getting things ready around the house. His mom's side of the family began to arrive around 4pm. I made us french bread & fondue in a cute little sugar pumpkin for an appetizer. (I must've scraped out too much of the pulp & ended up with a tiny hole in the bottom of the pumpkin!)
The girls & I also made these adorable little acorn treats for everyone. Cute & yummy!
I totally had fun dressing the table for dinner. I used an idea I saw in Real Simple magazine for kumquat place cards. How cute are these?
It wasn't until dinner was over & I was looking at the photos that I even noticed the kumquats & napkins matched the tablecloth & table runner. It just worked out that way!
Our crowd was super small this year so we had enough space for the adults at the "fancy" table & for the kids to have their own coloring table.
I was really hoping for our family to get a nice enough photo for "Christmas card" quality, but, by the time we were all dressed & ready it was dark & the lighting was horrible.
Even with the lighting I was happy to get a new photo with a portion of Ray's mom's side of the family (it's near impossible to get everyone together so this will have to do for now)
We ended the night by sending up another floating lantern. It was less windy this time & the lantern actually went up more above us rather than flying off towards the woods as it did at the birthday party. Beautiful! Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
This is the Thanksgiving song that Ray taught to Addison. Ray's grandmother taught it to him & she learned it when she was in kindergarten! It's so cute!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Yikes!
The other night I minimized my browser only to see a huge MOVING picture of me!
I forgot I had opened iphoto earlier. Actually, I forgot I even had iphoto on here, I know the kids would love to play with it!
I forgot I had opened iphoto earlier. Actually, I forgot I even had iphoto on here, I know the kids would love to play with it!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
The (almost) Ultimate Tangled Birthday Party!
Looking for more? The blog has moved here.
All of the banners at the party are available for sale in my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/115280862/tangled-sun-banners-birthday-party
I must say, I'm really pleased with how the party turned out overall. There are some things I wish I could've done differently (I had planned on using twinkle lights and on making a tower birthday cake, just to name a couple).
However, let's focus more on what did work. I really loved all of the felt banners. I made six pennant banners plus two large rectangular banners hanging on either side of the window in the back of the house & two small rectangular banners over the party favor table. It was really feeling to me like I was in Rapunzel's village, I loved it!
(Here is the link to the sun design I printed & cut out)
After passing under some of the banners you entered the family room where I hung 12 paper lanterns from the ceiling. The best part? They lit up! It was so pretty at night. (Courtesy of my mom and the Dollar Tree! Also inexpensive at the Dollar Tree? Batteries!)
The present table and arts/crafts table. I bought the black-scratch off papers (4 for $1 at Target!) for the kids to draw on (yes, Rapunzel liked to paint, but, over half of my crowd was under 5, they weren't going to painting inside the house!) I remember making these with my mom when we were little. We'd use all different colors on the paper, paint over the colors with black paint & patiently wait for it to dry so we could make our designs. Oh, how things have changed...
Our oldest party guest (9-years-old) created a Flynn Rider wanted poster! I was so impressed!
Speaking of which, the village wouldn't be complete without the wanted posters hanging everywhere!
My darling birthday girls in front of Rapunzel's tower. The kids loved playing with the yarn braid! The tower was supposed to be made of cardboard with a window cut out so the kids could get their picture taken "inside" the tower, but, I couldn't get my hands on a big enough cardboard box.
You want to know something? I completely forgot about a tablescape for this party! I love to tablescape but I was so caught up in the banners & lanterns that I forgot! So, I quickly threw together the birthday banner & used on of the purple tablecloths to hang up. I know, it looks kind of sad! I made one of those tissue paper pom-poms to hang up but I didn't have enough yellow tissue paper on hand to pull it off. I did use my cast iron skillets for the food!
Of course, I've already blogged about the pinata.
The favors turned out nice, too. I used lavender & yellow paper I already had on hand & printed out a thank you massage & then cut the sun design around it. The message was tied to the watercolors with a purple ribbon.
The two thing Kate kept asking for her birthday were chips & cake. My parents gave her a huge bag of chips & a bag of pretzels. Kate was so happy that she hugged them!
My sister, Megan, made this lovely painting for the girls:
This was Addison's face when she saw the painting (she also keeps trying to carry it around the house with her!):
Now, the cake. Cakes are the thorn in my birthday party side. I don't enjoy making them so I've never perfected the art. Now, there are some seriously amazing Rapunzel tower birthday cakes out there. I had planned to try to attempt one. I didn't get around to it so the day before the party I thought I'd just make cupcakes so I also made the little cupcake toppers to go on top. Instead, I did something I've never ever done & I bought a cake. Not even anything special. It was the one that was "Decorators choice" left at the bakery at 8:30 at night. And, you know what? Addison loved it so much she was still thanking me for the cake a day later!
And, a Tangled party wouldn't be complete without REAL floating lanterns! (I searched high and low & the best price/quality I could find were these on amazon. 12 for only $22, including shipping! Ordered on Saturday, arrived on Monday)
Now, I checked the wind on weather.com before we set this off & I really think it was wrong because that lantern blew around a lot more than I was comfortable with. It was so windy that we only set off one lantern. It was still really cool, though!
I know the girls had fun at the party and so did I! (I also know I looked online a LOT for party ideas so I hope this will help anyone else searching for ideas, too!)
Sunday, November 20, 2011
The Pinata
Looking for more? The blog has moved here.
All of the banners at the party are available for sale in my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/115280862/tangled-sun-banners-birthday-party
Full party details can be found here
So, I had every intention of getting some good photos and descriptions up from the party today. Instead we had Christmas play practice after church today, when we got home I went grocery/Thanksgiving shopping & then we had sing night at church tonight followed by fellowship & snacks.
All of that equals another long & tiring day.
However, I will show you the pinata. Ta da! The Tangled Tower Pinata (made out of cereal boxes, hot glue & tissue paper)
Honestly, I was really pleased with the results. I was also quite paranoid that it would bust right away or that it would fall apart just from the weight of the candy inside. Thank the Lord it held up so that all of the kids were able to give it a try! Such fun!
The older girls got my girls into dress-up clothes, hence Kate's pirate's outfit. Kate was also nervous about the pinata & started to pick her nose (she also decided to just watch everyone else swing at the pinata!)
The candy was a big hit, though - it also gave me a way to get rid of a bunch of our Halloween candy!!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Best Day Ever!
Maybe not best day ever, but, the party turned out fine. It also wore us out & Ray & I both fell asleep on the sofa tonight while catching up on "The Office." Pictures later!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Tangled Party Sneak Preview
Looking for more? The blog has moved here.
All of the banners at the party are available for sale in my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/115280862/tangled-sun-banners-birthday-party
Full party details can be found here
I never got around to taking photos of the pinata today so instead you get a glimpse of the invitations.
And, because some of have wondered, yes, I did braid the yarn for each invitation.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Addictive
You must go play this game! It's so fun & oh-so-addictive.
I find it so addictive that I tried playing while making reservations. It's back-to-back on the phone tonight so I was only able to get to level twelve while switching between the two computers (I even managed to accurately type in a credit card number on the work computer while playing the game on this one).
Am I a total nerd to find this game so much fun?!
I find it so addictive that I tried playing while making reservations. It's back-to-back on the phone tonight so I was only able to get to level twelve while switching between the two computers (I even managed to accurately type in a credit card number on the work computer while playing the game on this one).
Am I a total nerd to find this game so much fun?!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Home
I drove home from Orlando with Kate & Clay this afternoon, affording time to finish lesson planning for our last class of the semester tomorrow.
Ray & Addison spent Saturday & Sunday canoeing down a river or something with a group of 19 people from Ray's office (they camped along the river, too!) & then Sunday afternoon Ray's dad picked the two of them up & they all drove to Tennessee for a hunting trip!
I'm loving that the house is a little quieter for a few days. I also love that I don't have to cook while Ray & Addison are away! This is like a little vacation for me!
Ray & Addison spent Saturday & Sunday canoeing down a river or something with a group of 19 people from Ray's office (they camped along the river, too!) & then Sunday afternoon Ray's dad picked the two of them up & they all drove to Tennessee for a hunting trip!
I'm loving that the house is a little quieter for a few days. I also love that I don't have to cook while Ray & Addison are away! This is like a little vacation for me!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Baby Meltdown
I drove to Orlando with Kate & Clay this morning. The cousins are having fun playing with each other, but, the boys did enter meltdown mode this afternoon:
Friday, November 11, 2011
Favorite
I made us one of my favorite meals for dinner last night: Carrabbas Chicken Bryan and Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
Just thinking about it makes me want more!
Just thinking about it makes me want more!
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