Gingy

Gabi's kinder class is doing a unit all about Gingerbread.  They are reading different stories about the gingerbread man (girl, baby, friends, etc) and comparing and contrasting the stories.  They will be culminating their unit with a gingerbread house holiday party in the classroom on the last day of school.  Apparently, they even go on a gingerbread man hunt all around the school.  It is so cute!  This week the whole family was given the assignment to make a paper gingerbread person.  This is what we came up with.

"Gingy"

Gabi says that gingerbread people have a sad life because they are chased by people who want to eat them all the time. So, we decided to make "Gingy" a baker so she can give all those hungry people cookies instead of being eaten herself.

b-ball

Yep, that's my lil dude in orange playing basketball! He had his first practice last night and loved it. He's on a team with 7 other classmates, and a few boys from some other area schools. There team is called POWER!

That's E in the background being a goof!

Muffin Tin Monday

I saw this idea online a few years ago and started religiously pulling out the ol' muffin pans each Monday with my kids to change up lunch for them once a week.  Now that my older two are at school during the day, I make their lunches in these cool bento style lunchboxes.  But, Luci still gets Muffin Tin Monday!  We look forward to it after story time at the library each Monday.  Here is what she had for lunch today!  We really do live it up at lunchtime, right?!?

Water, cashews, pears, natural fruit roll, turkey and cheese on Dave's Killer Good Seed, and some English cucumbers! 

Family.......

Movie Night, that is.  The last few years, we have been having Family Movie Night almost every Sunday night during the school year. Tonight is no different, and we are watching Santa Claus 2!  We have never seen any of the this trilogy, but so far, it is pretty cute and free on Netflix streaming.  The kids are happy with their popcorn too.

craft time

I don't know about you, but I joined Pinterest a few weeks ago, and have been so inspired by all the ideas on there. I've tried a couple crafts already. One, I'm not going to give away, as I've made it as a gift for several people this Christmas. The other is something I put together for my kids this weekend, especially Luci. I found the idea on Pinterest like I said, but the actual project can be found here. I added my own embellishments to the ornaments and found other patterns on line too. This is what I made......  A Felt Christmas Tree with ornaments and alphabet garland!  The kids can take the pieces off as they please and reassemble the tree to their decorating preference.  Fun huh?
My favorite ornaments are the birds. 

Mostly no sewing project, only the button embellishments needed stitches.  Other than that, i used Heat N' Bond.

O' Christmas Tree!

I put the tree on the wall near one of our staircase landings.  It is so fun to round the stairwell and see the bright colors on the wall.  I'm a bright color junkie!  Just like the bright colors of my Fiestaware plates/etc, it makes me cheerful. 

Curly Top

Last night after bath, Gabi wanted me to put sponge rollers in her hair. We've tried it in the past and it hasn't produced much curl, but I went ahead and decided to put them in her wet hair last night. I then blow dried each curler a little. I thought for sure the rollers would start to bug her, but sure enough after I got home from small group, she was asleep with all those little blue sponges in her hair. With great anticipation this morning, we unrolled each curler and revealed to our surprise.......a curly top! We probably could even classify it as a FRO! Gabi wasn't so sure of it at first as you can tell in this picture......

But as soon as I put a headband in her hair and smoothed the curls a little bit (she actually told me to STOP smoothing them out), she was confident with her new hair doo.  She said, "I'm just like Annie!"  We roll played a bit before school about what to do if someone made a comment about not liking her hair, and she seemed willing to take the risk.  I'm glad we talked though because the first comment she received from a little boy in her classroom was, "you've got silly hair!"  Gabi knew it was half silly, and half cute anyway, and she wore it with pride.  Here she is before school.

Around their advent house.  p.s.  Yes, that is green electrical tape around G's glasses.  They broke last week and we are waiting for the new frames to get in.  

So, I was curious to see how long these curls would last....I didn't expect ALL DAY! Her hair looked great after school, still curly, but more tame. It was fun to change things up for the day, and now she wants me to put curlers in her hair EVERY NIGHT! I'm not so sure about that. :)

Enjoying our peppermint ice cream cones tonight after dinner.  Brother was at a friend's house. 

Still so pretty at 7!

First Day of December

My children hopped out of bed this morning because they knew that the first day of December brings the start of several fun seasonal traditions in our house.  In December, we anticipate Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Jesus in a couple different ways.  The kids made paper chains to tear off each day as they count down the days until Christmas.  We also have an Advent House with 25 little drawers.  The kids find nativity ornaments to hang on a tiny tree on some days, candies, and little notes that surprise them with hot chocolate in the morning, or special small surprises (Christmas coloring books, pez despensers, stickers, etc).  They love this!  We also listen to The Cinnamon Bear radio story that I grew up listening to.  A new tradition we have started this year is doing the Advent Wreath each evening as a family.  We read scripture, light a candle, pray, and sing a Christmas carol with eachother.  We are hoping that we can all focus on the true meaning of Christmas each night as we lead up to this special time of year.