Crazy Beautiful

We are now officially in what I call "yo-yo weather."

Exhibit A: last Thursday

Exhibits B & C: today


























Seriously! Yesterday, the last vestiges from this week's ice storm was waning away. This morning I could barely see outside our window for the snow plastered to the screen. Add in steady downfall for the better part of the day and crazy drifts caused by gusting winds. Then, it stopped. And the sun began to shine. February would not be February in these parts o' the woods without a crazy winter storm.

valentine party recap

I think the party turned out to be great fun for everyone, though around noon that day I was doubting my sanity at having about 14 children (plus adults) in the house but I'm so glad we did this. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to since it was a mad dash at the end to complete all the party preparations, but here's the overview.


Menu:

• Pizza
• Veggies and homemade dip (Reese peeled the carrots)
• Strawberry & banana fruit kabobs
• M&M cookies (I used a standard chocolate chip recipe but substituted the red, pink and white M&M's for chocolate chips, the boys helped with these)
• heart-shaped crisped rice treats (this so easy to do that I'll probably try this again. Also, I discovered brown rice cereal as a healthier option to the usual kind you see as it has no high fructose corn syrup or other sketch ingredients - just in case you want to boost the "nutrition" of these snacks ;) )
• heart press cookies made by Dave's mom

Gift bags:
I had some small white paper treat bags I had purchased a while ago so I had the kids color pictures on them and then fill them with a couple Dove heart chocolates, a stick of cinnamon gum and a little thank you message with scripture. I love finding simple projects the kids are able to help with, especially since this was meant to be their party.


Photo props:
I saw this cute idea on the Mac's blog and wanted to try it out. I ended up making them by downloading photos from Microsoft Clip Gallery (MCG) and after a little editing, they were ready to print, cut and put together. The only photo that wasn't from MCG was the bigger mustache which I got through Google images.
I printed them on white card stock and used wood glue to attach the popsicle sticks and bamboo skewers to the prop.

beautiful

beautiful sight:

(melted snow running down the gutters)

beautiful sound: trickling water seeping into the ground signaling a most-likely-temporary reprieve from the snow

beautiful thought: cabin fever days are coming to a close as we get more days like these outside


beautiful play:
















(jackets discarded, faces to the sun, first swing of the new year)

(Ben practicing his snow shoveling techniques - practice while you can, Ben!)


Beautiful day.

getting ready for valentine's day

I felt the desire to have a Valentine's Day party for the kids and our friends this year. Inspired in part I think, by many creative ideas I come across on other blogs. Like this one at "The Macs" blog. So as part of school the other day, I had the kids help create this garland as part of the party preparations (another school project was having them help create the evite invitation). It was a perfect activity since Brie and Reese can cut hearts and Luke likes to watch me sew, so I enlisted his help in feeding me the hearts. The kids were delighted with the results, especially knowing they directly contributed to the final product.

5: Luke's cast

Here's a picture of Luke with his cast. I was grateful when he finally got in on because he was playing around the house yesterday morning as he didn't have a broken bone. But I don't think he realizes this is a 6 week commitment because after he and Dave got home from the doctor yesterday afternoon, he said, "Daddy, we need to go back to the doctor to get this thing off!" Poor baby. Oh, and Dave sent me pictures of the appointment itself. Apparently Luke got tired of waiting and ended up falling asleep and continued to sleep through much of the casting!

you've got mail(boxes)

Today I had the kids make some mailboxes as part of schooling. This is partly in anticipation of Valentine's Day and partly as a ruse to encourage Brie and Reese to develop their writing and reading skills. My thought is to write notes to the kids and put them in their mail box and have them write back. I saw an idea like this in Family Fun magazine (GREAT magazine with a ton of ideas) and am finally ready to try it out.

Here's how we made the "boxes":


Started with a large oatmeal container

Got rid of the shiny paper. Provided crafters with assortment of multi-media art supplies and...

...voila!















Didn't Ben do an amazing job with his? The boy's got talent ;)

Now, the only question is where to put them (am hoping I can nail them to the wall, but not sure if Dave will go for it :) )

sledding adventure

On Thursday, Mom and I took the kids to a snow hill she's been wanting to visit ever since we first moved to the area (which is now 20+ years ago!!!). This coasting hill is more like a bunny hill on a ski slope for the distance you have to climb to the top, though it is a much gentler grade with a ton of bumps along the way to increase the fun quotient. I think Reese went down six or seven times to our four runs. Seriously, when that boy is determined there's no stopping him! Here are some pictures of our adventure:

Reese before his first run down the hill...check out how far away the bottom of the hill is!

You might want to click on this picture to open it to full screen view and check out the look on Reese's face as he heads down the hill for the first time.

Here Reese comes....

...and there he goes!

 The rest of the crew on our last run. See Ben enjoying a taste of the snow on his scarf?

 Ben and I enjoyed a few runs down on the baby toboggan. At first, he was a little unsure of the bumps but my encouraging shouts of "Yahoo" over every mogul helped to to relax and enjoy it! By the end he was laughing. :)

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snapshot of a year

 I thought it would be fun to capture this past year with just one picture dedicated to each month. So here you go...

 January: Like father, like son (ben LOVES Dave!)

 

February: Celebrating (Great) Nan T's 90th Birthday

March: I get the crazy idea for homeschooling to do one art project per day for March...didn't quite happen as I'd planned ;)
















April: Reese turns 5

May: enjoying Daddy pancakes on Sunday morning with what must have been almost the last of 2009's blueberries

June: Ben turns 1 (and a few days later cousin Jack is born)!

July: one of my favorite pictures from this year taken at the meeting point in NY where we went to get Hilary and the boys. A few days later Nan died on July 4 :( but she's with Jesus now so it's okay :)

August: Brie turns 7 - where did those years go?!

September: We go to Washington D.C., then Gettysburg with Dave, combining business with pleasure. Here the kids are groovin' to the "silly" music (aka the Anne of Green Gables musical)

October: Luke turns 4 and requests a solar system cake and which Dave creates for him

November: Okay, so this next picture didn't exactly happen in November, but it was close enough. And I couldn't resist including it. We planned a surprise party for Dave's mom's 70th birthday. Dave's brother Eddie, drove up from North Carolina, and, as you can probably tell, this was the icing on the surprise cake.

December: Ben's first really experience with snow (being tumbled face first off a sled several times earlier this year doesn't count : P )

And there you have it: a year filled with death (Nan T) and births (Jack and Caleb), milestone birthdays, memorable trips, tender moments and sweet memories of the everyday but never mundane. Goodbye 2010...may 2011 bring as much joy and grace to meet the challenges which come our way.

let it snow!

Since it was our last day of school yesterday before Christmas vacation (two glorious weeks!), I was going to do some fun, winter-themed crafts with the kids. Top of the list was making paper snowflakes. I had seen a tutorial in a blog I stumbled on a while ago, but failing to remember the address, I did a google search and found  this tutorial at marthastewart.com.

However, I discovered that this isn't exactly a craft for kids unless you use very thin paper (I used regular ol' white letter paper) as the folding method makes it kind of tough to cut into. I also discovered this a strangely addicting craft as I tried to find cutting methods to yield the most visually appealing results. At one point I felt like Edward Scissorhands when he was cutting hedges into topiary masterpieces...there was paper flying all over the room. The kids were delighted with the snowflake creations, so, thankfully, they did get some enjoyment out of it.

Here are some pics to show the fruits of my labors:

A wreath of snowflakes over our chaise (idea also from marthastewart.com)...

Just one of the area in the dining room where I added some flakes - there also are some above the window and doorway to the kitchen...

A few to adorn the mirror in the living room...

fav pics from the past few months

at Old Man Cave (above and below)

Headline: kids run wild on state capital grounds

at a favorite pit stop in new york - love this one of Joel and Reese

sittin' on top of the world. (and, yes, we remembered to take Reese off the roof of the car before we drove away)

love this one taken recently!

Snapshots of the Fair

Last Sunday we went to our favorite county fair. Though it's a bit of hike (especially if you get stuck in fair traffic like we did), it so worth it.

We were all anticipating the amazing milkshakes and other assorted fair food, plus the rides and exhibits. I'd love to be able to stay all day and take in more of the events and watch the grandstand events in the evening, but there's so much to see and do it'd be hard to figure out how to fit all that in too.

Here are some pics:

Brie enjoying a corn dog

Ben enjoying his first milkshake

Who will get the blue ribbon?

Me about to enjoy my candy apple. Yum!

Me, I mean, the boys enjoying a ride. Actually, Luke starting crying. He didn't like all the spinning. Reese on the other hand, wanted it to go faster.

Luke found a ride that was more his speed. For some reason, he was even nervous on the carousel this year, which surprised me since he loved it in the past.

Brie on the ferris wheel with Dad. Reese was overjoyed to discover "they let five-year-olds on it!" and rode with Mom.

Only 51 more weeks to go until next year's fair. Until then...