Final Magnetic Boards...for now...

Here are the last of the magnetic boards I made.  These were Christmas gifts to friends.  Now that they have been delivered I can post the pictures.  :)  I had also made one with a sky background and used angels as the magnets but I don't have a picture of that one.

Christmas Party

So much fun at E's Christmas party!  There was lots of food, lots of friends and LOTS of laughing!  What a great way to start the break.


Decorating cookies was a hit.




Pass the reindeer (like hot potato) brought our the most giggles.




Snowball race (boys vs. girls) was so much fun.  Isn't she a cutie?!!!



Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We gave the kids one of their presents first thing after breakfast this morning.  P and I spent the evening putting together the train table and accessories.  It was a hit!  All the kids had fun playing with it but the 2 yr. old played for over 2 hours straight!  (Notice in the video K discovered the green engine and quickly claimed "my choo-choo!"  I see many more hours of fun ahead.  Thanks Grandmother, Neicy and Aunt Leah!!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yummmeee!!!  We made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins and they are FABULOUS!  They are so good that I put them in the freezer after they cooled to keep from eating them all.  I did leave out two dozen for the kids to munch on and for DH to try when he gets home.  (Hope he hurries or he'll have to thaw one from the freezer.)  You'll have to make these and let me know what you think.  I love chocolate so that pretty much gives the recipe a thumbs up from me.

My DD liked these much better than the Pumpkin spice bread we made.  She didn't like the smell of the spices so she already had her mind made up before she took a bite.  The boys are pretty easy and like just about everything.  I imagine they will devour these muffins!

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Remember all that pumpkin puree I made?  Well, I think I have an addiction.  I have since made seven more cups.  Today at the store I saw the pie pumpkins on sale 2/$1.  I thought we must try a real pie pumpkin!  We ended up with 3 cups out of those two.  So we made Spiced Pumpkin Bread to hand out as gifts to more friends and neighbors.  The house smells delicious.  I'll update on the taste later when my little eaters get to try it out.

Someone please tell me to stop with the pumpkins!  I need to go back to the store to get some cooking oil and I'm afraid I'll come home with the rest of the pumpkins!!!

First Snow!

The first snow of the season was on E's last day of school.  She couldn't wait to get home to play in it.  We learned that we need to get some snow gear for the kiddos before the next snowfall!  Wet pants make for a short playtime in the snow.



K making a snow angel.



C did NOT like the cold snow.  It probably didn't help that the snow was all in his shoe!







Remember the Manger

Our DD's Christmas program was called Camel Lot.  It was cute.  Her class made up to be some pretty interesting camels. 

The girls were all princess camels and the boys ranged anywhere from a dr. to a football player.  She loved it and had so much fun.  I loved watching her sing and dance.

Aren't they cute?  Merry Christmas and remember to visit the manger!

Snowman Jars

Here was a fun project with the DD.  I had these snowmen jars from YEARS ago. 

I bought them at one of the dollar stores and these were the left overs that I didn't give out.  We filled them with Chocolate Cookie Dough Mix and then added snowman tags with directions on how to make on the back.  There was flour and sugar all over the kitchen by the time my sweet daughter filled the jars but she had fun and got to learn about measuring in the process.  To make the tags we used one of our few stamps.

We used the versamark pad and then colored with chalk since we are still waiting on adding markers to our craft collection.   I think DD's came out cute as well.  She was so excited.  She said she had never colored with chalk before.  I kept thinking about all the times we drew outside with sidewalk chalk.  Guess that is totally different in her mind.

Notice the embossing on her cards.  EVERYTHING gets embossed with her around.  :)

Grinch Pills

I was browsing craft blogs this weekend and came away with so many things I want to make.  I know, I still have a list of gifts to finish but my list just grew.  Anyway, these Grinch pills at CG Cards were too cute! (Cheryl even included the downloads and the cut file if you own a Gypsy.)  I knew I had to get some made before the family gathering.  You know you love family but sometimes it'd be nice if you could pass out "happy pills."  I thought these would be a good ice breaker for any tense moments that may arise.  I'm sure my DD will be the first to ask if she needs to get someone a Grinch pill.

Two more boards...

These magnetic boards are so quick to make!  The hardest part is... you guessed it... picking paper!  I don't have a huge ribbon stash to select from and the closest craft store is 1.5 hours away.  So that really narrows down my choices. 

If you are looking for an inexpensive gift idea these are it!  Thanks again to greenbean'scrafterole for the idea!

Christmas Story Placecards

Today our mom's group met and made the Christmas Story on placecards.  We took the story of Jesus' birth and broke it down into smaller sections and divided them up onto 21 cards.  The idea is to have everyone read a card around the dinner table.  If you have a smaller group then people can read multiple cards.  Just a simple way to help keep the focus on Jesus this season.

Easy craft

We needed an easy craft so my 2 year old could play too.  Found these foam kits at Hobby Lobby and they are super simple.  All the kids had to do was peel and stick.  My son needed help getting the peeling started.  Great way to work on fine motor skills and sitting still.  Fun times.

Bookmarks

Today's craft was for all E's leaders at Sparks. 

She made them bookmarks.  Did I mention she loves the cuttlebug?  She was teaching her brother (who is 2) to use it. 

By the way she is only 5 but thinks she is much older.  Anyway we were able to get these made while the little C slept.

Many firsts...

Today was the first for many things crafting.  I made a card with my cricut machine!  I used the cuttlebug to add embossing and I entered my first two challenges! (mypinkstamper birthday challenge and  peachykeen challenge emboss it)  How fun!  But can I tell you just how slow I am at this?  What would be a quick card for most turned into a day long project. Trying to pick out paper was harder than I thought.  Every blog I view makes it looks so easy.  I now have an even bigger respect for all you crafters.  There are many tricks I still need to learn.  If I did the card over I'd cut the top of the cupcake slightly larger so there is no gap between cake and wrapper.  I would like to learn how to save paper by cutting only the image I need from each paper.  Anyway, lots to learn but there are also lots of talented people I can continue to stalk!

Here is my DD LOVING the cuttlebug.  She wanted to emboss ever piece of paper we had.  I finally had to put it away.  She made a get well card for her grandmother.

She did this herself.  I helped with measuring
and cutting.  The rest is all her!  So proud!

Magnetic Board

I FINALLY got to craft today!!!  Un.be.liev.able!  I only managed to make one of the teacher gifts so far but it is a start.  I still have two weeks to make the rest.  This one was a test to see how long it would take.  Unfortunately I broke my Round-it-all on its first time out of the package.  Glad it says Lifetime Warranty.  Hope the company will replace it.  Just a heads up.  It does NOT like to cut ribbon on projects.  The ribbon wedges itself in and jams it.  I know, I know.  You probably already knew that but the box said "round anything and everything" so I thought I was good to go.  Sad day when toys get broken - especially brand new ones!  Anyway, here is the first of the teacher gifts.  It is not my brilliant idea.  I saw these cute boards when browsing greenbean's crafterole's blog.  (She saw them from chic 'n scratch)  So cute and simple to make!  I had trouble finding the galvenized step flashing.  Chic 'n scratch said she found it at Lowe's already in the 5x7 size but ours only carried the roll.  Thankfully I was at my parents' house for the holidays so I used dad's handy cutter and decided to make mine a tad bigger - 6x8 - because I could.  :)

The teacher's daughter attends A&M

UPDATE:  Woo-Hoo!!!  The Round-it-all is fixed and in business again.  Amazing what a little brute strength and a butter knife can do.  ;)

New Tradition

What do you do with decorative pumpkins once the season is over?  Start a new family tradition of making pumpkin puree!  E and I tested out our abilities at making pumpkin puree while the boys napped.  She was cute.  Touching the inside of the pumpkin was "yuck" to quote her. 

After our success with her small pumpkin we decided to try our hand with the Cinderella pumpkin.  The boys were up by this time so she wanted to make sure they got to touch the goo.  K's response was the same he heard his sister say... "YUCK."  I thought the Cinderella pumpkin was very pretty on the pan. 

The process is really quite simple and I do love pumpkin pie made with fresh pumpkin!  I'm not sure how many cups of puree we'll end up with when this is over but I see lots of pumpkin recipes in our future.  :)

UPDATE: The final count was 12 cups.  If we had a bigger freezer we could have made more!  There is always next year.  I'm crossing my fingers for a stand-up deep freeze after we move.  We two growing boys we'll definately need to buy in bulk.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Parker's Rafting Trip

Parker was able to take a rafting trip while he was in Oregon.  He had a great time.  I am so glad he got the chance to catch some down time and do something fun on the weekend instead of always working or being stuck in a hotel room somewhere.

Veterans' Day Parade

E's school was in our town's Veterans' Day parade.  She was so excited she was going to ride in a float!  She was a little disappointed to find out the float was actually a trailer which she has ridden on numerous times.  The kids still had a great time waving flags and honoring all the men and women who have served Our Country.

Beautiful November Day

I keep thinking we are out of beautiful days to play outside and then God provides another one for us to enjoy.  We usually take a picnic meal to eat and then play until we drop. 

Trick or Treat

This year we dug in our dress up box again and found these goodies.  I love it when things are free.  One of these years I may have to spend money on costumes but so far we have found everything we need already in the house!

Tinkerbell was the final costume choice of the day.

What a cute pirate!

K would tell people thank you about three times.

Vaseline

Well, what a day!  Boy did I have a surprise when I got K up from his nap.  I had just changed his sheets that morning so of course a mess was sure to follow.  Little did I know how difficult to clean this mess would be.  In his room above his changing table was a shelf that had a basket of items I'd sometimes need with the baby.  After K kept climbing the table I moved it to the closet but the shelf remained and so did the basket of items.  Monkey K decided to climb his dresser and reach over to the shelf to retrieve the valuable basket of "goodies."  So evidently he enjoyed the beginning of his nap very well.  He opened the jar of vaseline and gave himself a new "do".  Have you ever tried getting vaseline out of hair?  Me either, and let me tell you - it is NOT easy.  I washed his hair three times with dish soap.  Not much help.  I covered his hair in cornstarch (google said to do it)  didn't help either. I skipped the idea of using whiskey since it said it'd burn...Maybe the whiskey was for the mom!  ;)

 I ran to the store and got Dawn dish soap and the ad is right... "Dawn takes grease out of your way!"  I ended up washing it 3 more times with Dawn just to get it squeaky clean.  He was not happy with all the hair washing but I didn't want everything in the house greasy.

Oh Kelman, I'm scared to see what you'll be into next...

Mickey's Rockin' Roadshow

I took the two older kiddos to see Mickey's Rockin' Roadshow.  They had a blast!  K had to keep moving so he wouldn't fall asleep since we had missed naptime to get there and he refused to nap in the van.  His favorite part of the show was bouncing with Tigger.  E's favorite part - I know this will be hard to believe - was getting to hear Cinderella's beautiful voice.  E decided she needed to wear her Cinderella dress to the show.  Check out her shoes!  It was a fun outing.  C wasn't left out.  He had a fun playdate at a friend's house.  :)





Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual family pumpkin patch trip!  It is my favorite tradition we have so far.  I love the colors in Autumn and the cooler weather.  This year Caleb was old enough to run through the corn maze with Ellaina and Kelman.  What a difference a year makes...

I can't wait until next year!  We'll have to find a new pumpkin patch...

Circus

Who would have thought that the circus would come to our little town?  It may have not been a three-ring circus but anything is better than nothing!  Besides, it is a three-ring circus at our house everyday.



E's class even got to go in the morning to watch the elephants set the tent up.  It was quite chilly that morning.  After waiting for an hour they finally went back to school without getting to see the elephants work.  They did get to walk around and look at all the animals though.  Setting up the tent was a lot of work!  I'm glad I wasn't on the team that had to use the sledgehammer.  The guys worked 3 on a spike and had a really good rhythm alternating hits with each other.  It was impressive to see.  I can't imagine having to set up the tent for a one day event and then take it all down just to drive to the next town and do it again the next day!  How tiring that must be!




The kids even got to ride an elephant.







K chose not to ride the camel.








K's favorite was the train!