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.  :)