Up-close, chores, & sillies

 Testing out the small portion of our park that has been completed. (renovated)...catching some rays....but still cold.

 A daily morning activity: making Mom & Dad's coffee. Lu adds the sugar cubes. Micah adds the flavored syrups. They both get to stir. And Mom & Dad get yummy coffee during our Bible study time.

 Lu and Dolly in their matching PJs - thanks Grandma Ginny! (And a monkey hat - because, why not?)

 Moo showing Lu videos of themselves - they must be pretty funny.

 And - our little Lu - reading a book about construction trucks while wearing a fairy dress and babysitting her baby who is learning to use the potty.

Yummy packages!

 Wow - we keep getting blessed by our family! Check out the looks on these happy fruit-snack-filled smiles! Thanks Grandpa Mike! Yum!

 Check out the kids' latest dress-up additions...super Lu and super Moo to the rescue! Thanks Grandma Jane! Also - check out Lu's crazy hair. It is growing...seemingly around her head and not from her head....or straight out...I don't even know. I think her sleepy hair twiddling is causing the stuff on top to grow. Wild woman!

Applesauce, football, & seasons

 Moo is delighted with our apple peeler, slicer, corer. All of the sudden, he wants to make applesauce every week! Thanks Aunt Sara & Uncle Tim! Moo will be ecstatic when we get to visit GranBon again for her famous applesauce.

  

Cooking and dish-washing has become much more exciting with our new aprons from Grandma Jane! "I want to help Mom!" Music to a momma's ears.

Lu getting some touch football practice in "under-the-lights".

 And the other side of Lu - dresses and fairy wings.

 Moo has been asking about Sunday school every day of the week, so we made a calendar for his door. He knows when holidays or friends are coming and when Sunday School ("my favorite!!!") is coming. Lu likes to draw on the wall under the calendar, so I have to remember to put some blank paper down there too....otherwise brother will be all out of sorts if his calendar gets drawn on by sis!

Lazy Winter Dayz

One of my loves: capturing my kids in little corners of the house reading. I hope they always have that love of discovering the world through books.

One of my other loves...seeing my hubby play with our kids' toys while they read books. Just kidding. He is busy constructing the best train map ever for when those kids get tired of reading.

 Dress up time! Typically Moo likes to sell us all the jewelry and Lu and I wear it. Today he wanted in on the action. I'm sure all the train conductors are this stylish.

 I have no idea why, but both kids love playing behind their play kitchen. I think it is like working at a restaurant. We finally turned it sideways so they could both "cook". They got busy right away.

 Two minutes alone...that's it! I have no idea how she even did this.

 Moo was definitely busy driving Thomas through play doh roads. He is not responsible for his sister's wild antics.

 A sweet moment showing doggy and baby doll all the cars driving by.

Snow Day!!

We finally got our three days of snow! We only remembered the camera for the first day of light snow, but we didn't forget the hot chocolate after each snow adventure! Moo was ecstatic for every snow activity. Lu was less than thrilled to wear boots, to get her face cold, to touch snow, to be outside....    and then she found her own snowman buffet bar, and she was in heaven....for about 3 minutes.....then it was back to "care-me!" back home for hot cocoa.

Happy Birthday Rick!

Well, our oven has become rather tricky....so Rick's cake turned out half the height it would have been had the oven baked the entire cake. As it were, I got to eat cake batter, batter-y cake, and cake-y cake! There was still more than enough to go around. Moo helped decorate with the gummy sea creatures on top. And he wants to know when the next birthday is.

Finishing 2012 with a bang

With just a week left in 2012 and a million items on my pinterest bucket list, we set out to finish the advent season with as much forced family fun as we could muster. We started off by getting around to making those ginger bread houses. First Mom and Moo took a trip to the neighborhood store and filled our bag with cookies, candies, and other delightful treats. Then Dad read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett while Mom madly beat that feisty frosting for the requisite 7-10 minutes. Then Mom gave one house to Moo and one to Dad so that Dad would not insist that Moo's walls met at perfect 90 degree angles and other such grown-up nuisances. Moo was excited to simply have a train on his. He filled his front yard with gummy bears and took the time to put a few on the roof of his palace/cathedral. Dad's was symmetrical and lovely. Mom just tried to use up all the rest of the candy and frosting so that "none should go to waste".  We've spent the past few days being knocked out by the intoxicating fumes (aroma?) of gingerbread candy and frosting. When do we get to eat them?  

Oh, and Lu was content to just suck on all of the candy through the wrappers. She chewed all the bubblegum through the plastic and sucked on 3 candy canes through the plastic. Perhaps next year she'll make a house.  
 Our final products:

Our New Year's Day adventure was to go see the windows down our version of Michigan Avenue. Our first stop was Vakko - this department store puts fake snow on all their trees and building and then has "snow" (bubbles) come out of a snow machine on the roof to delight all the passers-by. We have only had one snow day this year...so this may be the closest we get to enjoying a "winter wonderland".

 We proceeded up the road to one magical window with rotating snowflakes and snowmen. A telephone store had these cool light-up deer and snowmen. And that was the extent of the decorations....as well as the moment the fruit snacks ran out and the kids declared it was time to go home for dinner.