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.

Messin' Around

 I was having a bit of fun with Picasa photo fixes this week. So here are our cuteys.

 

 Moo - checkin' out his new Lego Radiator Springs.....in his mask from his school costume party.

Running out of megabytes...or something.

Blogger/google/the powers that be have told me that I am nearing the max on my space in cyber-space, and if I desire to keep sharing our lives freely with our family and friends, I'll need to start paying! Soooo, I'm trying to make all my holiday pictures as small as possible, and perhaps I will open a new google account and blog in 2013. :) That said, here is the whirlwind of our last couple weeks.

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated with several other families with a delicious meal, fun gift exchange, ornament making for the kids (with a little help from the moms), and all-around good time. Our kids were so enamored to see different toys, that they busily checked out all that was available and then Lu promptly collapsed on the couch.  Both kids loved the trampoline too!

Unfortunately, between a December birthday and Christmas, Moo has become totally aware of what all is out there in that big world. What do I get to open now? Why is it that they put pictures of other toys on the boxes of the toys you've just received? And in the back of books? Poor Lu was simply overwhelmed with all the Christmas blessings she received Christmas morning, so I think next year we'll try to spread out the gift opening over a few weekends. Or maybe she'll get used to it by then. Yikes.Thankfully Moo was just as excited to help other people open their gifts as he was to receive his own. May that continue.

Christmas weekend, we went to a parade - the first ever in our city. Most people here don't know that Christmas is celebrated on the 25th. They have combined the traditions they have seen in movies and on TV of Thanksgiving and Christmas and celebrate it all on New Year's! It is quite common to have  a big turkey dinner and a visit from Santa on New Year's Eve. We were excited to participate in a parade on the  22nd that concluded with a carol sing and a few local pastors telling about the true reason for Christmas. It was a bit cold for the kids, but a joyous celebration.

We went to a candlelight service at our church on Sunday with a delicious meal after for 200+ local believers and foreigners. On Christmas Eve we went to the church that we attended our first year here (closer to our old house) and heard the Christmas story told from a children's Bible. The kids were invited to go up and participate in the story as shepherds, angels, and wisemen. We didn't bring a costume, but Moo was zealous to participate....but definitely not without a costume. A friend of ours lent his scarf and after I tied it around Moo's head, he leaped over the pew to join his buddies up front. Lu was excited to participate and demonstrate her new word of the day....in her sleep-deprived state, she proceeded to yell out "SHEP - HERD!  SHEP - HERD!" while the narrator continued the story. Ah, children. Gotta love 'em.

On Christmas Day we hosted a few families at our house for dinner, and Moo & Lu delivered chocolate bars to all while singing and ringing jingle bells in their self-appointed Christmas costumes - Santa & the Christmas Fairy.

out for a walk