STRIKE

Today we put on our bowling shoes!

We met up with Lacey's god-momma and her girls for some bowling and pizza.

Like with most things...Lacey was excited!

She used the bowling ramp for a little extra help.

And she celebrated like a rock-star!

 Morgan took her bowling very seriously and watched that ball all. the. way......

 More holiday partying...love December!

Molly's Holiday Party

Molly wanted to hostess a holiday party and she started talking about it a week before Christmas.  She was busy making the invitations.  She made 8 of them exactly the same~then we sat down to look at them and they were exactly the same...misspelled words and all...so after some editing she re-made 8 of them exactly the same...with words spelled correctly! 

The party advertised dancing, games, icecream sundaes, and friendship bracelets.

Dancing~check!

Games~check!

we played Hedbanz...lots of girly giggles give this game 5 stars!

 Icecream Sundaes~check!

 In true icecream sundae form the whipped cream was a hit.

 Friendship Bracelets~check!
i tried to teach tying techniques and braiding techniques...but we were short on time and they were a little young...the back-up plan of beads was fine with the girls

My little hostess was quite pleased with her party and I was proud of her for being a good friend*

Christmas Eve

Grandma Sue took the girls and daddy to the movies on Christmas Eve morning while mommy got some time to run around like a maniac!

This was the first year I've ever had to shop on Christmas Eve and truthfully...the stores I went to were fine...I don't plan on making that a tradition but for this year it worked.

Then we were off to Grandma Dar's to frost and sprinkle cookies for Santa.

Afterwards, we went to church and had the pleasure of sitting in the 'old ' church...the girls were....let's just say they had their angelic moments...

Back home we made individual pizzas, picked out what cookies Santa might like best, read books and it was off to dreamland for four little ladies!
.......And to all a good night!

A Sweet Day

We were busy making sweets today!

Chocolate covered pretzels sprinkled with toffee bars...



and mini m&m's...

Yummy!



Then we spent the afternoon cleaning...which with four kids 'helping' takes twice as long..but my living room is now a toy-free-zone until Christmas morning!

Then we went out to eat and took a drive through Olin Park to see the beautiful lights.





Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!!!!!

Morgan is a Star

It was Morgan's star of the week at school.  On Monday, she shared her All About Me book, Tuesday she shared pictures, Wednesday she shared her favorite toy, Thursday she shared her snack, and on Friday she shared her favorite book. 



For snack she took in the second batch of the reindeer cookies.  The first batch melted all together on the baking pan and looked like an 8-headed reindeer monster! 

Wednesday was also my volunteer day so I got to spend some time in her classroom and do an activity with her class.  We watched the Magic School Bus recycles, talked about the importance of recycling, and made a fun polymer out of borax and elmers glue!  Delightfully gooey! 

She practiced the night before and read Llama Llama Red Pajama to her classmates on Friday...wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that one.  "Run, Mama, Run!"

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All I want for Christmas......

...is one front tooth.....

I had noticed that Morgan's teeth have been shifting a bit and figured she would be losing a tooth soon.  Today she told me that something was stuck on her tooth...upon further investigation I informed her that her tooth was loose.  It must have felt funny to her.  The sparkle in her eye when she realized that that is what it was ....a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e! 

She scampered off to share the good news with her big sisters and returned 5 minutes later with the said tooth in her hand....well that didn't take long!

I guess the Tooth Fairy will be stopping by our house sometime this week!

Forgiveness and Peace

An inch of snow that I'm afraid came a week early arrived on Saturday the 17th.  We have had a white Christmas for at least the past 9 years...with highs in the 40's again next week it's not looking good *sigh*

So we threw in a few prayers while we celebrated Molly's First Reconciliation.

A picture of Molly looking at her picture.  All the second graders that received their First Reconciliation had their pictures posted for the congregation to see.

We spent the fall preparing for this sacrament by talking a lot about choices.  We likened their conscience to the little angel and the little devil sitting on their shoulders.  We acted out little skits that the kids really liked where they had to determine the 'sin'. And we covered the Golden Rule~Treat others how you wanted to be treated~ true words, true words!

There were visiting priests from around the community to help with confessions, but Molly had decided that she wanted to go in the official confessional room because she didn't want to look at the priest she wanted to sit behind the divider...not a surprise from my shy girl.

What I didn't expect was for her to drag me in with her. 
So her first confession was not very private with her helicopter mom hovering in the corner taking pictures and prompting her with her lines. 

She did a good job with a few prompts and read her Act of Contrition well.

The first sacrament of second grade is done. Check.  Now we move on to getting ready for her First Communion in the spring.

Wishing everyone peaceful minds this advent season.

White Pine and White Lights

It rained.  There were no glistening white snowflakes on my babies eyelashes no crunch of snow beneath our feet...but there was also no whining about being cold and complaining because they were tired from walking in the snow.  So I'll take the rain...it doesn't have to be a new tradition...but it was fine. 

I was a little worried about getting stuck in the mud though.  The ground has not frozen yet so the rain made lots of mud that made my van fishtail...at least I still had that tradition! 

Lacey and Molly picked out their favorite trees.  Maybe in another 10 years!

The four supervisors watched carefully while daddy cut down the tree.

Helping to carry the tree to the car.

We left it to drip and dry for a night before welcoming our little white pine into the house.  I couldn't resist putting the lights on but the girls are waiting patiently to do the ornaments.

Molly and Lacey helped with the lights.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

So I thought I would put some lights in our backyard this year so we could see them from our back window.  I started with the maple tree...which blew our light socket and then the fuses in the strings of lights...so they will not be lighting this year...and then followed one of my flower beds and strung lights on the shepards hook holding the birdfeeder and draped some in the rose bush....and wa-la...I created a Christmas Ostrich!

 Or an emu..mabye a llama?...we haven't decided yet...it's so silly it makes me smile everytime I glance out into my backyard.  I hope everyone has a chance to find their Christmas Ostrich this year!