Happy New Year!

New Years Traditions include fondue!

This year we did a cheese fondue and a chocolate fondue.  The girls like the chocolate one the best: hershey's bars marshmallows, whipping cream, milk then dip the angel food cake, mini brownies, marshmallows, bananas and strawberries.  What a great way to end the year.

We added sparkling grape juice for extra bubbles!

Christmas

Tree-Hunting

We had a very mild fall/winter to end 2015.  It's not very often that we tree hunt without snow boots and mittens.  Thanks El Nino!

Typical business model here:  too many supervisors and not enough workers!

School dress-up days

She is supposed to be a "Who".  We put a cup on her head and pulled the hair around and on top of it.  I guess she lasted the whole school day~I think it would have bugged me to have that cup sliding around on my head.

 Crafting
We made some paper flowers for Molly to share with her fellow "flowers" at the Nutcracker performance.  Tissue paper and pipecleaners~easy peasy!

Cookie-Decorating
Trees and stars this year (thanks grocery store bakery section).

Molly wanted to do some piping this year so she got some bags out too.
The boo-boo on her finger was courtesy of a saw blade during tech ed class.  She sliced it just under the top joint.  Her obsession with injuries ("I want crutches") was satisfied with the splint that the school nurse hooked her up with.  Thankfully, not her writing or her piping hand.

Quality control***************************************

 Letter to Santa
Santa wrote a personal letter to each of the girls.  Each letter referred to their accomplishments from the past year, their current grade level, their talents and then some reminders to be kind and behave. Lacey wanted to write back to Santa so she left him this letter or Christmas Eve.  He left her a reply Christmas morning.

Tree is trimmed

Family Time

Favorite Gift

Bears made from Grandpa Ed's shirts~thanks Grandma Dar

First Reconciliation

A big part of being a second grader in our family is the receiving of two sacraments.

First up is the Sacrament of Reconciliation or also called confession.  I teach Lacey's class so I am privileged to be a part of her preparation. At the second grade level we talk a lot about the difference between a sin and an accident.  We talk about making good choices and how our conscience (Holy Spirit) helps us make good decisions.

Nutcracker

Thanks to a local friend that sent me the email, Molly was able to try out and participate in the Nutcracker this year!

She practiced Sunday mornings for about eight weeks and the performance was the first weekend of December.  She was fortunate to get two parts~a snowflake and a flower!

It was a fun production.  A good balance of magical spirit and crazy stage moms.  

We had to learn how to do "STAGE" make-up.  MORE MORE MORE

And "STAGE" buns.  Slicked back hair ~no strays~and a bun net to keep it tight.

Even I was impressed with the back stage facilities at the Performing Arts Center in SP.

The snowflake dance was very pretty.  The dress rehearsal was funny because they prepared in the studio which was half the size of the stage.  So when the girls crossed the stage they had to cover twice the distance they were used to covering.  There was a lot of 'coaching' at the dress rehearsal. "Go! Go!  Faster!  Faster!"  It sounded more like a basketball practice than a ballet performance.  After two times the girls figured out that they needed to really leap and all was well.  On the ground, you can sort of see the white dust that that girls threw.  When they exited the stage they had to grab handfuls and when they returned to the stage they had to toss it to look like snow.  Molly said it was freeze dried mashed potatoes and keep sticking to her sweaty hands.  So I reminded her that snowflakes don't wipe their hands on their costumes~stay in character!

Costume switch!

Molly had a petite flower to dance with during the flower performance.  She loved that part!  She told me that she wished she had a little sister *???Ahem, What???* #Youhavetwo

Of course, she meant she wished she had a preschool sister~ a cute little 3-4 year old sister.

Sorry Molly, but that ain't happin'

The paparazzi that came to the two performances...#clapclapclap

It was great to see her dancing again and on stage again~a fantastic start to the holiday season!