Pictures that need a caption

Claire's Cake/Birthday

Today Claire is officially 21! We had a little family party for her on Sat. night. For months now I had this vision in my head of a cake with Claire swimming in a big cup full of alcohol. I got the giant cup from Michael's and printed out a picture which I attached to a stick. It's not at all how I pictured in my head. This is suppsed to be a giant mudslide drink. Unfortunately, there was a long gap in time until the party, so the whipped cream had melted. (No one ever called or came over to tell us it had started, so finally we just went over). I think Claire had a moderate amount of fun before she left for a friend's party.

My little elves

I couldn't resist this stamp because it looks just like my children! (Lest you think I'm cruely making fun of them, they get their ears from me. Ask my mother-in-law, she likes to point that out!)

Must get sleep!

You know you're tired when you accidentally pour oatmeal mix in your coffee mug instead of in the bowl. Pictured is the two mixed together when I tried to spoon out the oatmeal. It didn't work.

Haircut

Now that the relatives have all seen it......a picture post-haircut. After we picked up Leanna from art class, we stopped at a Barbershop downtown to get haircuts.

Art Class

a peice of sculpture inside the two doors that the kids all love. They really like to put their fingers inside his mouth and eyes!

Artwork from class, in the middle is her gingerbread man (they were allowed to use any color but brown) who is running with a roll of smarties in his hand.

Jacob before we left.

Leanna's lovin art class so far. I snuck a few pictures of the classroom last week. It's so light and pretty! They go in and paint whatever they want for the first 20 minutes of class before the actual lesson starts. Then they do a lesson and project.

Barbie and Ken go for a drive, nekid!

I found them crusin' round Leanna's room last week. Barbie's dressed like an Amish woman or maybe a maid, and he's opting for something less formal.

Doh! I can't keep it out of my head now!
Ken: Come on Barbie! Let's go party!
Barbie: Ooooh ohhh! Oooooh ohhhh!
(Not sure if anyone besides my kids will get that reference!)

Paying it forward

I love stories like this one, a couple anonymously paid for someone else's meal to and the chain continued for hours!

So there!

See, I should drink as much as I can!

Finished Product

This nice neat one is Laura's:

Just because....

Day 2 of Gingerbread Making

We ended up doing the houses in two days. The second day we tried it at my Mom's house, but in the future I don't think I would because her kitchen is too small. Next year I would have a house for Leanna to decorate alone. And one for me to help the boys with. I have to admit, I did want to decorate it my way.....I had to let the kids add stuff where they wanted, even though it didn't look as pretty as a result. We'll have to see how it goes next year, maybe we could make our own iceing, or gingerbread pieces too. Maybe.

Day 1 of Gingerbread House-Making

This past weekend we made gingerbread houses for the first time. We got kits on sale on Black Friday. In the future we'd start earlier, I should have taken out the instructions and read them beforehand. You do the first part, than wait an hour, then the second part and wait 2-3 hours, which makes sense, you have to wait for the icing/glue to dry before it's sturdy enough to continue. But I didn't think that far ahead. Laura made hot chocolate from the recipe on the cocoa container and added candy canes. I didn't bother to measure and straighten the pieces of gingerbread first, and it wasn't a big deal, you just use extra icing.

The season's first snow

Watching the snow beginning to fall........they LOVED the snow! The first thing Justin did when he woke up was to run to the window to see if it was snowing yet. They kept going outside over and over, even into the evening.

Playing

Leanna set up her own Little house on the prairie set using dolls and Little people things. Note the wagon. She even had a cow and horses to represent Pet and Patty.

Why traditions are important

Why traditions are important to kids. This is a subject I've spent time thinking about for the past few years. I've purposely started started traditions that were not in my life previously, largely for the benefit of the kids, but also because it's fun. A lot of work usually, but still fun. Although this article is discussing the benefits to children, it's not hard to extend the conclusions to adults as well.

Links

Laura sent me a couple humorous sites I thought I'd share:

From Probably Bad News, Teletubby Wanted in London Robbery

And Crazy things parents say, like this one which is something my Mom would say: (Note that I am not embarrasing you with a Lalapalooza story):
Mom, about my sister: “She’s probably off at some Gang-Bang.
”Me: “Mom, do you know what a Gang-Bang is?”
Mom: “No.”

Testing the camera/brothers

I found them sleeping like this tonight! Awwww!
I got a camera on black friday, a Nikon coolpix. I'm not entirely sure if we'll keep it, I got a card for it tonight so I just started testing it out. It's very simple, not many options. It's hard to tell how the color is, our monitor's been going for a long time now, and the color isn't quite right. It's very very dark.

He is always paying attention!

This morning Justin asked me if you can really change your body in 30 minutes with bowflex?

A bunch of links, mainly for me

Just useing my blog as a tool to store links that I'd forget about if I just saved them in my favorites. Here I can use the search blog feature to find a specific one!

The source of most of these:

Fabric pen pouch

Suspenders ($14.50 - $19.95)Rainbow suspenders! Unexpected, fun, and occasionally practical. These rainbow bad boys from Suspenders.com are heavy duty, utilitarian-grade, and, according to the web site, made for someone who has "everything imaginable" hanging from their trousers. Or grab some cute red and black checkerboard ones at Suspender Hut for $14.50.

For Laura This too

Swatch Frog pattern

Anticipation calendar

Chocolate Pretzel Buttons

The Crafty Crow