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Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Cookie House FHE

 Last night was our traditional Christmas light viewing followed by Chinese food! It was super fun and the fun continued when we came home. I had made enough cookies for 2 cookie houses and the kids were ready to make one last night!
 Everyone was very helpful. They were happy to prep and place the candy.
 There was lots of tasting too. Such good helpers! (Ty was the best helper! He did all of the construction on the house.)
 The finished product!
I was pretty pleased considering I haven't made a cookie house from scratch in.....about 5 years.
It is our centerpiece now. We are having a big dinner tonight. Maybe we can avoid eating the house for dessert.
Monday, December 21, 2015

Kitchen Helpers and Nerf Wars

 I was busy in the kitchen today! We are making cookie houses and having the first of several holiday dinners tomorrow, so there was lots to get done!
My mom took the girls for some fun in the mountains and the boys helped me out at home. Max juiced oranges and Zackary got bananas ready to freeze for smoothies.
They are awesome little helpers!
Later Max's friend came over and the boys had an epic nerf gun fight that left my house covered with plastic bullets. They had a blast....Tomorrow the boys are going to watch Star Wars with friends and I am looking forward to a little quiet time with the girls!
Friday, December 18, 2015

Gingerbread (Graham) Houses

 It's our favorite library activity of the year! I always call the library on December 1st to make sure we get a spot. It is so great to have everything put together for you when you arrive....plus there is no clean up (except for all the candy that ends up all over the car on the drive home!)
 This was the first year that all 4 kids were able to attend and make their own little house. (You have to be 4!)
 This was Zoey's house. She had a little help!
 Mia was very dedicated to her house.
 Max made a box and then started eating all of his candy, but we were glad he was there!
Maybe some day I will commit to making a beautiful and delicious home made gingerbread house, but for now...graham cracker houses at the library are pretty awesome!


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Holiday Happenings

 I cleaned and organized the boy's room! It really needed to be done.
 Christmas is almost here and my littles are getting excited....I am too!
 Just this week Max performed with the Sundance advanced band for their Holiday concert. He played a solo on his cornet and he did great!
 Zoey and I are still going Christmas all the way. We made more cloud dough....Gingerbread cloud dough this time! I used the basic cloud dough recipe (4C. flour + 1/2C. baby oil) and added lots of ginger and cinnamon.
 I have been making Christmas goodies all day every day. The favorite this season is peppermint bark! The kids love it! I have been adding it to cookies and hot chocolate. Super simple to make too!
I am really excited for Christmas break. I am loving all of the Christmas messages and thoughts I have come across. Christmas really is a magical time!
Thursday, December 10, 2015

The Polar Express

 We had our own mini polar express day at home. We started the day reading the classic story.
Then we used the train track set to create our own Polar Express.
 Then we had snacks and watched the movie....which is terribly long, but we made it through the train ride and the hot chocolate scene...which is the most important!
 We made hot chocolate play-doh. It smelled amazing!
Then we did a little Christmas graphing/counting.
 We made some tickets for Zoey and all the kids to ride on the Polar Express...aka...my big black van.
We brought the tickets with us when we picked the kids up from school. They got to use them for a ride and hot chocolate.
 And biscotti!!!
Mia had asked for biscotti last night. She requested chocolate peppermint biscotti so Zoey and I made some today while the kids were at school.

Max is performing tonight at his Honor Band holiday concert.
Zack is rehearsing his part for his Christmas program at school.
Mia has been practicing songs for her performance next week. 
It has been a busy week and I am super excited for Friday tomorrow!
Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Gingerbread

 We have been enjoying Christmas themed preschool all week. We reviewed the letter "G", with G is for Gingerbread.

 We used paper bags to make....sort of....gingerbread houses. (I am really terrible at making actual gingerbread houses! The kids are signed up to make them at the library later this month!) Zoey looks very mellow in this picture, but she really was happy and excited about her little project!
 There have been lots of random Christmas crafts...
 Christmas cookies and decorating....
 and eating!
 Making and delivering Christmas treats to friends...
 and lots of reading fun Christmas books like this:

 The season is so busy, but we are trying to enjoy it. We are trying to squeeze in all of the wonderful Christmas traditions that we love. 
The kids have lots of performances coming up this week and next. One good thing about Zoey being home-preschooled is that we have one less performance to attend!
(She can perform anytime at home!)
I am looking forward to Christmas Vacation! 7 more school days....

Thursday, December 3, 2015

School Today

 School today began with some ABC letter practice.
 Then we decorated Christmas trees using sugar cones and green frosting.

 Zoey did a good job taste testing lots of the little m&m candies.
 Next we read/sang through Silent Night.
 The pictures in this book are really beautiful!
 We used more mini m&m's to make an M is for m&m.....
 We counted m&m candies and used them to make patterns in red and green.
 Then it was time for more cloud dough! I don't even understand why this is so popular! I got it out last night and let the older kids play too. They all thought it was great!
I have decided that holidays make school fun. Any excuse to theme everything and anything!
Wednesday, December 2, 2015

A Cloud Dough Day


 Zoey hasn't had the best attitude about school this week, so I thought we needed to start the day with something fun. I whipped up a batch of THIS peppermint cocoa cloud dough.
Zoey spent over an hour playing with this stuff!
 It is a huge mess, but I was relieved to have found something she really enjoyed.
 (It smells really awesome too! Very holiday.)
Next we played an alphabet game.
 We used bananagram letters to fill in the blank spaces on the worksheet, and then sang the ABC song multiple times.
We read some Christmas stories.
 and Zoey did a color by number page.
 Then we needed a pancake break.
There was more coloring and cloud dough after the pancakes. A very successful morning!