Gingerbread Houses

Today we made gingerbread houses.  Well, sort of.  I cheated and used graham crackers.  I was too lazy to make my own gingerbread. Plus the houses look really cute anyway.  Here are the pictures of us making them.

Getting all the pieces together.

Sugar Plum wanted to pose with the candy.

Daddy helped us build the houses.

Tiger Boy waiting to decorate his house.

Putting candy on her house to decorate it.

Decorating his house.

The finished product.

Tiger Boy's house.

Sugar Plum's house.

I think they turned out really cute.  This is the first time we have made these and I know we will do them again next year.  Do any of you make gingerbread houses with your kids?

I love Homeschool

Here is another reason why I love homeschool.  Sugar Plum can express her style without fear of being made fun of.  Here is her choice of clothing today.

Purple pants and shirt, pink boots and cowgirl hat, black & pink poofy skirt, and a blue ribbon tied around her waist for a belt.

She looks adorable.  I love the concoctions she comes up with to wear. She is definitely unique.

She also figured out how to climb the door frame yesterday.

(notice the same skirt-she loves it)

Christmas Trees

Today we make more trees to decorate our hallway.  We made curl up trees and then the kids finger painted snow on the trees and sky.

Sugar Plum painting the snow on her tree.

Tiger Boy loves to smile for pictures.

The finished trees.  I think they turned out cute.

Christmas is coming!

We are getting ready for Christmas around here. We are super busy but it is good.  We have several inches of snow on the ground and it has gotten really cold.  Here are a few things we have been working on this past week.

The kids each decorated a little tree to hang in our hallway.

We also have a big tree that they get to put an ornament on each day until Christmas.

This is Sugar Plum's ornament from today, she wanted a picture of it by itself.

Today we read the Legend of the Candy Cane by Lois Walburg.

Then the kids sponge painted a candy cane to hang on our wall.

Five Question Friday 12/3/10

I try from time to time to do the Five Question Friday hosted by Mama M.  So on to today's questions.

1. What's on the top of your holiday wish list and why?
My husband would love to know this and since I know he reads this blog he will be be thrilled to know it now. I want . . . um . . . I don't know.  I have everything I need.  I do want a laminator but I asked my mom for that.  I will have to keep thinking on this one.

2. What is your favorite Christmas gift from the past?
I can think of two that are special to me.  The first one is a shirt my grandpa bought for me my freshman year of college.  My grandpa had bypass surgery that fall and was afraid he wouldn't make it.  He pulled through and that Christmas he helped my grandma shop for the grandkids.  He had never really done that before.  So, it is special that he picked it out.  He passed away 5 years ago and I miss him.  The other is a quilt my grandma on the other side of the family made for me.  She made us all so many quilts but this particular one is the last one she made for me. She turned 85 yesterday and is doing great but just not making quilts anymore.

3. If you had life to do over, what would you be when you grow up?
I am living my dream.  I am a mommy.  I have the joy everyday of being with my kids.  I love it.  I would choose this life again every single time.

4. When do you put up your tree?
Growing up it always went up the day after Thanksgiving.  For the most part I have followed that tradition.  Except for the past two years it has gone up the day before Thanksgiving.  Last year was due to my husband leaving on a missions trip to Kenya the day after Thanksgiving for 2 weeks.  And this year was because we were having company on Friday and I wanted it done before so up it went.

5. What is your favorite Holiday?
CHRISTMAS!!  I love the lights, the decorations, the snow, the tree, the nativity, the presents.  It is a most wonderful time of the year. I think I like it more now that my kids are understanding more about it. It is so fun to see it all through their eyes.


Well, there you go.  Head on over to Mama M's and check out the others posts for today's questions.

Crazy Busy

Wow, I have really neglected my blog this month.  We have been crazy busy.  We had our youth group fall retreat last weekend and then Thanksgiving.  We spent most of the month getting ready for our retreat.  It was wonderful.  We had a great time getting away with our teens and spending time with God.

We had a good Thanksgiving, too.  Our Christmas tree is now up and we are moving headlong and fast into the Christmas season.  I know we will be even busier and things will be crazier.  Hopefully I can keep up with blogging a little more.

THREE

November 14, 2007 was one of the best days of my life.

Tiger Boy was born.

my new boy

One

Two

Three

Happy Birthday to my sweet adorable big boy!

November Things

I realized today that I have not posted in 10 days.  I guess I have been busy.  I took a bunch of pictures of the things we have been doing so far this month.  We started a Thanksgiving unit and a unit on the five senses.  

This is our thankful tree.  I made the kids handprints with paint in fall colors. Every morning durning breakfast they each tell me one thing they are thankful for and then we add it to the tree.

We colored a picture of the Mayflower.

We talked about the Pilgrims coming to a new land.

And the Indians who were there to help them.

These are the cornucopias we made.  It was cute hearing Tiger Boy try to say cornucopia.

Our activity today was on this book.

I know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson

We made an old lady,

and filled her belly with all the things we thought she could swallow.  The kids really had fun with this activity.  They enjoyed finding things for her to swallow.

I forgot to take pictures of us doing things with the five senses that we have worked on. I had it in my mind today, but then Sugar Plum spilled rice that was inside an egg for part of our lesson on sounds all over the floor .  So I had to clean that up and I forgot all about the pictures.

 

Five Question Friday 11/12/10

It is time for Five Question Friday.  A fun little blog hop over at Mama M.'s blog.




1. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you?
Um... I would have to say childbirth.  It hurts like crazy.  I had an epidural with my daughter and that hurt.  It was an awful experience just getting the needle in my back.  It was one of the worst experiences ever.  Even with the epidural it hurt to give birth.  I was so proud of myself for giving birth, I thought I was amazing for getting through it.  I quickly learned when I had my son, (no epidural) that the epidural helps A LOT.  Wow, natural child birth HURTS.  I guess I sort of should have expected it since GOD said it would hurt in the Bible and he is never wrong.
2.  How much sleep do you get at night?
I try to get 8 hours, but don't always succeed.  I think my body works best on about 9 hours.  I love sleep the hard thing is I stay up too late after the kids go to bed.  There is just something so nice about the quiet once they are sleeping.
3. How long did you believe in Santa Claus?  How did you find out that he does not exist?
I was 5 and in kindergarten.  A couple of friends told me.  Their family didn't do Santa so they informed me he was not real.  I remember my mom telling me later that she cried when I no longer believed since I was her baby and last one to still believe and she was hoping it would last longer.
4. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?
We took the kids to see Toy Story 3 a few weeks ago at the cheap theater.  It was their first movie at the theater.  It was so good.  I cried.  
5. What do you wear to bed?
I usually wear flannel pants and a t-shirt.  Socks are a must in the winter time.

Back At It

Well, we started back at it again today.  It was nice taking week off, but it also made it hard to start back up.  Sugar Plum asked if we could take another day off.  I laughed and told her it was time for school.  She did enjoy the day.  We did an  activity with candy corn so that made the day nicer for her.  We also started a unit on the 5 senses.  Today we talked about sight.  After talking about how the eye works we spent some time in the bathroom in the dark and then turning on the light to see our pupils move.  Both kids got a kick out of seeing them get bigger and then smaller once the light came back on.

Ramblings

We had a field trip to the fire station today and it was fun. The kids enjoyed seeing the big trucks up close.

It has been a busy week and today I am feeling tired.  I am cranky and know we have another busy week ahead.  I have sort of decided to take this week off from school. I think we all could use the break. We have been going strong for 8 weeks and a rest is needed.  Plus we have things going on 3 of the 5 days this week so not having school will make it less stressful on all of us.  We will hopefully all feel much better when we start back up again on Monday.  

I am kinda doubting my abilities as a teacher this week. Those who know me will probably think I am crazy.  I have a degree in elementary education.  I was a teacher before I had my kids.  I taught third and first grades.  I know how to teach, but I feel like I am not doing a good job with Sugar Plum.  

Saturday during Sugar Plum's birthday party I walked into the living room at my in-laws house and noticed her on the couch with my mother-in-law and my nephew, he was reading to them.  My nephew, M,  is 5 and is in kindergarten at a local Christian school where his mom is a teacher.  I was happy to see him reading and sat to listen to him for a minute.  It made me feel good and then bad. I have babysat M since he was 3 months old while his mom worked.  I started watching him 6 weeks before Sugar Plum was born.  The two have grown up together at our house.  He did two years of preschool with us before starting school this fall.  I felt some pride in seeing him read.  I had a little part in his learning as his preschool teacher.  I then started to question myself about why Sugar Plum is not yet reading.  Am I good enough?  Here M started school the same time and is reading already.

I know Sugar Plum was young to start kindergarten.  She just turned 5 last week. Both my husband and I felt she was ready.  There was not much else she really needed to learn before kindergarten.  I know it can take a while for kids to click with reading.  I know it is not my fault she is not reading kids all learn to read at their own pace, but it still made me feel like I was doing something wrong.

There is someone who has commented to me that we can always do kindergarten again if Sugar Plum needs to.  Honestly, I have been hurt by that and it makes me think they don't see me as being able to teach her.  For the first time though I have had the thought cross my mind.  Will she be successful this year?  Will we need to repeat K?  Did we make a mistake in starting her too early?  I know it is only the end of October and we have a long school year ahead of us.  I guess I am just feeling down about it right now.

Five Question Friday 10/22/10

1. Who is the better cook, you or your spouse?  Him.  By all means. I can mess up hotdogs. I can bake well, but not cook. Funny I know, but the truth. This caused many disagreements when we first got married, but we worked it all out and now he cooks.  I kinda like it that way.
2. How often do you talk to your mom?At least once a week. Sometimes more. She does read my blog, so Hi Mom!
3. Are you adventurous in the kitchen or stick to the recipe?See number 1. I am not the best cook so I don't try new things.
4. Is your second toe longer than your big toe?I had to look. No, it is slightly shorter than my big toe.
5. Do you dress up for Halloween? (Bonus question: What will you be this year?)Nope, I don't dress up. Never have.
Head over to Mama M's to see what others have to say today.

Pumpkin Pie

Today two of these pie pumpkins sat on my table.

Now there is only one. Because.....

This now resides in its place.  

And wow, it was wonderful.  I don't think I will ever make one any other way again. I can not explain how good it was.  I have never before made a pie straight from the pumpkin. It was easy and so delicious.

We celebrated Sugar Plum's birthday tonight with the pie.

FIVE

On October 20, 2005 my life forever changed.

Sugar Plum on the day she was born.

One

Two

Three

Four

FIVE

Painting, Pumpkins, & Bread

Today was another wonderful day.  We talked more about pumpkins and made a delicious pumpkin bread.  The kids were excited about making the bread especially since it had chocolate chips in it.

Here everything is ready to go and on the table to be easily added to the mixer.  I forgot to take any pictures of them adding things.  Oh, well.

Ignore the really dirty stove.  I did clean it tonight.

Here is the finished product minus two large muffins.  We had already sampled those after lunch.  It was so good.  The kids both kept asking for more all day long.

Later we painted some of the pumpkins we picked a few weeks ago.  

I love the concentration on Tiger Boy's face.  He was really into it.

Sugar Plum had fun mixing the colors and making new ones to paint with.

Tomorrow we will be learning all about the life cycle of a pumpkin.

More Pumpkin Stuff

We did a few more things with pumpkins this week. It was fun.  We made muffins, pumpkin dip, pumpkin butter, and toasted seeds.  Here are a few pictures of the kids with the seeds.

Sugar Plum counted out piles of 10 seeds so we could get the total easier.

Tiger Boy did a little counting. I did most of his pile.

I forgot to take a picture of all the seeds on the table once we counted them.  We had over 680 seeds.  It was a lot of seeds. 

Getting the seeds ready to be toasted.

Next week we have a few more pumpkin themed things to do including making a pie from a fresh pumpkin.  I have only made them from canned pumpkin before so it will be a new experience for all of us.