CrazySox

I’ve been trying to play more games with the kids. We have them, and we rarely play them. Why? I am now making time to play the card games, board games and puzzles.

So far Avery and I have played Boggle, mancala and Spit. She’s beat 3 out of 4 games of mancala!! I made her a deal that when she finds a word in Boggle that I don’t have, I’ll give her a quarter. She earned herself 75 cents tonight.

Ready to play another game of Mancala.

Sawyer and I have put together 4 puzzles and played with a tangram set we have. He is really good at it. He can “build” the easy shapes, no problem. I was quite impressed with him and I am happy that he wants to play it again.

Since it’s the beginning of a new year, we try to make changes that will better our lives and blah. blah, blah….

I’ve decided that I want to use the kitchen gadgets I have that I’ve never used or barely used. So far, I haven’t.

I’m working on emptying our freezer. It’s ridiculously full. I can’t even put anything else into it if I wanted to. On that same note I’ve decided make real dinners again- no more open a bag up and throw it in a skillet. That means I need to plan ahead, such a pain! It’s been 2 weeks, and I’m doing it!

I’ve been making more time to play games with the kids. Avery and I have played Blink, Mancala and Boggle so far. Sawyer and I have done puzzles & tangrams. They are each enjoying the games and pretty good at them. They both asked to play games tonight.

Cheers to 2012.

Lots of traditions!!

Christmas Eve- I made crepes with tons of topping options; Nutella, chocolate chips, punt butter, white sugar, brown sugar, cheese, ham & cheese, cinnamon sugar, whipped cream, powdered sugar, apple sauce, apples and a few jams options. I ended up making 5 batches of crepes for 12 people! Needless to say, we didn’t have dessert afterwards! Crepes 2010

Lots of toppings and empty plates. All bellies were full after this yummy dinner.

For as long as I can remember we’ve always read The Gift of the Magi (O’Henry) on Christmas Eve. Now anyone who wants to take a turn reading a page. I was really happy that Avery wanted to participate in the reading this year, she read 2 pages.

Crunched on the couch reading The Gift of the Magi.

My parents asked us (the parents) were to pick out a book for our kids. After they are wrapped they are placed by the kids bed, so it’s the first gift they open when they wake up. The kids can open these gifts first thing, they don’t have to wait for everyone to be up. It really helped keep the kids calm and away from the tree till everyone was awake to actually open presents. Avery got a Roald Dahl book set and Sawyer got a new Cars book that has 6 stories in it. They were both excited about these gifts.

The kids are both taking gymnastics classes. On Tuesday, December 13th was the Christmas party. THe party was from 2:30 to 5. Sawyer had class from 1 to 2, Avery came to the party with a her friend, Abby after school. We stated till 5!! There was food, a lady putting feathers in the girls hair, and The Glam Truck was there! Avery and Abby stayed in the Glam Truck the entire time. She got her hair done, glitter tattoo, decorated a mask… just had a great time. Sawyer and I played on the trampoline, and got to try out the trapeze.

Sawyer and I got together with a few friends at a park to make handmade cards for veterans and active duty service members. There were a lot of supplies- paper, glue, stickers, die cuts… We ended up making 29 cards. After school Avery made one more card, so we mailed out 30 cards to my friend in Virginia. She and her son are involved in a group called Socks For Vets. Socks for Vets is an opportunity for the community to give back to our Veterans.

Handmade holiday cards for vets.

Avery and I went to a Holiday DAnce Show that was put on by a local dance school that her friends go to. It was ocean themed- pirates, mermaids, Hawaiian dancers… it was a great show, very fun to watch.

I took Avery to a Girl Scout event called Santa Paws. I had no idea what to expect when we got there. It was a learning experience, Avery and her troop loved it. It was organized by a troop of Juniors, 6th graders. They did a great job, entertaining 40+ Daisies and Brownies.

The first station was taking a picture with Santa Paws. They printed the pictures and gave them to the girls on a paper frame signed by all the Juniors Troop..

There were different stations; knot tying, games, songs, snack and crafts.

It was kind of dorky, but Avery had a great time. THe girls who organized the event all had purple shirts on that had their “camp names” on them. Some of them were pretty funny; Onomatopoeia, Bri Bri, Cherry… So Avery has now chosen her camp name; LOL. I thought that was quite funny and creative.

Avery took a toy to donate to school. We went to the office to donate it and the donation box was gone!! Uh oh, did we miss it? I asked the school secretary, she told us that the box had been picked up the day before. She thought that maybe we could still donate it… so we gave her the toy, if no one comes to collect more toys, she can give it to her daughter who will be one in February.

Either way, someone will get the toy and enjoy it!!

On the 8th Avery took cans of beans to school to donate to the school district. They asked for cans of food, but NO SOUP!

On the 15th the kids both took cans of food to donate at Awanas. It was fun to see Sawyer participate in the donating too.

Sawyer’s preschool Christmas performance was very entertaining. His class sang “Jesus Loves Me” and “Away in the Manger,” with Angel wings on. It was adorable.

The name of the show was “Christmas Around the World.” There were songs in Russian and Korean, as well as English.

Preschool Christmas Performance

Sawyer, our angel, singing & performing.

Sawyer's wings are falling off...