FHE Game Night

For family home evening tonight we decided to do a game as a family. Annabelle picked the game. As she has been getting older her game choices seem to be getting more challenging, more competitive, more mature. So we started playing--Emily, Annabelle, Lisa, Earl and our referee Molly. The whole family was in on the desire to be called king, winner, number one, and the "bestest." As we battled it out, Emily was the first to strike a blow. We all got that sinking feeling in our stomach as she scored 1, 2, then 3 points. How were we gonna recover, she was so far ahead. Annabelle was disgusted with her performance. Lisa had that deer-in-the-head-lights look. "This isn't happening" came out of her mouth. Molly was checking the progress of each player one by one to make sure it was a clean match. Finally, a score from Earl and then Annabelle, and then Lisa even got on the board. Lisa and Annabelle quickly caught up to little Em and to her utter disappointment they passed her. Earl, now trailing, couldn't seem to get his act together, then like a serpent, struck several key goals that would put the family neck and neck for the finish. Emily seeing the progress of the others wasn't going down without a fight. She quickly retook the lead and it seemed her sister was cheering against her. Suddenly it was over, so close it was a photo finish. In the end it was Earl who won by a..................................................................................................................................................................

FOOT!!!!!!

Country Livin' pt. 2

While I was putting lunch on the table today I looked out the window and what do you think I should find in the backyard? Why, five turkeys of course. Isn't that what you guessed?

We watched them for quite a while and once they reached the side of the house a cat come up. I thought, "oh, this could be trouble." But the cat could care less about them. The crazy thing was the turkeys started chasing the cat! What a sight. You never know what to expect with country livin'!

What happens in the Silence

Another one of those moments when you think,

"Where's the baby? It sure is quiet".

Of course she was being quiet because she was completely entertained opening up little individual baggies of separate holiday confetti. She wouldn't even even look at me when I called her name. She just kept her head down and grunted.

When she finally did look up, she didn't have a thing to say for herself!

Oh, Molly! What a mess. That'll teach me to hold onto things for 15 years that I haven't used in 10!

Mondays

Every girl deserves a new hairdo to tackle a Monday morning.

If you have:

7 hours to spare

9 3/4 cups of flour

4 1/2 cups of sugar

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups of butter (and a friend to bring you some on a Sunday afternoon, when you forgot to buy it on a Saturday night)

2 1/2 cups of shortening

8 1/2 graham crackers

6 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet baking chocolate

4 squares Baker's White baking chocolate

7 oz. Baker's Milk Chocolate dipping chocolate

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1 package Jet-Puffed Marshmellows

5 cups of Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds cereal

1 cups of Hershey's Cocoa (but only 1/2 cup if you don't mis-measure)

1/3 cup of buttermilk

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. almond extract

2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup of powdered sugar (and a different friend to lend you some on a Sunday night when you forgot to but some on a Saturday night)

1/2 tsp. red food coloring

4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 cup crushed candy canes and peppermints

cinnamon

An entire container of green decorator's sugar crystals

and some random other sprinkles when you run out of green sugar crystals and still have 2 dozen holli-doodles to make.

You could have:

34 Candy Cane Cookies

30 Cocoa Cookies

27 Marbled Chocolate Treats

29 Chocolate-Dipped Snowballs

And more Holli-Doodles than you know what to with!

Crazy-Christmas Dinner a.k.a Alanna's Crazy Canadian Activity

I asked for help on activities to include in my family advent calendar. Thank you to those that commented--I've actually gone in and changed a few we already had planned. A few days ago Alanna suggested something called "crazy dinner" and I was very intrigued.

Oh Alanna! You and your crazy Canadian activities!

Well, I decided yesterday as I was looking at the calendar for the month and what we had planned that the only time to fit it in was today. SO, I went shopping yesterday and planned the whole thing in a day. It was CrAzY! It required alot of thinking and a lot of shopping and ALOT of cooking. I decided that we needed to invite someone over for this, 'cause I wasn't going to go through all this work and not have anyone besides my family see it (haha) and besides the more the merrier, right? Oh, Alanna, if only you still lived across the parking lot and I got to talk to you six times a day and it didn't cost me 40 cents a minute to call Canada I wouldn't have had to wait 11 hours for a response to Crazy Dinner questions through email.

All's well though. I got it figured out and you cleared up a few things I was still confused about before it was too late.

Here's how the menu turned out. Can you guess what's what?

I sat everyone down at the table and read off the menu. Then I passed them out and had everyone fill out what they wanted for each course. Then I took their orders to the kitchen and got to work. It was CrAZy and ALOT of fun and I never had a break or got to sit down and I didn't get to eat till everyone else was done with all four courses.

One of my favorite combinations was when my friend's 9-yr. old son got carrots, a toothpick, a spoon and a fork for course #1. I don't think there was a single person out of 8 that had a utensil for their salad. Everyone seemed to be good sports about it. I was worried about the kids, but they handled it very well. I got asked a few times why they couldn't have water when they were clearly thirsty, but hey, Rules are Rules!

Did you guess what was what? Here's the answer key:

1. Angel Hair—Pasta

2. Tree Skirt—Napkin

3. Shepard’s Staff—Toothpick

4. Frosty’s Nose—Carrots

5. Reindeer Antler—Fork

6. Snow Shovel—Spoon

7. North Stars—Pineapple (cut into stars)

8. Jingle Bell juice—Martinelli's

9. Stocking Stuffers—Sausage Balls

10. Fresh Poinsettias—Salad

11. Elf Shoes—Green Beans

12. Carol of the Birds—Chicken Breast

13. Melted Icicles—Water

14. ‘Deer Droppings—Chocolate Cookies

15. Toboggans—Garlic Bread

16. Santa’s Helper—Knife

'Tis the Season

24 days of Christmas Joy

Some of you have seen my advent calendar before. I made it last year for an Enrichment Class demo and didn't finish it in time to use it. It is made out of industrial strength paper towel rolls. Even if you didn't visit my house in December, it was sure to catch your eye as it hung by my front door until June! haha.

I am happy to report that I actually got all my activities planned and we are able to start the fun today! YAY! I painstakingly came up with 24 different activities for us to do and tucked them into little tissue paper pieces and stuffed them in the sides. Unfortunately I didn't plan ahead enough to have all white tissue paper. boo.

It really bothers me that I have SO many colors. I tried to coordinate, but still. ANYWAY, please let me know any of your family's holiday traditions, 'cause I may need to alter mine for next year.

merry christmas.

It's Gonna Be Hard

Do you think a child will develop some sort of complex if her mom laughs every time she looks at her?

It's gonna be a hard few weeks.

Where's Molly?

As a mom, I often find myself asking, "Where's Molly?" Sometimes this is in response to her yelling for me and sometimes it's because I need to get her dressed and sometimes is just because I haven't seen her in a while and know something must be up.

WHERE’S MOLLY?

On any give day, I might find her like this

Yes, this is my LEAST favortite place to find her--at the top of a ladder seven feet off the ground. Do you think she shows any signs of fear or even remorse?

Of course not!

WHERE’S MOLLY?

Sometimes I get her out of the bath, put a towel on her and run to get a diaper and some clothes and come back to find something like this

She is absolutely obsessed with these red shoes that belong to Emily. Not even two minutes out of the bath and she's playin' in her birthday suit!

WHERE’S MOLLY?

AT LEAST once a day I find her like this

She climbs on the table! I don't know why she loves this so much. And she won't come down until she's good and ready. Just try getting her and she laughs and RUNS to the other side to get away from you; start walking to the other side and she will simply laugh and RUN back the way she came. I've come to terms with this and will just let her stay up there till she's ready for me to get her down. In my mind having her just hang out up there is better than the alternative to having her RUN up there. You might be thinking, "Lisa, just push all the chairs in so she can't get up there," HA! like she can't just grab a hold of one and push it out of the way!

WHERE’S MOLLY?

Maybe I will find her playing

(did you notice the red shoes?)

Or bein' silly

Or maybe with her sister

More often than not I find her on the computer

She looks innocent here, but give her a minute and the laptop will be completely flat, face-down on the floor. I totally understand that this is my fault; sometimes I walk away thinking I will just be a second and get distracted. But, she's like a vulcher!

WHERE’S MOLLY?

Maybe she's hiding

Hello MOLLY!

Regardless of where I find her, she's just too dang cute to be upset with for too long--you'd have to agree!

Nursery Here She Comes

HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY LITTLE MOLLY!

Halloween in the South

I don't know what is going on around here, but these people are CRAZY for Halloween. Crazy, I say! I've never been to so many Halloween oriented activities. In addition to the Ward Trunk-or-Treat (see previous post) we:

WERE INVITED TO A MONSTER MASH

This was even before the Trunk-or-Treat and I couldn't bring myself to reveal their costumes yet, so we just used things we had around the house...

Earl was in charge of taking pictures for this event. He didn't get a good one here of Molly, but she has a little ghost on her shirt. too cute! (you can see the dirty diaper in the back, though. great!)

Check out this table spread. A gal after my own heart. Look, little fingers and toes...

DECORATED "HAUNTED HOUSES"

We each had our own side, I used Black icing for mine. Spooky!

CARVED PUMPKINS

Molly had her first pumpkin experience and was quite intrigued.

Earl brought out the power tools for his and Annabelle's scary-face pumpkin. boys!

Emily and I worked hard delicately carving out only negative space to create this ghost.

Annabelle worked on Molly's and carved, eyebrows, eyes and a nose all by herself. She was so pleased she even said, "Next year I think I can do mine all by myself".

And then we finally made it to Halloween for some actually

TRICK-OR-TREATING

My sister was able to come and we all went out together. I always forget how much fun I have going out. When the streets are filled with people and little trick-or-treaters, I just love it. It makes me feel like I'm in a movie.

Molly caught on quick. She would scoot her way to the front of the porch and hold out her bucket. She has also discovered the wonders of candy and has become quite obsessed. This is what she looks like if you say, "No Molly, no more candy".

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!