Monday, January 12, 2009

First Daybook post for 2009

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


Monday, January 12th, 2009


Outside My Window... there are grey skies, and a little bit of snow on the ground. More snow is expected tomorrow, along with cold temperatures the rest of the week, especially Thursday.

I am thinking... about how much I don't enjoy cold weather, or winter really. I keep trying to find ways to at least appreciate it, and I haven't been able to find anything. I just don't like it. I guess for me, it is just one of those "opposition in all things" sort of things, so I guess if I want nice weather, I'll have to live with the bad.

I am thankful for... that I did Once A Month cooking this month. It has really helped me be able to have a more relaxed day since I'm not scrambling around trying to figure out what to cook, and get it prepared, and cooking it, etc.

From the learning rooms... we are getting back on track after our Christmas break. The preschool children are learning about mittens, snowflakes, and snowmen. These are incorporated in environment with counting, patterning, matching, art, language, and pouring. Flower is starting a number of new units (most at her request): US history in the 20th century, whales, acrylic painting, Shakespeare, as well as math, poetry, botany, artist study, geography. She also will have a spelling test and a math test every Friday this quarter.

From the kitchen... I'm defrosting Chicken Tortellini Soup.

I am wearing... jeans, blue turtleneck, blue cardigan sweater, striped knee socks, and slippers.

I am creating... my themes list for January and preschool materials for January.

I am going... to Jelly Bean's Daisy Girl Scout meeting tonight. They will be talking about Girl Scout Cookie selling techniques at tonight's meeting. Both Jelly Bean and Flower are Girl Scouts. Cookie Sales in our area start on January 17th. So if any of you need cookies, and you don't know anyone who will be selling, please contact me and we'll get you hooked up!

I am reading... actually, nothing right now. I did read a couple of books about simplifying Christmas over the holidays (Unplug the Christmas Machine and The Hundred Dollar Holiday. I preferred The Hundred Dollar Holiday.) I also finished all the books on my November bookshelf. I'll give a review on them in a post sometime this month.

I am hoping... that 2009 is better for me and my family than 2008 was.

I am hearing... one of the daycare children working with modeling clay, and Flower doing something upstairs at the dining room/school table.

Around the house... I'm finally getting the house cleaned up from Flower's American Girl party on Friday night. She invited her sister, and seven other girls and the party went from 5 pm to 10 pm. They played an American Girl Mystery Game, had pizza and cake, watched the American Girl: Kit Kittredge movie, did a hair salon for the girls and their dolls, and did some karaoke singing.

One of my favorite things... is Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows. Have I mentioned that before?? LOL

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Not much. Trying to stay warm, and fully get back in the swing with school.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...





~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Go to Peggy's website to participate in the Simple Woman's Daybook project.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Christmas Dresses


I posted way back in this post back in September that I had purchased the girls their Christmas dresses for the year. Well, here is a picture of the girls in their dresses. Aren't the girls and the dresses beautiful?? They both love their dresses! I think that the dresses might fit next year too, so you may see them again for Christmas 2009.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Jelly Bean's birthday party

Jelly Bean's birthday is December 17th, and usually it is difficult to try and do a birthday party before Christmas, so this year, we opted to do it last weekend. She wanted to do a bowling party, and everyone had a great time. I didn't get any action shots (the lighting at the bowling alley never makes for good pictures, not to mention, they are usually a bunch of backside shots! LOL) So I've got pictures of the cake and of us eating. Jelly Bean also got a bunch of wonderful presents, but I didn't include those shots, because they included other people's children, and I didn't want to invade other people's privacy. But Jelly Bean says Thank you to everyone!

The cake - Baked by me and frosted by Mr. Simple. Jelly Bean is allergic to milk, and so all of her cakes are homemade with mixes/frosting tubs because they don't have milk in them.

Jelly Bean eating pizza - again, her piece doesn't
have cheese on it.


Mr. Simple

Flower

Super
Happy Birthday Jelly Bean!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We celebrated at around 9 pm with the kids.

Jelly Bean and Mr. Simple doing "cheers"

The girls actually stayed up until midnight!
Here's to 2009!

Christmas - Part 3

Merry Christmas 2008! We had a lovely Christmas. We went to church with Grandma S on Christmas Eve, and then we woke up early Christmas morning.

The Christmas Tree - I took off the Advent ornaments on the 24th
and put on our "real" ornaments.

Checking out the stockings to see what Santa brought

Super kept saying that all he wanted for Christmas was a
bubble gun. Well, Santa came through!
At 4, shouldn't Super be past finding the packaging more interesting than the present?

Apparently not.

Santa also brought the girls digital cameras,
and brought Super a great tricycle.

Grandma N was in town helping take care of Aunt Lisa.
She gave Jelly Bean a Cupcake Maker, and they had so much fun making cupcakes together!

The finished product!


There were plenty of other gifts, and there was much thought and effort put into them (Mr. Simple loves his homemade pillowcases from the girls!)
Hope everyone had a wonderful day! Merry Christmas!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Christmas - Part 2

Next we celebrated Christmas over at Grandma S's house on Christmas Eve.

All of the kids and Grandma S

Flower got the American Girl book pack that she has been wanting FOREVER

Jelly Bean got an American Girl Card/Scrapbook craft pack.

They got a classic game.

Super got a Thomas book pack.
Thank you Grandma S! We love all of our presents!

Christmas - Part 1

We celebrated Ellie's birthday and Christmas with Aunt N and Uncle D on December 14th. Here are some pictures from the day. (We were at Grandma S's house.)

Aunt N looking at the ornaments that the kids made

Uncle D looking at an ornament

Opening presents

Super's outfit. He also got a magnetic toy.

Flower's outfit. She also got a cookbook.

Jelly Bean's outfit. She also got a game.
She got a dress & sweater for her birthday.
Thank you for all the presents! We loved all of them!