Christmas Card Photos

FINALLY!  I’ve been trying to get a photo for our Christmas cards for 2 weeks now!  I coerced the family into posing for me once, but we were losing light quickly and I didn’t want to use the flash.  That meant that everyone had to be perfectly still – HA!  Not gonna happen!  Did not happen!  So, what did happen is that I got 2 dozen shots where someone was blurry.  They were not at all happy when I told them we were gonna try again.  The problem is that nearly every day since that day, it has rained or just been so overcast and gray that there was not enough light to get good photos by the time Todd got home.  Or, we had something going on like Daisies or Cub Scouts.  Anyway…..the whole point is that I finally got the kids to cooperate and got some decent shots.  Not 100% thrilled, but decent anyway.  Bailey was a better subject for the photos than the kids were, go figure!  They actually cooperated more for the single shots.  Notice what Caeden has in his hand though, so typical.

School Christmas Parties

I was in charge of planning the Christmas party for Caeden’s class since I’m the Room Mom.  I was pretty clueless, I’ve never done it of course, so I was just making it up as I went along.  The party was from 11:45 – 1:15, so I had a big chunk of time to fill.  I guess the teachers choose the time and duration for their own party, because Lael’s party was 2 solid hours, but Dylan’s party was only 1/2 hour.  Anyway, the menu was the first thing that I was trying to nail down, because it was the most challenging.  Trying to keep track of what people volunteered to bring in, to make sure we didn’t have duplicates etc was a chore.  Also, since we are a Gold Medal school, the choices are pretty limited anyway.  I completely understand the rationale and all that, but it does make it hard to plan a party!  I think we ended up with plenty of yummy stuff though!  For the crafts, we made beaded bracelets like we did for the Daisy Scouts back at the beginning of the year.  I think that only one child dropped their beads all over the floor, so that was good.  We also made sock snowmen.  Chace made one of these one time when he was about Caeden’s age.  They are so cute, and I think all the kids had fun making them.  Last thing we did was a Book Exchange.  Each child brought in a book, wrapped.  I handed them out randomly and cautioned them not to open them immediately.  I told them they had to pass the book each time I turned the page as I read a story.  It was fun, everyone ended up with a great new book.  Here is Caeden and his snowman.

I got to go to Lael’s class after Caeden’s party was finished because it was still going on, Yay!  They were playing musical chairs when I got there.

Cookie Party

Aimee invited the kids up to her house after school today to decorate cookies.  She had already made them the day before with Poppy and Jamie but ran out of time to decorate them.  The older kids got home from school, so she thought she’d just make it a party!  Catherine provided the tubes of icing, I provided the sprinkles and Aimee provided the table, and consequently got the bad end of the deal, because she had the mess too!!  And let me tell you, there was quite a mess – multicolored sprinkles EVERYWHERE!  Anyway, the kids had a blast as you can see from their creations.

Christmas Decor

I had so much fun decorating for Christmas this year. Todd said that I was like a little girl, so excited. It’s true – it was fun. Most of our things had been in storage for so long, that with each new box that I opened, it was a bit like Christmas morning for me. I would pull something out, and then run around the house trying to find the perfect place for it. fun stuff! Of course I must share a pic, telling about it is just not the same as seeing it in person, and since most of you who read my blog don’t live here in Madison a picture is as good as it gets!

Gift Card Tree

As Room Mom for Caeden’s class, I am in charge of a gift for Mrs. Johnson. I thought a Gift Card Tree would be nice. So, I asked the parents to send in gift cards to stores or restaurants, and then I made this tree. You can’t see them very well, but there are beaded pins stuck here and there that will hold the gift cards. Mrs. Johnson loves frogs, so I personalized the tree a bit for her by adding some foam frogs. Lael helped with this project a lot too, and Todd as well. He was the official paper roller, and Lael was the official Glue dot giver. Nice to have help!!

Field Trip

The 1st grade had a field trip today.  Field trips are always fun, it doesn’t matter where you go.  Since I am Room Mom for Caeden’s class, I got to be a chaperone for his class.  The problem was, I got to be a chaperone for his class last Spring for a field trip.  Lael was quite upset by that.  She said that I NEVER get to go anywhere with her class.  NEVER constitutes 2 trips in a 6 year old brain, I guess.  Anyway, we went to Early Works and Santa’s Village. I got lucky in that Lael’s class was on our bus, and her’s and Caeden’s classes were in the same group. So, I got to see and chat with her on the bus and in the museum. Whew……It was fun – I thought that some of the exhibits were a bit boring for the kids, but then others were awesome. I think everyone’s favorite was Biscuit’s Backyard. There was a ton of fun stuff in there, the biggest draw being a water table – what kid doesn’t like to get wet??? After we finished with the museum, we ate lunch and then headed across the street to Santa’s Village. This was cute and fun too. They had reindeer, a blacksmith, crafts for the kids, stories read aloud by Ms. Claus and snacks. We were very worried we would have to cancel because of the threat of bad weather – but we didn’t get anything!

I’ve got more pictures on the video camera, and the Room Mom from Lael’s class uploaded the ones she took to Snapfish, so I will get more from there.  But, this picture is Caeden’s class on the bus waiting on the other students to board.  She has a very small class, only 14 students.

Artist in the Making

If you ask Lael what she is going to be when she grows up, her prompt response is ‘artist’.  This girl loves to draw, paint, sketch, help me with crafts – anything in an art related field, and she is on it!  Yes, it makes me happy to have her beside me creating her own masterpieces!  Anyway – the Art teachers at Columbia chose some art pieces to be displayed at an Art Fair for the school.  These pieces will be also be displayed at other Art Fairs in Madison and Huntsville through the year.  Lael’s teacher chose one of her pieces for display.  She was so proud and thrilled.  So, we all went to see her art piece, twisting Caeden and Chace’s arms on the way to make sure they showed support for their sister.  When we got there, Caeden started questioning why he did not have a piece chosen.  Oh boy, the competition between those two is brutal sometimes.  We had to explain to him that they could not pick a piece by each of the 900+ students in the school.  He was not happy but seemed to accept it. Lael piped in by saying that “Art is just something I am good at, Caeden.  Your talent is playing baseball.”  That perked him up a bit, and I was happy to see a little empathy from Lael.

Two days later, the results from the Reflections contest came in.  Caeden and Lael each had an art piece in the contest.  I originally thought that we were able to send only 3 entries to the city level to be judged there, but we could actually send 5.  So, the Art judge chose the top 3 and Caeden’s piece was one of the three.  After we figured out that we could send 5, Lael’s piece came up as one of the other 2.  So, they both get to move on to the next level.  But now Lael was the one who was upset.  She couldn’t understand why Caeden beat her out of the top 3, since Art is her thing, and baseball is his.  It was a little funny, but I tried not to laugh where she could see me.  Here are both of their art pieces.  Caeden drew the castle, and Lael drew the aquarium scene with the penguins and tingrays.

Xerox is doing something cool

If you go to this web site, Let’s Say Thanks
you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can’t pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.
How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! It is FREE and it only takes a second.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our soldiers over there need to know we are behind them.
This takes just 10 seconds and it’s a wonderful way to say thank you. Please take the time we can never say enough thank you’s.
Thanks for taking to time to support our military!

Advent Tree

In years past I have seen Advent Calendars made using cookie sheets, wooden frames, old windows or just in calendar format.  I’ve wanted to make one each year.  Last year I got lucky and got a wooden tree with 24 little wooden boxes in it at Old Time Pottery for 75% off.  S-C-O-R-E!

Sunday Lael helped me alter it so that it goes better with my Christmas decor.  It was a wee bit ugly before, but now it’s fabulous!!  We cut little squares of scrapbook paper and glued them to each box with Mod Podge, then added rubon numbers to each box.  Lael was more excited than I would have imagined to open each box.  But, I had to find stuff to fill it.  So, I told her we had to wait til Monday after school.  Plus, the bonus was that we were already 8 days behind, so she and Caeden had a few extra boxes to open.

It was a chore to find stuff that would fit in the tiny boxes besides the obvious like Hershey’s kisses!  So, I remembered how much they like to do scavenger hunts.  For the objects that would not fit I typed up a note to send them off on a scavenger hunt.  I think that added a lot of fun to the project.

Ornament Party – Girl’s Night Out

This was great fun. Julie and I planned this party as a fun way to get us out of the house mainly. A chance to eat at a real restaurant without having to cut up someone’s steak first, LOL!   We went to Connor’s at Bridge Street.  I love Bridge Street.  It is so nice – lots of wonderful shops and restaurants all nestled together around a lake.  It is all decorated for Christmas now, and that just makes it even more special.  Last night it was really too cold to walk around and browse through the shops.  We did our share of window shopping as we hurried to and from the car though!  Anthropologie has the most fantastic window dressings – whoever displays their merchandise is a genius.  I could walk into that store, close my eyes, point to anything, and take it home and be completely happy.  I wish I had my camera with me last night to take pics of it, I can just see a scrapbook page inspired by their stuff.

Anyway, back to our party…..We had 8 people, so it was a good number, I think.  The food there was delicious!  I had Grilled Chicken Pasta – and yes I know Connor’s is a steak house so I prob should have gotten steak, but pasta is my weakness!  Love it!  Maybe next time I will branch out and get the Carribean Shrimp Pasta.  Ms. Jeanne ordered that and she gave me a sample, it was quite yummy!  After everyone had finished eating, we started our game of Dirty Santa.  I thought everyone had heard of Dirty Santa, or had played at some point.  That was not the case, and the ones who did know had different ideas of the rules.  So, needless to say, the game was not played to perfection.  Then there is always one or two gifts that everyone wants badly.  Ms. Jeanne opened one of them, and I promptly stole it from her on my turn.  She was not happy at all – she didn’t understand the game at all, and just wanted to quit and not get anything.  It was actually hilarious, but she was not laughing.  I did not even get to keep the coveted ornament – Catherine stole it from me, then Sabrina stole it from her.  Anyway, everyone ended up with something, although some were more pleased than others.

Julie and Catherine both took pictures and they have promised to send them to me, so I will hopefully add pics later.