Party House

We spent last weekend at my brother's house and celebrated Christmas with them. I'll highlight some things from the weekend one at a time.

Both of my kids love Uncle Mike and Aunt Christy's house, and Christy's brother Steve even proclaimed it a "party house." Just in the basement, there is a pool table, foosball, trampoline, lots of big cushions, balloons*, full kitchen, video games, board games, full kitchen, sauna, wine rack, mini bar and plenty of kid and toddler games. This would be a house arrests dream. There is a playroom but also toys in each and every room (and an Elmo toy in almost every one), a gazebo and hot tub outside. Also a whole wall of books and piano in the living room and TiVo.

Here are all the cousins (Shayna, Skyler, Pete and Sam) playing foosball with Manny. After each score (no matter which team) Sam would jump up and down with pure joy and laugh enthusiasticly and do high fives.

*yes, there were balloons

Inventer at Work

Shayna got an assignment from SIP over the holidays to write down as many ideas for inventions as she can think of. Mrs. Welch gave her a notebook. When I met her at the corner on her last day, Thursday Dec. 22nd, she was carrying the little notebook and pencil and writing as she walked. She told me she had 7 ideas (one per page) already. She is writing them all in mirror writing, with diagrams and illustrations. Here she is on the front porch writing in her notebook.

More cookies!

Shayna had fun making the snowmen sugar cookies and gingerbread men. The snowman with the huge bugged out eyeballs is when Skyler was whining very loud and broke our concentration. They will go neatly and cutely into thier gift tins for distribution. The details on the snowmen were "painted" on with paintbrushes using colored icing.


aren't we cute???

Fridge Bandit

Skyler likes to go in the fridge whenever someone opens it. He has a radar and as soon as you go near the fridge, no matter where he is he comes racing in. You have to be very skilled at getting out what you want in lightning speed and getting the door closed quick before he toddles in. He always went for his yogurt on the bottom shelf, but I moved it to the top shelf. Now he just grabs whatever he can. Bottled water, teriyaki sauce, or salad dressing- it doesn't matter to him as long as he gets something.

Finished Tree

Here is our tree after being decorated. The photo is a bit blurry and doesn't do it justice (lights are brighter and whiter) but you get the idea. Since its about 80% natural ornaments it smells sooo good in a cinnaminy mixed with pine way. We only had this raggedy blanket under it and I needed a white tree skirt but then VOILA! got the brainstorm of creativity from my hair salon...and got out a sheer white swag which is now my new tree skirt. I LOVE it. I have not wrapped anything yet so hence no presents but that is next on the agenda. I try and do all the same wrapping so it looks nice and pretty and matching.

close up of tree: I like gingerbread men, snowmen, hearts and clay/dough ornaments. I also fill in the space with candy canes (sweet kind not minty) and if I find them I hang the chocolate santa ornaments. 4 of those pictured we made. I got the idea for a theme (sort of- I do have some other ornaments too) tree from a roommate in my college house. She got a tree one year and did it in a teddy bear theme. It was sooo cute. I also got into the ritual of watching "Its a Wonderful Life" from this same roommate. To this day I have to watch this movie every year!

Christmas Cookies!

Shayna and I spend the weekend before Christmas making baked goods to give out as gifts every year. Last year we tried making truffles (candy) in adddition to the baked goods. This year we are focusing on COOKIES. So far we have made Peanut Butter Blossoms (seen in upper right of photo) and Snow Covered Chocolate Trees. The trees were made from scratch BUT we used Pillsbury flour, Shayna says Pillsbury makes the BEST baked goods. The Blossoms we used pre-made rolled dough. Sunday we will make cut out sugar cookies- snowmen and stars. It took 3 supermarkets to find sugar cookie mix- the 1st 2 markets SOLD OUT! All the cookies will be packaged into pretty tins and a card will be done on printmaster with the names of all the cookies. Also, most years we make cinnamin dough ornaments as gifts but will pass this year.

Christmas Caroling

This was a weekend filled with Christmas caroling. Friday night Shayna and I went with my parents to an old fashioned style classical Christmas choral concert by the Bucks County Choral Society in a church in Yardley. There was a bell choir and an organ although it was mostly just the choir, the bells and occasionally a harp. The choir was formally dressed in Tuxes and black dresses. It was truly beautiful peaceful music. There were 3 songs where the entire audience joined the chorus to sing and it gave me goosebumps, it was so beautiful. Shayna wants to pursue singing in her artistic/theatrical/acting pursuits so I wanted her to see a truly professional concert.

Saturday was the polar opposite caroling experience. Shayna and her girl scout troop 924 along with another troop sang Christmas Carols at Wood River Village, a local assisted/independent living facility for those 65 and older. After caroling the girls gave out homemade cookies that they had brought and socialized with the elder folk. It was a comedy of errors but sweet. The girls did not reherse nearly enough and the 2 troops were out of sync with a 3 second lapse in lyrics. I don't think anyone cared and I am sure thier youth and innocent joie de vivre brightened the day of those watching the show.


Shayna and Troop 924 caroling at Wood River Village
This lady seemed to be in charge (she is a resident) and she took a liking to Shayna, when we about to leave Shayna was hugging her. I said "free hugs" and she was enjoying the company. Here she is with Shayna and Juliana.

For more info. on the Bucks County Choral Society and to see what songs we heard go to this website:

www.buckschoral.org

Police Station Tour

Shayna's girl scout brownie troop got a tour of the Bensalem Police Station on Wed. night. They also went outside and got to sit in a patrol car, pet a police dog, watch the dog jump over a car, and sit on the police motorcycle. Some of the parents wanted to sit on the motorcycle as well. In the bottom photo they are in the room where they get "briefed" ala NYPD and they asked the girls if they had any questions. All of a sudden 12 giggly girls were very quiet. Shayna was the only one brave enough to ask a few questions (she is the oldest, the only 3rd grader in the troop and she is outgoing to begin with). She asked them why they have so many keys. A few minutes later she asked if the police station had ever been attacked. I guess this is what happens after watching too many action-adventure movies with her dad. The highlight was when they got the last part of the tour- into the break/snack room where there was a huge plate of donuts! The police treated them to donuts. Then they gave them a boxful of goodies (pencils, activity book, ruler, card of the motorcycle cop, etc.).

Muellers in DC

Shayna and I went to DC on Tuesday to meet up with my friend from First Moms Club, Debbie Mueller, and her 3 kids. First Moms Club started in 1997 and is a small group of moms from all over the US. We all started e mailing when we had our 1st children and they were still newborns. It has been 8 years now and we are all very close. We are all very similar as parents - very devoted- and it happens we all are blessed with amazingly bright, smart, and talented children. Shayna and Julia have been e mailing each other and IMing and were sooo excited to meet! Anna, her sister, is 5 and William is 2. Debbie and her family live in Hawaii but are originally from western PA. Well- just tonight we have now organized ALL the kids into thier OWN e mail group, so far there are 9 kids on the list (Shayna and Julia and another girl from Baltimore, Madeliene, had already been e mailing/IMing).

Shayna, Julia and Anna in the Air & Space Museum
The girls in front of the Capital!!

Lost Tooth

Shayna finally lost her tooth that has been hanging on now for a few days (has been slowly loosening for a few months). About 2 days ago it started to bleed and was almost out but not quite, so very uncomfortable for her. She lost it when she bit into her waffle (on plate behind her in bottom photo). The waffles are actually Dunkables but I like to call then Dunkaroos, and she will keep correcting me but I call them that on purpose. Shayna seems to have luck losing teeth when eating. In the past she has lost teeth while eating a frozen chocolate eclair pop and an apple. Another time she lost a tooth in the middle of a gymnastics birthday party. Shayna says this is her 9th baby tooth she has lost so far.

Will the tooth fairy come tonight?

Tree Unwrapping

Shayna and I got our tree this afternoon. That was step 1. Step 2 was getting it from the car and into the tree holder. Here is Shayna doing Step 3: removing the plastic web wrapping from the tree. We cut it off with a scissors. She thought this was fun as you can see by the big grin on her face. We did Step 4: trimming the lower branches/foliage to neaten it up (Shayna enjoyed this too) and Step 5: putting water in the holder. Manny helped with Step 6: putting on the lights. Only we found only one strand worked, so now only the upper top of the tree is lit. So Step 7 will be me buying new lights, Step 8 putting said lights onto tree. Then we can finally do Step 9 which is our favorite part: putting on all our ornaments (most have sentimental meaning and stories) while listening to The Nutcracker/Swan Lake CD . We plan on doing Steps 7-9 Thursday and Friday nights.

The tree touches the ceiling this year! It is actually wider then it appears in this photo because the branches have not settled down yet. This is before trimming the bottom.

Mischief: featuring the Mozzerella Caper and Elmo

1. THE MISCHIEF:

Friday night I went food shopping for a few items including lunchmeat and mozzarella cheese from the deli. When I unpacked the bags I couldn't find the mozzarella cheese. Of course I thought maybe Skyler grabbed it and took off with it (he had rifled through the bags) but I checked all over and couldn't find it (this was mere minutes so I thought how far could he have gone?). So I went back to the store and told them what happened (I thought it was left at the store) and they gave me another package for free. WELL..... on Sunday night I was coming downstairs. First I see he has managed to get the gate open at the bottom of the stairs and he is running around with the blue fabric that we tie it with (we tie one end because we couldn't attach the gate hardware to the bannister). Then he walks up to me and hands me the ORIGINAL package of mozzarella cheese! Apparently he had hidden it somewhere. This same scenario has happened with his sippy cup- found a few days later on the toy shelf in the playroom. I won't even mention the infamous incident with Shayna's school "educational trip" form that mysteriously vanished-thinking it fell out of her schoolbag on her way to class in the AM- guess who got into her schoolbag at night and went through her homework folder, hid the contents somewhere and then decided to reemerge them on the family room floor many days later??!!

2. ELMO

As you know Skyler LOVES Elmo. In the photo above, Shayna helping Skyler use the sprout/sesame website and they are on the Elmo ABC/123 page. Its interactive with the keyboard so when you press the letter it switches to that letter video and audio. Skyler's favorite was "Z." Every time Shayna pressed the "Z" a zipper would emerge and made a zip noise as it zips up. Skyler thought this was soo funny and would laugh hysterically.

Click here to see the exact page Skyler did:
Keyboard-o-rama

Saturday night after picking up Shayna and Skyler from my parents (Manny and I went to an adult only Christmas party at Steve & Andrea's house) we stopped at Shoprite to get popcorn since we planned on watching "War of the Worlds." We pulled up right in front of the main entrance, and they have this HUGE blown up Elmo in the vestible. Skyler thought it was sooo cool. So Manny, Skyler and Shayna got out so he could see Elmo up close. The only thing is, after looking at Elmo for a bit Skyler discovered the automatic doors. When someone walked out, Skyler ran in (this was the exit doors so he ran into where the check out aisles are). Of course, Manny ran in after him. But when he got back into the vestible, he saw that Skyler's shoe had come off and was now on the other side of the door. Somehow Manny managed to get over and get it before the door closed again. I thought to myself- we really need to get him out more- he thinks going to the supermarket is a big deal!

Getting Stuck

Just recently Skyler started getting himself stuck and not able to get himself out in various places. Then he will yell/cry for help.

1. Here he is after getting himself stuck IN the sofa between the cushions. He could not pull himself out.


2. He got stuck in his bathing apparatus (the thing we sit him in when he is bathed). He was whining until I took out the camera and then of course he hammed it up. Already he has stage face down. This was maybe the 3rd or 4th time he did this - either he is doing a Charlie Brown or he just enjoys getting stuck in there.

Reusing Toys

One benefit to being the 2nd child is that you get to use your siblings old toys. I got a bag of Shayna's old toddler toys out of the garage. One of the toys he likes is the Sesame Street pop up toy. So far he has only figured out how to get the elmo pop up to work, when you press the yellow button Elmo pops up and says "Peek a Boo!" Skyler keeps doing this over and over but doesn't try the others. Every time Elmo pops up Skyler thinks its the funniest thing and he starts laughing.