kirstencan

Easter

I wanted to briefly post about Easter.  Most of us were sick for the weekend - which is why I'm glad we had an extra laid-back holiday planned.

Much of our holiday was the same as yours, I'm sure:

We had a little egg hunt in our front yard - because of diet/food dye issues all the eggs had jellybeans (Starbust!  The only good jellybeans...) and the kids were assigned different colors of eggs to look for.  Thomas had all the green and yellow eggs - and all the green and yellow jellybeans.

He liked to sort his candy by color...

This year, in order to simplify and not bring more junk into the house, we didn't prepare Easter baskets for the kids.  Instead, we bought them a small joint gift - something they can all play with together.

We got these pop beads at Target.  I'd been keeping my eyes open for them - one time at church Thomas' teacher gave everyone in her class some pop beads - and they've been in our church bag ever since.  All of the kids like to play with them, but we didn't have enough for all of them to play at once.  So, I was way happy to find a humongous jar of them, and some of these will be put in the church bag. 

I'm really happy with these beads, btw - all of the kids love them and you can make really cool things with them - jewelry, flowers, people, spaceships, etc. And while they're marketed to a younger crowd, Princess and her friend (10yo) had a ball with these the other day - even I like fiddling with them!

I was happy with this one-gift Easter idea (possibly a new tradition?)...until I saw Amanda's baskets - which are perfect.  Darn it. 

Maybe next year...

(Oh, and check out these awesome eggs!)

Cookie Flowers

For Thomas' teachers, and a few of Princess friends:

One butter cookie, two gumdrops, one skewer.

A flower!  My boys' chubby little fingers had no problems doing this - closely supervised, those skewers are quite pointy!

Soon you'll have bunches. 

A few green paper leaves added, and packaged in a cute bag - voila.  This was the backup plan project, actually - the original was making homemade fortune cookies.  I've done it before, but the recipe is fickle and wouldn't work for us this time. 

I do wish I could have seen Thomas walking into school with five of these for his teachers - from all accounts he was adorable handing them out.

(Next time:  one little 'bouquet' went to a very special Valentine of Princess' - I can't wait to show you!)

Thomas' Valentines

I'm a big fan of the kid-made Valentine.  Thomas' Valentines for preschool the past couple of years have been simple construction paper red hearts with drawings and stickers on them - very much made by him.

This year I wanted to somehow incorporate his photo.  I think that in his class everyone would get a kick of a photo of their friend on it.  I was going to do the same type of card as previous years and have him glue wallet-sized photos of himself on them. 

What I ended up doing was helping him write 'For you' on a paper heart and held a 30-second photo shoot with him holding it.  I just uploaded it to Costco and used a pre-made Valentine border to fancy it up a bit.

On the back (where I was going to attach cute paper, but got lazy), I helped Thomas write everyone's names (and his name - good practice!) and he chose stickers for each one.  All in all, cheap, easy, he was very involved, got fine-motor practice, and I think they'll be a big hit!

I made these red fleece bean bags out of fleece left over from the elf hats (they're sitting on the purple playsilk - isn't the mottling cool?).  Since I'm room mom for Thomas' class, I have an hour to kill at their class party.  So far it's cookie-decorating, paper-bag decorating (to hold everyone's cards), and ... something... with bean bags.  Probably just some sort of toss.  We'll see!  I double-stitched the bean bags to ensure that none of them break when tossed (or chewed) - at least not easily! :) Everyone can take home their beanbags, too.

Valentine's day is hard for Thomas.  Last year he was sick, which was fine, because every single card had chocolate (he can't have) or red candy (he can't have) attached to them.  Since he didn't really understand the holiday at the time, and his teacher understood his diet, she just tossed them all.  This year I'm sending in GFCF approved candy for his teacher to switch on all the cards.

When did the whole 'candy attached to the Valentine' thing become mandatory anyway?  Back in the day it was pretty-much cards-only for school, right?

(heh heh - Oh, wait I guess we did a candy one last year for Princess' friends - but, hey - it was darn cute!)

New Year

(I didn't have any New Year's photos or graphics - so Princess made me one.  It's her, with some fireworks).

We are still in that awkward post-Christmas stage where the tree is down, but a lot of other decorations are still out.  Not all the gifts have found places yet, either.   

Christmas was awesome, though.  We were able to spend time with all of my siblings, who came home for the holiday.  We got spoiled - more on gifts another time, but having stacks of new dvd's and books (and fabric!) is seriously cool.

We went sledding a couple of times - the kids never last very long, though - it's been COLD.

We picked out a few family gifts for Christmas.  I really like the idea of simplifying individual gifts and working harder at getting some cool gifts for the whole family.  This year we got a fingerprint drawing kit, Hullaballoo, and Dance Dance Revolution.  Believe it or not, DDR was Aaron's idea.  And I LOVE it.  Which is good, because it's a great workout!  The boys can't really do it yet, but love trying and watching.  Princess' favorite song to dance to is 'Le Freak' - which cracks me up.  We took it to my parents house and everyone played and it was so fun (to laugh at each other).

We got another video game as a gift: We love Katamari.  The coolest, weirdest game ever.  It's really fun and addicting.

All Monkey wanted was a 'Castle and some guys'.  And that's what he got.  Duplo Legos are seriously cooler than when I was little!

So Happy New Year to you all!  I hope it's wonderful - now excuse me while I go play Legos - again.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Oh, I had great ideas for this post.  I was going to have Princess play a Christmas song on the piano and post a video of her.  I have thrifted vintage ornaments to show you.  I'm sure there's more...

We are doing a little cleaning this morning, so we can spend the afternoon baking and playing games together.  We're expecting a lot of snow, so we'll be getting the White Christmas Princess has been 'dreaming of'. ;)

Anyway, have a great holiday.  I hope you all have time to spend with family and friends.  I hope you sing carols, drink hot chocolate, and eat pie and candy canes.

All the best to you, my friends!

Merry Christmas
xo
kirsten

Slowly...

Well, this week has been a blur.  Of fever, mostly.  Turns out I have strep throat (and so does Thomas) and my fever/chills thing has pretty much kicked my butt all week.

Poor Aaron had already planned to take the week off to start vacation, and has had to run around taking care of kids, picking up Thomas from school, taking him to the doctor, cooking me yummy stuff (blueberry muffins, calzone and Vietnamese beef soup...), and occasionally coming upstairs to click the mouse button for me when I was in bed and couldn't move.  I am seriously spoiled.

I've been watching lots of dvd's on the computer, sweating, taking tylenol and antibiotics.  Not much else.

So some things on my list had to get scrapped.  Teacher's gifts will be made after Christmas, and a couple of things I took out of my shop instead of making new ones.  Actually, that's a pretty sweet option.  I may end up buying my last couple of gifts instead of making them - if I can make it to the store tomorrow, anyway.  I think I can, I think I can...

I think I am finally on the mend, though - thank you SO much for your get well comments and commiserations!  There were a few times I was able to sit up and go online - but emailing/commenting still seemed exhausting.  Silly, huh?  It's nice to not be quarantined in my room anymore, and able to snuggle my kiddos!

The photos here are from our gingerbread making session this weekend - pre-sickness.  Our philosophy is not about making a gorgeous house, it's all about fitting as much candy on the house as we possibly can.  And we did pretty good.  The whole process went much smoother than last year!

Decked Out

The evergreen in front of my house is all dressed up for the holidays.

Stars and icicles. Can't ask much more of a tree, right?

Happy St. Lucia's Day!

Princess and I decided to make some Lucia and Tomtenisse dolls.

I'd already been looking for a cute way to make a bunch of tomtar (Swedish gnomes) to have around the house - and of course Alicia's Lucia's inspired the peg people idea.  I love her floral dresses, but decided to be more traditional and just use plain white.

Princess and I painted them. She helped me cut the pipe cleaners and hats, but I handled the glue gun (and did a mighty sloppy job of it, too).

It's always fun to do projects together! 

A pair of dolls was given to Princess' piano teacher, who is Swedish, and also the accompanist for the Lucia program we're involved in (show's on Saturday).  Two more might be given away to someone else, but that still leaves a slew of them to have about.

And she plays with them ALL the time!  She has them put on shows and processions.  We need some 'everyday' peg people, too.

And next year, some Star Boys.  For sure.

God Jul!

More about St. Lucia's day here and here.  And last year's post here.

More Decorations

I cut up my Tord garland from last year (Thanks for the idea, Estea!) to make new candleholders for the mantel.

Princess made a pomander.  It smells heavenly.

Paper snowflakes are cut and hanging in the windows.  We do this every year.

And since four-sided snowflakes are a pet peeve of mine (six, people, six!) here's how to fold paper the right way to make a snowflake.

And our first batch of Christmas cookies are... gone.  They were delicious, though.

Excuse me while I wipe the powdered sugar off my chin.

We Wish You a Nerdy Christmas

Every year my dad gets a Star Trek desk calendar - the kind that has a different picture for every day.  Somehow, last year my mom ordered two, and I got one (yes, I like some Star Trek  - and it was a fun thing for my dad and I to watch together (mostly the Next Generation - not so much the newer stuff)).

ANYHOO... I saved my calendar and cut it up to make him ornaments.  Nerdy Star Trek Christmas Ornaments.

Because nothing says Christmas like Mister Spock.

But, see, it is Christmasy - in the photos above gang is singing Jingle Bells and goofing of at the officer's Christmas party.  That Kirk is one funny guy, I tell ya!

Here's Captain Picard getting serious during his dramatic reading of 'A Christmas Carol' (so sorry about your forehead, Captain!).  And I think Geordi and Data are getting ready to sing 'O Holy Night'.  I've never heard it sung as a duet, but it could be good.

I don't know what Uhura's doing - but I think this one's my favorite!

I made a dozen of these, and gave them to my dad on a little tree for his office.   I'm pretty sure my mom wouldn't let him put these on her tree.

(Okay, NOW you can laugh!)

And as long as the Mod Podge is out... might as well make a handful like last year, right?  I was happy with this smaller size of circle.  I was hoping to get some sets of these up on etsy this week, but it's not going to happen.  I think these will just be given away or something.  Maybe if I start in January I'll get some done for the shop next year?