Leaf Fun

On Friday, we finished our craft for the day and decided to go for a walk.  The leaves had been falling for a few days so our street was looking pretty and it was cool out but not chilly.

The kids collected leaves on the walk and I had to choose winners when we got home-biggest leaf, prettiest color, etc.

Then we raked....

 

 ...and the fun began.  

 

 

 

 

I love the faces in all the action shots!

 

 

 

Reed fell asleep on our walk so I held him and watched from the bench.  He woke up after a bit and watched.

Eventually he got involved.

 

Christmas/Winter Crafts-Days 1-5

I have a goal to do a Christmas craft/activity with the kids every single day of December up until Christmas.  So far we've done it, and it's been fun.  I am letting them take turns deciding what type of craft we're going to do. Their first turns, Neely chose Rudolph, Cason chose a yeti, and Paige chose a Christmas tree.  The very first day of December though, I had them do handprint wreaths.   

 Paige's:

Cason's:

Neely's:

She insisted on having the pink showing through.  :)

Tuesday we didn't do a craft, but decorated cookies.  We did them with the Cassons in the morning, and again with the Austins, after the big kids came home from school.  I found a great sugar cookie recipe, finally! 

 

On Wednesday we did Cason's choice-the Yeti.  From left to right, Cason's, Neely's, mine, and Paige's.

Thursday was Neely's choice-Rudolph.

Paige decided hers was Clarice from the movie.  She didn't want to do the handprint antlers because Clarice doesn't have any-even though Cason and I told her the movie is wrong and with reindeer the females have antlers too.  Ha.  Her Clarice is quite cute without them, anyway.

On Friday we made Paige's Christmas trees.

Of course we're watching lots of Christmas movies and having Christmas themed lunches too.  :)

Decorating Day

We decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  We didn't see any lots set up to sell Christmas trees, but we didn't want to wait so we settled for Home Depot.  When we got there we were surprised to find that it was the workshop day, so the kids got to build a piggy bank.  "Santa" walked up and said hello, and our kids were not that excited.  They just said "hi" and went back to their work.  Ha!  Cason said he wasn't even the real Santa, his beard was fake.  :)

 

 Reed was getting bored watching...

 ...so eventually I took him with me to check out the Christmas decorations.  We had fun on the way there.

 While we were looking, an employee was stocking shelves and glanced up at Reed.  She said "Well hi there, cutie.  How are you?"  Reed looked at her for a few seconds, and then grinned and blew her the hugest, most dramatic, showy kiss of all time.  She loved it.  Then he proceeded to blow kisses to every shopper we passed.  Most didn't even see it.  He's a good boy.  He kisses, cuddles, and blows kisses constantly lately.  

However, I've even had him blow me angry kisses when he's mad at me.  It's pretty funny.

Anyway, soon we picked a tree and headed home to decorate.  As usual, we watched Rudolph while decorating.  It inspired Neely to draw some reindeer.

 

 Neely  was very pleased to be the one to put the star on the tree this year.

I mostly hung out watching, and unwrapping/handing out ornaments.

 

I came across this gem from the childhood of Jess-and he'd wrapped him EXTRA carefully in his own really big box with a bunch of bubble wrap stuff.  Apparently he's waited a year to see me laugh when I opened the huge box to find a tiny bear.  

He also says it's not Christmas until bear has taken his place at the top of the tree.  I'm sorry, "his RIGHTFUL place."

 Anyway, aside from a BIT of anger when a certain girl wasn't allowed to tear into the box of ornaments and was forced to wait for me to hand them out, we had fun.

 (side note-Paige has lost both top teeth recently)

The kids mostly decorated the tree themselves this year, except the lights, a few special breakable ornaments I put up top, and of course Bear.

We finished our night with the traditional eggnog and viewing of It's a Wonderful Life.  I'm always kind of surprised at how well our kids pay attention to a black and white movie that you wouldn't think kids would find that interesting.

Most of the kids paid attention, anyway.

 

A Boy and His Dog

I've said many times that Gia is the best dog ever.  She really truly is though.  I've known a lot of good dogs, but this one takes the cake.  She is so good with all the kids, but she and Cason have developed an extra cute relationship.  I hadn't noticed, but Jess mentioned a few weeks ago how she always finds him at night and sleeps near him.  I realized it was true.  Not many nights later, we had our movie night and when I was ready for bed I checked on the kids first.  Gia had cuddled up close to Cason and was pretty much spooning him.  Haha!

It's mutual too.  They're quiet about their love, but it's the little things.  Ha.  Like this morning I noticed Gia's collar was off.  Cason came home from school and casually mentioned "I took Gia's collar off to give her a break from it."  :)