The Sky

 We've been studying constellations, the moon and the sun for science lately, here are some of our projects.  I got all my ideas from Pinterest.

Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below) each chose six constellations they wanted to learn about.  We painted little pieces of paper, researched, created rough drafts, and then created this final project.  We used a hole punch to make the constellations, then glued them to a bright yellow sheet of cardstock and labeled them.  

We typed up information about the constellations and glued them on back.  Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below).  I ended up doing a lot of Buddy's research, it was fun and he helped me decide what we wanted to include.

 Then we studied about the earth's rotation and seasons.  They had to glue these earths on so that the correct hemisphere was closest to the sun for the correct season drawn on the back corner.  Buddy (above) and Princess Sparkley (below).

 Then, with Oreos, we created the phases of the moon.

Little Guy is 28! In Dog Years.

For Buddy's 6th birthday, we had a dog-themed party.  We basically copied that party and just changed things up a little.

The invitation.  I used a similar invitation idea for Buddy's 4th birthday party. Each bone had party information on it.

The guests arrived (4 guests since he turned 4).  They decorated their good bags, made 

doggy headbands and collars. 

We read the board book, Doggies, by Sandra Boynton to decide what dog bark was going to be ours and practiced making all the dog sounds.

Then we had Doggy Obedience School where the "dogs" learned to sit, lay, speak, roll over, shake and fetch.  They were rewarded with a doggy treat (Scooby snack).

In action at Doggy Obedience School.

We read the book Dog's Colorful Day.  And my sweet husband drew Dog for me.

Our library story time in Kansas did this story and stuck colorful felt circles on a flannel board.  I thought it would be more fun to stick them on Dog.

I told the little kids they could put the dots in the right spots, or just wherever.  After the party, Princess Sparkley rearranged the spots so they were all in the right spot.

We had a little extra time, so we also read Dog's Noisy Day and the kids had to make all the animal sounds.  It was fun.

We also played Doggy, Doggy, whose got your bone?  Sorry, no pictures of that.
And then, since this was supposed to be a Chocolate Lab party, not just a dog party, we had Chocolate Lab cupcakes.

And the goodie bags:

Before going home, the kids got to adopt a dog.  For Buddy's party, I found some Beanie Babies on Ebay, I didn't have time to wait for shipping so these little pups are just from Dollar Tree.

And, it turns out I didn't have any lollipop sticks, so the kids just got peanut butter paw prints.

And frosting the cupcakes took FOREVER, so the doggy bone sugar cookies they got in their goodie bags never got frosted.

They also got Chex Puppy Chow (aka Muddy Buddies), some doggy stickers and a bouncy ball along with their adopted dog.

Little Guy got some great presents.  Legos, which he LOVES!!!  Buddy has already helped him build them all.  He got a super cute dog book called Chowder and a dog puzzle.  And one mom got a Webkinz Lil' Kinz Bulldog (since named Grem) and put it in a little felt bed and made it a collar and a blanket and included a little silicone bowl and a bag of "dog food" which were just chewy Lemonheads.  Super creative.  If we ever do a dog party again (although twice should probably be my limit) that's the sort of gift bag thing I'd like to send the kids home with.

Little Guy Turns 4!

We opened family presents in the afternoon.  He got some Legos, some books, some Cars 2 cars, a Cars 2 water bottle, a Webkinz Golden Retriever named Finn Ice Cream, etc.

Little Guy got this Angry Birds game he saw at his cousin's house after Christmas.  He loves Angry Birds (used to call them Mad Birds) but the actual app is sort of hard for his fine motor skills to execute properly.  This is perfect for him.

Grandma and Grandpa M sent this fun card.  When you open it, the beater turns around and the character in the card yells at you.  We pulled it out while he helped me make the sugar cookies he requested for his birthday "cake."

 Birthday Sugar Cookies!  Princess Sparkley helped color letters and tape them to toothpicks so we could write him a birthday message.

And the next day, his new Sunbeam teacher brought him a giant oatmeal chocolate chip cookie!  And he ate the entire thing!

Bored? Throw a party for a stuffed animal.

The kids threw a party for Little Guy's dog Bubble in Little Guy's bed the other day.  All the stuffed animals were in attendance.

Scootering

Monday it snowed.  Today's high was near 60 so I got out the bikes and scooter and let the kids play out front.  The bikes had flat tires, so while I pumped them up, Princess Sparkley helped Little Guy figure out how to ride a scooter, then she filmed him.

First Snow

Monday (January 9) was our first snow of the year.  And really, the season.  There was a light snow that melted right away and didn't stick back in October, but we were in Pittsburgh for that one.  This storm was supposed to be rain.  It ended up snowing for several hours but didn't start sticking until later in the day and was mostly gone the next morning. 

We were grocery shopping at Target when Princess Sparkley spotted that it was snowing out the window and the kids all ran out to play in it for a second.  This happened about a month ago at church.  We could see through the foyer doors that it was lightly snowing, but it only lasted a couple minutes.  That time no one ran outside. 

Kids with the camera

So it turns out that almost this entire upload is pictures the kids have taken.

Styling Rapunzel's hair (photos by PS):

Lego/Book Bridge designed and built by Buddy (photos by PS): 

Pictures of Little Guy and other (by PS):

Little Guy figure out the camera

Little Guy stumbled upon the camera the other day and decided to take pictures of all his dogs and when he remembered, their bums.   Then he moved on to family members and other objects, including the rug. 

Little Guy's Birthday List

With help from Princess Sparkley (writing and spelling) and Mom (spelling), Little Guy wrote (!) out his bithday list today.  He was super proudof himself for soumding out ambulance.  In three weeks he turns four!

New Year's Eve

We were in Richmond for New Year's Eve last year as well and it involved banging pots and pans out on the street at midnight so this year, it was tradition.  Here the kids are with their cousins getting ready for the countdown.  We also went out and made S'mores.  Yum.  I love that the weather was warm enough to do this on December 31!

B's birthday: take two

We celebrated B's birthday a second time with family in Richmond.

New puppy relative

Our Richmond cousins got a Goldendoodle from Santa for Christmas so we went down to meet her for New Year's weekend.  Her name is Molly Doodle and she is adorable.

B's Birthday

B has a Chick Hicks themed birthday this year.  The first picture with a candle in a sandwich rather than a dessert is a breakfast sandwich we made him.  Then we decorated and invited our friends the Js over for brownies and ice cream with a peanut butter caramel sauce.  Mmmm. 

Princess Sparkley

Christmas

We were mean parents this year.  We aren't an early bird family, and church was a nine so we weren't going to wake up early just to open presents.  Buddy says he woke up at six and saw the clock but we didn't hear any kids up until 7:30 or 7:45.  We slowly got up, ate a normal breakfast and got dressed for church.  Had church been the normal three hours, we might have been nice and opened presents before, but church was only one hour today so we figured they could wait.  They got to pull one thing out of their stocking before they went out the door. 

An hour of church that was actually really nice, lots of singing, even with Buddy bouncing excitedly next to me wanting it to be over.  Then we hurried home and back into PJs so we could recreate Christmas morning like we'd just woken up.  The kids sat at the top of the stairs and drank a glass of orange juice waiting for us to tell them they could come down.

And then chaos (or as Princess Sparkley says, "CH-A-Ose") ensued.

To sum it all up: Legos, more Legos, movies, more movies, Star Wars guys, Rapunzel people, doll bunkbeds (made my Grandpa M), doll bedding (made by Grandma M), books, camping supplies, cooking gadgets, sleeping bags, clothes, candy, more Legos, more candy, strange food requests (Buddy: baloney, Little Guy: Cheese balls, and PS, so she wasn't left out of the weird food from Santa, syrup to make Strawberry milk) and some puzzles. 

Christmas Eve

The kids spent all day staring at presents under the tree, debating which one they would open first, bargaining with their siblings ("I'll open your present first if you open mine first,"etc.), and if you were Little Guy, declaring "I'm opening all of my presents first."  Around 1:45PM, Buddy declared it the most annoying day ever because it should be 4PM and it wasn't even two yet!!  And finally the day turned dark and the festivities could begin.

We started by eating out at a Chinese restaurant across town.  This is our third year going there on Christmas Eve and I think it was the first time we haven't been the only customers.  There was an older couple at the table next to us who complimented us on how well behaved our kids were when they left.  That was nice of them.

After dinner, we came home, read the Christmas story from the Bible and opened family presents.  Typically we would open all non-Santa presents on Christmas Eve.  This year we restricted it to just immediate family presents so Christmas Day would have most of the presents.  We mixed it up a bit this year too by starting with the youngest, having each person hand out the presents they got for everyone.  I liked doing it this way I think.

Then off to bed, making sure to leave a plate of cookies for Santa (as long as the Elf on a Shelf that Princess Sparkley made didn't eat them all first).

Gingerbread House

Princess Sparkley made this Gingerbread house at Girl Scouts this week.  (And cookie sales have started!  Let us know if you want any!)

Snake

I was sitting inside yesterday afternoon when Princess Sparkley came running up from downstairs yelling that she needed the camera.  Why?  There was a snake outside.  What?  I looked out the window and was surprised to find B outside holding a tiny snake.  Yuck!  Afterwards he said he couldn't remember how many years it had been since he'd held a snake.  Me.  Never.  So we hurried out with the camera and snapped some pictures before he carried the snake to the grassy "alley" behind our house and let it go.  Hopefully he slithered into someone else's yard.  We think it's just a garter snake.  Correct us if we're wrong... or maybe don't, in case it was super poisonous or something.

Holiday Photo Shoot

 B thought it would be funny to have Little Guy lounging across the coffee table in the middle of the picture.  Each of the big kids needed a turn as well.

Holiday picture photo shoot one.  I didn't realize until we were done that I'd taped the Santa hat ball on backwards. Argh!

Tooth

top tooth on the right

Maybe 1 1/2- 2 months ago Little Guy, standing on the edge of the bottom bunk and holding onto the rail of the top bunk, slipped, fell and hit his face on the dresser (I think).  He was all bloody, tooth and lip but the tooth never got wiggly.  After a few days it started getting bruised.  I called to make a dental appointment for him, it was busy, life got in the way and I never called back.  Stupid of me.  I read about it some online and found out the tooth can get bruised and will slowly heal and return back to its normal color.  And that's exactly what his tooth started doing.  By the time he went in to get it checked out two weeks ago, it was almost normal again.  His dentist informed me that the tooth had an abscess and would have to be removed.  She requested X-rays, but never even looked at them before making a final decision.  She then told me she could do it right then, or if I wanted to come back I could make an appointment for later that week or I could take him to a pediatric specialist if I wanted.  ?? It's a dental facility for kids, I assumed they were pediatric specialists, I guess not.  Anyway, I tracked down his insurance, found a pediatric dentist that would see him and took him in on Tuesday.  This dentist looked at the tooth, saw that it wasn't wiggly, looked at all the X-rays very carefully and said he was very optimistic that he could save it.  He said he couldn't guarantee it would work, or how long it would last, but he thought it was worth giving a try.  I mean, Little Guy is about to turn 4... he wouldn't grow a new front tooth for 3-4 more years!  I was on board.  We went back on Thursday.  I saw with Little Guy while they numbed him up... maybe 15 minutes.  Then they had me wait in the waiting room and 10 minutes later the doctor came out.  He'd performed a baby root canal and capped the tooth.  A couple minutes later, Little Guy walked out with the nurse, gauze in his mouth and a handful of stickers.  He got a Slurpee on the way home.  What a champ!  Buddy doesn't even like getting his teeth cleaned and throws a huge fit about it.  Little Guy= brave!

In the pictures, he's bundled up so much because he was shivering after the Slurpee.

And, while we're on the subject of Little Guy, here he is cuddling with Daddy playing mindsweeper a few days ago.