Picture a Christmas

Christmas morning dawns bright and clear. We slept in until 8:00, which is pretty typical for us but unusual I know. What can I say, our kids are well trained.

After about an hour or so of blissfull preoccupation, breakfast of sausage and scrambled eggs and we are set for probably the quietest and most relaxing afternoon of the year.

Throw in a little baking, and dinner with good friends and all is right with the world.

Merry Christmas!

Dinner with Santa

It has been many a long year since we took our kids to the mall to see Santa. We took the boys a few times when they were little, but really it seems like a lot more work than it is worth. Really, taking a bunch of kids to the mall at Christmas time? Just shoot me.
This year some friends invited us to go downtown to see Santa at Macy's. This has been a long tradition among a few families that we know. Since many years ago when Macy's had a floor dedicated to Santaland complete with dinner, or breakfast I believe. Now it is just a small room, and dinner is eaten out in the food court, but a tradition nonetheless.
We were happy tag along and nothing beats being downtown at Christmas for getting in the spirit. The kids had fun with their friends and the only complaint was Luke's exclamation before we left, "there is no way I am sitting on Santa's lap!"

In Which I get into the Christmas Spirit

Last year Christmas came and went and I barely felt it. It was just a blur for a few weeks and then it was gone and I felt like I hadn't really tried to make it merry. This year my goal is to do more family activities in the spirit of the season.

We started with our ward Christmas party which I skipped out on last year because I was just too tired to go. Let me say that this is no ordinary Christmas party sitting around at the church eating treats and listening to the choir (although we did do those things). This party takes place out at a barn owned by a family in the ward. Last year it was newly finished and it is something to behold. With a full kitchen and a big loft with bench seating all the way around, it has become the go to place for our ward activities.

The big attraction this year was the horse drawn carriage rides. Nothing like a little turn around the barn on a crisp December night pulled by this to get you in the mood for Christmas.

My kids rode it a few times and if I were better at using my flash I would have a better picture.

The girls favorite part was vising the animals. Despite my description, this is a functioning barn where people board horses. And what barn would be complete without cats?

Next year I will think twice about skipping out on this event if I am feeling tired. I actually feel like it's Christmas time now.

Thankfull

Thanksgiving is officially over, my jeans are a little tighter, and I am suddenly way behind on my Christmas preparations. That is the nature of Thanksgiving, once it is over the Christmas season is upon us over night.

Here are a few highlights of our weekend in Central Oregon.

1. A view.

Definitely a plus if you have a long car ride. I am particularly fond of this one.

2. Food.

I didn't take any pictures of it, but I do love Thanksgiving dinner. The only downfall is that I kind of miss cooking it and I definitely miss the leftovers in my fridge.

3. Comic relief.

You can always count on kids to make us laugh. When Julie and I came home from our early morning black Friday shopping trip, Jonas asked me why I was wearing a hat. I said it was because my hair was ugly. He took off my hat to see for himself and said, "Oh, you're right!" and generously put my hat back on.

3. Pizza Mondo.

Our favorite place to eat in Bend. We went out for lunch there on Mattie and Lauren's birthday.


3. Quality time with the cousins.

It is always nice for the kids to have a few uninterrupted days together.

While the boys were out hiking, the girls were forced to make their own fun.

They made a snowman family. It's a good thing they are creative. When we finally did get them out of the house to go letterboxing, it was getting dark. It took some time to find the box, only to realize that we forgot all the supplies. Oh well, maybe next time.

Writer's Workshop

One of the things Hannah struggles with in 1st grade is writing. And not just writing but coming up with a topic to write about. She can spend so much of her time thinking about what she wants to write about that she does not get much writing done. She wants her work to be perfect and if she can't spell a word or if she thinks she can't draw a picture of something she will not want to write about it.
One day I was in her class working on a project and the kids were sitting down to write in their journals. Hannah could not think of something to write about so her teacher sent her to talk to me for ideas. I said "Well, we went to the farmer's market on Saturday. We got some corn and some yummy peaches. You could write about that." Hannah thought about it for a minute and said "I can't draw corn."
We are working on this and she is getting better at trying things she thinks she can't do.
Here is one of her writing pieces that she did several weeks ago.


Her spelling takes some practice to decipher. Here is the translation:
Me and my Grandma are kind of pen pals and I love her and that she has stuff for me and her name is Ann and shes really special and nice to me and that she plays games with me.

We are working on spelling and making sentences but progress is progress.

Ghosts of Halloween Past

Once upon a time, I was crafty. That is to say that I liked to make things. After many years of making things that either a) I did not finish or b) I did not like, I gave up on the crafting urge and have not so much as made a scrapbook page for many years. Recently I have felt a slight return to the crafting world (be it ever so slight), mostly because of the cute picture frames I learned how to make and actually like enough to use. But I digress.

One thing that I made that I actually did like were Halloween costumes. When Luke was little I made all his Halloween costumes and in fact would have shuddered to think of sending him out in a store bought costume. Here he is in 1997 in a cute baseball costume that I was oh so proud of.

And in 1998 it was a jack-in-the box that he would probably kill me for if he saw the photo.

In 1999 I cut out and ironed on all those skeleton pieces. Luckily Cole wore it too a few years later.

My personal favorite was the bug attack of 2001 thanks to Martha Stewart.

Once I had more than 2 kids to dress for Halloween it was off to Party C ity for me. Making costumes is fun but making 3 or 4 in one year is too much even for me in my most craftiest of moods.

And so 2003 became the year of the store bought costumes.

Oh, the horror!

Just kidding, they are actually very cute.

Again in 2004 I did very well by Party City.

After a while I get tired of shelling out that much money for Halloween costumes and lately have left them to their own devices. Cole has a collection of black cape like outfits that he uses in various capacities every year.

Last year the girls just wore their pa jamas which made me very happy because it required no work from me.

Finally this year I began to think that I should get creative again. When I asked the girls what they wanted to be Tyler said - "Pebbles Flintstone." I began to construct a Pebbles costume. Turns out it was rather easy and cute. So cute that Hannah took one look at it and said, "I want to be Pebbles!" Tyler of course gave it to her, because she is so very nice. So we started to work on making her into Wilma. Not as easy but also cute.

Turns out that none of the kids these days even know who Wilma and Pebbles are.

It also turns out that I only have enough energy to put together two Halloween costumes max and Cole was left to fend for himself. He just threw on a black cape and sprayed his hair pink. I don't know what he was supposed to be. Luke did not dress up for Halloween but did wear his dirt biking clothes to the youth party, which he has done for the past 3 years.

Maybe if I start sooner next time ... no I probably won't.

Score!

Tyler dribbles.

She shoots...

And she scores!

October in Portland

October is one of my favorite months. I am over my end of summer/back to school blues and getting into fall. The days are getting cooler and the leaves are changing. Like this tree in our backyard.

I love it when I start seeing all the colors bursting out on the trees. We have started breaking out the sweaters and jackets. I can start bringing out the soup recipes and the kids are busy planning out the Halloween costumes.

Also on the agenda: fall sports.

Soccer is in full swing for Tyler. She is having a fun season - her team has not lost a game.

This is the first year they have played goalies and have been taking turns being the goalie. Tyler has been anxiously awaiting her turn and finally got her shot on Saturday.

I kept warning her that being the goalie might not be as exciting as she might expect since her team is so good and their opponents do not get much of a chance to score. She spent much of her time standing there watching the game from the other end of the field. You can see Mattie and Lauren watching in the background.

At least now she is convinced that it is not that exciting and will be happier to just get to play.
Also Luke has been running cross country this year. 3 years at this middle school and I never knew they had a cross country team. It's not a very big program and he says he really just wants to run to get some exercise. This is good. It is always good for him to have a physical outlet for his vast amount of energy.

I love school sports. It's so much less work for me. He stays after school and all I have to do is pick him up.

This frees up my afternoons and I can actually make dinner, and sit down and read and eat candy corn.

My Masterpiece Art Studio

For Hannah's birthday this year I took the girls down to a local art studio to make some masterpieces. I discovered this place a few summers ago and the girls are always asking to go back. I always put them off because really we can do art at home just as easily. But there is something about being in their studio and having all their materials to work with. They can and have spent hours here. And I can't argue that it is nice to leave the mess behind for someone else to clean up.
We bought the mixed medial package and for $10 they had paper for painting, tracing, and enough clay for them to each make something.
Hannah used the light table to trace some cats.

She also used the oil pastel crayons on this piece of black paper.

Tyler wanted to paint and made this beach scene. They also have canvases that you can buy to paint on which would actually be really cool to hang their art work up somewhere. Next time.

Their favorite is really the clay. They rolled it, cut it, shaped it, molded it and...

came up with a birthday cake

and a turtle.

Here they are ready to be fired.

It takes a few weeks to get fired and ready to glaze. When they were ready we went back to glaze them.

This week they were finally ready to take home.

Ta Da! A masterpiece is born.

Toothless

I love a toothless grin. At about 6 or 7 years old when those front teeth start to fall out there is a short window before the permanent ones start to grow in when each of my kids in turn have sported this toothless smile. Hannah is there now. It doesn't last long and once it is gone you forget they ever looked like that.

Case in point: I barely recognize the girl in this picture. Is it really Tyler? She looks so different and all the more so because she is not only missing the top two teeth but one on the bottom as well. How did she even eat?

It was harder to find pictures of the boys with missing teeth. They were generally only missing one at a time and the new ones grew in so fast. Cole was only 5 in this picture.

Luke was 7.

It's a turning point. One minute they are little and toothless and the next minute the permanent teeth are in and they are suddenly older and it doesn't help that they are in first grade, and it's all day, and they are suddenly reading and writing and then tomorrow ... college!

Ok, that's getting a little carried away. Luckily I have a few more years yet.

The Last Hoorah, or Out Flying Kites

Summer is officially over and I am sad to see it end. I love summertime. I love it when everyone sleeps in until 9:00am, including me. I love not having to be anywhere much in particular. We can head out to the beach for the day if we want, go to the movies in the middle of the day, go to the museums or out to lunch. I love having help cleaning the house. This was a good summer in that the kids got along well, did not complain about being bored, and were helpful when I needed the house cleaned fast or my truck vacumed out.

I am actually dreading the first day of school. It brings back memories of the anxious, tearfull first days of my childhood. My kids are actually all excited about going back to school (except for possibly Hannah). I will be the only one with the stomach ache tomorrow.

And so here we are making the most of our last few days of freedom out on the Oregon Coast.

We mostly flew kites. This is the biggest one we have and Danford has finally learned how to use it without being dragged down the beach.

Luke learned to kiteboard.

Everyone flew a kite...

Even Hannah.

We also did a little exploring.

And so, so long to summertime...

at least until next year.