"Roughing it"

Over the break Danford and Luke went on a "campout" with the young men. And I use campout in the very loosest sense of the word. Is it a campout if you are at a beach house at Nehalem Beach? What if you are sleeping outside but still have the use of indoor plumbing and cooking your meals in an actual kitchen?
I suppose if you have a view like this it doesn't really matter what it is called.

You can just call it male bonding I guess.
It must be rough.

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.