Update.

Well, Lorelai has an ear infection.  She is now on antibiotics and the fever is gone!  She felt well enough to go to school today.  It's her last day before Christmas break and I'm glad that she will get to see her friends before a week and a half of vacation.  Lorelai brought in homemade cards and treats for her teachers and bus driver.  She was so excited about that!

I am feeling better and so must get busy!  I have family arriving tomorrow and I don't think they want to do the dishes or clean the bathroom. 

Ugh.

It's been a few days since my last post.  Last week kind of got away from us.  The kids had a lot of play dates and I'd been busy getting everything ready for family-who arrive in just 3 days!  Now, both Lorelai and I are sick.  She has a had a fever for over 2 days now and we just sent her to bed.  I really hope it comes down.  I have a sore throat and nasal congestion.  Ugh.  Thankfully Bryan and Isaac are OK.

Claymation Christmas Celebration [1987]

Rory's Story Cubes

Isaac and I played Rory's Story Cubes this morning.  It's a game that Lorelai received for her birthday.  It's very simple and lot's of fun!  There are 9 dice with 6 pictures on each one.  You simply roll them all and tell a story using all the pictures that are face up.  It's really neat to hear what the kids come up with and they don't always use the picture literally.  Isaac rolled a "?" this morning and used that to symbolize a mystery.  I was very impressed!  I'm not as creative as I thought I would be though. 

I had tried to do a similar activity with the kids before.  You take a piece of paper and section it into 9 spaces.  Then, cut out pictures from old magazines and paste them into the spaces.  You tell a story by connecting the pictures together in a row, up, down, diagonal, etc.  When I started cutting up old Highlights, Lorelai flipped out and got very upset!  The project was ceased immediately.  I had to tape or glue the pictures back!  She seems to like the cubes though.

Isaac's roll- He used the star to mean nighttime and the plane just as a means of getting somewhere, not the objects themselves.  So smart.

Mom!  I said no pictures!

 

Oh Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel!

Doesn't everyone remember learning that song in elementary music class?  Well, Lorelai recently heard it at school and so, just for fun, I bought the kids some dreidels at Target.  They've been spinning them around for the past week or so and tonight we decided to play for real.  We used chocolate chips and had a lot fun!  So here are the rules via Wikipedia:

 Each player begins with an equal number of game pieces (usually 10–15). The game pieces can be any object, such as chocolate gelt, pennies, or raisins.

• At the beginning of each round, every participant puts one game piece into the center "pot". In addition, every time the pot is empty and sometimes if it has one game piece left, every player puts one in the pot.
• Each player spins the dreidel once during their turn. Depending on which player side is facing up when it stops spinning, they give or take game pieces from the pot:
  • a) If נ (nun) is facing up, the player does nothing.
  • b) If ג (gimel) is facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.
  • c) If ה (hei) is facing up, the player gets half of the pieces in the pot. (If there is an odd number of pieces in the pot, the player takes the half the pot rounded up to the nearest whole number)
  • d) If ש (shin) or פ (pei) is facing up, the player adds a game piece to the pot.
• If the player is out of pieces, they are either "out" or may ask another player for a "loan".^[4]

 Bryan ended up winning our little game but everyone received gold "Bah Humbug" coins for a prize anyway.  The coins were chocolate-peanut butter and had the faces of the A Christmas Carol characters on them.  Yummy. 

On a side note:  Izzy and I went to the library yesterday, he is REALLY into their puppets! He had several out all at once and had quite a fun time playing with them.  Different ones were allowed to be friends and some were only "a little bit of a friend" to others.  It was determined by size.  :)  Anyway, what I loved most were the names he gave them.  My two favorites were Gridge the hedgehog and Vimperman the Rat.  He is so funny!

Festival of Trees

Today, the kids and I visited the Festival of Trees with some friends.  We have lived here for over 8 years and this was the first time I've ever even heard of it and it's just down the road from us!  Anyway, The festival is a display of dozens of trees that are thematically decorated by different businesses and organizations in the area.  Donations were accepted to support United Way Partner Agencies.  There were also several craft vendors, Mr. and Mrs. Claus-they were handing out candy canes, and activities sponsored by the new Discovery Space Children's museum downtown.  The kids had so much fun running around with their friends!  They made their own catapults to fire marshmallows and help build a house out of these straw-like tubes and connectors.  It was a nice Saturday outing. 

Lorelai with her favorite tree-I think it was because of the pink Pom-poms.

This was my favorite tree-Dr. Seuss!  Very fun!

I think Isaac really liked this sea creature themed tree.

Puppet-master Isaac with a little red dragon.

Lorelai making Little Rabbit dance around.

Here is Isaac constructing his roller coaster.

Now, with everyone working on it!

Helping to construct a house!

Now, how do we get them to stay in there?  Well, it didn't last long, the boys crashed through the wall just before completion.

Watch out! 

"Cannonbolt!"

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas!

Yesterday, the kids and I set up the mini tree in the playroom but we're having a rough time trying to get it to look like a tree.  It really got smooshed in the box this past year.  So that tree is a work in progress. 

Tonight, we finally put up our Christmas tree!  Isaac helped get it out of the box and Lorelai helped string some extra lights.  Both kids had fun with the ornaments.  Isaac enjoyed just playing with them and had quite a collection of "toys" by the end of the evening.  Lorelai was a big help with decorating the tree and hung many of the ornaments.  It was really neat to listen to her memories of certain ones, like a time capsule that Bryan and I got for our first Christmas together.  Bryan and I each read the scroll inside to the kids and Isaac considered that to be his bedtime story.  ☺  Lorelai also put on the tree topper, our gold cross.  I think it turned out quite nice. 

Such a strong boy.

Playing with his monster truck ornament.

"Mom, I don't want to hold for a picture."

Lore doing a great job with the tree.

Daddy reading "Our 1st Christmas" scroll to the kids.

Last but not least, the gold cross.

Isaac hung all his ornaments on the very bottom of the tree.  He's so cute.

Shaver's Creek

Shaver's Creek is an environmental and raptor center that is owned by Penn State.  They offer a program called "Kid's Corner".  Today was the last class of the year and the first one that Isaac and I  happened to make it to.  I wasn't thrilled to drive over the mountain in steady rain and the fog at the top got a little scary, but we made it!

Their program this Fall was on the colors of nature and for this last class the focus was the whole rainbow.  We sang a few rainbow songs, played a couple of color themed games, and made a few rainbow pictures.  We looked at rainbows made by prisms and bubbles.  The staff even prepared a snack of fresh fruit (all different colors) and vanilla yogurt.  The kids were supposed to make a rainbow with their fruit and use the yogurt for clouds.  Isaac wanted none of it.  So we played with the stuff in the gift shop instead. 

I think Isaac's favorite part was the discovery room.  Here, they house a few residents, turtles, toads, snakes, and fish.  They also have some interactive exhibits about snow, bugs, trees, etc.  Isaac loved playing with these marbles they had out and looking around the touch table.  He felt the velvet on a deer's antlers, looked through a vacated turtle shell, held a snake skin, and petted a few furs.  Before we left, we ventured out into the rain to visit a few of the raptors.  We saw the Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures,  a hawk, and an owl.  Izzy had a fun time and we will try to go back with the whole family in the Spring.

Isaac doing rainbow coloring using three crayons rubber-banded together.

We got wet on our to and from the bathroom which is outside and up the path.  So we decided that Isaac needed "hedgehog hair".

Looking at all the cool marbles through a neat, magnifying glass stool thing.

I see you!

The staff put on a silly little puppet show.  The kids really enjoyed it.  That's Izzy in the orange.

Making another rainbow craft by gluing little colored squares all over the paper.

Looking at the toads.  Ribbit!  Ribbit!

It was hard to get  a good shot here.  It was raining and Isaac wouldn't go any closer.  But, here he is with the Bald Eagles.

Lorelai brought M&M cookie bars into school today so she could celebrate her birthday with her classmates.  She was so happy to be able to do this. Thanks for the recipe books Aunt Brandi!!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Bars (101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix)

1 yellow or white cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 Cup oil
3/4 Cup Chocolate Chips or M&M's

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix together cake mix, oil, and eggs.  Stir the mixture until all the powder is evenly mixed in.  Stir in the chips.  Spread the mixture evenly in a 9 x 13 inch pan.  Bake 14-16 minutes, or until golden brown on top.  Enjoy!


Isaac Quote:  "The nostrils in my hard head make my eyes see."

Thanksgiving Leftovers 2: Lorelai's November Artwork

A couple of turkeys.

Lore traced her hand and then used different beans and peas to make it into a turkey.

At school, the kids were asked to draw a picture about what they would like to be when they grow up.  Lorelai would like to be an animal rescuer.  ♥

In art class, the students were learning about Cubism and Pablo Picasso.  For this picture, Lorelai traced her hand several times and had the tracings overlap so that the spaces could be filled in with different colors.  I did this same project in elementary school-although I think it was 2nd or 3rd grade.

Another lovely little turkey.

I love this and Lore was so proud of it.  Her first sculpture!  A Fall Tree.  She used a paper lunch bag and cut "fringe" along the top to be the branches.  Then she twisted the middle/ trunk , added orange leaves, and viola, a tree!

Left:  Lorelai's turkey hat from school.  She made more at home, one for each of us including Uncle Kyle.  Right: An adorable owl.

Funny Isaac Quote:  Bryan had taken the kids to Wegman's one morning and Isaac got quite warm walking around the store.  He said he was going to take his jacket off.  Lorelai then said that she would like to take her dress off.  To this, Isaac replied "Lorelai, you don't want to be a People of Walmart!"

Thanksgiving Leftovers

I guess all that turkey really knocked me out!  I had intended to add pictures daily over the Thanksgiving break-oops.  We had a very nice holiday and visit from my little brother, Kyle!

Isaac "Planking".

Lorelai helping with the Devilled Eggs.  She did a great job!

I found these fun turkey, sorting mats in Pinterest.com.  The kids were supposed to color in these circles and then match the skittles to the right color.  They did a few, but then just wanted to eat the candy.

The Feast, pie not pictured.  Isaac contributed the soup in the crate.