Science Experiment at School

This week I volunteered to help out making crystals in Ally’s class room.

Ally’s teacher dressed up as a Scientist.

I got to make one too! – Here they are at home.

More Snow!

On Tuesday we got more snow. Ally was super excited to play in it.  She did her homework after school and waited patiently until Mama came home to go outside with her.

They made a great little snowman.

 

And had a snow fight.

After an hour they came inside. Becky was wet and cold, but Ally was warm and dry and thrilled with the play.

Gingerbread House at Home

Ally was quite sick this week, she missed 2 days of school. Becky stayed home with her on Monday and I stayed with her today. I had a meeting at work, so Ally came into the office and watched movies on her dvd player while I had my meeting. She was so good.

On our way home we stopped at the store. We got some food for the homeless and added a note to our Sparkle Box (more on that later). And Ally decorated an actual gingerbread house at home too.

All curled up on the couch doing activities. The cats have been especially cute lately. Ally wanted in on the cuddling.

recently they started sitting “bunk bed style” on the chair. Buying food for the food pantry at the supermarket.

Super excited to see the gingerbread kit! Working on it with Mama.

The finished product! And yes that is a jelly- candy Bumble!

Gingerbread Houses at School

I volunteered to help out in Ally’s first grade class to assemble “gingerbread houses” this was actually use frosting to adhere graham crackers to milk cartons. But fun nonetheless. I was very skeptical about the success of this method. But the teacher was right – it worked and the students had a blast.

I was there one day to make the houses and the next day different parents went in to assist with the decoration.

I helped Ally, and her table – Oscar, Bleuet and Dean.

Max is showing off his finished house. Then it was off to work on Origami with her teacher.

The finished house.

First Snow of 2013

Last night we got our first real snow of the season. About 6" of heavy wet snow before it turned to rain. 

Ally has been sick all weekend. Friday night she woke up with a tummy ache and threw up twice during the night. Then she woke up Saturday morning with a 102 degree fever. We let her watch lots of tv and at 4pm she was asleep on the couch. We woke her up after a few minutes so she would sleep at night. Bath, a light dinner, more tv and helping me with a craft project completed the day. Ally was asleep in her bed at 6:15!

But then she woke up at 4:00am this morning. No fever and tired but awake. We tried to get back to sleep for a long time but at 6am I gave up. Several episodes of My Little Pony later and I decided I might as well take Ally outside while I shoveled. Still no fever. I checked and I figured the fresh air would be good for her. After an hour outside we came in, got changed and played for a bit. 

Bad news. Fever is back. We are now trying to take a nap. But here are the pictures from the morning:

Advent week 1

Ally was pretty excited to do the Advent calendar again this year, so I scoured Target for things teeny tiny enough to fit in each drawer. Ally expects us to take a picture of each and every day. It’s adorable.

We got a bit desperate this year and we put some notes in for her to ask for the larger gift. This day was an Agent P (Perry the Platypus from a TV show she watches) ornament.

Decorating for Christmas

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we brought up the ornaments from the basement and decorated the Christmas Tree. Becky and I are a bit “decorated-out” so we are trying to be a bit more laid back about the Holiday decorations this year.

We did get a much larger tree – its 7 1/2 feet tall and the lights switch from white to colored. Which makes everyone happy. I like both, Ally likes colored and Becky likes white. So having the choice is pretty neat.

We had Ally unpack the ornaments and lay them all out on her craft table. Then we loaded up the tree. It is really special to share all of my childhood ornaments with Ally. Like the computer one- and try and explain to her that I took a computer class when computers were invented. Back when I was 10 or so. So I did not grow up with computers or iphones or ipads. Its fun that I have a Big Bird ornament, and Ally has an Ernie ornament. We both liked Sesame Street as young children.

Becky has fond memories of her special ornaments as well, especially the mouse ones her Grandma made.

After the decorating we went to Church for the first Sunday of Advent. After church was a craft workshop and Ally and I made 4 candles and Becky made our advent wreath. Ally wanted to light all the candles, but Becky explained that we only light 1 new each week. At our church each Sunday of Advent a Sunday School class lights the candle during the service. Last year Ally got to light it.