Loving Life

For those of you who don't know, Santa does not visit our house at Christmas time.  Instead we have a Christmas Mouse.  Click here  to read the story of how the Christmas Mouse came into being.  It's a fun one.  So anyway, the kids always leave out some cookies every Christmas Eve for the Christmas Mouse.  This year was no exception (Aaron always tries to suggest that the Mouse would prefer something like pizza).  Here is remainder of the plate of cookies of bowl of milk (we upgraded from water to milk this year) we left out for the mouse. The Mouse was pretty messy this year and left a trail of crumbs leading to the basement.  That is where most mice come from in our house.  Apparently the Christmas Mouse is no exception. The Christmas Mouse delivered all presents that night and seemed satisfied by the cookies and milk.  Until next year, Christmas Mouse!  May you stay safe, warm, and away from all mouse traps.

This year for Christmas, I went with a homemade room improvements theme.  As mentioned in a previous post, David has more legos than is possible to play with or keep tidy in a small room.  So this year's present for him was a lego organization system.  I found a sweet 2-for-1 deal on these towers and then my dad and I (okay, mostly my dad) made the table top to go over the towers to provide a work station for his legos.  David loved it as he tries very hard to keep his legos organized, so this helps him greatly, not to mention frees up a lot of floor space.  He immediately set to work on getting things in their proper drawers when he saw it. For the girls, I decided to turn the dormer in their room into a playhouse.  So while they were gone over Thanksgiving, I did my one and only time of Black Friday shopping when I could get some fabric very cheaply.  I hope to never go Black Friday shopping again.  Here is a picture of the outside of the playhouse.  The door opens and closes, t

A friend of mine gave me this idea a couple of years ago of making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.  So easy and so little preparation!  The kids LOVE doing this every year.  Here is the process of this year's houses. David's finished product below. Abby's finished product.  I think she ate the candy instead of sticking it on her house. Ana's hotel below.  She put a false store front on it, though it's hard to see it on the picture. It's a fun tradition for us now that I'm sure will grow more elaborate over time.  What is a Christmas tradition you do?

I saw a fun idea in a magazine awhile ago and thought I would give it a try with the kids.  Artist Trading Cards.  The idea is to make small cards on plain white cardstock.  They suggested baseball card size, but I happened to have sleeves for business card size, so that's what we went with.  Once you get that, get busy decorating!  You can design cards however you want using whatever medium you want.  Once you get a base of cards, you can start trading them with each other so you have a large variety of cards - just sign your name on the back so you can keep track of your various cards and who designed them.  I have to say that this idea was a HIT!  The kids absolutely loved it and spent many, many hours creating various cards.  They sent out cards to distant relatives in hopes that they'll get some back from them.  We haven't gotten any yet (if you are a relative reading this who received your cards, ahem, the kids are waiting...).  They are getting some of their friends

My neighbor's home is a haven for stray cats.  I tell her that there must be some hobo stray cat sign on her doorpost letting other cats know that this is a place where they will be loved and cared for.  Two strays recently showed up on her door step.  Since they haven't had their shots yet, she is keeping them separate from her other cats.  She is gone for the week and asked if I could take care of them while she is gone.  One is this one - a pregnant mama cat.  She's in her cage right now since we don't know when she will have her kittens and I don't want a surprise somewhere in my house.  The kids are hoping she has her kittens while she is here.  We do let her out of her cage so she can move around freely - just not at night.  She doesn't have a name, but while she is here, we're calling her Pauline. Boarder #2 is another stray that looks almost like Joey did, except this one has a white face.  We named him Lester. I'm still not used to seeing cats

Aaron's birthday is right in the middle of December.  Every one else in our family has summer birthdays and don't have to share our birthday with any major holidays.  So Aaron logically concluded that the best way to celebrate his birthday is to declare a "birthday season".  His birthday season usually starts at the beginning of December and doesn't end until he sees his "boy movie" with his buddies sometime after his birthday.  Wow, I just realized that "boy movie" may not sound totally appropriate.  Let me clarify.  A "boy movie" is any movie that involves lots of action and adventure with plenty of guns, chase scenes, explosions, and enough tension in the plot to tie my muscles up in knots for a week.  He knows that he has to watch movies that like with other boys and not his wife.  There is usually a movie of this nature out in the theatres about this time of the year. Back to birthday seasons.  Aaron officially kick started his

You have no idea how many posts I've posted in my head in the last few weeks.  Unfortunately, none of them made it onto here.  I thought I'd share a few pictures of the kids' hard work.  They, David especially, have a ginormous affection for anything Lego.  It doesn't matter that they already have piles of legos that they play with nearly every day.  The quest for more is always present.  If you've shopped for anything made by Lego in the past 10 years, you'll know that everything they sell is ridiculously overpriced.  The kids know that, but it doesn't stop them from still wanting them.  They also know that there is no way I am paying a pile of money for yet more Legos to enter our house.  So about a year ago, they highly coveted a lego set that was way out of the price range of anyone I know, so they decided to pool their money together and start saving for it together.  Every bit of birthday money, money the received from chores, odd jobs, pop can recycli