"Yes it's over...call it a day..."

Our extended Christmas break was WONDERFUL!!! We played games, slept in and ate great meals together. We had huge fires in the fire pit and laughed at the absurdness of sitting outside in boots and winter clothes, sweating around a campfire! We did an emergency respite that had all the kids praying for a bigger house so that we could adopt again. GASP! For about 3 nights, I pulled out the sleeper sofa in the living room and we all slept out there watching Christmas movies until very late at night. The kids really loved that and want to make that a regular activity. Maybe for special occasions.

We will start back to school on Monday, Jan. 7th. Most have said that they are not ready to go back to school yet. Jeanna says that she is ready, but the others say, "not yet" Today I asked the boys to straighten the school room and sharpen new pencils for everyone and I noticed that they were showing signs of a bit of excitement after being in there for a bit. My plan is to start kinda slow and break as soon as anyone shows any distress. At this point... I am the one in trouble as I have loved my naps and will find them hard to give up.

Hope you all had a great holiday and smooth transition into the new year.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Pic Attempt 1

We tried to take Christmas pictures this last week, but I just could not get the lighting right.

The Crew

Malfunctioning Christmas lights

Merry Christmas

The Lamb Choir

During the Christmas program last night at church, the "rarely seen, but always favored" lamb choir sang 2 Christmas carols. It was cute and the kids loved doing it. They had dressed their lamb puppets in little choir robes. LOL! Sorry for the shaky video... my 3 year old was standing, swaying, and clapping on the pew in front of me so that he could see better and I was trying to film and hold him at the same time.

The Solution

Jeanna still cries most mornings as she does not want to go to PS. Today was the last day before winter break so Jordan went in to get her a few minutes early and found her in art class with a room full of 1st graders running WILD! When the kids saw Jordan, they came up and started tattle-telling on things Jeanna had done to them. Jordan said she told each child how sad that was and just listened. When my girls got to the car, Jordan told me what happened and I asked Jeanna how she felt about her friends telling on her? She said, "Sad." I asked what we could do to make everyone feel safer and she said, "Don't send me to that school no more!" ROFL!!!!

A girl with a plan.

We are getting ready for the spelling bee that our home school group is having in January. Each day the gang has been practicing, writing and quizzing each other. Even the baby is walking around chanting, "Spell the word slkgjshgovi?" We all laugh at his made up word.

We are very delayed in preparing and decorating for Christmas. We did find a family to adopt this year and we are excited as they are family that has very little and their Family Advocate says they would be very appreciative of any help. My kids have started their Dollar Store shopping list and we hope to get their shopping done within the next 3 days.

Starting Up

We are starting back to school tomorrow and the kids went to bed early with excitement. I on the other hand cannot get to sleep...again. ~Sigh~

We really had a nice holiday and as always... d*llar st*re Christmas was fantastic! I even splurged this year and bought everyone 2 or 3 things. Woo hoo! Spent $27!

Never did complete progress reports for 1st semester, but everyone is doing well.

Gonna try to go to bed again.

The Christmas Card that Never Was

I have not sent real snail mail Christmas cards in years. I usually do the whole e-mail card with a picture of the kids. That's all family wants anyway... a picture of the kids. Well this year I took the pictures and started tinkering around with my card maker program, but just never finished. Anyway, here is the one I took for the blog. You can consider it your belated Merry Christmas card. LOL!

Easy Chains and Tough Pinata!

Every years we do the simple, yet surprisingly beloved activity of making paper chains. I am always amazed that they want to do this every year and still like to do them.

We put up our little "Cha*rlie Br*wn" tree and decorated the house. We have yet to decorate the tree; for now there are 3 gingerbread men on there. They smell sooooooo good.

The pinata.

 Let's just say it was not going to give up the candy without a fight. That little paper bag was so difficult to break. I kept putting starter holes in it and they kept whacking it, but it would not break. I finally had to puncture it all around and still ended up having to rip it more to get the rest of the candy out. It was a mad dash to the floor and I had to crack up because after all the candy had been gathered, there were stickers and other small trinkets left on the floor. No rush to claim those. Ha Ha ha! But the candy was clutched tight!

It was a fun, peaceful day. Our church Christmas program is tomorrow and then we have 3 more days of school before a short break.

Another Hit!

Once again, Dollar Store Christmas was a great success! Last year we started a new tradition and had so much fun that we decided we would continue it this year.


On Thursday (12/24) we made cookies and had fun with the frosting.

James was trying so hard not to lick the spreading spoon that he tucked his lips in to fight the temptation. LOL!!

The kids put the tree up and really did not want to decorated it. They did put 1 box of candy canes on it (half of which were eaten during the decorating) their 3 gingerbread men and they put 2 strings of popcorn only around the bottom half. They were happy with it and I let it be their project. We have a new foster child with us for an extended respite and bless her heart, I'm sure she thought we were nutsy, but did enjoy shopping for her mom and sister at the Dollar Store.

When we started Dollar Store Christmas, the kids made a list of everyone in the family and purchased a gift for each person. This year, 5 year old Jackson came out of the store with his gifts and when Poppy sat down with him to help him wrap gifts, there seemed to be an extra one. When my dad ask who that gift was for, he said, "It's for Jackson!" When he made his list, he listed all the family members including himself. The kicker was, when he opened his gift to him from him, he was so excited and had the biggest smile. My brother was like, " The 5 year old has changed the rules to the game and I like it!"

A huge pile of over 40 gifts under the tree for just over $40. The fun = priceless!

My Christmas Card To You All!