Year In Review 2010!!

As is my tradition, here is a look back at the year 2010.  I took the first sentence of the first blog entry of each month.  This year I just added my favorite pictures from the year instead of the picture from each blog entry.


January


We tend to start out each New Year with a bang. 

February


After 19 years of asking, waiting, and wondering, a soft-spoken neurologist finally gave us a missing piece to the puzzle in my son's brain. 

March


A few weeks ago, I noticed some burnout in the kiddos.

April


The kids have wanted to go on the Jump thing at the mall for a few years.

May


What a perfect day for a field trip.

June


I am once again thinking about balance.

 


July


My kiddos do so much better outdoors than indoors.

August


It has been such a busy week.

September


We rowed through The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush this week.

October


I am thinking about fun ....  Can you have too much fun in your life?

November


I have a child who is a reluctant listener to all types of music.

December


The children are really enjoying our "new" Advent book each day.

I hope all of you have a happy and healthy New Year!


Blessings,
Dawn


  



            

Double Digits...

Well, it happened.  Goldilocks has turned 10!!!  I can hardly believe it.  What happened to that cute little 20 month old baby that was placed in my arms?  She had no knee caps and no smile.   Now, she is DOUBLE DIGITS!  As is our tradition, I will list one thing about her for each year.

1.  Helpful
2. Energetic
3. Shy
4. Talkative
5. Musical
6. Super Finder (If something is lost and you can not find it, this is your girl.)
7. Excited
8. Hands-On Learner
9. Good Cleaner
10. Sympathetic

Goldilocks got to go to a huge children's museum for her birthday.  She also got a kid's digital camera she has been wanting.  We celebrated with a dinner out at Applebees and a Ben and Jerry birthday cake.

Blessings,
Dawn

White Christmas ...

This post is heavy on pictures, since it is for the Grandparents.  We were teased all week by the weatherman.  We kept hearing that snow was in the forecast for Christmas Day, but we never heard how much snow would accumulate, so I ignored them. Well, we got 6 inches!!  This is the first white Christmas for most everyone in my family, the first here in our little city since 1969, and we are enjoying it!  We spent the morning oohing over the many gifts that family and friends had sent and running to the window and ahhing over the snow falling outside.

The girls each got an American Girl doll that they have been wanting for years.  It was the only gift we (the parents) gave the girls, and then one set of Grandparents sent extra historic clothes for each doll.  The other set of Grandparents sent an American Girl doll horse for each girl and the American Girl "Itty Bitty" baby.  To say the girls' eyes were popping would be an understatement.

Tom Sawyer, the Lego maniac, got lots of Legos!  He was in heaven and spent the whole day building.

Timothy got a new mask for fencing and a saber.  He is excited about moving into saber classes, in addition to advanced fencing in January.  He also appreciated the stack of new books.

Grandma gave all the children Wedgits!  Oh boy, are these fun!  I can see many hours of play ahead with these.  I love toys that everyone can play with (even the adults). 

The afternoon was spent sledding--spending Christmas afternoon sledding--who would have imagined.  I actually felt like I was in New England for a little while.  Even Grandma got on a sled and had fun.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  We are enjoying our blessings here.

Blessings,
Dawn

Goldilocks Sings

Goldilocks participated in her homeschool choir Christmas concert recently. She was nervous and has been a bit resistant to choir so far this year. She thinks it is really hard to learn the music and sing for one hour at a time.  She also does not like taking the class without her siblings. However, she practiced her music at home, and as the weeks went by, her sweet alto voice could be heard singing bits and pieces of the songs. Her choir teacher is a wonderful homeschool mom who does an excellent job teaching the kids how to sing, and even sent recordings of the songs to our home via email.  The class is a tight knit group of kids and all are really sweet to each other. Slowly, Goldilocks has started talking to other kids in her class and learning their names.  This is all good progress for a child who hides behind her siblings and waits for them to make friends that she can pretend are hers.

Her favorite song in the concert was a Hawaiian Christmas song.  They got to wear "grass skirts" made out of newspaper for this show. 

The concert was lovely.  The kids' voices were really nice and they are making so much progress.

She still would like to quit the choir, but her mean Mom will not let her.  This is too beneficial for her.  I know that someday she will appreciate this time.  In the meanwhile, she will make friends, learn to sing, learn to endure and work hard, and become more self-confident.

Blessings,
Dawn

Christmas In The Trenches ... Muffin Tin Monday

This week for Muffin Tin Monday, we read Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon.  This is a story from WWI about soliders in the trenches celebrating Christmas.  For a few short hours, there was peace between the two groups of men and everyone forgot that they were at war. It implies how tragic war is that soldiers are forced to kill people that they would be friends with if it was not wartime. I was raised as a Quaker, so of course raised on this story.

I thought it would be fun to make them a kid friendly M.R.E. (Meal Ready to Eat).  I wish I had had a real M.R.E. to show them.   If you have never seen or eaten one, they are filled with sodium and the taste is passable if you are really hungry. They are very well thought out and packed very efficiently. My children get very little processed food, so this was a very popular muffin tin.  LOL

In each muffin tin was raisins, juice bag, two hershey kisses, cheese crackers, Scooby Doo gummies and raspberry yogurt.  I also served this for breakfast because of our schedule that day.  They were in heaven!

To see more muffin tins go visit Michelle.

Blessings,

Dawn

More Fun With Advent Books

The fun continues around here with our Advent books.  Sometimes I think I am a bit nuts trying to pull this off every year.  It takes about 8 hours of planning to come up with the projects, wrap the books and put them into order.  Then I have to stay on top of what is coming next, so I have the proper supplies on hand.  However, the kids and I so enjoy this special time together.  In addition, it really helps the kids forget about all that they want on Christmas Day and focus on celebrating every day.  Here are the highlights from this last week.

Making snowflakes after reading  Santa Comes to The Little House. 

Making a Rice Krispie village after reading The Baker's Dozen .

The biggest highlight was Grandma Sue reading The Steadfast Tin Solider. After hearing the story, they ate blueberry muffins with a surprise inside.

Yummy, muffins and a quarter.  What could be better?  By the way, I washed the quarters in hydrogen peroxide first. I can't believe our time of Advent is almost over for this year.  There is still some fun to come!

Blessings,
Dawn

Muffin Tin Monday ... Jingle The Christmas Clown

For Advent we open a "new" Christmas book each day and do a fun activity around the book.  The kids love this and enjoy seeing old favorites as well as new books to explore.  This week for Muffin Tin Monday, we read Jingle the Christmas Clown by Tomie dePaola.  This is a wonderful story set during the Middle Ages in Europe.  A traveling circus troop comes to a familar village and finds that most of the villagers have moved on to the big city to find work.  The traveling circus decides to leave the baby animals and a young clown behind because they need to rest.  The baby animals and clown decide to put on a free show for the elderly of the village.

The kids made ice cream cone clowns.  The tin contained an ice cream cone, colored sugar, maraschino cherries, scoop of vanilla ice cream, sprinkles, and marshmallows.

I did not get a picture of the kids' creations, because they ate them so fast.  Please go visit Muffin Tin Monday to see more great muffin tins.

Blessings,
Dawn