Snow (Jan. 6th - 10th)

We did so many things during this week, that I wasn't able to catch up with all the pictures that I took. I decided to just do pictures that pertained to my lesson plans.

That weekend it had snowed, and we had a record breaking freeze so it was too cold to take the kids out in the snow. So Monday I brought the snow inside for them to play with instead, for our sensory activity. It also turned out to be our science activity too because we were able to watch the snow melt in our hands, then eventually on our table.

We even made our own snowman family!

Ares then made a snowman of himself and his cousin Camden.

Then a T-Rex ate some of our snow family, but Ares' snow person smashed it and saved the day!

After this snow melted, we got new snow and made chocolate snow ice cream! I took a couple recipes I found online and matched it with what I had to make it work.

Ingredients:
1 gallon fresh snow
2 cups chocolate milk
1 cup confectioner sugar
Drizzle a little chocolate syrup in there if you want
Mix it all together and you got Chocolate Snow Ice Cream!

The kids loved helping make it!

And of course eating it too!

On Tuesday night I had Ares practice his reading skills with his sisters. He usually just reads to me, so I thought he would like a new audience this time around. The girls LOVED Ares reading to them! I have never seen them sit so still together for a whole book! Ares did a great job reading too! He is improving so much!

On Wednesday afternoon I had the girls paint snow before it all melted. We took two tubs of snow, and then I fixed 3 different cups of water that I mixed different shades of food coloring in. This time around I used pink, purple, and green. They squeezed a little of each color onto their snow to color it.

On Thursday and Friday I was dealing with a family emergency, that I thank everyone for all the prayers for it. For the remainder of our time snow week I did have the girls watch falling snow on youtube and we listened to "Snow" from White Christmas and "Let It Snow".

Harpenau Christmas (Dec. 29, 2013)

The last big family gathering for Christmas was the Harpenau Christmas!

Kyle and I were actually able to join in on two different games! That never happens! We played Apples to Apples and Catch Phrase.

There were lots of other games going on that we weren't a part of, but I was able to catch a few playing :)

At one point I caught my cousin Tara chilling out in the chair room like this. I asked her why she wanted to sit there instead of the other chairs, and she just told me, "Because." Sounds like a legit reason to me!

Since I rarely see my Great Uncle Joe, Aunt Ruth, and my Papa all together I made sure to get a picture of them :)

Afterwards, Kyle, the girls, and I went over to my Dad's for the afternoon so Dad, Shari, and Kyle could watch the Chief's game.

Christmas Day Part 2

This was the first time since I was little that I spent time with my Dad on Christmas. Usually we were with him on Christmas Eve, but over the years that has changed. This year it was easier for them to have what my Dad called an "open house" on Christmas day. Shari made potato soup in homemade bread bowls. I am not a fan of potato soup, but this stuff was delicious!

The girls had fallen asleep on the car ride over so we let them sleep a bit while the rest of us opened presents. :)

Lindsey and I both got beautifully painted wine bottles. Lindsey's was her favorite color with music notes and mine was a Willy the Wildcat one. Ares has actually taken my bottle, and put it in his room, telling me it is his.

The girls woke up a little later, and got to open their gifts. I think the cutest thing was when Brigid began feeding her new baby doll her apple slices! So cute!!!

It was wonderful spending time with Dad, Shari, Ashley, and Hayley! We all loved our gifts and we are so grateful to have such a loving family!

After we left my Dad's it was time to pick Camden up because Ares and him were going to have a sleepover! We had this sleepover planned for weeks, and Ares was super excited about it. They both had a ton of fun, and even included the girls in their games sometimes.

Christmas Day Part 1

After Kyle and I got the kids all ready to go, it was time to head to my Grandma and Granddad's house for some much needed family time. I believe my Grandma said there was 42 people there, and that wasn't even all of us! I love my big family!

Photo-op with Brigid, Jenny, and my Mom.

Ares tried to assault everyone with his fart gun. His uncles and cousins just showed him how they didn't need a fart gun to stink him out.

After we all ate dinner, we had the kids open up their presents from their gift exchange.

(Poor Ares! He had his hand stepped on while he was trying to open his presents, and it hurt so bad he cried! He bounced back though, and was right back in there with his cousins to unwrap his gifts.)

Once the kids had finished with their gifts it was time to send the kids into the other rooms so we could begin the adult gift exchange. Our white elephant gift exchange is where we put in gifts that are funny. We started doing this a couple years ago, and it is a blast! My sister and her fiance even Skyped with us to be part of the gift exchange.

The first to go was Taylor, Trevor's girlfriend. She's from Texas, and this is the first time she has met all of us. I think she really enjoyed it!

Then it was off down the line!

Jeff was the lucky one who got my gift. It was 5 tampon flasks!

After spending a bit longer with family we had to leave because we had to head to my Dad and Shari's house next.