Friday, December 19, 2008

A Recap - Part 2

Monday (the 15th) the first day of what will be a VERY busy week. I have rehearsals Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday ... with performances Thursday, Friday & Saturday. This is also my last week with Anthony & Ellie before they head over to see their Dad for Christmas. I had grand plans in my head for how *I* wanted the week to go. Of course my best laid plans don't always happen.

Our friend Lina at church offered to watch Anthony & Ellie Monday & Tuesday night for me. What a big help that was since they live so close to the church. Ellie was even able to help celebrate Cassidy's birthday! Each night I picked them up they were both very tired from playing.

Tuesday afternoon Anthony got to have his "Grandma Day" She picked him up from YMCA and they went shopping. He picked out a gift for Ellie & for me. It is a tradition that Grandma has done with the kids since 2005 and they really look forward to the time shopping with her.

Ellie got to have her "Grandma Day" on Wednesday instead of going to dance class. They still stopped by to give her teacher a gift, then they went shopping so Ellie could get Anthony & I gifts. That night was church again. I dropped the kids off then went to get ready for the last Dress Rehearsal. Rehearsal went well, but late, so yet again we went straight home tired & ready for bed.

Thursday morning I got a call from Mom. She suggested I just bring the kids out to her house so they could have a Grandma Day together instead of going to school. The kids loved that idea. Grandma had a Gingerbread house for them to decorate and they both got to help wrap the gifts they had bought. They also decorated the Giant Gingerbread cookies that I had bought for them. Grandma kept them the whole day, then brought the kids and Grandpa out to the church to watch my opening night performance. It was great having them all in the audience, in the front row in fact!

That night I stayed up late to make Ellie's class & teacher's gifts. It was a long night & I ran out of ink, but they came out cute. I dropped Ellie off at school, then took Anthony to Grandma's. The plan was to meet back at the school for Ellie's class party, but their had been a change at the school and the party wasn't gonna start at 9:30. Ellie's teacher made her the goodie bag to take and we headed to Grandma's house to get ready for the kids to leave. I spent about 45 min with them and then had to say my goodbyes.

A Recap - part 1

The last 2 weeks have been CRAZY. Crazy good & Crazy bad.

I last left off after Anthony's school performance at school & their visit with Santa. I did find out what Anthony asked Santa for .... he wants a DS. Now Ellie wants one too. GREAT!

Anyway ... Wednesday night (the 10th) was our regular Church night. Anthony made a cute little felt ornament.

Thursday (the 11th) Anthony and I worked together to put together little gift bags for his classmates. Thank goodness I was able to call Justine to get me a head count, otherwise we would have been short. (Thanks Tine!!) The goodies bags had a pencil, an eraser and some candy. Anthony also colored an ornament for Mrs. Franz while I made her a custom cover for a yearly planner that I bought.

Friday (the 12th) was the party at school. I was able to take my lunch and go down to the school and help out. Boy do the kids get a lot of sugar at these parties LOL. Friday night was the Light Parade downtown. Since the office is so close to the parade route we had planned ahead to park at the shop and walk across the street to find seats. When we arrived we were surprised to find the float holding Santa in our parking lot!! The kids thought it was SO neat to see him up close before the parade. We got some great pictures of the kids talking to him. Anthony asked for a DS yet again.

The kids were interested in the parade for about the first half. After they got a glow necklace they lost focus and started playing. There were a lot more people participating than in previous years. It was a great night. We didn't head down to Main Street with the parade, but we heard from Justine & Jul that there actually was lots to do downtown. Next year we will have to go.

Saturday morning .... well, Saturday morning started with an unexpected phone call from my mom. Dad had fallen into the pool & they thought that he broke his ankle. A trip to the Urgent Care & 3 hours later that was confirmed. The Urgent Care doctor said he broke both of the bones, the tibia & the fibula. The break on the fibula is a clean break, but the doctor says that the break on the tibia will need surgery to set w/ pins. They put a temp cast/splint on it for now till he can get into his Ortho. The ankle is one the same leg that had a knee replaced in 2004 so they checked that as well, but everything was fine. He will go back to his knee doctor to fix his ankle. It definitely changed A LOT of the weekend plans. We did still have the company dinner that evening, even with Dad on crutches & pain meds. I had planned for us to look at Christmas Lights after dinner, but we went straight home instead.

Sunday morning was church as normal, and then over to Grandma's house for her to finish my costume for the musical. We ended up going home to rest before practice that night. I really wanted to fall asleep but I was afraid that if I did I wouldn't wake up in time. Instead I decided to practice my make-up. When I walked in to rehearsal with my hair & makeup done, everyone had to do a double take. I don't look like myself at all. Rehearsal went well ... it just ran late, so we didn't go look at Christmas Lights AGAIN. Ack!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Photos

Ellie with Santa


Anthony with Santa


Anthony getting ready to sing

Tuesday, December 9th

Sorry ... still playing catch up. At least I am only 2 days behind LOL. I will get caught up this weekend I think.

Tuesday night was Anthony's school Christmas recital. His Dad came down and picked him up from school, and went to swimming with him, and stayed for the recital. Anthony's class sang "Jingle Bells" and each child got a little jingle bell to shake during the song. It was so cute. I managed to squeeze my way to the front and took a video. I need to figure out how to post a video on blogger so everyone can see it.

At the end there was a surprise visit from Santa!! Anthony seemed to know just what to do, because he went straight to the Library and we hardly had to wait at all for the kids to sit on Santa's lap. I definitely heard Ellie ask for a Barbie, but Anthony did a good job of whispering so I didn't hear him.

The kids both went to Grandma & Grandpa's house while I went out to practice. When I got to the house to pick them up I found them playing with the presents that Aunt Tina & Uncle Bill sent down with their chocolate advent calendars. Anthony got a Spiderman Workbook & YoYo, Ellie got some jewelry & hair clips. They both wanted to "catch up" on the days by eating the chocolate, but Grandma stopped them.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Monday, Dec 8th

Trying to catch up now that I have a minute.

The kids and I did a little Christmas baking Monday night. I let them make english muffin pizzas for dinner. Ellie's was cheese only and Anthony's was pepperoni. They seem to eat better when they get to make the food.

After dinner I mixed a cake, the first step in making cake balls. (I bought ingredients to make a triple chocolate version instead of the red velvet shown on her blog.) While the cake cooked & cooled I grabbed the marshmallows and the rice krispies to make the cute little green wreaths that I saw in my Good Housekeeping last month. I didn't have that specific recipe in front of me so I kind of winged it. I followed the basic directions on the side of the box. I decided to only make a half batch just in case. I also do the microwave directions because it goes faster.

I think my mistake was putting in the green food coloring AFTER adding the rice krispies. The color didn't mix evenly and the more I mixed the cooler the mixture got, so by the time I went to start forming the wreaths they were already starting to set up. My last couple barely looked like wreaths. I tried to have the kids decorate them by adding sixlettes. They were not very sticky though so a lot of the balls just rolled right off. I did still take a picture LOL!

I cleaned up that mess and then starting to finish up the cake balls. I broke up the cake with a spoon then started adding the icing. I don't think my proportions were right because it was VERY moist. I had to let the mixture sit in the fridge to try and help it firm up more. By this time the kids were in bed so it was more of a "ME" project, than an "US" project. I finally was able to start making the mixture into balls. It was VERY messy .... icing all over my hands. Note to self: get gloves for the next batch (if there ever IS a next batch)

I put the formed balls into the freezer to firm up a little more. About 30 min later I tried to do the candy coating. I should have just waited. It was late, I was tired and I don't think they really were firm enough. I melted the candy melts according to the directions on the package and dipped the first ball .... what a mess.!!! The ball seemed to lose it's shape in the melts and I couldn't figure out how to keep the coating smooth on the ball. The next dozen or so went about the same way. The are fine for the kids to eat, but definitely not worthy to be wrapped for either kids Christmas party. Back to the drawing board (oh - and I didn't take a picture of them LOL)

Monday, December 8, 2008

December 7th


December 7th
Originally uploaded by sunflwrdesigns
Sunday morning was the Children's musical at church. Anthony did a great job, I was SO proud of him. This is our cast photo and one of the close ups that Grandma was able to take Sunday morning while I was directing.

December 6th


December 6th
Originally uploaded by sunflwrdesigns
Here is my page for Saturday. We spent the morning at church for the Dress Rehearsal. The kids are really sounding great and Anthony has been working SO hard to learn the songs and motions.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Some Layouts...

Day 1 - Failed tree decorating:


Day 2: Smelling the lawn ornaments at Grandma's house:


Day 5 - Anthony's class Flag Raising:


Day 5 - Angel Dinner:

Thursday, December 4, 2008

December 3rd

Wednesday was a typical day in our routine. The kids went to school, I went to work, Grandma took Ellie to dance and Anthony and I went to swimming. Then off to church the kids and I went. Well, we went AFTER I got back in my van .... you see I got locked out my van for the 2nd time this month. Fun Times!

I didn't get any pictures taken today, so the page in the album will be an older photo showing the Advent Calendar I made the kids. I need to fill it with candy ... they haven't noticed. I altered a Starbuck's calendar that I bought after Christmas last year. I used one of my digital kits by Dani Mogstad, Holiday Spirit.

Pictures!!

I promised to post pictures and I FINALLY got some uploaded.

Day 1:
Our tree (still bare)
Photobucket

And Bill struggling with the lights:
Photobucket

Day 2:
Mom's yard:
Photobucket

Ellie smelling the plastic candy canes:
Photobucket

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

December 2nd

WOW what a day! I just got home from a very eventful evening. I had to go to the church for a Christmas Musical rehearsal and to make a long story short, one of the cast/choir members had a medical emergency.

But, the kids had a wonderful night with Grandma. It was the first night that they got to see Grandma & Grandpa's yard all decorated and lit up. We had helped put up the large tree of lights on Friday night, but much more had been done since we had been there on Friday. The kids loved seeing the blow ups and all the lights. It was really cute.

The camera is in the car, so pictures will have to wait till tomorrow.

December 1st

Every year it seems like the Holidays fly by before I can even catch my breath. Between work, church, and school activities every day on the calendar is already filled up. I try to take pictures thru the busy rush each year but I am not getting the photos scrapped or the memories recorded. In November I participated in an online course called "Stories in Hand" and that in combination with a group of scrappers doing a December Daily album inspired me to record our 2008 Christmas. I will be using this blog to write about our day and share the page that I create for my altered Bracket Album (I combined 3 Basic Grey Albums into one to have enough pages). It is actually now the afternoon of the 2nd as I write and I am at the office so I do not have my page created or even photos uploaded to show. But I can write about our day so here is goes.

December 1st 2008

The plan was to decorate the tree tonight after school, swimming and dinner. But my best laid plans sort of fell apart. Dinner was Papa John's ordered online since nothing was defrosted and then Bill didn't get off work till close to 7pm. When he got to the house the kids were excited and ready to decorate. We brought in the lights and ornaments and then Bill struggled to light the tree for the next hour or so. At the end of the night I decided I didn't like the lights, and that we needed to buy new ones. So, the tree still remains bare with ornaments piled in the box ready to go on and children anxiously waiting. It will get done, it is only the 1st, there isn't really a rush. At least the tree has been purchased and is in the stand.