Fun and Games

Every year, November and December nearly kill me.  We travel three times back to the state where we grew up (one family is five hours round trip, the other ten!) and then we have Christmas programs, parties, shopping. . .   There are never enough weekends to get it all done.  And then comes January and February.  Apparently I'm never happy because we go from run-run-run to. . . . NOTHING.  And it drives me crazy!  This year has been even worse because R is studying for a big test at work and not only do we have few plans, but yours truly is carrying more of the kid-load while he uses weekends to study.  (A huge shout-out to R for all that he does.  I don't realize how wonderful he is until I'm doing it all!)  Soooo. . . .at the B house, we've been trying to keep occupied.  And out of Daddy's hair.  Poor guy has resorted to sitting in one of the living rooms with ear plugs!  HA!

We've been doing lots of board games.  Ke got Uno Moo for Christmas and while I get bored of playing (AGAIN), I never tire of hearing the giggles when someone gets "skunked."  Oh my, it is FUNNY.  We've also been doing a lot of Cranium and Blockus (Daddy even takes a break to play because it's THAT fun.)  Ke doesn't quite get the concept--she just warns us that she's getting in our "air-uh-toria" (territory)--but it's great to see Sassy strategize and figure out which tile to play next.  She is definitely a spatial learner!  Ke has become a huge fan of Miss May (aka Old Maid.)  We even came up with an easy way for her to hold the cards:

We've also had several movie nights and this mama was on cloud nine when they picked Hairspray one night.  Helllllloooo Zac!  Way easier on the eyes than Disney!  :)  On the way to school one morning, Ke was repeatedly asking to watch "Sparkle of the Meat" and even my interpreter, Sassy, couldn't translate.  Ke just kept saying, "Sparkle of the Meat!"  Finally she started explaining it and Sassy burst out:  "Despicable Me?"  HAHA!  Oh we laughed HARD.  We may forever call that movie "Sparkle of the Meat." 

Over Christmas, Sassy had some homework: send a gingerbread cut-out to someone out of state and have them mail him/her back to the classroom.  After break, the class got to open their envelopes and learn a little about the state they had visited.  "Ginger" had a great time in California with Aunt Mo and Uncle Bear:

 
SO jealous of her day at the beach! Thanks to our family for making one little first grader SO excited!

Then it was time for the 100th day of school and she got to dress like she was 100.

She's been looking forward to this for a whole year ("No fair, the first graders get to dress up!") so it was really fun.  Her class also did a bucket list of stuff they want to do before they turn 100.  (All her own spelling and words.)  LOVE.

1. Go to Yosemite National park (She just read a book about this.  We've decided to camp there someday!)
2. Get a pet panda
3. Try sushi
4. Discover the Conctacon Cordian (Ummm, that would be the Costa Concordia--the Italian ship that sank last year.  The girl is a sponge.) 
5. See the Eifel tower
6. Get an Ipad
7. Go ziplineing
8. Be a hairdresser
9. Go to the North pole
10. Set a Ginness world record

She's also been doing a lot of art projects.  I'm constantly impressed by the things her art teacher has them create.  This was a recent lesson:   "After reading Snowmen at Night, and a demonstration on blending with pastels, students created their own snowman doing whatever they wanted their snowman to do! They had to show the values on the snowman and the snowman cast shadow based on the position of the moon."  Ummmm, values?  I'm not even sure what that means.  I love having her work framed in our house.  Warm fuzzies. 

Ke's been doing her own artwork.  One day I was going through her papers and found a picture of her teacher, Miss S:

She insists that she did it, even after the extensive interrogation I gave her.  Poor girl.  ha!  Over night, she's writing her name on everything and coloring SO well, and apparently doing eyelashes and smiles.  I think I blinked even faster with #2.  I can't believe how much she's growing up!

Last weekend we did Valentine boxes--no Pinterest needed!  I had decided that I didn't want to be one of those moms who does it all--I wanted some ideas that the girls could do too.  We decided to think of characters that would be easy to re-create.  First up was Backpack.  I just covered a cereal box with purple wrapping paper (Cheapskate here can use the rest of the roll later. . .) and then hot glued purple ribbon on for straps.  I drew his face, Ke colored it, then we cut it out and glued it on.  Sassy's Lalaloopsy was a little more time consuming.  We used a cute box from fundraiser cookie dough (no wrapping necessary!), she colored and cut out a face, then we glued on two buttons, yarn and a bow off one of her backpacks.  Then she drew on a smile and eyelashes, and cut out two pink cheeks.  I was pretty happy with how they turned out and I love that the girls have their own little touches on them. 

Finally we made valentines for our families.  I had the girls paint all over some paper and the next day, I traced their hands and then cut them out.  See the project here.  Butterflies!  It was "easy" until I realized that we needed 16 of them!!!  Two in each envelope for six aunties/uncles and two set of grandparents.  Whew.  That was a LOT of tracing and cutting!  I included a little poem:

It's 2013 and these butterflies
are our little hands, the shape and the size.
We made them for you and sent them your way
To wish you a Happy Valentine's Day! 

And now I need to make one more set so I can remember what their hands looked like! 

I've been kind of pouty on the weekends because we haven't had a lot to do.  But then I realize that this past week, we didn't turn a TV on for 48 hours.  And I read this post and realize how busy we've truly been.  Funny how when you do a whole lot of nothing with the people who mean everything, it becomes a whole lot of SOMETHING.