Baby Split

We went bowling with the Ihmses today. Mary has been asking to go bowling for over a month. I am glad I finally made it happen. Her feet are still too small (size 5.5) for bowling shoes, but she held her own on the lanes~
Afterwards, we had pizza at home and a swinging game of Trivial Pursuit.

On the First Day of Christmas

Sam (our earliest riser) was up before 8, followed shortly thereafter by Charlie. Mary decided to join us close to 9. The boys opened their stockings (from Santa) while waiting for Mary. Once she was down, we dove into our gifts (something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read). Mary's want was a cradle for her dolls. Whenever we get to the page with a cradle in "Baby's First Book", Mary points at it and says, "I need that." I found a nice, simple one on Etsy. I made a little mattress covered with some fabric she liked. She loves it~
Sam's "want" was a DSi~
And for our Irish fan's "wear" (he also got a pair of Elf pajamas)~
Charlie has been looking for a leather jacket for several months. He's pretty stoked about this~
Mary loves her princess dress~
A set of real bagpipes!!! The Pipe Major of the band that Charlie takes lessons with found a really cool set, made in 1971 that had never been played. We were able to get a pretty good deal on them, and Charlie, as you can see, is thrilled~
An Ipod for Charlie's "want" ~
Mary found a toothbrush from Santa in her stocking~
Sammy the Elf~
Sammy with a mood moustache he found in his stocking~
We had a really nice, laid back morning. Later, some friends from church joined us for Christmas dinner ( a yummy honey-baked ham).

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

We spent Christmas Eve with Grandma and all of my extended family. It was pretty low-key - in a good way!The kids were excited to see their cousins~
We made some cupcakes to bring along. Mary's are at the bottom - her reindeer look like they've had a run-in with a semi. That, or she was channeling Picasso~
Tonight I get to go to bed at a reasonable hour - I wrapped all the presents for Christmas morning earlier this week!

House Party

This year, instead of one average sized gingerbread house, I found a kit for a village- five tiny buildings~

I walked away from the construction for a few minutes and came back to what we call, "Poop Mountain" ~
Mary piled as many tootsie rolls as she could on to the roof of her house~
It had us rolling in laughter (check out Sam in the background) for several minutes~
She was just so earnest about it!

Say, "Sugarplums!"

I took some pictures for our Christmas card today. It's really difficult to perfectly capture each child at the same time. This one was cute~
The boys really wanted me to use this one~
This was the winner~
I probably won't get the cards out until after the 25th. I'm mailing Christmas cards, people. Not Advent cards.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Scott took the kids to the Lombard Jinglebell Jubilee in Lilacia Park tonight~
It was freezing, but the kids really like seeing all the lights~


I had a mom's night out with a homeschool group, so I was toasty and warm playing bunco ;)

Welcome to Our World

Sam had his Christmas concert this morning~
He pushed himself a bit and was able to play a couple of songs beyond what was expected. We're really proud of his hard work. Mary wasn't cooperating for pictures, but here are my two handsome boys~

MSI - Weather

We had some passes to the Museum of Science and Industry that I wanted to use before Christmas break (to avoid the crowds). We wanted to check out the Jim Henson exhibit (somewhat disappointing) and I wanted the kids to take a closer look at the exhibit on space exploration~
Which they loved~

But what I didn't realize was that the museum also has an awesome new exhibit "Science Storms", which is all about weather phenomena~
The boys had a lot of fun creating tsunami waves. And thanks to all the amazing technology, they used their "Sci-passes" to record what they were doing, which then was available on the world wide web when we got home~

These cars ran on solar power~
After a run to the bathroom, Mary was awestruck by the giant Christmas tree~
We love a good plasma ball~

We experienced an indoor lightning storm under a giant Tesla coil~
In the wind tunnel - 80 mph winds~
No biggie~
We love Jolly Ball~
And mindball - Charlie beat Sam. But I smoked Charlie~
The younger you are, the more active your brain is. The docent was impressed with how well Sam and Charlie both did, though. He said most kids really don't have the self control necessary to relax for any significant amount of time. But they held out for over a minute. Of course they loved all the other exhibits in "You! The Experience", especially the hamster wheel.

Sugar Cookies

We had some fun making sugar cookies today. It was a long, tedious process (for me - all that rolling!) but the kids loved it~

Heralding

Charlie had his band Christmas concert tonight. Sam was not feeling well, and fell asleep on the couch 20 minutes before we had to leave. I ended up staying home with him, but I heard from Daddy and Grandma how great Charlie did~
She's nothing if not consistent~

Discovery Center Museum - Rockford

When we were at the Scarecrow Festival, we saw a cool exhibit about our solar system by the Rockford Children's Museum. They were also giving out buy 1, get 1 free admission coupons, so today we finally made the drive and checked out the place~
Attached to the back of the museum is a really neat playground with all sorts of "exhibits" built into the equipment. The kids played out there for a short while (I stayed inside where it was warm), but it will definitely be worth a second trip to check out further.

We spent a lot of time at this centrifugal force exhibit - trying to get all the accessories to stay on the turn-table. We did it once, for about 2 seconds~
On the second level, they had the most awesome pretend area I've ever seen. Ginny's House was great - Mary could have spent several days there~
While Mary explored the house and garage (complete with a car to work on) the boys checked out the Body Shop and the Science and Sports~
Sam at the pitching clock~

Another really cool exhibit was the veterinarian's office (complete with real x-rays of various animals). Dr. Mary was on call~
Heart and soul~
Believe it or not, this is the first time we've seen a plasma ball~


Tornado machine~

As usual, because it was a weekday in the middle of the afternoon, we pretty much had the run of the museum. I love that my kids can keep trying things as many times as they want, or look at exhibits for as long as they need to really comprehend what's going on, rather than being jostled in the crowd and having to wait forever. We are really blessed having the freedom to homeschool.