On Sunday we held our annual Graham Cracker House Party with our neighbors (old and current). It's really the only party that we genuinely host each year. We started off with the kids decorating graham cracker houses and this year Tyler worked hard and made trophies for the top 3 houses.
He put in a lot of work on those trophies and not one of our kids won one- I think he was disappointed that none were staying with us. We let everyone vote for their 3 favorite and Eva won first, Beck won second and Jenna won third.
I think we need to find a more refined voting system because everyone just picked similar pretty houses and I think there were more creative ones that didn't get the credit they deserved. But anyways here are my kids (and Jacob) with their houses.
When the decorating was over, the kids all played the saran wrap ball game. I wasn't going to do it this year because it was so intense last year but my kids were all requesting it so I gave in. I don't think it was quite as intense as last year. My kids (Penny and Steven) ended up with the big money prizes inside which was sort of lame ($10 bills). I would rather other kids benefited from it.
After the saran wrap ball game, they played "Don't Eat Pete" and then they ran around outside in the freezing cold. Meanwhile us adults socialized and munched on candy. It seemed to be another succesful party.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful until the weekend. We didn't have seminary this week so that was nice but we still had to take Steven to school, his last day was Thursday. Tyler was nice and did 3 out of the 4 mornings, he has been very helpful. He's even helped with making dinners some because raw meat has been making me nauseous.
The younger kids didn't have in person class this week but they still had work to do. They spent the mornings doing their classwork. Penny doesn't have as much so she started on work from the other at home weeks (there will be 2 more). I might have to come up with some extra stuff for her for when we actually have those weeks.
The girls also had their friends Angelica and Luna over twice this week. I am not sure about Luna and Penny as friends. They had a lot of drama and I am not sure if Penny is the dramatic one or if they just don't mesh so well or if this is just what girls are like....but Penny insists that she loves Luna and wants her over all the time so here we are.
The girls also got to go to Sharon's house (the neighbor) and learn how to make cream puffs. I am glad she invited them over. It was nice for them to get out of the house and I know she enjoys the company.
Friday the weather plunged and it was so cold (real feel was -15) with a dusting of snow. I did not leave the house at all that day. I made Tyler run some last minute errands, although I think he was happy to get out of the house. He doesn't mind the cold like I do. That night we made cookies for Santa, Jacob joined us. The kids had some fun candy addition- eyes, bows, carrot noses and Christmas lights- so that made for some pretty interesting looking cookies. I think Steven's yellow cookie looked like a chick- but Steven called it "Big Boy"? Teens are weird.
After decorating cookies, the boys went to Jacob's house for a late nighter while the girls and I finished the latest season of Lego Masters. I also finished my "Elf" puzzle that I had out for way too long.
Saturday was spent cooking our Christmas feast. Tyler did the turkey, Christmas juice (also called Dragon Blood) and the crescent rolls. I did the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and banana pie. I also made some chocolate chip muffins and cinnamon bread for Christmas morning. It was a good feast at dinnertime and probably the only point in the day where the kids weren't all weren't bugging each other. We had a nice conversation about Christ and that somehow led to a conversation about the baby and them all wanting to know what they were like as babies. The kids really are excited about getting a new sibling. Meanwhile I have my worries and anxiety and am constantly sure something is wrong. I think I will feel somewhat better once I get an ultrasound. I am hoping that will get on the schedule for this coming week.
After our Christmas feast we all had some down time and the boys ended up watching "the glass onion" with me on my phone- it was a murder mystery. Not super appropriate for them but I was too lazy to shoo them away. Then it was time to open jammies. This year was a Minecraft theme. Nobody was happy about taking pictures, they just love to pest each other when they are all next to eachother, but it is tradition and I managed to threaten them well enough for some good pics.
After pics we ventured out to go see Christmas lights. Tyler drove faster than I would like on not great roads but he's such a pro *eyeroll* There's still the cool house in our neighborhood that has lights that go with music. We also went to this neighborhood off M-5 which always looks like it's decked out. I was slightly disappointed because it looked like they all got their lights done by the same professional service. Almost to prim and proper. When we got home from seeing lights we all opened the gifts that we had gotten each other. We had gone to 5 Below earlier that week and the girls had picked out the boys' gifts and the boys had picked out the girls' gifts. So the girls got Dad a "Home Alone" hat, Ben a card game, and Steven a shirt that says "Unathletic Dept". The boys got me a cactus light, Penny a horse toy and Lucy gel pens.
They played with their gifts for a bit, ate some pie and then it was time for bed. Thankfully there were no gifts to build this year but I stayed up too late watching "It's a Wonderful Life" becuase it's tradition. (Honestly anything after 10pm feels late these days, I am lacking in energy) The boys were so nice and helped eat the Santa cookies and fed their piggies the reindeers carrot ;) The boys also helped get all the presents out from the basement and put them under the tree. I appreciated the help.
No comments:
Post a Comment