Graham Cracker Houses

Sundays have been fun with Ruby. She's taken to narrating things she's doing in a fairly loud voice. She even likes to say "I'm pooping", even though she isn't.  She's trouble. During primary, our new primary chorister was out of town and the primary president had offered to take over but she was not prepared so it was a bit chaotic. The kids were going to go caroling to all the 2nd hour classes for the first half of singing time. Caroline happened to be around, and even though she's been released, she stepped right in. She is like me and tends to take over when things aren't being led well. I just wish the primary president would text me for help when she's in over her head. I would've been fine to lead if I had been given a heads up and I could've saved Caroline the trouble. 

Tuesday Ruby and I went to the pet store after we dropped the girls off at school. It was not so fun this time. She was less excited about the animals and she mostly wanted to look at "fish toys" which tend to be breakable. The cat room was actually open this time but she immediately wanted to get out. It did smell really bad in there so maybe that was it. 

Wednesday Penny had her annual well check up. We had a doctor we've never had before and she was pretty cool- she is not as warm as our doctor that quit the practice, but she was easy to talk to and had a good sense of humor. She might work as our new family doctor....When I said to the dr that Penny didn't eat bread, she said,  well that's why she broke her arm. That's been a joke in our house too, so it hit well. The nurse that gave Penny a shot was really chatty and friendly too. She was very patient with Penny's nerves and we bonded over loving Legos

Thursday while the girls were at school, I cleaned the downstairs. It was nice having Tyler off work because he went and ran a couple errands with Ruby while I cleaned. (One of his errands involved him returning shoes he had bought for me and him still not buying the right shoes for me, he has sworn off buying me shoes now, lol). It's so much easier to clean without her. After I finished cleaning we went to Culver's with Ruby. She is such a crappy eater lately but she did eat some of the Mac and cheese we bought her, just very slowly. After we ate, we grabbed a couple things at target. Ruby already recognizes the Target store symbol and gets excited to go there- that's all thanks to her sisters. 

After school, the girls got invited last minute to go see the movie "David" with some church friends. They didn't end up loving it but were happy to be with friends. Although Lucy ate too much popcorn and made herself sick.  The boys had a holiday Archery tournament but it was at 8pm so I didn't end up going. I didn't want to keep Ruby out late.  I don't know why all the sports stuff had ended up being so late at night this year. 

Friday was our annual Graham Cracker House Christmas party. We had Stacie's family (they've been attendees for ages), Nahoko's family (last year was their first year joining us) and Grace's family (newbies). Stefanie had said she didn't have a day that would work for everyone so she bowed out. I have 5 kids and I can make time so it felt like a brush off, kind of bummed me out. Anyways, it was a good mix of people. The kids really got into the graham cracker house making and I swear they took almost an hour creating. While they made their houses, the grown ups played a little game, kind of a christmas scattergories. We don't normally play a game at that time, we usually chat and although the game was fun enough, I wish we had just chatted. That was really the only time we had to chat and catch up and I missed having that. After that we voted on the houses and while I counted the votes,  the kids play the saran wrap ball game. It was mostly just candy prizes but they all seemed happy with that, except Mimi who isn't really into candy. But lucky for her, she got the Target giftcard from the ball.  After the saran wrap ball, we had one more game to play. I might need to start the party earlier next year because it was kind of late at that point. We had Family Feud like questions and people got points if they guessed the top answers. It was a bit chaotic but I still think it was fun. In the end Eric and Al went "head to head" and Al won the lego prize. Then at the end of the party we passed out trophies. Lucy won "most epic" again. (It was a literal tie between her and Ben so we had to do a re vote and Lucy won). Jenna won "most beautiful". And Reggie won "most creative". I think both Lucy and Jenna won those categories last year so I think we might need to shake things up next year. Anyways the party was loud and chaotic in our small space, Ruby (and all the kids) ate so much candy, and every family seemed to go home with something, so I think it was a success?

Above is Ben's ship and below is Penny's candy store

Saturday morning Penny, Ruby and I went to Belle Isle. We had no plans that day and I just couldn't stand the thought of being cooped up inside all day with Ruby and Penny was up for getting out with us. It was a good choice, Ruby loves watching sea animal flashcards on YouTube so she enjoyed seeing the real life fish at the Belle Isle Aquarium. She was most captivated by the big sting rays. She easily identified the clown fish and was super excited to see a real axolotl (she sits with Tyler and Ben when they play Minecraft). After the aquarium we went to the conservatory. Penny was given a scavenger hunt to do there and that kept her occupied. I think it was just nice to walk around somewhere warm with and see living plants. Then we went to the museum that I thought was free but was actually $5 each.  It's small and not really worth the price but we made the best of it.  There were some fun interactive boat things and a pretty view of the Detroit River and Canada. 

The weather this week has varied from super cold to warm and back to cold. That means all of our snowman have melted and we have gotten some icy roads. But the warm days did also mean we got some fresh air this week...