Lemony Candy Canes

Have a few leftover candy canes lying around?
Make some Mint Chocolate Bark.

Crush them and sprinkle in hot chocolate or on top of ice cream. Or make some homemade marshmallows and sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top before letting them set.

Or try this little treat. Roll a lemon on the counter to loosen the juice, then cut an an X in the top. Break the top and bottom off a candy cane and insert it in the hole. Now use it as a straw to get some surprisingly sweet lemon juice.

You Big Meanie

Maisy has a bully. I understand that he is disabled and I get that he doesn't understand what he's doing, but he needs to leave my daughter alone! It all started a few weeks into the school year when she came home from school with a bite on her cheek. Her teacher was unaware of any instance that would result on her cheek being bitten. Then a couple of weeks later it happened again, but this time someone saw it happen and it was noted that this little boy picks on Maisy. She is not very fast and she doesn't fight back so she is easy prey. Now that everyone knew what was going on they took the steps to prevent it from happening again.

Then this week, she is back in preschool following Christmas break and first day back he gets her. This time he scratches her face and neck pretty severely.
Then today he goes back to biting her face. I am so upset. I don't know what to do and I'm ready to pull her out of preschool. I can't send my child to school wondering if he is going to hurt her today. I can't send her knowing that she wonders too.
She isn't as enthusiastic about school as she was in the past anyway, and while I know it is good for her, I don't want her to go back. I have protected her from as much as I could for so long that I'm angry that I can't make this right. I want it to stop now. Any suggestions?

Snowball Soap Surprise

We have once again been sick at our house. Couped up kids and cold weather have left us a bit restless. So we tackled a project I had been meaning to try before Christmas. They turned out quite cute and they don't fall apart in the bathtub like I feared they might. We buried treasures inside and took some to friends to enjoy.

My kids actually clamored to get in the tub tonight, so all in all successful.

Contributing

I'm posting over at A Little Great today.

Eleventh Hour Projects

Well, I was not sure that this...

would ever become this,
but I'm relieved that it did.
And I love these little bean bags.
Maybe even more than Maisy.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was filled with anticipation,

opening presents,
handmade surprises,
long-wanted surprises,
snuggling,
reading,
sneaking,
baking,
kisses,
family,
food,
and frankly just perfect.

Twas the night before Christmas.

But I heard him exclaim,

'ere he drove out of sight...
Merry Christmas to all...

And to all a goodnight.

You Want What?

I may not live this down and it may be removed once Evan reads it, but my husband is a child-at-heart.

This is an actual conversation I had with Evan; my husband, not one of my children. (This is one of the pictures Ella took.)

Evan: "I decided what you can get me for Christmas."

Me: "Please, tell me." (He is so difficult to shop for.)

Evan: "I would like a pretend Special Agent badge. Not the cheap kind though, a high end one."

Me: "Uh, don't you have to actually be an agent, like in the FBI, to get one of those?"

Evan: "No, I think you can get one online. It might be kind of expensive though."

Me (trying to suppress a laugh): "Yeah, things on the black market usually are. Well, I think it might be too late to order anything in time for this Christmas, maybe next year."

Evan: "Yeah, it probably is too late."

Me: "Just out of curiosity, what would you want a badge for."

Evan (In a tone that says isn't it obvious.): "To make a movie."

This may be why I don't need to have a baby brother for Jack.

Art Lesson: color (neutral)

Nothing like last minute right. I did December's art project with Sadie's class today (Ella's class was last week) and since we are so close to Christmas and restlessness abounds, I decided to make it a kid pleaser. You can't go wrong with pop-ups. This was our final color lesson, on neutrals. Neutrals are most appreciated for allowing color to be itself. I compared it to being with a friends who either makes you louder or quieter than you normally are, where as neutrals allow the color to be itself. We talked about the Mona Lisa (which I would consider the most recognizable neutral painting) and Leonardo Da Vinci. The vocabulary word was chiaroscuro.

Our book was one of my favorites to read to kids, I may even get a little too into it, since I love to hear the ahhs as the pages are turned. The authors website is full of wonderful pop-ups ideas and we did this one. We added a little glitter for sparkle and happiness, and there you have it.

Help Me All the Way

I think maybe I need some of these helpful jingle bells.

My email was hijacked. They hacked into my private world and they messed with me and I'm mad. The best I can tell some person or group set up a program that hacked into my email, deleted my contacts, and forwarded all my messages to a fake address set up in my name. All so that they could send out an email, uncharacteristic of who I am in so many ways, asking for money. As I spent the better part of the day trying to reclaim my online identity and filing reports with various agencies, I learned that there are three reasons for a hack. First, satisfaction, kind of a "see what I can do, I am smarter than you and I can beat your game" idea. Second, personal gain, and third, to create fear and insecurity. Best I can tell the objective of my hackers was the third. I don't believe that someone smart enough to create a program that could do what it did would believe that people would fall for the crazy ploy they were playing. Fear and insecurity. Kind of a mean game. But I'm more mad and frustrated. I'm stronger and smarter than that and I can beat their game. So there. (Oh, and sorry if I dragged you in with me.)

Sick House

Jack came in last night at about 12:30 with vomit on his face and pajamas, "Mommy, I froo up."

"Yeah, you did buddy. You're really sick."

I put him in the tub and set about cleaning up his bed. After he was dry and clean and in fresh jammies with clean sheets on his bed, I tucked him in and went back to bed. About five minutes after I fell asleep. He came running down the hall, "Mommy, I rilly sick." I grabbed him and ran for the bathroom. We made it just in time. The next four or five hours were spent between sick and sleep. Evan is sick now as well, and is currently asleep upstairs.

And so it is official, we are sick and staying in, which is probably a good thing, seeing as our car is buried under snow. I don't mind too much, the laundry is almost caught up, we are staying in pajamas all day and watching movies, but the lack of sleep is getting to me. Maybe a nap is in order.

Sick, but celebrating

Tuesday night Maisy got horribly sick. She threw up all night long and by the morning her dehydration was obvious. We were able to rehydrate thanks to a lot of pedialyte, but she remained weak for the next couple of days. Then, yesterday, as Evan and I were discussing where we would go for our anniversary dinner, I felt horribly nauseous. I went and lay down, thinking i would feel better, but I didn't. I was dizzy and sick to my stomach. I guess that is what comes of cleaning up vomit all night. Anyway, I ended up going to bed with a book and Evan watched TV on the couch, dinner plans were abandoned. Today he is at work and I have spent most of the day in bed, the house is suffering and the kids have spent the day watching random Christmas movies, who knew there were so many. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and maybe next week we will get around to one of our twice yearly dates, hopefully. But even if we don't it has been a wonderful eleven years.

Morning Visits

While I was getting ready this morning Jack came wandering in my room. I love our conversations. (Picture by Ella)

Me: "Hi buddy. What are you doing?"

Jack: "I dust waching Mickey Mouse Qubhouse."

Me: "Oh, good. Was it a good one?"

Jack: "Des, Minnie helped and da Handy Helpers helped and dey ate dinner dust wike we do."

Me: "Well, that sounds fun."

Jack: "Des, it was pun. I wiked it."

Me: "Oh good."

Still here, just crazy

I have been guest posting over at Material Girls with a few projects.
So I have been blogging, just not where I usually do.
Oh, who am I kidding, I've been slacking.

Give a girl a camera

My sister had an old digital camera that she no longer used. Since Sadie already has a camera, she gave it to Ella. We went through three sets of batteries in two days and when I downloaded the photos there were pictures of everything and everybody.

The ones that make me smile the most are the ones she took of herself.
I love Ella's confidence. When she gets dressed in the morning she knows she looks great.
She knows how she wants her hair (usually pigtail buns), what shoes she will wear, which accessories. I wish I could put that in a bottle and share it.

Art Lesson: color

I know its now December, but November was hectic and I taught late, so here is November's art lesson.

We talked again about color, but this time I focused on the way colors interact with each other. Colors have such an effect on each other that we can perceive a color as changing just by placing it near another color. Start by taking a red piece of paper and cutting it into four rectangles.

Now take one piece of each, white, blue, yellow, and brown, and cut a rectangle out of the center. Place the colored papers on the red papers with the cut out centered over the red. To the eye the reds will appear different from each other, even thought they aren't. (Although its hard to tell in this picture.)

Since last month our project used warm colors, this month we talked about cool colors. I told about Picasso's blue period and Monet's use of cool colors to evoke calm in his paintings (notice some of Monet's train station paintings.) Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh is another predominately cool color painting, but with a lot of movement. I also told the kids a little aboutShan Shui and the literal translation of color. (Just remember, I am not a teacher or an expert, just a mom teaching second and third graders, so nothing too deep.)

There are two or three books that have beautiful illustrations in a cool color palette. We did this art project, but with Winter's night sky.