Productivity!

The kids are still enjoying working on their science kits and checking on their "grow your own crystals' kit. (no crystals yet but they're still hopeful but no longer checking every 20 minutes)

We went to see a play by a lunchbag theatre group. A fun Christmas present from our wonderful friend Shirley! The kids were quite excited to head to the theatre and we got to our seats and settled in for the show. The story was part traditional with a a few improv twists. They were fervently hoping that Murray would get pulled up on stage to play one of the parts but to his relief and their utter disappointment, he was spared. It had lots of silly parts that kept them entertained and amused and also had lots of audience participation but I noticed the girls weren't as in to that part this year. *sigh* They're getting older and not as willing to be goofy in public. After awhile they loosened up and did some of the stuff when we were cued for it but Honey was fairly reserved! LOL

When we got home, Honey whipped up a couple batches of candy from her Sour Science kit and gave us all samples. Then she & Sweetie helped Murray cut up apples for a big batch of apple sauce, yummmm! and good to have because I didn't get groceries this week and we're running out of fruit options!

After supper Grammie dropped in and visited for awhile on her way home from Boxing Day sale shopping. I thought all the busy-ness and activity of the day would have worn them out but they didn't settle down to sleep until after 10pm!!! This vacation schedule drives me nuts! Then they're sleepy in the morning and sleep til 8:30, then 9 the next day and then yesterday it was 9:30 before the last one rolled out of bed!!!!

Today I woke them up at 7:30, trying to rein in this runaway train of partying all night cuz I'm NOT cool with that!!! We were busy, got outside for a couple of hours for skating, played and ran around the house for a long while. We put them in bed at 8:30 but Sweetie was still awake at 10pm again!!! Gotta get them back on track before school starts again but we have some time. 

Sewing Circle

Sweetie got a sewing kit for Christmas so today she wanted to work on a project. She cut up some squares of material and wanted to sew the different patterns together to make a doll blanket for her sisters.  She and I were working on that as Lovey & Murray tried out her Tasty Science kit and Honey read her book. 

Things got a little hairy when I asked Sweetie to get her needle threader from her stocking so I could show her how to work it. That met with a cry of despair and a good long tantrum on the stairs while she resisted my unreasonable demands! Eventually she pulled it together and we were able to work on her blanket. Of course she wanted everything perfect from the get go and was very frustrated at any mistakes but caught on quickly and got going on her stitches after a few attempts.

Lovey then wandered in to see what we were up to and wanted to join in on the fun. I got her needle threaded and she promptly pulled it too hard and the thread came out. Then Sweetie finished a row and needed help knotting off the thread. Then Honey wanted to join in on the fun and put 47 scraps into a pattern and wanted to sew them together. Suddenly I had 3 tyrant seamstress wannabes all demanding instant service. I was not entirely comfortable being surrounded by angry, frustrated, overtired and stressed out workers with access to sharp pointy objects! Trying to keep up with the requests for help was daunting and frankly I was glad when it was time to get supper ready because by then, everyone was on the edge and trying to rein all that in was wearing me down!

Earlier in the day Honey worked on her Sour Candy project and made some suckers and marshmallows that were good and sour too! She was quite pleased with her production and was quite excited to have everyone sample her wares!

Thank goodness we got all these kits and activities for Christmas because it seems like they've forgotten how to entertain themselves. Every time I sit down to read or watch an online workshop, someone is hovering at my elbow with "what-do-I-doooooooooo???" syndrome!

They also haven't had any outdoor activity for almost 2 full days so tonight we hauled them out after supper for some skiing. It went much better than the initial "I don't WANT to go skiing" pronouncement. The snow wasn't ideal, not very deep and a bit too tacky. We just did a loop in the field across the street. We were going to cross the beaver pond but it looked a little sketchy and had too many rough patches so we turned around. It must have been a 45 minute trek and enough to knock their silly energy down a peg. They were wild at supper, laughing so hard they couldn't talk! At one point, and I can't remember what we were talking about, I said "sometimes you guys are hard to enjoy when you're being so ridiculous!" Lovey looked at me and immediately responded matter of factly "well, you made us so you'd better enjoy us!" and that just cracked Murray and I up. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em right?

 

One Good Day

is apparently all we're entitled to around here! Yesterday's well behaved, mild mannered children were not here to stay! Lovey had a one hour crying, screaming jag about pants. Then later in the day Sweetie followed suit for just about the same amount of time over a sewing dilemma!

In between mood swings, they worked on a lot of Harry Potter Lego, bopped along to their MP3 players, singing their  hearts out, started their crystal formations, built a robot, made their own gum and read their books.

Bedtime was a gong show as the book they're reading hit a creepy spot right before lights out. Hoping to have them settle more, we let them read for awhile in bed but by 9pm it was time for sleep. or so I thought! Sweetie was too scared. Honey's book was too sad and Lovey probably would have gone to sleep if the other two hadn't been carrying on.

I finally offered to let Sweetie sleep in my bed as that sometimes helps. However the other 2 heard that and were outraged at the injustice of the special privileges being doled out! I told them they could all crawl in if they wanted. What a waste of time! Two more trips up there to tell them to settle down as they fought over who got the middle, who had the most blankets, who was talking too much.... Honey didn't really want to be in there anyway but did NOT want to be alone in her room. On my last trip upstairs, I gave a warning that if they hadn't worked it out and settled down in 5 minutes, the sleepover at my place was cancelled. Almost exactly 5 minutes later, Honey comes tip tapping down the stairs, clutching Baabaa and says "they're still whispering!". So I told her they were all going back to their own beds then. "Good!" she says and happily heads back upstairs. "but this makes you a tattle tale!!!" I tell her. She remains unfazed by this and heads off!

Sweetie was still terrified of sleeping alone, so I told her to crawl in with Lovey but she had to be quiet or she was going to her own bed. Seems to have worked out ok :)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas didn't get started around here til almost 7:30! unless of course you count the fact that I woke up every 20 minutes from 5:22 on :))) I'm not sure at what age I started waking my parents up at 4am but I'm sure my sleeping in days on Christmas morning are numbered!

At 7:20 I finally heard stirring in the other room. One little voice whispered to another little voice "It's Christmas!!!" The other little voice asked "I wonder if we're allowed to get up yet??!?!??!" That was all the prompting I needed & I flew out of bed to go get them!

We went downstairs to check out our stockings and found............... silly string!!!!!!!!!!!

 Once we'd made a big ol' mess, we checked out the rest of our stuff and then ran up for a quick bowl of cereal before getting down to some serious ripping & tearing!

Lovey had anxiously been waiting for this sequel since last year in Grade 1 when she read the first one. She was very pleased to finally have her hands on Smells Like Treasure! In fact, we had to make her put it down so we could open gifts! Diehard reader or what?

 As they opened their gifts, they were so appreciative, pleased and excited. They constantly thanked us all morning which was so nice to hear! They got many new toys and gadgets but were just as thrilled when they opened their bibles as anything else they received. Honey immediately opened hers and said "Oh good! now I have to look up Matthew 4!!!" So very serious that one!

Then we had the big finale. Just when he thought all was said and done I told him there was one more present to open. He looked all around but couldn't see it anywhere. I suggested he move the couch and sure enough there was something back there...

 His very own canvas! but I might enjoy it now & then too ;)))

and since I didn't make it into any Christmas pictures this year, here's Murray with one of my toys! a wireless receiver for my flash unit.  Woohoo! (trust me it's more exciting than it looks!)

Once gifts were all open, they dug into their stockings for more candy and had a minor feast on that until it was time for Belgian waffles with strawberries whip cream and chocolate sauce! Mmmmm mmmmmm good! only once a year or I'm sure we'd blow up!

After our healthy lunch, we got ready to head to M&D's for stage II and the festivities continued there. Every year Mum says she has cut back and is not getting as much but so far there's been no evidence of that. We are thoroughly spoiled by all the parents I think! (mind you, I'm not complaining!)

Christmas dinner was excellent and will give me something to do at the gym this week! I hope everyone had as wonderful Christmas as we did! The girls were so well behaved all day, remembered their manners and despite all the activity, never acted up at all!

'Twas the NIght Before Christmas...

What  doozy of a day! I was wide awake and excited first thing this morning. I tried to sleep in a bit. Unfortunately my mind had already started listing all the to do's for me! So at 7, I gave up and decided to get started on stuff. I baked a red velvet cake & put together some Icelandic Delight for supper. I also baked the sweet potatoes for the casserole for tomorrow. The kids ate breakfast and then I headed to the gym for my 9:30 class, thinking I was ahead of the game.

Class was fairly demanding but no more so than usual but by 11:30 I was exhausted. If I closed my eyes for a second, I started to drift off standing on the spot. I ate some lunch and desperately wanted some sleep so I asked if Murray minded if I checked out for awhile. He gave me the go ahead and once the kids finally stopped hollering, I was gone for a solid two hours. I had to force myself to get up because supper was waiting to be prepared.

Finally everything was ready, Mum & Dad had arrived and we ate not too long after I'd planned! Supper went well, everyone ate. It helps when I make a favourite, Swedish Meatballs. I'm not sure if Lovey was feeling too well, she only ate 2 meatballs and didn't feel like having any dessert but when she's full, she's full and she just doesn't want anything else, even if it's her all time favourite supper.

We got ready for church and made it there in good time. We were greeting at the door,  handing out bulletins and candles. The kids were tripping over each other to get THEIR candle into the hands of whoever was coming through the door! Enthusiastic greeters are festive right?

Lovey did a violin solo at the beginning of the service, Away in a Manger and did a great job. What I noticed most of all was how COMFORTABLE she was in front of that big room with over 450 people in it!!!! It didn't even faze her, I'm not even sure she gave it a thought at all.and she's only 7½!!! Wow!. I had to do a reading and wasn't entirely sure I'd be keeping all my meatballs!!!

We sang Christmas carols the whole way to and home from church. I've never heard Partridge in a Pear Tree quite that fast before but they were belting it out and not trying to kill each other so I can't complain!

When we got home, they raced to get their jammies on but were NOT the least bit ready to go to sleep! Lovey had to wrap her presents for her sisters and then they settled down to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas with Murray. We finally got them in bed and tucked in, prayers said a bit before 9:30 but the energy was still buzzing. Someone came to drop off a Christmas card at 10pm and RANG the doorbell! BOING! 3 little heads popped over the bannister, NEEDING to know who was here, what was going on etc. So the settling down process was totally blown out of the water! LOL Everything was calm and silent shortly after though so I think they finally crashed!

Tomorrow should be pretty wild! Hopefully they get some decent sleep. Honey had several moments of misery today over very minor upsets and a 2nd day of that won't be pretty!

School's Out for Christmas!

Just to take things up a notch on the excitement scale, school is officially done til January! Vacation has begun and we couldn't be more pleased! All of yesterday's party fun got crammed into today's shortened program and they got lots of treats and junk while they were there so it was a raging success on all fronts. Then they came home to leftovers for lunch and were less than enthused about this mediocre vacation kick off! But mumma's got to clean out her fridge ya know!

Tulip's mom returned yesterday's favour by letting the girls all go over there to watch a movie and I got some mopping done and cleaned up the kitchen a bit to prepare for tomorrow night's special dinner guests that are coming in just to hear Lovey play at the Christmas Eve service! (ok so maybe they like the other 2 kids too!!)

Party On!

We raced around like lunatics yesterday & crashed out the door just barely in time to catch the bus. I was surprised that I couldn't see the headlights coming down the road already! We waited a few minutes. Still nothing. Hmmmm. Murray wondered if the buses were delayed because of the weather. I ran in to check the district website but couldn't remember which district they were in right off the top of my head. I googled one number that came to mind but that obviously wasn't the right one because that page said all schools were closed. And that couldn't be right! Not on the 2nd last day of school, the last FULL day of school that I'd set aside for cleaning, wrapping and getting things finalized without interruptions or distractions. 

Still in denial, I googled the school and unfortunately found out that I'd had the right district number after all. I thought the girls would be excited to have the day off but annoyed that they hadn't gotten to sleep in. When i went out and announced the news, all three groaned and moaned "awwwwwwwww!!!! no!!!!!". Their classes all had special activities, parties, movies, plays etc planned  so it was the one day of the year that they DIDN'T want a day off.

Since my day was messed up beyond repair, I phoned Teena to see if she needed me to watch Boo for her but it turned out to be her one day off. She'd planned a similar day to mine except for shopping and errands.Since I was staying home anyway and not sure what to do with 3 Christmas crazed, at loose ends kids, I thought it would be helpful to bring in more of them and invited Boo over for the day so Teena could get her stuff done. That didn't seem loud or messy enough so then we called Tulip and the girls next door. That seemed to be just the right amount! I baked cookies and got icing ready for them to do some decorating.

While I was doing that, they tried to demolish the downstairs. Apparently, quiet activities like watching tv were not on their agenda!!! I quickly finished bagging the icing and got them to put away their swords and all other warfare.

The cookies were a big hit and they did a great job with minimal mess, surprisingly! There were even sprinkles involved and I didn't hear a single cascade of sugar! Once they'd sampled some of their work, I fired them out into the back yard to burn some of it off. Eventually they got cold and insisted on coming back in but by then it was almost supper. I decided it was in my best interests to send everyone home with all the toes they'd arrived with!

Teena and Boo joined us for supper since Dale was out shopping for the evening and this was like the icing on the, well, cookie I guess! They were super excited and turned it into a pj party supper and were quite confused as to why we'd want to wear our regular clothes to eat in!

Good food, great times, forever memories :)))

Not to be outdone by her sister...

Honey's 2nd upper tooth came out yesterday at breakfast. It had been hanging by the most annoying thread for days. If I could have gotten within 3 feet of her, it would have been gone on Monday! She wasn't having any of it though. So several days of gooey slurping and clicking ensued. Blech! Now it's all over.... til the next one! She doesnt' want to give it up either. I've never heard of kids who aren't willing to trade in lost teeth for cash! Must get a DNA test pronto, these girls may not really be my daughters after all!!!

Polar Express!

The Nanny & Grampy Express pulled into town yesterday! I didn't tell the girls they were coming so there were 3 very excited girls when these 2 landed on the doorstep! And then things got CRAZY when they started bringing in the gifts!

Surprisingly, Honey, Lovey & Sweetie were very cooperative and pleasant while taking everything downstairs.There was not one bit of fighting over who got to carry what. They unloaded the bags and sorted things out, placed everything nicely under the tree and it was all very calm and orderly. Definitely not their MO for most of this week, let me tell ya!

After the meet & greet portion of the afternoon, we went to pick Murray up from work and headed out for supper and had a great feed!

 

 

don't you play board games with a lucky sock on your head??? LOL! Not sure why she left that up there but I did toss it on. She must have forgotten about it when  Murray started reading bedtime stories!

Invasion!

We seem to have been inundated with little people from the North Pole! So far they're staying out of our way. They appear ready to swing down and commence mayhem at any given moment though!!! Hopefully they stick to swinging from the rafters for a few more days because I've got enough trouble makers on the ground here already!!

Gone!

Sweetie's been working and working on her top teeth for quite some time now but until recently there was no progress. She came home on Monday with her tooth in a little tooth shaped container on a string around her neck. She finally succeeded and is very happy and also proud of the new gap toothed look she's sporting! I think it really bothered her when Honey's top tooth came out before hers. Honey's 2nd top one is hanging by a thread and you can hear her flicking it constantly. If she doesn't pull it out soon, I just may have to because the slurping and smacking is driving me bananas!!!

Shopaholic & Daughter

Lovey has been anxious to go Christmas shopping for at least a week now. She was asking daily when we'd be able to go. She was very insistent that she wanted to buy gifts for her sisters with her own money. I thought she'd give the idea up after awhile but she wouldn't forget it. She barely had any money when she started asking. Then she got $10 from a sweet lady from church who spoils us silly.

As soon as she got home from school she wanted to know when we could go. I told her we had to wait until Murray got home. The minute he walked through the door, she hollered "ok Mum, we can go now!". Since we hadn't eaten, I wasn't quite as ready as she was! Supper was haddock and cheese and I wasn't sure how that was going to go over but she wanted to go so badly that she wolfed it all down, including vegetables in about 5 minutes flat! I haven't seen her eat fish like that since she was 1½!!! We were on our way by 5:15 and I was hoping to catch that window where all the shoppers go home for supper and the evening shoppers haven't come out yet. It worked pretty well, we found a space to park easily and didn't have any big line ups at the checkouts. We even got in and out of Costco in short order & were home by 7:15. (and she dithered terribly in Toys R Us!!!)

She had a whopping $19 to use tonight and she spent every penny and needed to borrow a dollar from me. She was so excited to make selections for them and we had to go back & forth to the different sections to compare and do a few price checks. It was hard to find things she thought they'd like that were within her budget. In the end she was very happy with her selections and so pleased & proud to have made her own purchases! She was so cute on her little spree tonight. Once she was done we celebrated with mini blizzards at Dairy Queen.

When she got home she told her sisters she'd gotten their gifts and that they couldn't peek in the bag! She also told them she'd used all her money for her shopping. Sweetie felt bad that she'd spent all her own money so she gave her the $10 she had gotten in her Christmas card. I wasn't sure what to do about that...??? Lovey thanked her and told her she didn't have to but Sweetie was quite insistent so she accepted it. Afterwards I told Sweetie that she'd been very sweet and generous. She just lit up at that compliment and said how good it had made her feel so good inside to help her sister. She obviously valued that more than the paper money so I guess it's a good investment!

Triple Joy Beauty Parlour Now Open!

This holiday season, make sure you're looking your sparkly best at all the Christmas parties! Don't get your makeover by just anyone! Let our dedicated staff of three bring out the beauty in you! Services include manicures, make up application and hairstyling! Prices are very reasonable but we do recommend a reservation as appointments are limited. These girls are busy and very popular. In fact, the one in the yellow dress is so busy working on her own look that she can rarely fit a client in!

Grammie stayed for supper one night while she was in doing some Christmas shopping and as soon as the girls finished eating, th y scurried off and got themselves all glammed up. We didn't really know what was going on until Honey started to cry when Grammie was getting ready to leave. We didn't realize they'd been setting up their salon and were now ready for their first customer. Grammie quickly agreed to her surprise makeover appointment. She managed not to grit her teeth tooooo much during the heavy handed nail filing and let them style her hair to their liking. Murray opted out of his appointment which allowed me to get in even sooner than I'd hoped!

 

Project Candy, Complete!

Honey had a presentation to do and the topic was Christmas traditions. Honey chose to speak on how we make candy together! Her first choice was the candle light service at church on Christmas Eve but since her sisters were going to talk about that with their classes, she wanted to do something different.

In order to properly prepare for the presentation, we needed to do some research of course! They were allowed to bring in a prop for their story so I suggested that she make a batch to take and share with her class. She printed out the recipe on a card to give to her teacher and we made enough photocopies to give out to her classmates.

Last night after supper she got out the stool and set to work at the stove. I helped her measure some of the ingredients and she added everything in and did almost all the stirring and closely monitored the candy thermometer. Every once in awhile she needed a break when her arm got too tired or hot.

We didn't include the pecans since it was going to school and I had to use different chocolate to avoid problems with nut allergies. Other than that, her candy turned out just like it usually does!

Her presentation went well and one of the students told her that it was the best one that day! (and other people had edible samples too!) She was pleased that it went so well and many students said they were going home to make their own that night :)))

Party in the House!!!

Bringing the Christmas tree home last night pushed the kids right over the edge into full blown holiday insanity! They've been spazzy and goofy all day. I went to the gym and when I came in, the first thing Murray said to me was "uhhh they're a little excited." Master of the understatement that guy!

They've all got ants in their pants and just cannot sit or stand still for more than a nanosecond! Emotional volatility is at an all time high and it's like walking through an emotional minefield. I had stuff to prepare in order for the tree trimming party to begin so it was a long afternoon for them! While I was gone this morning they'd dragged out baby blankets, pillows & blankets and lots of lovely accessories around the house. They cleaned that up, but it took a good long while and interrupted my own clean up 47 times to ask when we could start. I would ask "well did you clean up the living room yet? No? well get back to work then!" They'd drift off and immediately lose focus and turn into bouncy giggly balls of ridiculous within 5 seconds. Then there were several urgent matters that they had to show me. Finally I started giving them lots of little jobs to keep them busy and that seemed to work well. Plus, since they wanted to get to the decorating, they were keen to help me with whatever I wanted. They changed their beds and Sweetie completely did hers alone. I walked by her room and everything was pulled up snug, sheets & quilts tucked tight under the corners. Upon closer inspection I did notice that not a single piece matched but she was so proud of her efforts that I just told her what an awesome job she'd done! The other two couldn't get their fitted sheets on straight and were like timebombs in there trying to get them fixed so I had to step in before they blew up! LOL

They helped me get all the food ready for our buffet, carrying and fetching everything I needed. Lovey took care of dumping the compost and of course fixed her hair for the party! Honey was keen for any job that needed doing and she & Sweetie set up the table for me.

Finally everything was ready and we got to eat! Apparently this was what they had really been waiting for because I didn't see anyone pick up a single ornament for a good long while after the buffet opened!

After some massive binging (and hopefully no purging later!), I cut them off and we got the ornaments on the tree! They were all fairly cooperative and helped each other find their ornaments and places for them. I laughed when they discussed how they were not putting Dora on the tree this year. I reminded Honey that it wasn't that long ago that she had a full scale melt down when her glass Dora ornament got broken. She doesn't even remember that!

 Murray finds a way to cope with the holiday frenzy. He may be turning into the boozer Aunt Wanda accused him of being several years ago!