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!