Construction Zone

So, we (read, I) decided that the kids had outgrown their megablocks.  They had outgrown them, and they only made towers with them anyway.  I thought that maybe their imaginations would be stimulated a bit more with something a bit more flexible.  Fortuitously, a friend of mine (Thanks Michelle!) was also going through her kids' things before Christmas and offered their duplo table.  "YAY!"  I thought, "Maybe they'll build...a house or something!"

Guess what has been under construction:

But they were having so much fun and were so proud of their tower that I was able to take this:

Trepidation

This is Belle yesterday after she overheard me on the phone confirming her appointment at the vets to be spayed today.

Can you really blame her for this face, after all?

Punica granatum

Julia saw a pomegranate in the store and wondered what it was, so Charlotte bought her one. 

And I took photos of it.

And now it's still sitting in the fridge, because the kids didn't really like it, and the only thing I can find to do with the seeds is put them in a salad, and the thought doesn't really appeal. 

Looks pretty, though.

Melty snowmen

A week or so ago, hubs' aunt posted this link to the cutest cookies EVER on Facebook.  And I just had to try them!  So I made some sugar cookie dough on Monday and stuck it in the fridge.  It seemed rather crumblier than usual for dough, and sure enough, when I went to make the cookie bases yesterday, I couldn't make it stick together to save my life.  So I grabbed the remainder of a stick of butter, about 1/3 of a cup, threw it in the dough, and beat it for a few minutes.  It was easy to form then, but I crossed my fingers that the cookies would hold their shape and not be too tough.  It seemed to work.  So if this happens to you, give adding more butter a shot.

Anyway, here are some (too many!) shots of our melty snowmen.  Which reminds me that, although it's frigid out there now, by Friday it's supposed to be warmer and melting for real!

Note that, although we were making this evening right before supper, Adam has not been out of his jammies all day!  It's the hols, man!

Julia's---with pink snowballs, of course!

It was fun playing around with the gumdrops left over from our gingerbread house making frenzy.

One of my faves.  Love her little tam-o-shanter.

Anyway, you ought to try these!  They're really fun.  It's nice not to have to mess around with cookie cutters, and the cookies are big enough for the kiddos to decorate without much in the way of assistance.  Yippee!  And did I mention again how dang CUTE they are?  But how can we eat them?  How, I ask you?  How?

glimses of Christmas

A few quick peeks into our Christmas:

Julia's school winter concert.

Belle, looking worried.  She usually doesn't look this way, and one day I'll take a photo that proves it!

Grandma Char's sticky buns.  Adam eats it like a bun-cicle.

Julia reading the Christmas story this year for the first time.

The Gift.  He has been wanting this game ALL YEAR.

 Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles.

In other news...

Had roast beef and yorkshire pudding for Christmas dinner.  May I say that the roast was perfectly cooked and everything came out at the same time and NOT sound like I'm bragging?  Maybe if I ammend that by reporting that I completely forgot to bake the pie and the house smelled like burnt butter from where it overflowed the pudding tins and burned all over the bottom of the oven, leaving the house very un-Christmassy smelling!

But that's what candles are for, right?

Hope your Christmas season was full of happiness.

RIP Popcorn

Remember the popcorn we strung on our tree last week?

Well...

Alas and alak, it is no more.

Who's the culprit, you ask???

Nuff said.

Haute Cuisine at its finest

Or not.

I mean, I can make the tastiest, prettiest dishes and my kids put up their noses.

But mix some ground turkey and half a can of mushroom soup and smoosh it in a pan, take the rest of the soup and mix it with some water.  Put tater tots over top of the turkey and pour the watery soup over top then bake it until the meat is done.  And they can't get enough.

I give up.