So Sweet!

Tonight for Family Night we made gingerbread houses. Denise found great gingerbread house kits at Costco. We didn't have to make gingerbread or frosting and we didn't have to buy a ton of bags of candy - it all came in the kit.

We made quite the mess with our creations but that is the price one pays for creativity. We did have to clean up before some gingerbread houses were complete but we still think they came out pretty "sweet". Luke managed to get the most candy on his house and in his belly. I would not be surprised if he woke up at some point tonight with a tummy ache.

Here are our masterpieces (going from oldest to youngest child, left to right)
Denise decided to move the houses to the front room so they could be displayed. All of them made the move successfully except Megan's. Her house stood for a few minutes before collapsing into a giant gingerbread pile. We all got a good laugh from it - even Megan. Maybe tomorrow we will try to rebuild.

Just hanging out

Denise & Luke hung out today while the rest of the family was at rehearsals for our church Christmas program...Sing Noel. They went to the mall to do some Christmas clothes shopping. Luke walked the whole mall and never complained. He hates to shop so Denise was relieved that he was so good. Before they left the mall they spent a bit of time hanging out in the children's play area.
After the mall they stopped by the church to see how rehearsals were going. When the left the church to go home Denise decided to teach Luke the fine art of vandalism and they drew a lipstick heart on Derek's car.
Tonight was Sing Noel. Derek, Megan, Emily and Nathan all participated and they all did a great job. Luke wanted to be a part of it too but is still too young. Denise told him that he could be her date to Sing Noel. Everytime she said it to him he would giggle and tell her he was not her date. Maybe she should be offended by that.

"Leaf" it to us

We have a ton of leaves in the front yard. The kids couldn't resist playing in them after school today. We took a lot of pictures but Denise loved this one because of the kids faces.

Now the big job...raking all the leaves up tomorrow. Kids, go get the rake!

Speaking of leaves...

Our tree out front has the most beautiful colors on it.

Wanna buy a leaf?

So Luke has a new obsession - leaves. Our neighbor down the street has a tree that is dropping big leaves. Luke goes and picks up the fallen leaves everyday and brings them home. He sets up a shop and waits for people to come and buy the leaves from him. He even gathered a big bundle of the leaves to give to Denise's dad for his birthday. I love that he is so interested in something as simple as a leaf that I just had to document it.

Birthday Celebration

Denise's family came over for Sunday dinner to celebrate Grandpa Wood's birthday. The kids got right to work after church designing birthday signs that they placed on the front door and in the family room. We enjoyed mexican food for dinner and then had cake and opened presents. Grandpa got a gift certificate to a rib place from Brett and Lauren (we missed having them here for the celebration)
Ryan and Katie got Grandpa some video tapes and the biggest remote control we have ever seen. It goes great with our gift.
Happy birthday Grandpa. Thanks for sharing your special day with us.

It's beginning to SMELL a lot like Christmas

Derek, Emily, Nathan and Luke went to the local high school to pick up our Christmas tree last Saturday.I think one of Derek's least favorite things to do is set up the Christmas tree because he "claims" that Denise is too picky about how straight the tree has to be. Does it need to go to the left? No, no a little to the right. Well, maybe an 1/8 of an inch to the left. At least he has a good sense of humor about it.
We love our tree - Derek picked out a really nice one. We love sitting on the sofa watching TV and smelling the pine scent of the tree. It really does make it feel more like Christmas.

Are you ready for some football?

The kids got really excited for the USC/UCLA game this year. The night before the game Derek and Denise went out to the movies. When they got home they found that family room had been decorated in preparation for the game the next day.

Emily, Nathan and Luke all rooted for USC (with no coaching from Mom, although Derek thinks otherwise) Megan I think took pity on her dad and went with UCLA - I don't think she wanted Derek to be the only UCLA fan in the house. There was an abundance of USC signs around the house but Megan made sure to get a few UCLA signs up for her dad.

The sound of music

We have piano music in our house again. Denise didn't realize how much she missed it. The girls haven't had piano lessons for a few months because their piano teacher has been working on her doctorate in music at USC so she needed to take some time off to devote to school. Well, piano lessons started up again last week and it has been nice to hear the girls play more regularly. We are grateful to have beautiful music in our home.

It's decorated!

We got the the front room tree decorated. We think it looks really nice, especially when you are looking in the front window from outside.

Oh Christmas Tree

The kids were eager to put up our tree this year so Denise let them have at it. Denise doesn't love this job - the branches make her fingers feel raw so she was more then happy to let the kids do it.

Just for Aunt Ann

Fun and Games

The kids wanted to make a funny turkey to take to Grammy's house for Thanksgiving. We took paper bags and filled them with popcorn to make our faux turkey. We took it with us to Grammy's and "carved" it to reveal the surprise inside. It was a hit! We also had fun creating tasty rice crispy turkeys that Aunt Gail brought over. Everyone got their choice of candies and free reign to create their turkey however they wanted. What a fun, yummy treat!
We rounded out the evening by playing different games with Apples to Apples being the most popular.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Turkey Day!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We enjoyed spending the day with family and friends at Grammy Baker's house. We had a yummy Thanksgiving meal that would not have been complete without Grammy's famous hot out of the oven rolls. Those of you that have tasted them before - I know your mouth is watering just looking at the picture.

Mouths were happy this day!

What a feast!

Today was Luke's kindergarten Thanksgiving feast & program. He worked hard on memorizing his lines for the play..."The people on the ship were called the pilgrims. The pilgrims wear different clothing than we do today." We think he makes an adorable pilgrim. He enjoyed the feast but he, as well as the other kids and parents, couldn't stand the heat outside. We were above 90 degrees today. Come on, this is November.

Already counting down

It's coming but not soon enough. Denise and the kids went to the movies last night (Derek was at a church meeting) One of the trailers shown was for Order of the Phoenix. When it came on the audience erupted with loud clapping and cheering. We can't wait! Wanna place any bets on where we'll be at midnight on July 13th - hey that's a Friday the 13th.

the rolls were a success

Nate's project was a success. He sold nearly every cinnamon "synonym" roll that he took to school. He was quite pleased with how his store did. He spent all his hard earned cub cash on a bag full of "treasures" - if you're a parent you know that means useless McD toys, candy, trading cards and other misc. stuff. He's thrilled with it so we are too.

The dreaded project

Nate's class is having something called economy day today. The kids have been earning "cub cash" in class this year and economy day allows them the opportunity to spend the money they have earned. Each child sets up a store and sells a product. Nate has been super excited about this project.

After going through ideas for a product to sell Nathan decided on homemade cinnamon rolls. Denise ran out and got the ingredients yesterday and even picked up individual sized containers to put the cinnamon rolls in so they would like they were being sold from a "real" store. Everything was out and ready so that as soon as Nate got home from school he could start making them.

He is quite the baker...he worked hard and did a great job on the rolls

Denise put the rolls in the oven and we were set. The buzzer went off and the rolls were set out to cool - end of story! Oh no...Denise read the wrong directions and cooked the rolls with convection oven time. Denise and Nate started frosting the rolls and they all collapsed because they were still super doughy inside. 40 Rolls down the drain, well kind of...the kids and Derek have been eating the doughy ones.

Denise had to start dinner at that point and get ready for an enrichment meeting at church. After enrichment Denise cranked out a new batch of rolls (while murmuring under her breath) and had them packaged and ready for Nate to take to school this morning.

Nate was excited for this morning. He had to make a sign for today and he was excited with the name he came up with for his rolls "synonym rolls" He is charging two dollars and throwing in a free drink with every purchase.

I'll post a few more pictures in the next post of the final outcome.

Luke's Project

Each of our kids while in kindergarten has had to disguise a turkey so the turkey won't get eaten during Thanksgiving. They also have to dictate a story to go with it. Megan disguised hers as Harry Potter. None of us, including Emily, can remember what Emily's turkey was. We couldn't remember Nate's either but he found his in a book his teacher had put together for him. He turned his turkey into a dog.

This year was Luke's turn. Here is his turkey...

He decided to disguise his turkey as a grandma. We turned in his turkey and story yesterday so I can't remember the whole story but it basically went something like this...

My turkey's name is Billy Bob Joe. Billy Bob Joe doesn't want to get eaten for Thanksgiving so he decided to dress up as a grandma. Everyone loves their grandma's and no one would eat a grandma so Billy Bob Joe will be safe this Thanksgiving.

Em's Projects

Emily has been working on three science projects that were all due yesterday. She had two papers one on the comparison of three planets and the other was a paper comparing her weight and age on each planet and then telling which planet she would want to live on and why. Her third project was a solar system with a little write up on scale. Of course we had to get lots of paint and styrofoam to make the solar system just right. She had fun with this project and she did a really good job on it.

Why so many projects?

For those of you with kids in school...does it ever seem like every child's school projects are all due in the same week or day? We have just finished with the last of the elementary school projects tonight. Emily, Nate and Luke have five projects (between them) due today and tomorrow. The kids worked really hard on all of them but it seems like mom and dad end up doing a lot of last minute trips to the store for art supplies or sitting at the computer with a child to help with writing or graphics. Tonight's project was the worse but it truthfully was Denise's fault that it ended up being such a long night. More info tomorrow when we update the blog - I'm going to bed!

When life gives you lemons...

Denise and the kids made lemonade tonight - exciting, huh? Perhaps not to everyone reading this but the kids were excited. They have been waiting to pick lemons off our tree since the moment the tree was planted. Everyone took turns squeezing the lemons and we ended up with yummy lemonade. Here is the recipe for anyone interested...

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
mix together in a pot and bring to a boil allowing the sugar to dissolve completely.
add
1 cup lemon juice
4 cups cold water and stir

Moving on into November

It seems as if the holidays are quickly approaching. Derek, the girls and Nathan have all started rehearsals for our church Christmas concert - Sing Noel. They also spent this last weekend trying out for a church musical that will happen in the spring. They had to go into a private audition to sing and then do a group dance. Emily was so scared about singing - her nerves really got the best of her. After some reassuring conversations with both Mom and Dad Emily dried her tears, braved the audition and went for it. We are proud of her for working through her fears. The kids and Derek are now waiting to know what their parts are.

Denise and Luke figure that there needs to be someone in the audience for all these performances so they will be the cheering section. Besides the thought of adding weekly rehearsals to an already full schedule overwhelms Denise - she's happy to be a cheerleader again, especially with Luke to help her.

Work and church holiday parties have already started to fill our calendar for the next few months - yikes! Christmas morning will be here before we know it. Maybe we'll actually get a Christmas card out this year but we're making no promises.