Gingerbread House Fun

The gingerbread making was a huge success....though it took me the better part of today to roll, cut and bake the pieces to make the houses for each child, it was so very worth it. They each commented many many times that decorating the houses was MUCH fun-even better than watching movies!

What was so cool to me was to see the individuality of each house-

Granni & Gramps came over to help and it was perfect to have one of them helping each of the little ones-we decorated the houses for about 3 hours, and nobody had any idea  how much time had passed!

They are on display on my kitchen island at least until Christmas and they are so fun to look at and find all of the details as I study them! Enjoy the pictures...

 I had the houses assembled  about 1/2 hour before they started decorating so the icing could harden

 The key to making it work without falling apart as you go is to use Royal Icing-it hardens very quickly and is very strong. They just piped it out of simple plastic decorator bags.

 Busy hands at work...notice Leah is eating her candy scraps-she finished decorating first.

 Bay's House: there's a bonfire out front with a fish roasting over the fire on a pretzel.

 Eric's House: He took the longest..notice the pink rocking chair on the front lawn!

Leah's House: She put Christmas lights (jellybeans) along the front of the house.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

some Christmas happenings around here...

 Bay and Leah after their Homeschool Christmas program

 Enjoying a break from school and staying up late, sleeping in late, staying in our pj's way too long...

 The crafting bug has hit our house-though I don't consider myself a big crafter, God has given me a lover of crafts in Leah, so I am learning to encourage her-Dennis is too-she even got him to do a craft with her this weekend!

 Eric making a new star for our tree

 Some of Leah's creations-mostly I require her to find crafts she can do on her own, such as making these bows....

 but occasionally she convinces me to do one with her, like help her sew this stocking. She drew and cut out all of the applique, I just stitched them on.

 The product of her crafting with dad

 One of the activities all of the kids really wanted to do this advent was make real Gingerbread Houses-Eric got a cool book from the library for inspiration and the stockpile of goodies awaits.

 The house smells delicious-I mean our house-the gingerbread cooking for the little houses. 

 Eric's finished star-3D popsicle stick art-fun with the hot glue gun

Bay wanted to get in on the hot glue gun action too, so he made a stable for the mud doll nativity set

Amazing what a can of paint can do!

By some amazing stroke of luck I remembered to take some "before" pictures before I did the painting! 

Leah's bathroom is one of the 2 remaining rooms that hasn't been touched by paint since we moved in, now 6 years ago! 

 So I've been debating what to do with that pink tile! Certainly not the color I would choose, but I had to work with it and get rid of the off-white eggshell color on the walls that was standard throughout the whole house, trim and all. Plus, I really didn't like the oak cabinet under the sink. What I forgot to take a picture of was the HUGE medicine cabinet on the wall over the sink. 3 mirrored doors, dressing room style lights above-it just had to go. So we ripped it off the wall and got to work.

 Gray paint, white trim, and a few accents that I had picked up over a year ago at the thrift store (pictures, lamp), clean tile grout and what a transformation!

 All that's left is for Dennis to make a frame around  a mirror and put a new vanity light up.

 She's a very happy girl to have her bathroom back!

Fall Hike

This afternoon we went for a wonderful fall hike with some friends at Calvert Cliffs State Park. The trail was an easy walk-about 2 miles-down to a beach on the Chesapeake Bay.

 The kids had a blast all the way down the trail, running ahead, hiding behind trees, and then jumping out when we approached howling like a bunch of Indians! They also loved seeing all of the places where beavers had dammed up the creek. Evidently the park rangers have a full time job clearing parts of the dams away to keep the trail from being flooded!

 Once we got to the beach the kids spread out, looking for shells, fossils and shark's teeth. 

 Someone had built a make-shift bridge over the inlet where the creek water was rushing out into the Bay. Here's Bay next to the Bay! We love saying that!

 Tall grasses, sand and driftwood made a great place for a temporary fort. It was amazing to see the gang of kids play and run hard the entire afternoon. Even being wet and cold, they still ran and chased the entire 2 miles of trail back, and then played on the playground for another 1/2 hour. I think the fall weather really energized them- I know it does me!

 Also, a little school project in this post from this week. Bay and Leah are studying land animals this year. One project was to look at tracks. So we went down to the beach where we see tracks all of the time. We took plaster of paris and poured it into the best defined ones we saw. They turned out amazingly well!

This day we found raccoon (on the left), house cats (on the right), as well as some type of bird. We think it was a crow print, based on our animal tracks book. 

Camping...Finally!

 We finally managed to steal away for a weekend to a place not far from home-Cedarville State Forest. The weather was perfect fall weather.

 Mostly, it was about doing a lot of nothing...campfire, hot coffee for the grown-ups, hot chocolate for the kids...sitting by the fire and catching up on reading...there was a little mountain biking done by the big boys though!

 Cooking dinner over the fire (see Dennis' new/old hot dog cooker he got for his birthday? It was intended for the Ohiopyle trip, but now is the first time he's gotten to use it!) We love the hamburger cookers too-2 is not quite enough. 

 Even Elsa came along this time. There was plenty of room for her to roam on her long leash, and we found a nice big field by the playground for her to have some time running off the leash as well.

 Bay and Leah always bring quite an assortment of toys, animals and such to create a miniature city outside. They really get into their imaginative play!

 We also had a belated birthday cake for Dennis, since he didn't have one on his birthday. We stretched it out to last the whole weekend!

One afternoon we went to a local fall festival (which was really disappointing) but the kids did enjoy painting some medieval swords and shields. However they were dismayed to find out that their hard work and creativity was only going to be put on display...they couldn't bring them home! Oh well-sounds like a fun project for us to do at home anyways! 

Smiling is over-rated anyways

 Eric-my handsome and stoic 12 year old tries to convince me of this often

 Especially when asked to stand still and get your picture taken. it's really just not worth it. See that fierce determination? He is a strong boy-inside and out-one of his better qualities. it may challenge me at times (many times), but I hold him in prayer that God will use this strength for his glory

 Oh yes, strength, and also determination. He is determined to grow so quickly into a man-but he has so much childhood left. So much time for laughing, and forgetting about being serious and cool. He just doesn't realize that I am also fiercely determined to remind him of that!

 I think he's breaking-he tries so hard, but the light in his eyes gives him away. 

 Don't look at me, Eric, or you will lose the serious face contest, because you know

smiling may be over-rated but it's always worth it in the end!

Pumpkins!

Pumpkins!

 Granni took the kids on their annual pumpkin picking trip to a farmer who lives very close to us. I just went along as official photographer since it was such a beautiful day. My instructions were clear to let this still be a special Granni/grandkids time-I was just the fly in the cornstalks!

 The new siding on the big red barn was perfect for a backdrop-

 Leah looking adorable

 Leah has been practicing her sideways glances and funny looks on her dad lately-she gave me plenty today as well.

 Bay-always ready to give a smile, and then a big hug after I took so many pictures, just because that's how he is!

 Eric really is quite a bit taller than Granni, but not THAT much! I can't tell if she's leaning on him for support or what? Anyways, it's the captured smile on Eric that is priceless in this picture. More on that later....