Salt Map of Egypt

For our study on Ancient Egypt, we made a salt map.  Here are pics showing our progress:

Working together

Painting the water

Finishing touches

All done!

To The Snow!!

We finally made it to the snow.  We have to drive an hour away to find good sledding snow. The sky was so blue, the trees so green, the ground so white....beautiful!

 Ready, set, go!

Lunch timeDaring girl!!!Up the hill....

Down the hill....

Down the hill....

UP the hill......Thanks Daddy & Mommy!!  We're cold, can we go home now?

Cough, cough!!

Funny Kids

My kids have been saying funny things lately.  I love it when they mix up words.  Here are a few:

"She won't play the game because she is sunburn".  translation- "stubborn"

ds: "What did he have on his back? Honey? The bee rash?"

me: "What? Oh! you mean Hives! "

6yod: "Do you spell Daddy, D-o-d-o?"

After listening to a story about a little boy who was crying in a hayloft, burying his head in the straw:  "How big was the person's head, and how did he get it in a straw?"

"Who can tell me what the Dead Sea Scrolls are?"   ds: "Like brown skunks?"

After discussing food delicacies with her Grammy, including pickled tongue, my dd  was not fooled.  She replied, "Pickles don't have tongues!"

 

Back to Normal?

After all of the fall and winter festivities, plus moving into our new home, it is so nice to get back to normal again.  We started back to school on Dec. 31, but did take off Jan.1.  We've been enjoying schooling in our new school room! 

Oh! Wait!  Jan. 5 brought a birthday!  Our oldest dear daughter turned 13! 

And THEN, our baby girl turned 6 on Jan. 16! 

Whew!  Now we can get back to school!

I love my girls!

New Year's Eve '08

We usually have my mom over, eat snacky kinds of foods, play games or watch a movie, then watch the Times Square Ball drop at midnight.  This year was different.  We were invited to our friends' place about 30 min. out of town, in the hills.  They have an annual chili feast and a huge bonfire.  So dh made his first ever chili (with Y2K pinto beans, I found out later , which I only kept for playtime).   It was quite good, not even too hot.  He put it in the crockpot to the top, and we put that in a plastic bin for the trip through the hills. Yep, it spilled, but stayed in the bin.  There was lots of yummy food to eat, then later, they set the huge bonfire.  Like 12 ft high.  At the top of the metal pole that held up the wood planks, they used a forklift to put three rolls of toilet paper on spools.  As the fire heated up, the heat unwound the tp rolls right up into the night sky.  I wish I'd taken my camera, but who knew?  The tp went up, up, up, straight up, till the roll was done.  Then it broke off and fell down, without any burns.    The kids loved that, and then enjoyed playing cops & robbers in the hills with their flashlights.

We got home by 10, in time to bring in the new year with Dick Clark, etc.  We did, then around 12:30 the power went out due to high winds.  We lit candles waiting for them to come back on.  The kids fell asleep on the couch.  We went to bed.  At 7am the power was still out, but soon came back on at about 7:30.  That was the first time the kids have really experienced a power outage that long.  It was pretty neat, but at midnight, not much to do but go to sleep.  Never did find out what exactly happened, but it made for a memorable New Year 2008.

Christmas w/o batteries

The kids woke up at 6am and talked with Grammy and played with their new Eye Clops microscope for an hour before coming to wake us up.  They went straight to their stockings.  I got a picture.  The batteries were low due to my budding photographer and picture crazy dd.  A few days ago, she asked her Dad to bring batteries home.  He went to the grocery store and got a pack of four.  Later, we saw that they had exploded in the package!!  On Christmas Eve, during a run to the Dollar Store, I bought a couple of packs of Everready.  A couple of them worked, but one pack was a dud!  Not a good way to start Christmas.  So we got only a few pictures, but lots of video. 

Opening the stockings

When is it my turn?

Christmas Cookies

After moving into our new home, mostly unpacking, attending several Christmas parties, doing the Christmas shopping, wrapping, and decorating, we found time to make our annual Christmas cookies with Grammy.

We took some plates of cookies to 5 of our new neighbors.  Only two answered the door and we introduced ourselves.  Later, another couple from across the street brought us cookies :)

I finally tried this Gingerbread recipe from Betty Crocker.  I must have done something wrong, they tasted awful, not like others I've tried.  But we had fun, and they were cute.