Spaghetti Night

Here are some Happy faces after a night of spaghetti for supper!!

Snow boots

The kids all got some new snow boots this winter. The girls all got purple and Connor orange. Karley liked them so much that she wore them all day and even went to bed with them on and slept very peacefully! Besides having her snow boots on she also has a couple layer of clothes on under her pajamas! Yes, we do have the heat on in our house. She is just one who LOVES to wear layers of clothes.. more to come on that on another post!

Christmas Cookies

One Saturday night, Terry took Connor and Emma to a Fighting Saints game so Josie, Karley, Tessa and I made Christmas cookies. The only thing I really had to do was mix the dough and get them started on rolling the dough out and away they went! They did a great job and topped them off with sprinkles when they were on the pan before baking! And of course, afterwards, they had got to taste the end product!

Josie and Karley rolling the dough out!

Tessa sitting in a chair watching all the action!

Cutting the dough

Basketball

Emma was interested in playing basketball this year so we signed her up and practices started with games falling shortly. She said she really enjoyed it and it was fun to watch and see how they improved over the 8 weeks of games and practice! She was on a team with most of the girls being from St. Anthony so it gave her a chance to meet some new friends.

Christmas Tree

The Sunday after Thanksgiving it has become a tradition in my family to all to and hunt for our Christmas trees. It usually starts with attending mass, going down to school for Toys for Tots in Menominee and the kids get a chance to do some Christmas activities and visit with Santa. After that we change clothes and get ready to go. This year we went to Stangles in Wisconsin. The weather was a little chilly but no snow so that made things go a little easier! We all had luck and within an hour we all had our tree found and cut down. The kids always have fun running around and picking trees out. This year Josie was the one who found our tree! The tree she picked was nice and full and had soft needles! Great job Josie!

Everyone headed out to look for trees

Josie's tree pick

Terry with some help of Connor cutting the tree down!

The tree was light enough for the girls to help Terry carry it to the van.

Getting all the decorations out to put on the tree

The kids were very excited to get home and get the tree decorated! They first need to wait for me to get the lights on before they get to decorate it and after that away they went! Tessa had fun watching and trying to help!

Tabata Workout

The girls will watch me work out at home sometimes and then they like to join in on the action. So every now and then they will say," Mom, let's workout!" It can be a great motivation! This day they decided to do it on their own before I was leaving to run some errands. I will work out to a tabata song that has you work hard for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 secs for 8 rounds and it continues for a total of 4 minutes. I'll usually do a couple of rounds. So this particular day, they laid their blankets out for their work out area and asked me to get the computer ready and then away they went. Their routine consisted of jumping jacks, burps, hula hooping, mountain climbers, push- ups and some side jumps. They did two rounds! I am glad to see that they enjoy working out together and with me!

Artist

With a some cardboard, markers and imagination, look what an afternoon of fun can turn into!

Process: 1. fold cardboard into an easel and tape a small piece of cardboard to hold a "canvas" on

2. cut out a painters pallet and color "pour" the paint on with markers and cut out a paint brush

3. take your "canvas" cardboard and draw your image with some color on it

4. set it on the easel and start painting away

5. other option, like Emma, draw and paint right on the easel's paper and then start painting away

Picture Perfect!!

Thanksgiving Preperation

As Thanksgiving was getting closer, Josie would ask,"When do we get to go to Grandma Berning's house and shine the fruit and fold the napkins?" Last year some of the kids helped my mom set the table and get the fruit basket ready for Thanksgiving day. The kids really enjoyed helping out and really looked forward to helping out again this year. This years helpers were: Emma, Josie, Karley, Brielle, John and Willa

Here was their process:

1. Clear the dining room table off and lay the table cloth out ( I was tending to Tessa and missed this part of everyone helping with the table cloth

2. Shine the apples and bananas with a little water and a towel (Emma took care arranging the fruit in their basket)

3. Wash the grapes and dab them on your towel to dry them a little

4. After the fruit is cleaned, shined and arranged, it's time to top it off with some peanuts

5. After the tray is prepared, it's time to carry it over to the dinning room table. It takes everyone's help because it does get a little heavy! This is placed in the middle of the table with decorations and candles around it. They started decorated from the middle on out.

6. Next comes folding the napkins into triangles

7. Now it's time to bring the glass plates and glasses over and place the napkins on the table
8. Get out the nice silverware and place them on the right sides of the plate

9. Stand back and look at how beautiful the table looks for Thanksgiving Day
The kids had a great time and it was fun to listen to their conversations as they were helping and working with each other! On Thanksgiving they were very proud to show everyone what they did to help! It was a great Thanksgiving!!

Feathers

Hair feathers are a fad right now in many people's hair. The girls have noticed this because a couple of their friends have them. The girls decided to make their own hair feathers for their hair! The pictures below show them modeling their feathers! They had a great time designing and coloring them!

Signing of the cast

On November 22, Tessa finally got her cast off after 4 weeks!! She did very well with it and it never really stopped her from doing anything. The night before she got the cast off the kids and cousins got to sign it. They were very excited about the signing.

Tessa was fine with the saw that cut the cast off! She actually was distracted by it. Right after it came off, she was bending and swinging her arm around! She still has a tendency to eat with her left hand, but it is slowly changing back to her right hand.

Tents

The girls decided to make some tents in their room a couple of weeks ago and made a nice cozy little home inside of them. The used a couple of card tables and lots of blankets! There room was quite crowded but they had a great time sleeping in their tents. Every night, they were excited to head to bed and draw or read for a little while!

Sleeping soundly in their tents

Karley wanted a tent also... so she made her own little sleeping area in a small space between her dresser and bed.. Connor got the bed to himself!

All curled up and sleeping soundly!