Weeks Indoors

Too cold to play outside, so we are finding things to do to stay busy.  While the Narnia audiobooks are on in our background constantly, we are hanging out in this tiny house together.


Here are a few peeks into our days.

Pipe cleaners everywhere... bags and bags of them.  Piles of creations are taking over the house.  Lately it's hermit crabs -- pipe cleaner crabs have moved into all of our spare shells in this little set-up.  Chloe even made pipe cleaner moss. (I know none of this makes sense if you aren't hermit crab obsessed like these two.)

Spirograph is always good for a few days in a row of morning-to-night hunching on the floor.  They are both getting really artistic with their patterns.

New play-doh!  We haven't bought this stuff in years so it was a pretty special treat to have some again.  The 'tiny dinos' were having a costume party one morning (and all the way up to lunch time).

Also, we refilled the rice box for the first time in years.  Evan was just as excited as Chloe.  This is where you can find them on any given day.  The tiny dinos live in the box, repurposing my empty tea boxes as their condos.  What a life :-)

Even though the audio books are on constant repeat (we are nearly through the series for the second time), Evan loves to read his own copies.  He has pretty much moved on from the phase where he would sit down with a stack of picture books.  Now it's one book with a bookmark in it that he brings everywhere.

Chloe will spend hours doing puzzles.  She has this crazy method of doing them one on top of the other. I have no idea how her brain can conceive of what is going on there.  Visual overload for me, but a party for her.



Well, hopefully the weather will turn soon and we'll be back to playing outside.

Bits & Pieces :: January

** Trampoline madness daily

** It's a tough call which one Evan likes more -- cuddling up with his very old fuzzy blanket or with the kitty.

** Always seeking out bright light.  This cushion pile in the corner had all kinds of configurations this month after the Christmas tree came down.  It's a nice place to do art.

** Art happens anywhere really.  The kids are working like mad on their 'crabby stories.' Chloe recently finished one that was 200 pages long.  I know it's just a comic strip but it's still quite an accomplishment.

 

 

** Painting with watercolors nearly daily.  Evan was enjoying himself with the paints too, much to his own surprise.





 

Snow!

January has been quite pretty with snow falling most days.  The kids have been enjoying it thoroughly.  The weather has been great for snowballs and snowmen and tunneling through snow drifts.

Back inside there is the usual January entertainment -- board games and card games, the trampoline and pillow piles, audio books and tons of snuggles.

Going Somewhere...

Christmas Time

Better late than never.  Here is a peek at our Christmas:

This year on Christmas Eve we let the kids open one small thing, and then we read the Christmas story from the Bible before tucking them in for the night.

Then Christmas morning, Todd and I were both up way earlier than Evan or Chloe which was really unusual.  I even had time to drink my tea before they came wandering out.  I ended up taking more videos than photos this year, but here are a few cute ones.

The kids opened a pile of gifts from Gramma and also the surprises they bought for each other -- something they look forward to doing every year.  There were so many smiles and thrills of the day.  Then all week following present-opening time it was a joy to watch them playing with and enjoying all the new things and incorporating them into their set-ups.  We've also been doing our new puzzles like crazy since a 500 peice puzzle is perfect for our family to finish in one day.


Evan's favorite things were his own calculator, a Narnia book set just like the ones I had when I was his age, and lots of Legos -- especially an amazing vintage Technic set we found that he loved.

Chloe's favorite things were her sewing kit, dozens of Schleich animals and bunny hutch, mini shaped puzzles, and a kaleidoscope that she hasn't put down in weeks.

Ruby's favorite things (in case you were wondering) were the piles of tissue paper, any open box, and gaining back her favorite spot right under the tree where all those pesky presents have been sitting in her way.  Peace at last :-)

Getting Ready

The tree is here and decorated.  Cookie-baking day happened.  Christmas music is now on the ipod. And this afternoon, Todd is home hanging up outside lights.   Christmas season has arrived at our home (a bit later than most folks, but we like it that way).   Now, it feels about right start watching a few of our favorite movies and wrapping all those hidden-away gifts.  And we'll probably have to do another cookie day since that first round didn't last very long!

December Days

Here you will find piles of : 

*cushions for climbing, bouncing, perching
*notebooks, drawing paper, colored pencils -- ideas for "crab stories" filling pages
*books.... everywhere
*blankets, pillows, warm cozy places, sleeping kitties
*legos, transformers, horses, playmobil -- toy collections that emerge every winter
*colorful thread, scissors, a tape measure -- dozens of "knots bracelets" being made
*RC toys, batteries, chargers
*snow clothes, boots, sleds
*tea bags, empty mugs, honey spoons

December days take some getting used to where we live.  Not to say we don't love where we live, because we do, but we just have to adjust.  The indoor rhythm takes over and outdoor time is more of a brief interlude.  We've been out walking quite often at night, to look at Christmas lights.  Those walks always seem to turn into runs -- to warm up, to burn off so much stored up energy, to feel alive!  This weekend we'll be getting a tree and putting up our outside lights, and soon there will be even more piles.... of new toys to play with :-)