4 kids + 1 rolling pin = trouble.

Abbey hard at work on her candy cane salt dough ornament.

Sam, the detective, verifying there was nothing fishy hiding out in the butter container before we threw the cut-outs in the oven.

Thanks to Jodi for the salt dough recipe that couldn't have been any easier. And it kept them busy for awhile. Painting the ornaments, now that's a whole other story. No pics of that project since all of our hands were full of paint and glitter, in fact I still have some on my forearm.

'Tis the season

Boy does it pay to have retired teachers as grandmas. Henry and Bryn will someday realize just how lucky they are. When my mom was down last Friday she brought with her all the stuff needed to make some gingerbread houses (straight from her days teaching first grade). When I called home to check on things, my mom told me that the houses were finished by 8am!! Henry asked her if she could put his up high where he couldn't reach it since it seemed to be driving him nuts having a plate full of sweet things (his parents never let him eat) within reach. Thank goodness the frosting turned into the consistency of cement and his roaming fingertips can no longer steal a bit of icing. Bryn has also managed to "accidentally" lose some of her candy.

They are so proud of their creations; they quickly take their friends to the kitchen to show off their artwork.

You may notice that one house doesn't have a Frosty out front...... Henry ate it!

Who is the scruffy creature sitting on our table you ask..... that's Lewis the elf (brought to us by Norb and Karyl) who is supposed to be keeping them on their best behavior since he reports directly to Santa.

What now may be a tradition (now that it's 2 years running) , we have decided to forgo the endless gifts and buying for all the kids and instead let them focus their boundless energy on doing something for others. We invited some friends over and the kids went wild with all the candy canes, stickers, bows and markers and made bags full of goodies to drop off at the nursing home not far from our house. Courtney with her girls Hadley, Aidyn and Lennon, and Jill with her kids Emily and Elliot, filled our house with noise and fun and proved that it's much more fun to give than receive. We missed our friends Kristi, Abbey and Sam who were homebound with winter ills. Even though they didn't make it over Kristi dropped off cards they made that we handed out.

When we arrived at the nursing home, there were about 10 residents already waiting for us at the door. It was fun watching the residents soak up all the positive energy as the kids emptied out their goody bags. To watch your child walk up to a stranger and wish them Happy Holidays and see the twinkle they put in their eyes is just unbelievable. The residents and nursing staff were so thankful, it makes me want to hike on over on a weekly basis. All us moms agreed....this is what Christmas is about.

We all headed back here to play, eat lunch, and play some more. Emily, who is 7, is a bilingual teacher in the making. She dreamed up games for the 3 year olds to play and then gave them lessons on our chalkboard in Spanish. What respect she is getting huh?

Flower Power

This is Bryn's "going to work outfit." Wonder what her co-workers will say about this ensemble.

Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanksgiving at our house was so much fun. H and B were thrilled to see Liam so while Jay and I cooked, the kids (including Uncle Bruce) hammed it up with all their costumes. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hinsa, Grandma and Grandpa Affeldt and Shannon and Bruce for bringing all the delicious extras that we oh- so -loved!

First to go on their plates..... cranberries!

When we asked them what they were thankful for, I was half expecting(or hoping) them to say something sweet but all we got was this; Bryn was thankful for turkeys and Henry was thankful for his pet dolphin (?). If I would have asked them after dessert they probably would have answered "pies".

Below a quick neighborhood hike to burn off a couple of the calories we inhaled!

The whole fam sans my dad (who was taking a snoozer on the couch back home).

Why take one piece of pie?

Bryn, Henry and Liam

My favorite thing is a houseful of people and just hanging out with those we love. We are so lucky to have the wonderful families we do.

Although we ended our weekend on a sickly note we had fun while we could. Below we checked out the Overture Center for the annual holiday fest. They each got to pick a cookie and decorate it. Jay and I did a pretty good job of slying eating at least half of each one. After that we caught the trolley for a ride around the capitol.

Henry sneaking the last of the toppings from Bryn's plate.

Change of scenery

My mom took advantage of post Halloween super discount deals and bought out Shopko's assortment of toddler sized dress up clothes. They spied these horse costumes when we got there Friday night so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised with the 4:55 wake up call. At least they were relatively quiet during this pre-sunrise session of galloping in the upstairs living room.

"Lucy" the horse doing some puzzles with Bryn.

25th Annual Green Bay Holiday parade was the first stop of the day after we pulled them out of their costumes. They, of course, asked whether or not there would be "people dressed up" (code words for mascots, clowns or anything wearing a costume) and when I told them there would be Bryn was the one who then decided she didn't want to go. We did anyway and they had a great time seeing all the middle and high school bands and yelling out when they saw Henry's fav instrument the tuba and Bryn's favorite, the flute. And yes, they waved to the costumed people and danced to the music with no fearful screams of "Hold me mommy". Mission accomplished.

A very nice man standing next to us offered to take our pic.

The firefighters helping grandma make meatballs.

Bryn loves to help out with any kind of chore so she was jumping with glee to help grandpa wax our car. The fun of helping out with my dad's obsession with car care wore off many years ago for me so I'm happy to see him pass it on to little B girl. My dad later told me that he was having trouble moving the piece of cardboard so he could kneel on it and Bryn must have noticed and quickly moved in place for him without him ever asking. He couldn't have been more proud!

Henry and Bryn's favorite thing......

Grandma Affeldt brought over a trunk of old school supplies from her days at Falk Elementary filled with all sorts of paper items. Henry first found the yellow notepads and they have been spending their free time making lists, taking them with us to the grocery store, taking orders as if we are in a restaurant and as you will see take them just about anywhere.

Below they are pretending they are flying a helicopter while writing down what the passengers would like for meals.

Even in the bathroom....................................................

check out how small Henry writes on his pad. When I told him he could flip it over and start on a new page he told me he wasn't finished yet.

If you are wondering why they are in the bathroom together.... sometimes they will scream out for "company " and the other one will come trucking in to sit and chat. It's pretty cute as long as they stay focused on the job at hand.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

We braved the first chilly weekend by heading to Indian Lake with Richgels. B and H adore him as you can see from the pics. They came in contact with the first snow of the season on top of hill so for some reason they felt the need to touch the snow to their noses.......

Chasing down Richgels in the field playing tag.

End of a good thing

Was it really 30 degrees warmer earlier this week? We all took advantage of the amazing warmth and sunshine and soaked up as much Vitamin D as we could. I look out the window today and see most of the leaves blown off the trees, roads wet with rain, and walkers bundled up from the chilly damp wind. It's time to accept the fact that our beautiful fall is now over and done with. Not that H and B mind at all. They have been chatting about sledding, snowman, and how they are going to learn to ice skate for the last couple months.

Here areHadley, Bryn, Aidyn and Henry holding hands and making their way to the park to see Abbey and Sam.

At the top of this hill is Madison's largest leaf pile. We had fun with this last year too and were excited to find it again. They took off running, B girl leading the way.

Miss Kristi with the gang. Did I mention how wonderful those oak leaves smelled? A neighbor came by with even more leaves to add to the huge pile. Think he got a kick seeing the 7 kids having so much fun in them, adults too.

Bryn, Abbey, Henry and Sam.

There was rolling down the hill and then running across the soccer fields. We looked down to find Bryn and Hadley hanging on the goal post.

It them became the best toy at the park!!

YES WE CAN

Dream BIG!!!!

"If I going to be president when I get bigger I need a little bow tie." (this came after waking up with a fever at the time Barack was giving his speech)

I hope B and H never forget what just happened!

Halloween week

After we celebrated Jay's birthday we launched into one of their favorite holidays......... Halloween. I'm surprised Henry's bear costume is still holding up, since he has been Henry the bear for months now. He loves the paws and tries to do most anything (except eat) with his hands tucked inside.



Wednesday we headed over to Hadley, Aidyn, Lennon, and Miss Courtney's house for a morning party complete with a halloween art project, lunch and treats to take home. 3 sets of twins and baby on one couch!!



Sam, Bryn, Henry, Abbey, Aidyn, Hadley and last but not least, Lennon (still known affectionately as Baby Lennon)




They even dressed up for preschool on Thursday with their 3 teachers dressed as the 3 Blind Mice.





They could barely wait to have Friday come so they could do their Trick or treating around the hood. Bryn was so excited when she saw me pull the the Raggedy red hair from last year, so she asked me to dress her as "Raggedy Andy's sister" not Raggedy Ann. I threw together her costume in a matter of minutes before we headed out. She ended up a combination of Little Orphan Annie and Raggedy Ann. Henry loved her smile, so the bear got one too.



After every house Henry would yell, "Let's go to another door!" At one point Bryn said to Henry after watching him struggle to pick up candy with his bear paws, "Henry, how about I pick out two pieces of candy and share with you since your paws are having trouble." He agreed!

What would halloween be without letter pumpkins?

Bryn between licks of her lollipop.

Would you believe out of all this candy they each chose one of those dummy lollipops as their one piece of candy to eat? I should add that Henry ate his in three bites and started trying to smell the candy bars and man handle them enough hoping the wrapper would expose some chocolate. No luck, the candy is now hid after Bryn lost all control and had the world's worst meltdown, which only confirmed our reasons for keeping them away from sugar!!


Henry's after pic!





As I was trying to post the blog this morning, Henry yelled from his room.."Mommy please tie my Raggedy Andy apron" as he stood with his red wig on, holding his striped leggings and apron.