Christmas Festivities

This year we were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Bouck visit us from Washington for Christmas (good thing they made it!). We've had such a fun time and kept ourselves busy and somewhat sane (with the sickness and present overload I think we did pretty well). We've been busy shopping, playing, bowling, playing, going to the snow, and of course playing.

Grandpa brought his balloon kit and the girls have had a blast making all kids of hats and balloon animals.

This was Kara's first attempt at bowling. Thank goodness for bumper bowling...she almost did as well (or poorly) as I did.

Our California snowman. If we had proper snow equipment and good snow, instead of ice, I think Frosty would have turned out a little better.

About two minutes into playing, Kara said, "Mommy, I'm FREEZING. I need to go home." It took a little over an hour to get to the snow, and we were only there for about 20 minutes. Go figure.

Gingerbread houses

Making gingerbread houses (out of graham crackers) has been a family tradition for decades so I decided to carry it on. My girls absolutely LOVE it. Kate insisted on doing it all herself and I dare say, she did a pretty good job. And yes, that is Kara next to her with a candy cane up her nose. The finished product.

I fear it's just the beginning

As a young adult, I would see scraggaly looking kids and think, "I would never let my kids out of the house like that," or "why can't they just wash their kid's face?," or "does it really take that long to put on clean clothes?" Well to all those mothers that I have ever judged, I would just like to say, "I had absolutely no idea...I"m so sorry." I usually remember to wash hands after meals or activities, but their faces are another story. I usually don't notice that they have crusted milk around their mouth or who knows what wiped all over their cheeks, until they have been presented to the public. The best part about it is, half the time I don't even wash it off. Lately, however, Kate has been into dressing herself, and she and I never seem to agree on what matches. Not that I'm a fashion icon by any means, but I have learned a thing or two about stripes and polkadots, and different shades of pink. Kate however, very logically, debates that stripes go with stripes and pinks go with pinks...so there you go, debate over.

Kara on the other hand comes out every 10 minutes with no clothes on. She then continues to complain that she's cold but still refuses to put clothes on. I just don't know what to do with her. At least those scraggaly kids in the stores had clothes on.