This week

 Luci helped me with the crossword puzzle today:

Yesterday, Luci found her doll cake pan.  I bought it for last year's cake (it was going to be a princess cake) but she decided on a wedding cake instead.  All day yesterday she pestered me.  I think she's more stubborn than I am (and that's saying a LOT).  I caved.  Here is the mermaid cake we came up with last night.  I did not have the correct tips for sea shells or the fishy scales that mermaids have, so here is my best shot.  I also made her more modest than the cake decorations asked for.  I used India Tree natural food coloring, and could not match the colors in the Wilton directions.  Luci was happy with our results, so that's all that matters.  She had fun helping me ice the cake.

At one point last night, I heard Luci tell her daddy, "I have mommy wrapped around my little finger!"

Yup.

Heard Recently

Yes, that title gets used too often.

That's just the way it is.  So there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Toola-Hoops:  Flowers.  You might know them as "Tulips."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luci was begging her brothers to play with her.  They said, "No."  Begging Mommy.  Mommy said, "Just a minute."  Luci wailed,

I wish I had a little sister!  Then she would play with me!

Me:  Let's call Daddy and you can ask him for a little sister.  Because he's the one who has to decide that.

Luci shook her head no, knowing the answer.  She put her head in her hands:  I'm never getting a little sister!

Yes, I did play with Luci after that anguished cry.  How could I not?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was working on a crossword puzzle.  I knew the answer, but asked Bryan to help anyways.  

Me:  Six letters, "Fish Flock."

Bryan:  Government Institution.

Me, scratching my head at first, knowing that answer was way beyond six letters.  What was the boy thinking?   Ahh.  School.

Merry Christmas!

We had a Little Christmas today for John. The boys really wanted to do this for him...or was it for the presents? Let's hope they had Daddy in mind.
.
Luci can read our names now, so she delivered presents.You know John picked these pellet guns out. Luci got this ladybug habitat. Fitting, since we have a lot of ladybugs this year. We put a bit of banana, a drop or two of water and a celery leaf inside and the ladybug has been very happy today. Not really what the mother of a Princess wants to see. Maybe she'll grow up to be Princess Leia instead of Cinderella. That pink shopping cart is Luci's favorite gift.Now it's New Year's Eve! We do a puzzle every year and try to complete it before the New Year is rung in. We made it with time to spare this year!

She's a Republican!

This puzzle was put away on Wednesday afternoon.
.

Luci was just about asleep for her nap today when she asked, "Did the red side win?"

No, sweetheart, the blue side did.

Oh. Okay.

.

Which has been the attitude around our house--Oh. Okay.

A New President

Here's our puzzle--did anyone else do one? I know my parents did. I could imagine Nana whooping with joy. :) If you worked on one of these puzzles, leave a message to let me know. I was surprised at the one who actually worked the most on our puzzle: Bryan! He understood the electoral college pretty well, and kept checking the internet news last night for updates on blue and red states. Talk about painless learning! Next presidential election, JT and Luci will be putting our map together. How to order a political puzzle here.

Wrap-Ups!

Have you ever used Wrap-Ups? They are a painless (almost) way of getting the kids to practice math facts. I have three sets--fractions, multiplication and addition. I thought I had a set of subtraction wrap-ups, but I guess not--or maybe my leprechauns hid that set. Here's what you do: wrap the string around the little board from the notch on the left to the correct notch on the right. For instance, if you are doing the x5 board above, you start on 5, then wrap the string to 15 on the right. Then go to the second notch on the left, and continue. When you are done, pull the string up through the notch on the bottom and turn it over--it will look like this:
If you got the answers correct, the string matches up exactly to the lines on the back. You can see the lines on this pink board. Here's JT working on his multiplication tables. I have a little chart to keep track of how fast each boy does each wrap-up. They are in competition with themselves (not each other) to see if they can beat their old times.

Yes, we are officially done with school but the kids need lots of extra practice on their multiplication tables. I got a book with lots of practice in it from the convention last week, so the guys have some learnin' to do before we hang it up for a month or two.
Just had to show this. Last night while John was watching a DVD with Luci, and as the boys were working on their multiplication tables, I was working on the puzzle page in the paper. I did the 5-star Sudoku! So I carried on and did all the other puzzles without even a mark-out. Hooray!

Where Can I Get That Puzzle?

Here it is! Geo Puzzle, Red-State Blue-State Political Map

This is the amazon.com link...you get it for 79 cents less than I did but you have to pay shipping...which may be lots cheaper, in the long run, than I got it since I had to pay for gas to go to the book show!

Happy New Year!

Happy New year from the Party Animals in Greenhill! Every year we do a jigsaw puzzle and try to finish it before midnight. We actually finished this one long before the magic hour--it was only 250 pieces. We got it on the island of St. Thomas while on our cruise last January. It was in a plastic wine bottle and showed a map of pirates' exploits. Usually the puzzle is much bigger and takes forever, and I am begging to quit and go to bed long before midnight.
Baby New Year!
The first picture of the new year--Bryan was up all night and looks a little sleepier than JT and Luci.
We glue our New Year's Eve puzzles together and hang them on the staircase wall leading to the basement. Here are some from years past. Everyone who helps put the puzzles together gets to sign the back and, of course, we put the date on them, too. It was fun putting them up in the new house, and sort of looking back through our New Year's Eves together. There were 2 from the years John was overseas, and those brought back memories of their own.