Ice Fesitval

We love city festivals, but most are in the Summer. That's why I love the Plymouth Ice Festival - all the fun and none of the heat. Everyone knows I do much better in the cold, so this festival is perfect for me. It also involves power tools and men hacking away at large blocks of ice, so it's perfect for Benjamin. And they even have a petting farm every year, so it's perfect for Bella and Christian. It doesn't get any better. Lots of yummy food to buy, cool ice sculptures and ice sculptures-in-progress to look at, animals to pet, and a mini cross country ski course for kids. We had a great time, despite the horrific crowds and my oh-so-terrible attempt at parallel parking on the overly-crowded city streets. (It was so bad that I heard people laughing at me as I was parking and saw people pointing and laughing at my van as we returned later.)



Benjamin and Bella fell in love with this little goat and wouldn't leave it alone. Benjamin started making goat noises to it and the goat began answering. He and Benjamin honestly sounded like they were conversing back and forth at one point. People actually stopped and watched for a while because it was so entertaining. I was also happy to see that Christian had gotten over his fear of fluffy animals and seemed to enjoy being around them.

Simple Fun

Christian and I have 4 hours a week of one-on-one time while the other two are at school. I try to make the very most of those precious moments, but that doesn't mean we always do fancy things. For this day I decided he might like to play with the pom-poms we had in a jar since last year when we spent the year earning "warm fuzzies" for good deeds. He loved it. Dump the jar, fill it back up, put the lid on, take the lid off, dump it out, etc. etc. There was also the occasional throwing and scattering and shrieking with laughter. So entertaining and so simple. I love this age.

Staying Sane At Home

I'm feeling obligated to update my blog since it's been quite a while, but there's so little new going on around here. Mostly we've stayed at home more lately. For some reason the kids have shown less interest in going out, which is very unusual for them. Maybe it's the weather. In looking through my pictures on my camera, here's the highlights:

Bella got her hair cut fixed and she looks really cute. She still hates to have me brush it, though, so it's hard to get a picture of how cute it really is. Had to take this picture, though. She loves to play pretend with me while Benjamin's at school and it's always the same thing: she's the mom and I'm the child. She takes me to swim lessons, where she becomes the teacher. Then she becomes mom again, takes me home, and puts me to bed, complete with goodnight story and songs.

This is Bella as swim teacher (sorry it's so blurry): gymnastic leotard pulled over the dress she was wearing that day, carrying the other "kids" in the swim class in the pool (Benjamin's bed - because he has the blue comforter). Note the animals all have their leotards/swimsuits on too. I forget what the backpack was for...oh! it was because we were going camping after swim lessons and that night we'd be sleeping in the tent. Her sleeping bag is in the backpack. She's truly a mom - prepared for every possibility!

Since we've been home more lately, I've tried to find fun things to do so that I don't have to just spend all day fighting ogres and taking swim lessons on the bed. We've made crystals. (They loved that, although waiting for them to form was hard.)


We've microwaved ivory soap. (Never done that? You should.)

We've made oobleck (corn starch and water - that trick never gets old.)


We've made puffy paint (the fun is also in the microwaving afterwards).

We've climbed trees in the backyard.


We made a light box. (Punch holes in the bottom of a box and stick christmas lights through them. So fun to crawl inside and close up.)



We made our own playdoh for the first time. (Never felt like making it when you can buy it for $.99, but it gave us something to do and we loved the result.)


We made a catapult out of popsicle sticks. (Great at launching food you don't like).


We made squish paint monsters. (Fold a paper in half, put paint along the fold and close. Reopen and embellish with eyes, arms, legs, etc.)


We also played a game where you draw something on half a piece of paper and then extend just a few of the lines from your drawing over to the other half of the paper. The other person sees only those extended lines and draws another picture off of them. We had some awesome results, such as an elephant with duck feet or a tree trunk with a ghost rising out of it.

And last, but not least, we've played "I'm stuck in the pot!" A lot. (Christian's favorite game.)


One day I took the pot to make some spaghetti and he was so upset. "Stuck!" he kept crying out, pointing to the pot on the stove, until I found another pot of suitable size so he could continue his game. (In case you're wondering, Bella had a stomach ache that day and wasn't up to much, as you can see.)

Today I took the kids to Millrace Historical Village for what they advertised as a "Fairy Class for 3-5 year olds." I figured it was going to be a tour of the village with some people dressed up as fairies doing fun stuff in the various houses. When we arrived, we discovered it was taking place in only one of the houses and they had a list of those who'd preregistered and wanted to know our names so they could check us off. Apparently I hadn't read the ad carefully enough. Luckily they were kind and added us and then proceeded to ask for a mere (ha!ha!) $15/kid. They'd conveniently failed to mention in the ad that there was a fee. I know I wouldn't have overlooked that. But now we were stuck, so I paid for Benjamin and Isabella and then had to leave. Didn't see in the ad that parents weren't included either. So I got some unexpected 1-on-1 time with Christian at the playground while the older two were transformed into a fairy and a troll and had a wonderful time. They had their faces painted, made magic wands and magic potions, had cupcakes and lemonade, colored pictures, dressed up, etc. etc. I guess it was $30 well spent.




One last cute picture: Christian loves his box of balls. Mostly he loves to climb in and throw them out. This day he'd also found Bella's crown, tore most of the letters off and put it on. Guess he wanted to claim it as his own.

Rites of Passage

Bella passed through a classic rite of passage this week - she cut her own hair. I remember doing that as a kid and I'm sure many others do too. Grab the scissors, close the bathroom door, climb up on the sink, and hack away.

I was in the kitchen with Christian when I heard the sound of scissors cutting through something thick. I heard it two or three times and decided this needed investigating. I came into the bathroom to find this:


She was completely undeterred by my arrival and continued to cut long after I'd come in. She was so happy doing it and so proud of herself that I didn't stop her. I was curious to see how far she'd go. She ended up doing quite a hackjob on the sides but left the back mostly in tact so she now has a bit of a rat-tail look.



When she finally laid down the scissors, I asked, "Do you like what you did? Do you think you look pretty?" She beamed back at me in the mirror, nodded her head, flipped her hair with her hands, and said, "yes!" "We should probably go somewhere and have it fixed a little," I said. "Why??" she asked, truly puzzled. So we've decided to let it go for a week or two and then get a friend to clean it up a bit. "I wanted it short like Benjamin's because my hair grows so fast it's crazy!" she explained to Kelly that evening. If only that were true. It's taken us 2.5 years to fully recover from her hair ripping as a 1 year old. But alas, if she wanted short hair, she's definitely going to have it.

As for Benjamin, he didn't want to be left out of the action and cut his hair too, but he was so timid about it and cut so little that I couldn't even tell. He insisted he cut a lot and had me take pictures and asked me if I thought he looked good, but they aren't even worth posting - they look exactly the same. So funny. His rite of passage this week was his 5 and 1/2 birthday. He was so excited.


We made cupcakes - a rarity around here - and sang to him and I agreed to play whatever game he chose and so of course he chose to pretend that I'm his horse. I got to crawl around whinnying with all the kids on my back for an hour or so before I declared the 1/2 birthday celebration over.

We also, not as part of his birthday, did some fun snow and ice experiments this week, to make up for the lack of such things outside. We played with sodium polyacrylate (fake snow) and made frost develop on a can. (The frost experiment can be found here.) It's so great playing with snow in the warmth of the kitchen while still in pajamas! Benjamin decided his bugs would like to play in the snow too.



It was a lot of fun talking about the various scientific principles behind these things. Benjamin loves that kind of stuff. It is so cool to see his brain working to understand these things which he can't see. He's dying to have a microscope and a telescope - although he can never keep the terms straight! :) So funny how he's always asking for a microscope so he can look at the stars.

My Little Sunbeam

The start of a new year always marks the start of new primary classes (Sunday school for ages 3-11). I was a bit more stressed then usual this year since it was my first January as Primary President, but we survived with little drama. The best part of today was seeing my little Isabella in the front row with all the Sunbeams (youngest class)! That was awesome. She was such a little cutie in her pigtails, barefoot, beaming up at me. All excited to be with the big kids. Church started at 1pm and all morning she kept saying, "I'm so excited to be a Sunbeam! I'll get to be with you again!" Ever since I left nursery 2 months ago, I've missed being with my little nursery kids, but there they all were again! They all did great. After church, she came running to me and said, "I love Sunbeams, but mommy, did you know, we don't get a snack!?" She was shocked and dismayed. I'd warned her but apparently she hadn't thought it possible. "I told my teacher I was hungry and she said we don't have snack!!" The harsh realities of the grown up world. She's still excited to do it again next week, though. :) Love that girl.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!


(We went to the Henry Ford Museum to see the holiday train display and the kids wanted to see Santa. So I reluctantly agreed, but Bella pooped in her pants while we waited in line and Christian started clawing at me and screaming as I attempted to place him on Santa's lap, so only Benjamin ended up in the picture.) (Oh...and the marked up face is Benjamin's artistic rendition of a Lamanite Cat. During scripture study that morning we'd talked about how the Lamanites marked their faces before going to war. Just prior to the museum, he and Bella wanted to pretend to be cats. He began to draw whiskers on his face and remembered the Lamanites - thus the Lamanite Cat was born. Don't you love how a 5 year old mind works? He was very proud to show is art work to Santa and refused to wash it off before the picture. I was okay with that. It's just so truly Benjamin.)

She'd Make A Lousy Spy

I went shopping for Benjamin's Christmas presents this week. I had Bella along, assuming she'd be too busy looking at things for herself to notice what I was stuffing under the groceries. She noticed, though. Immediately. So I said, "These are for Benjamin. You can't tell him about them because they're for Christmas and they are secret so you don't want to ruin his surprise. Do you understand? Do you promise?" She dutifully nodded her head with a sneaky smile on her face showing her delight at being a part of this precious secret.

When we picked Benjamin up from school that day she managed to contain herself just long enough to get him home at which point she burst out with, "We bought you new footy pajamas for Christmas, Benjamin! And we got..." That's as far as she got before I tackled her to the floor, forcibly whispering through clenched teeth, "It's a secret! Remember!?!? Don't tell him!!" Again the smile and the head nod. She stood up and proudly called out, "It's a secret, so I'm not going to tell you that we bought you a ..." I couldn't believe my ears as she revealed yet more gifts!!! I threw my hand over her mouth, dragged her into her room and shut the door. Benjamin excitedly called after us, "Is it true? Is Bella right? Did you buy those things?!" "Bella has no idea what she's talking about! Just ignore her!" I yelled. Luckily he's young enough and naive enough that he believed me and after yet another discussion about not not not NOT telling ANYTHING about what we bought, she finally stopped spilling the beans.

Tomorrow I get to go Christmas shopping without her so I can have at least one item under the tree for him that he doesn't already know about!

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

By pure chance, I caught a classic photo today. One of those that sums up the whole story in one image. I was outside with the kids reveling in the first real snow fall of the year. I decided to take a picture of them playing, but just as the camera went off, Benjamin nailed Bella right in the face with a monstrous snowball and my camera caught this:


Seeing this picture tonight made me laugh outloud. That look on Benjamin's face is priceless. It was really fun playing outside today...except for Bella's incessant crying after that.

He had plenty more where that came from, though. Not even the woman behind the camera was safe.



Although I really think Bella spends more time crying or whining than anything else lately. What is it with three year old girls and their whiny crying all day long?? She cries over every piddly little thing. Benjamin took my toy, I can't get my shoes on, I don't want to eat that, I want to watch a movie, I don't want to brush my hair....all while crying hysterically. Mostly, though, lately it's the cold. She is a total wimp about the cold but she refuses to dress appropriately because her snow clothes aren't as cute. (She complained non-stop about them as she put them on today.) We all wanted to go to the park yesterday and here she is after 5 minutes outside:


I told her to wear pants and better shoes because she was going to be cold, but she responded with, "I don't care," and left the house. I ended up taking off my jacket and letting her sit on it with it wrapped around her. Even wrapped up, she cried hysterically the entire time we were there until Benjamin said, "I don't like this park with all the crying," and we went home. Oh Bella, we love you, but you drive us crazy.

Other Christmas season happenings: Benjamin was a shepherd/inn keeper in our ward's nativity play. So cute. I was stage mom, so I couldn't take any other pictures of the play, but I got this one beforehand with his fellow inn keepers/shepherds.


It was my job to move the sheep and the inn, whisper lines to panicked actors, and keep a certain wiseman from taking a bathroom break 30 seconds before his cue. Benjamin was so excited to be in it. That morning the first thing he told me was, "I can't believe it's going to be ME on stage!" They all did great.

I also took Benjamin to see The Nutcracker ballet. I love the ballet and I really wanted to share that experience with Benjamin. I would have taken Bella too if I'd thought she'd last through it, but she's really not ready. In a few years. But the kids and I have watched lots of ballet performances online and he's always been very interested, so I took a chance on him. It went great. He loved it and had lots of great questions and comments and was perfectly behaved the whole time. Even got this cute little pic of him on stage with the nutcracker display. The ushers got mad at us for getting on stage, but I snapped the shot before they could shoo us off. :)


Another Christmas cuteness - this is the note Benjamin wrote for Santa and told me I needed to lay with the milk and cookies.


So cute! I've actually tried very hard to not perpetuate the Santa myth. It's been one of those things that makes me very uncomfortable - lying to my kids while they get punished for lying. Yet, despite the fact that I've never talked to them about Santa and even slipped in a few "Santa is really just pretend" comments, they get so bombarded with it everywhere that they still believe. I'm not going to ruin their fun. I will definitely put out a plate of cookies and this note.

We're getting very excited for Christmas. I had them video record their Christmas wishes. That was fun to see. Benjamin wants a remote control motorcycle, a lego submarine, a violin (no idea where that came from), a metal detector ("to find treasure!"), a real camera (because breaking mine each year apparently isn't enough), and that Bella will always be his sister (melted my heart). Bella wants headbands, dress up clothes, and a real cell phone ("Christian can have my play one.") We'll see how generous Santa is this year.

Long Silence

I just looked at the date on my last post and realized it's been a while! I guess with all the days off school lately I've been busier than usual with kids these last few weeks. We've had a great month, though. Thanksgiving was great and time off from school was great too, although, I am glad to get back into a routine. Not that I didn't love not having to race to the bus stop in the mornings!

The Henry Ford museum has a temporary exhibit all about the Wizard of Oz so we had to go check that out. That was a lot of fun. It's all interactive and hands-on, so you rode the cow on the farm in Kansas, went into the house during the tornado, came into munchkin land on the yellow brick road (and could build an arch, but Benjamin would rather jump around on the blocks), got to dress the scarecrow, ride the witch's bicycle, climb around the wicked castle, man the controls to the Wizard's special effects, etc. Not the least of which time was spent on the couches watching the movie itself!




We also managed to find some other fun stuff this month during our time off:

Science/color experiments with shaving cream:


Got the idea from here.


Visits to the playgrounds:


Creating a mini city with painter's tape to practice reading and number recognition:


It was a lot of fun and sparked a lot of creative play in ways I hadn't expected - like when they pretended that a tornado tore through town and everyone had to be rushed to the emergency room. (Got the idea from here)

Painted with colored ice cubes:


First attempt used paper, but the kids just wanted to watch it all mix together, not so much create final works of art, so we ditched the paper and rubbed the colored ice around on the cookie sheets. Very messy (amazing how far colored water clapped vigorously between hands can spray) but very fun! See idea here. Oh, and that color on the glass - that's not from the ice - that's from our window crayons. We LOVE our window crayons.

Went on a long bike ride in Kensington Park:


That mostly means we played at playgrounds around the park with our bike gear on because we never rode for more than 5 minutes before we'd pass another area where the kids wanted to stop and play. However, I have to say that my favorite part of the day was the game of freeze tag at the end. Kelly played along too and he's just out of shape enough that he and I were well matched despite his long legs. It was super fun making him struggle to catch me.

And we of course, we ate our weight in turkey and yams on Thanksgiving, but we hosted so I was too busy with all of that to remember to take a picture! :( Should have given my camera to Benjamin. Then I'd at least have plenty of pictures of people's feet and rear ends to document the holiday. Alas, there's always next year. We did have some really fun families over and had a great time eating, racing RC cars, and making human tacos with the futon cushion. Ah the things that will entertain a group of kids. It's so fun.

Now school begins again and swim lessons and gymnastics and I just got made primary president today (in addition to Kelly being in the bishopric), so I'm in charge of all the kids at church 18 months to 11 years old, so we have plenty to keep us busy! Life is good.

First Solo Craft Attempt

I've been excited for Bella to have preschool so I could have some time with Christian and do things on his level. Today we attempted painting for the first time. He's finger painted with us while the older kids have worked on harder things, but today I wanted to see what he'd do with a brush. It was a lot of fun. He didn't last long at the activity - 5 or 10 minutes - but that's what I expected. He did seem to enjoy it, though.


He tried out a couple different brushes and then used his hands too. Then he grabbed some other supplies from my craft bag - markers, googly eyes - and wanted to try them out too, so we did. We rolled some big googly eyes in the paint and we stirred them around in a box with our brush. I tried tracing his hand with the marker, but he didn't like me holding his hand still, so I just drew his hand instead. I just loved spending the time just letting him investigate and seeing what he'd do. Such a fun little boy!

Things I Like To Do

Benjamin came upstairs yesterday with a stapled pack of papers in his hand and proudly showed me his latest masterpiece. He's been in love with writing lately and wants to write signs, letters, and books all the time. I thought his latest creation was so cute. It's "Things I Like To Do." Here it is in all it's crazy phonetic glory. For those of you who aren't as adept at deciphering his phonics, the translation follows the pictures.





Translation: "Things I like to do: swimming, gymnastics, school, and playing pretend, and eating, AND looking at the stars." (That's him looking at the stars in the illustration). I never tire of these little creations because I think it's so fun to see how he will write the various words. Like eding = eating. Makes sense, doesn't it? We don't really say it like a T, we are lazy and say it like a D. I struggle a bit in balancing praise with spelling correction, but usually I lean more to the praise because the spelling will come with time, but for now I love to see that he enjoys writing. And let's not forget Mark Twain's words, "He must have little genius who can’t spell a word in more than one way."