"I Danced With Cinderella"

One night we were sitting at home and Hannah Beth decided she wanted to "ballroom dance." I'm not sure where she's heard that phrase, but she knew it! She first went to Nathaniel and asked him if he would dance with her. He declined, so she decided to go up to Daddy's office to ask him. Of course he couldn't refuse! I put on some classical music. Hannah Beth was already dressed up, so Daddy "dressed up" and danced with Cinderella! Times like this are priceless. There is just something special about a daughter's relationship with her Daddy!

Edible Playdough

The other night I decided to make the kids some Peanut Butter Playdough. I hadn't made it in a long time, and it certainly was a hit! It's super easy to make:

Peanut Butter Playdough:

12 oz peanut butter

6 Tbsp honey

1/2c. to 1 1/2 c. nonfat dry milk powder

Combine all ingredients; add more dry milk if needed to keep it from being sticky.

They can eat it (and it's yummy - I kept taking sniches from Nathaniel's pile!), and after they finish playing you can put it in a ziploc bag or tupperware and put it in the fridge so they can play with it again. We didn't do so this time, but you can use raisins, peanuts, etc. to decorate and add to your playdough.

I let the kids make their own since they love to help me cook and bake (Nathaniel had a hard time stirring the thick peanut butter, though). Hannah Beth wanted to wear her chef's hat, since she usually wears it when baking, so Nathaniel decided that he needed one and asked me to get one for him. Since we have no other chef's hats in the house, I had to quickly get creative. I offered him one of Thomas' winter hats, and thankfully Nathaniel was very pleased and wore it the whole time! :)

Hannah Beth had lots of fun getting very into making things with the playdough (see below her girl and bunny rabbit). It is neat to see her create. I helped Nathaniel make some shapes with cookie cutters (Christmas ones were still on hand), but he was mostly interested in eating it!! :)

First Snow for Nathaniel!

Tuesday we got a rare treat for Columbia - snow! It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to make Nathaniel's first time playing in the snow lots of fun. Hannah Beth didn't remember being in the snow, so this was like the first time for her, too! Hannah Beth had to call her best friend from school, Brooke, to tell her that it had snowed. She was very excited to hear that it had snowed at Brooke's house, too (15 minutes away)! :) I love seeing things through my children's eyes!

Sisterly Competition

While my children were decorating their lovely gingerbread house, I really wanted to do one myself. I came up with a great idea to make it cheaper and more fun - I told my sisters that I wanted to go out AFTER Christmas (my older sister and her family didn't get here until the 26th anyway) and see if we could find some on sale and get 3 kits and have a gingerbread house decorating contest between me and my sisters. We found some at Cracker Barrel and got 3 of them for around $10 (including candy and everything). Our husbands and children were to be the judges. We had lots of fun, and it was fun to see how each of them turned out and reflected our personalities to some degree or another. They each got some votes, and to be honest I don't even know who won. Tracy thought I must have "planted" something on my house because as soon as Hannah Beth came in to look at them she went straight to mine and said, "Oh, this one is SO beautiful!!! This one is my favorite!!!" I had no thoughts of trying to woo her vote. I promise! I personally think Heather tried to woo votes with her basketball hoop!

Christmas Activities and Highlights

Hannah Beth's school Christmas party

Hannah Beth and Nathaniel decorating a gingerbread house. I kept all the pieces flat and then put it together after they decorated it. I hadn't ever thought of doing that before, but I think it made the decorating a lot easier for the kids.

Aunt (my sister) Heather decorating Christmas cookies with the kids.

Apparently Nathaniel got tired of decorating cookies and decided to decorate himself.

The finished products. Yum!

Christmas morning, opening stocking gifts (above and below).

Hannah Beth's big Christmas gift this year was a doll house from Grandma and Pop!

Nathaniel's big love right now is Thomas the Train. His big gift from Grandma and Pop was a train set and a number of trains.

Family

My sister, Tracy, and her husband, Dwight, and their three boys (Andrew-5, Zachary-3 and Aaron-16 months) live in Tanzania, Africa. They are back in the US for a few months and came to visit for almost 2 weeks in late December/early January. My younger sister, Heather, was also here over the holidays. It was fun to be all together and let the cousins get to know each other face to face instead of over the web cam and instant messages. Hannah Beth and Andrew got along well, and Hannah Beth did a great job holding her own in the midst of all the boys! Nathaniel and Zachary also had fun together and especially enjoyed playing outside (thankfully it was usually warm enough!). We took them to the mall, out to Thomas' parents house in the country, and to the children's museum in town that we absolutely love!

I'm back!

I'm sorry for any of you who have been checking my blog and found NOTHING new for over a month. I've been busy, busy and sometimes just neglecting my blog. I finally feel like life is getting back into a normal routine and I'm ready to catch up on all those things that have been lagging!



In December, on top of all the regular Christmas preparations and activities, we had an additional project. Since Thomas and I receive monthly support for our ministry, we have over the last few years given a year end "thank you" gift to our supporters. It has always included something homemade from my kitchen. This year I made Cakeballs. I had never heard of them before, but came across them on the internet (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cake-Balls/Detail.aspx) and thought they looked good! They were lots of fun to make, although the process of shopping (for ingredients) and baking and making the cards and packaging and mailing always ends up as a very big and long process! We succeeded in getting them to everyone before Christmas, and hopefully the people we sent them to enjoyed them as much as we did making them!



I will catch up with a number of posts showing the highlights of December and January for us.