All tuckered out

Dawg

By the way, who taught him to do this?

Festival of Carols and Stories 2011

Our church's Festival of Carols and Stories was today. It is a mix of, well, carols and stories about Christmas. There are all ages of choirs, musicians, dancers, and actors. It is very nice, but long and thoughtful, which is hard for little ones on a Sunday afternoon. Hard for grown men sometimes too.

Laura was in the littlest angel choir again. We tried curlers in her hair for the first time. She loved it!

The first curl was spectacular...for about 2 minutes. I was completely unprepared and didn't have any appropriate "product" to make the curls stay. But they stayed long enough for her to get out the door and imagine herself in curls. I don't think there were any mirrors after she left our house, so we were safe.

But she was still cute. See me? I was a helper.

"Away in a manger..."

My favorite

This is what the boys were doing during the performance.

And this.

Still cute.

Look, it's Mom and Laura!

Still cute. And she stands a lot like her mom.

Christmas Cookies

We had a great time making Christmas sugar cookies last week.

We use (clean) paintbrushes and colored egg yolk to paint them before baking. It gives them a nice shiny top and I think it is easier for the kids than smooshy frosting.

I made a couple too using the leftovers from their dough. (please ignore the gross tray from my toaster oven.)

Is it sacrileges to bite the head off of an angel cookie?

Yum!

Happy Friday

Happy 3rd Birthday, Adam!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Among many, many other things, I am thankful that my sister and Jim's parents could join us for the weekend and for the beautiful fall weather.

This was an awesome idea from my awesome husband. Homemade tablecloth from a roll of drawing paper. Everyone contributed a hand turkey!

More like a beautiful table runner, I guess.

Erna the dog has been visiting us. She's a great dog and has added a lot to our holiday.

Aunt Kim made a candle out of an orange! Beautiful!

Haven't used your yoga mat lately? I used mine just the other day!

Caponi ART park

We have been to the Caponi Art Park here in Eagan many times, but we generally get distracted by the nature trails on the parking lot side of the park and rarely make it over to the actual side with the sculptures.  A few weeks ago, Laura asked about that strange sculpture she always sees when we are driving down Diffley Road, so we made a special trip to the sculpture side a few days later. 

Laura with her "strange" sculpture

There are some really neat paths and fun things to discover in this park. It is beautiful hiking, interesting art and just a great place to be on a nice fall day.

Coming home at 6:30 tonight, it was very dark (up nord here in Minnesota, ya know).

Laura: Will I ever be at school this late?

Me: Well, probably not, unless it is for something special.

Laura: Well, I guess when I go on a date someday, I'll probably be out this late.

*THUNK*

Me (picking myself up off the floor in a stupor): Huh? What? What do you know about dates? Where did you hear about dates? When do you think you'll ever be going on dates?

Holy crap, what just happened here?

MN Children's Museum and Mickey's Diner

Still playing catch up....

Several weeks ago, the kids and I went to the MN Children's Museum using the passes from the library (awesome!). Adam is still terrified of the thunderstorm and the kid-sized ant hill, but the rest of the place was a hit.

After we were done and the place was starting to get crowded, we walked a block down to Mickey's Diner. If you've driven around downtown St Paul, chances are you have seen this place. I think it will probably become a regular stop for us the few times a year that we go to that museum. Kids, food, and ambiance were all stellar.