Foam Stickers = Hours of Fun!

I guess I forgot to publish this post, so I am posting it now!
Cousin Livi came over to hang with us on one of our lazy vacation days before Christmas. I bought a foam sticker kit and the kids went to town making pictures and cards!

This is one of the easiest Christmas activities we've ever done. It kept them busy for 2 solid hours! We have plenty left over for next year, too!

No School=Lazy Day

Winter break started on Monday and I had planned on the girls and I sleeping in and staying in our jammies all day. Well on Sunday, Kaylin came to me and said she really wanted to spend some time with one of her besties, Bridget. She doesn't ask for play dates very often, so I couldn't say no.
These two have been friends since they were 3 years old and in pre-school together. They have had every class together since, that is until this year. Bridget is in a class that is down the hall from Kaylin, and they only have one recess together, so they don't get to see each other as much as they used to. We try to get them together every other week or so, but it doesn't always work out.
They are so funny! They had all these activities planned for the day, like having a tea party (one of their fave things to do here), but once they started playing Wii sport, they were having way to much fun to stop! Poor Bridget, got Wiiitis from playing tennis for so long. I had to tell her parents that she might need some ibuprofen! They played so hard they were sweating! I love the Wii can get the kids so active, especially when it rains so much here in the Pacific Northwest!

The little sisters spent the entire day in their jammies and played barbies. With Emma in school full time this year, they don't get to have very much time for imaginative play. They are only 19 months apart, and love to play together when they can.

Big sis stayed in her jammies too. She spent the day getting caught up on all of her emails and Facebook games.

I love having my girls home! The best is on days where we don't have any commitments and can just do whatever we feel like. These are my favorite kind of days!

Classroom Winter Party

My two middle children are in the same class together. Their school believes in multi-age classrooms, so Emma (who is in first grade) is in a class along with her big-sis Kaylin (who is in third grade). I love this concept. It works on so many levels!
Anyway, I am the party coordinator for their class of 53 kids (there are two teachers and the classroom used to have 48 kids but because of budget cuts the classroom grew). The two teachers make this job extremely easy for me, and I love them for it! They are easily accessible if I have any questions and are very flexible!
This year for the classroom winter party, they decided to have stations. This was such an amazing idea. We had four groups of kids rotate between the stations and it went very smoothly.

Here is the Bingo station. The kids love this game! The classroom is called "Ohana Center" (Ohana means family in Hawaiin) so I found this site that allows you to design your own bingo cards. The time allotted turned out to be perfect. Almost every kid was able to get a Bingo! We gave them cherry candy-canes even if they didn't win.

Emma was all set to win B-I-G!

The second station was a penguin craft that I found where the kids trace their shoe to make the body of the penguin. This stations ended up taking up the most time, but the kids loved it! I should also explain that it was school spirit week and it was "Crazy/Random, Day" on the party day, so the kids were all dressed crazy and random. One of the teachers walked around giving out mustaches for people to wear. Totally random!

Cousin Luc with his almost finished penguin. He is so good about smiling for his Auntie's camera! Thank's Luc!

Kaylin working hard on her penguin. She made a beak that could open and close.

Here are some of the penguins! They turned out so cute and each one very different from the other!
We had pipe cleaners and beads set up for kids to make candy-canes, wreaths, pencil toppers...

and apparently bracelets. :)

The last station was sugar cookie decorating. You can't really tell, but the kids put mountains of sugar on top of the cookies.

She had to open wide to get the entire mountain of sugar in to her mouth. Most of it fell on to her plate, though.

Sugar lips! Hahaha!

The little sisters (Pay and Livi) got to decorate cookies too!

They got way into it and I had to take off for a few to go check on some other kids.

When I came back, I noticed that all of their toppings had frosting on them but were on the side of their plate still. Turns out they were decorating, then scraping the toppings off and licking the frosting, only to start all over again! Silly girls!

After the party, the kids went to recess and a small nature walk. When they returned they had a healthy snack of pretzels, satsuma's, berries,and juice.

I was so happy to find that out of an entire classroom of 53 students, my two girls sat together with a few other friends to eat their snack. :) Hey! Turn around Kaylin!

Ah! Much better! Thank you!

These two got to hang with the big kids all day and had a blast! Next year they will both be in kindergarten, down the hall. ::Sigh::

O Christmas Tree

The first weekend in December we pulled out all of our Christmas stuff and spent the entire weekend decorating and playing outside in the cool, crisp, December air. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend. Perfect for doing some yard work, riding bikes, and putting decorations up outside.

Biker babes!

Such a good man. It was about 20 degrees outside, and we spent the morning doing yard work, so Dao had to spend the afternoon putting up Christmas lights.

On your marks...get set...GO!

For the first time ever, Dao and I sat back on the couch and let the girls decorate the tree, all by themselves.

They are just getting so big.

The girls are so proud of themselves for decorating the tree without any help! (The big kids did help move the ornaments around, because the little ones put 5 ornaments on one branch)

I love our school

Last month, I attended one of our school/parent meetings (like PTA). The assistant principle shared with us an idea and project that the entire school was going to undertake.
Below is part of the letter that we received last week.

"Dear Families,

This year students are participating in a school-wide service project, which includes a financial donation to Heifer International (heifer.org). In brief, Heifer International takes monetary donations and uses these funds to help people in our world struggling with poverty. The money is often used to purchase an animal, which can support a family or community. Once this animal has been raised and produces offspring the family gives at least one of the offspring to someone else in their community to "pass it on" and benefit the larger community. Heifer International is also involved in a variety of other humanitarian projects around the world.



The money that our school raises for this donation will (hopefully!) come from each individual student. Our hope is that each student will EARN (at least) one dollar to contribute to the school's collective donation. This will mean that as a school we could contribute at least $700 to serve a family/community in this world through Heifer International. Our thought is that by having each student earn the one dollar it will take on deeper meaning when it comes time to give this money away to help others in our world.



School centers and advisories have begun developing a plan for earning one dollar per student. Funds can be earned with each student doing something different or everyone in a center doing the same thing to raise funds. It's up to each center or advisory to determine the best way to earn their funds. Please take a few moments to talk to your son or daughter about their center's plan...."

So this weekend, my little Emma, spent most of Sunday creating books. Each one is different and they are all really special. My fave is the one that is called "Some people are different". She drew pictures of people that are short, tall, smart, some are girls, some are boys. Oh my! The books are too cute! Then she tells me that she has decided to sell them for $1 each for the Heifer project! She wanted to go outside and sell them, but I convinced her she could do it from inside (Where it is much warmer!) I am one proud Mama!

I love the school that my kids go to!

Turkey Hangover's & Crafty Fun

A couple weeks ago, Dao's sis, Goo Goo (Auntie) Xuan and her boyfriend, Dan, came over and brought some crafty goodies. I totally forgot the name of the clay they used, but you shape it up and bake it. The girls were so excited!

Even Ye-Ye (Grandpa) got into it. He made some fancy flowers.

Dan teaching some different techniques. :)

Some of the creations that everyone made. Please notice the lightsabers and penguin theme.

Dan and Xuan are so cute. They made these little penguins. Xuan made the big one and Dan made the little one (notice the Kanye glasses). Dan tied them together, and made them into a necklace. Thanks Goo Goo Xuan and Dan! We love you!


Turkey Day

The bird.
My Mom does the turkey every year, and it never fails to be delicious.

The BEST gravy EVER!!!

Dao does 10 lbs of potatoes every year! They are super creamy. I think Kaylin eats about 5 lbs of it during the week. She can't get enough.


Dan made this super yummy dish of brussel sprouts and apples it was so good. I have never liked brussel sprouts before, but this was so good!

Stuffing.
Straight from the bird.

Auntie Robin's Sweet Potato's. Yummy!

Dishing up.

Round one for Xuan!

Emma wanted to get dressed up so bad. We didn't eat until 5pm, and I told her she had to wait until 4pm to get dressed up. Poor thing asked every 5 minutes if it was time to get dressed. She loves to get fancied up.


After we were full and the turkey hangover was kicking in, we put on an episode of Glee. Goo-Goo Xuan, Dan, and Goo-Goo Linh had never seen an episode! Everyone cuddled up on the couch, to watch. Good times. :)

Goo-Goo B and Uncle Rob were in Europe on their honeymoon (for 3 weeks!) and were missed this year!