End of the Week Randoms

Another marking period = another extra credit Spanish food project.  This time, Samantha chose to make Mexican brownies from scratch which included both a little chili powder and some cinnamon.

We documented the process with several pictures and she wrote out the details of the recipe and her thoughts.

We doubled the recipe and ended up with 2 full pans to share with her teacher and class.  And I heard that they were a real hit!

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The neighbor had a dead tree cut down in his yard and Steve and the boys were happy to cut up the wood and add it to our wood pile for the winter months.

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I wanted to grab a few pictures to use for our annual Christmas card photo (one of my favorite things to do each year because it helps me to see how much the kids have grown).  We ended up with a great set of pictures and a definite winner for the card!

A perfect step stone of heights:

Our woods make the best backdrop:

I am pretty sure that this stump has been here since we moved in more than 12 years ago.

One of the kids grabbed the camera and took a nice picture of Steve and me together:

There boys are ALWAYS together:

Up in the stand that Steve built for the zipline in the back yard, with a beautiful view of the woods behind her:

Making good progress on the wood pile"

Jack and Jimmy worked on this special fort for days, gathering leaves and twigs for the absolute best hideout:

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Jimmy loves collecting and organizing his Pokemon cards (Jack does too):

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Taking advantage of the first bit of snowfall for the season:

A beautiful sunset and beautiful smile on this boy.  Really any time that he can spend outdoors being active makes him so happy.

Lots more sledding to come this season!

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The boys set up the longest domino/block train in Jack's room and it was pure entertainment for days:

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One of the projects that all first graders do is to make a "turkey feather" in any style that they like to bring in and put up on the board outside of their classroom prior to Thanksgiving.  We have had all kinds now, but Jimmy decided to make his a Michigan State feather!

It turned out great!

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I am beyond thankful for this family of mine!

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A Movie Night 14th Birthday Party

With Samantha's birthday approaching, I had asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate.  She told me that she wanted to invite a few friends over for a sleepover and wanted to 'keep it simple' and not go 'overboard' with a theme and a balloon arch and basically all of the things that I tend to do for birthdays.  

Secretly, I had an idea in mind already to celebrate with a 'Movie Night' theme, but waited to see how it all played out.  When she told her friends that she was keeping it simple, each one of them was disappointed and told her that they look forward to her birthday parties every year because they are so fun, different and over the top.  She didn't realize how special the parties were to them too and didn't want to disappoint them.  

And so it began.  She agreed to the Movie Night idea, chose four friends to invite (plus her and her sister, for a total of 6 girls) and I started to scribble ideas together in a notebook for the event.

The invitations, ready to hand out to the girls:

The party favors:

Everyone received a large popcorn container (that they could fill with popcorn later in the evening), a few bags of Skinny Pop popcorn to take home, some fuzzy socks and a monogrammed tumbler for hot or cold liquids.

We set up a projector in the garage along with a couch and a couple of recliner chairs that we inherited recently.  I put together a little "Concession Stand" with all of the movie favorites and we rented online two "old school" type of movies that the girls could watch.

The popcorn machine was set up and I also surprised the girls with special glowing cups to use in our darkened garage theater.

Another highlight was the chocolate fountain.  We have certainly gotten a lot of use out of this over the last couple of years.  

Samantha's dinner request was a nacho table with the nachos spread out on the tablecloth and the toppings passed around the table.  Her friend, Grace, does this with her family every summer vacation (and Sam travels with them) and it was a big hit.  Plus, the clean-up is a breeze because you just fold up the tablecloth afterwards and throw it away.  Easy peasy.

Opening gifts!

Soft PJs and a warm blanket!  Perfect!

And then, the best idea ever!  A game of old-fashioned BINGO complete with a rolling rack, bingo balls and marker daubers.  

We started out with one card each and as the girls got better at their techniques, we upgraded to more than one card.  

Even the boys joined in from the other side of the room.

And then ... the prizes!  I set it up so that every one of the girls ended up with exactly two envelopes for prizes.  They were able to choose which numbered envelope they wanted as they "BINGo'd" and the envelopes contained small gift cards or cash.  They loved it!!!

Movie time!

Surprisingly, the girls only stayed up until about 10:30 pm and only watched one of the two movies that we had rented (Meet the Parents).  They were tired and headed inside to the basement to crash for the night.  Apparently teenagers that play sports and love their sleep are not as apt to stay up until the wee hours of the morning.

The next morning, I made a full pancake breakfast for the girls and they wanted to play BINGO again.  And of course, since we did not cut the cake the night before (because there were so many treats at the Concession Stand), we sang to Sam then.  Some of the girls had cake with their breakfast (!!!) or took it home with them.

She asked for a "Stranger Things" theme for her cake because it is one of her favorite shows right now.  Personally, I have never seen any of the episodes so I figured that it might be a bit of a challenge for me, but I followed a similar picture that I found online and Sam loved it.  Each of the items on the cake (like the small waffles on the top, made out of fondant) and the lettered Christmas lights and the "Friends don't lie" sign are all symbolic.

It was a full day of celebrating Samantha and we can't wait to see what Year 14 holds for her!

Samantha's 14th Birthday

Samantha's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which I think makes for the best day of celebration.  We truly celebrated her from the moment that she woke up until ... well, actually into the next day.  

That morning, we began with our traditional cinnamon rolls with candles and sang happy birthday knowing that she had turned 14 at 3:15 am that day.

I adapted the tradition to include cinnamon roll 'sticks' for the event and no one seemed to mind:

Making her wish:

We always joke that it seems to snow on Samantha's birthday (in November), but this year it had snowed before and you can tell that there is quite a bit of snow on the ground already for the season.

This girl is nearly 5'4" already, which means that she has surpassed my height by two inches and is still growing!

 

All of the gifts from us AND the 'brookies" that she was taking to celebrate with her basketball team later that day when they practiced.  Brookies is the term that we have given to the beloved dessert that is brownies and cookies baked together.

One of the items did not arrive in time (a new water bottle for basketball) so I quickly printed a picture and wrapped it up to simulate what she would be receiving eventually.  And the shirt was a gift from Grandpa -- "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  Except Marching Band."

A new basketball bag too.  Just in time for the new season, where she will be playing on the Junior Varsity team!

While she was at basketball practice that afternoon, I began setting up for her party with friends later that day ...

Halloween 2022

Halloween fell on a Monday this year, and I was scheduled to teach on campus in the afternoon.  Luckily, I planned ahead and scheduled an exam for my students that day and was easily able to secure a sub to basically just sit there and administer/proctor the exam.  This allowed me to have the day off to prep food for the kids' classroom parties and also to attend the much-anticipated Halloween parade around town in the afternoon.  

Sam kept it simple this year in a Winnie the Pooh 'onesie' that she was gifted earlier in the Fall.  (This was likely the inspiration for her Eeyore pumpkin carving).

Sophia chose a comfortable and warm kangaroo 'onesie' online that I promptly ordered for her knowing that the weather was looking questionable (as usual) leading up to the holiday.

Jack chose a Deadpool Spiderman costume online and Jimmy borrowed his Transformer costume from a neighbor, which worked out great for me.

I wanted to grab a quick picture by the woods to show that the leaves were just starting to fall.

And then Dirty Harry jumped in the photo shoot!

His jacket is genuine alpaca fur and he borrowed the hat from Jack (a great neighborhood garage sale purchase).

Samantha had plans with her friends for Halloween night (much to our disappointment; if fact, Steve has declared that she will be inviting friends over to our house from now on so that we can savor the last of our Halloween celebrations with her, ha!), so I did a special pre-Halloween dinner the night before.

There were brain-shaped muffins:

Bloody witch finger cookies:

Silly dentures (apples, peanut butter and marshmallows):

And mummy dogs:

Then, on Halloween day, I did fruit cups and a spider veggie tray for Jack's classroom.  No one signed up to bring the veggie tray so I thought that I would try to make it a little more 'enticing' for the 9 & 10 year-olds ... so I made a spider out of bread dough and then put the dip in a cup inside of it.  It was a hit!

I made a second one to take down to a neighbor's house for appetizers before trick-or-treating and also put together a fun dessert tray with peanut butter bats and witch hat cookies.

Finally, Sam had requested a 'brain cake' to take over to her friends' house.  I made one about 4 years ago for a classroom party and agreed to make one again.  They loved it!

After lots of food and fun at the neighbor's house, we headed back home -- with the rain still managing to hold off -- and took the (remaining 3 kids) trick-or-treating around the neighborhood in the golf cart.  They scored a TON of candy, which they sorted out as soon as they got home  ... and were happy to know that there was no school the next day due to a planned teaching meeting day for the district.