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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Teacher Gifts and Cookies....

Maybe found a bit of the Christmas spirit today, that or I'm faking it the best I can.  

Friday is the last day of school before the boys are out for 2 week for the holiday break.  
That means it's time for teacher's gifts! 
 This year each of the teachers are receiving a jar of applesauce, two produce bags, an ornament the boys made and our Christmas card.  
Here's the one for Cody's teacher...
 Tyler has 3 teachers right now, they are all receiving the same as above.  
His assistant teacher that is leaving has 1 or 2 girls, so her basket is the larger one with 3 pairs of hair clippies. 
 Tyler's ornaments (missing another yellow one) are the snowflake prints. 
Cody made the one on the right, cool patterns, so he's giving that one to his teacher. 

Also on Friday, Santa is coming to visit Tyler's class.  They get to decorate cookies, so I signed up to bake 24 sugar cookies.  I figured I would triple the recipe and bake some for family and friends as well.  
The boys were spending the afternoon with the Grandparents to find a Christmas tree so I was busy decorating...
 Peppermint sprinkles, Yum! 

Clock is ticking away, and it's almost time to head to Boise!  A small bit of baking left to do, or not, we'll see how the rest of present wrapping goes.  Then there's the laundry and packing of everything to take off for a week, throw in a bit of cleaning, a Birthday party and some play dates and the time is going to vanish before I know it. 
Better get crackin'!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Random Holiday....

The boys have been busy the last few days!  Thursday after school they went up to Apple Hill with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Virginia to find a Christmas tree. 
 Rewarded for their hard work....
 Friday, Tyler had his Christmas party at school.  They made beaded candy canes...
 Sang lots of songs and danced around...
 Decorated cookies and had hot chocolate....
 Santa also came to class.  Tyler decided not to sit on his lap this time, because he already did it this year one time.  We sent the teachers off with their gifts and they all seamed to have a great time!

Saturday, Cody had a Birthday party to attended and played laser tag for the first time.  He had a lot of fun and was able to hang out with some of this school buddies.  

While we were at the party, Tyler, Keith and Grandpa went down to the auto museum for a low rider exhibit.  They reported back that it wasn't much of an exhibit, but still seamed to have a good time.


For our weekly Saturday night dinner I fixed up some things for dessert.  A free Jell-O mold from last year produced some fun layered jigglers...
 An array of Sugar cookies finished it off...
 Then by Sunday afternoon, our itty bitty tree looked like this.....   (not sure why it's sideways)
A couple of more things to wrap from Santa and we're done! 

Now, with fingers crossed, it will all fit into the car for Boise.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Gingerbread houses...

Wednesday, Cody's class built and decorated gingerbread houses.  The decorating of the house had to be done in a pattern (hence the ability for his teacher to work it into the math lesson).

 


Milk carton for stability and form, graham crackers, frosting and lots of different types of candies.

Shriner's Toy Run...

Sunday we headed down to Niello for a breakfast at toy run to the Shriner's Hospital. 

 Keith has a mini RC car that lives in his toolbox that the boys were very happy to play with...
 Yummy breakfast cooked on the grill...

 We cruised over to the hospital and then went through the front and to the winner's circle to drop of toys.  
Rob's...
 The dealership bug that Keith drove (Ty riding with him)
 Olmstead's...
 Getting his picture, unfortunately I had all the toys in my car...
 Palomar's....
We had to leave early, but the rest of the group were able to go on a tour of the facility.  Glad to be apart of it! 

(Thanks for all the great pictures Rob!)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Last weekend's Christmas fun...

Friday night was the Orangevale Tree Lighting.  Tyler's school usually decorates ornaments to hang on the tree (but most fell of last year so his teacher decided to skip it) and they always sing a few songs they have been working on in class.   The rain stayed away this year so we were able to go out and have fun, enjoying all the things they had to do.  When we arrived we took advantage of the short line and let the boys jump in the bounce house for a bit.  Then we headed inside to make sure we were there for the performance.  
Before the singing , all the kids stamped a card...

 Then it was time to sing, you can see Ty with his Ho Ho Ho Santa hat.  He had an eagle eye on his teacher the whole time! 

 After they performed we headed back outside to ride the little train...


 After some kettle corn and some caroling, they lit the tree. 
 On Saturday we had a Santa's Breakfast at Cody's school.  Being a PTA event I was involved in set up, taking money and checking off names at the door, then cleaning at the end.  The boys came with Keith for breakfast and a sit down with the big man. 
We wrapped up our Saturday with a Birthday party and family dinner.  Phew!  Haven't even reached Sunday yet....

Friday, December 10, 2010

Dovewood Ct Christmas Lights...

Monday evening we strolled through Dovewood Ct to see all the fantastic lights.  The boys really look forward to this and it's fun to see what changes they do to the displays. 
There were two houses this year that had music syncrinazed to the lights, the first one was right at the start of the court. 
The boys love the simple Charlie Brown house...

Classic Christmas with Santa in his sleigh...

Candy Christmas...
Spongebob House...
These are my favorite items, the jelly fish in the trees...
Then we came upon the second dancing house....


Tyler brought his dancin' shoes...
 This house also has a garage display...

 North Pole Airport...
 They also had a gingerbread village...
 Dancing Santa....
 This is new, Christmas around the World...
 Disney house....

 This house has a tiny front yard, but it was still fun...
 Next house had a Christmas Village on display....
Loving all the lights and the Rudolph boarder...
 They had a winter village type theme with sled dogs and Santa in a gondolla...
 Not sure why it's sidways, but still very pretty...
Santa by the fireplace...
 Awesome...
 This is the reindeer house...
 Nativity house...
 The Grinch....
 Keith's favorite house: Margaritaville...
 complete with working blender...
 I love this winter house...



If you are local, or stopping through, you should check it out.  Dovewood Ct in Orangevale,