Winter Highlights

It won't be surprising to many that posting here got away from me a little bit in December. I'm almost in my last month of pregnancy with only 6 weeks until Little Prince #2's due date, Valentine's Day. I've been feeling pretty well. As much as a pregnant woman feels "well" and still have at least a little energy. The holidays have been fun, but mostly, I have been nesting: getting the house painted, rooms organized and cleaned. Things of that nature.

In the midst of all of this we have done some fun activities and have cooked/baked a little.

Here are some of our highlights from December:

Sippin' Cider

Over the last 1 1/2- 2 years or so, I've been trying to involve Nicholas in cooking/baking (with the hopes that someday he'll love it and do it all for me- ha, ha, kidding. Not really. Ok, maybe kind of.) He used to be into it, then lost interest, then it became somewhat problematic given how much I bake and the fact that raw eggs give him hives. Nevertheless, I've been able to find things he can do, like make apple cider.

Nick loves apple juice, just like I did/do, and also loves warm cider with all of the spices. Our homemade version proved to be quite tasty, too.

Opening the honey.

Squeezing it in.

Cinnamon sticks.

Trying the finished product. Mmm.

And done. Ah!

Marshmallow Treat

One of the only candies/desserts/treats that Nick likes are marshmallows. Here I decorated them with food coloring markers and Nick loved the snowman.

Nativity Scene

At Nick's school, at their annual book fair, I picked out a nativity scene book off the clearance table (bonus) by H A Rey (author of Curious George). It is the same principle as paper dolls in that you can punch out the figures and set up a scene. I thought he would enjoy the illustrations and colors and setting it up.

Three Kings being set up.

And being crashed, Super Hero style!

Holiday Pancakes

Here was another successful sneaky pancake breakfast. This one had squash in it ;-)

A Dinosaur Christmas

Nicholas' Auntie Clare sent Nick a wonderful, early Christmas present this year. It was a huge box that contained an adorable book, How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas by Jane Yolen (and illustrated by Mark Teague- the illustrations are wonderful), and about 7 or 8 dinosaur puppets. I broke out about 4 of the puppets to be read with the book and saved 3 puppets to surprise Nick with later.

Needless to say, Nick loved the puppets (he wanted to sleep with them and take them along with us when we went to school and ran errands) and the book.

Here is a spirited reading with Daddy.

Rapt attention.

Yes, undivided attention indeed.

Circle time (just like at school) with the dinosaurs.

Salt Dough Ornaments

Nicholas, Megan, and Ethan really enjoyed painting these ornaments for their Christmas trees. They kept asking for more and more to decorate. It was one of the fastest, easiest crafts to make, and Moms, you don't even have to bake them, you just pop them in the microwave :-)

I got the recipe here, if you are interested.