guilt, take two

this year, i didn't write a holiday letter to tuck into our cards.  it just didn't happen.  the holidays snuck up on me this year, in a major way.  i felt like i was ahead of the game on so many levels, but here i sit, christmas eve night, and i'm feeling guilty about sending out cards without words to lead you into the new year.

aaand, take two!  so, christmas eve night was almost a week ago (!) and i'm just now back at my desk, laughing over myself.  let's see if i can pull it together enough to blog (and POST) about all the things that happened over the past few weeks.  ready, set, go...

(isn't it funny how guilt is all created by ourselves, for ourselves?!  maybe that's a resolution to tackle:  no more guilt over silliness.)

we've been crafting fools over here!  whether it's painting or coloring (scribbling) or gluing and creating, we've been putting our digits to work.  it's nearly impossible to capture the tots while they're in the middle of a project, since i'm usually helping with one kid or the other or cutting/gluing for the next part of the project.  there's always some challenge, but i do my best.

reindeers!  first, i traced the kiddos hands and part of their wrists, then put them to work on coloring their reindeer faces, while i cut out their handprints.  dylan did ok, that is, until she decided to eat the markers.  so, crazy me decided watercolor paint would be the lesser of two evils.  don't ask.
    

 mmmarkers

later that evening, after the watercolor had dried, dada helped dylan and i helped jb.  we glued their handprints as antlers, googly eyes and pom pom for noses.  then us big kids attempted reindeer mouths.  whatev.  as for the nose colors, jb and dylan picked their colors - guess rudolph was left out once again!  

we have a few craft books full of fun projects, and most mornings, jb pages through, searching for our next one.  while he's not too handy with the scissors, he requested i make snowflakes.  i kinda forgot how challenging it is to make these!  (and how annoying it is when you unfold one, and it's really ugly!!!)  i probably cut up a dozen sheets of paper, but these were the ones jack picked out for the window.  i'm hoping next year that the snowflakes displayed will be ones of his doing...  

here is our latest project: snowmen!  and you probably can't tell, but we have a yard full of snow.  it's just too bad it's not a touch warmer so we can play in it.  temps in the single digits aren't the best for playing and building men of snow.  brrr!  so, if we can't build one out of snow, we sure can construct one out of paper.  we rummaged through my scrapbook paper and found similar light blues that would work well together.  (because who has white scrapbook paper?!  not me!)  jack told me how many circles made up a snowman, so i cut out that many.  he picked his eyes (the biggest ones we had, of course) and he happily picked out smaller blue ones for duey.  again, they chose their own poms for the "coal" mouth, and we used glitter glue to make the "carrot" nose.  i instructed jb to make a triangle shape, and he did very well, i think!  

after nap time, (and drying time) we rifled through my fabric scraps to find the perfect "scarf."  more drying time.  once dada was home and settled, we completed the snowmen by topping them off with, what - hats!  dada helped dylan (see a trend here?) and i helped jb.  it wasn't until bedtime, that jb exclaimed ALMOST FORGOT BELLYBUTTONS!  so the final touch - pink pom buttons.  perfect.    

the kid's fanatic about puzzles.  if the craft explosion isn't covering our table, it's puzzles!  he discovered his knack for them while at school.  each morning, before their lessons started, the kiddos could pick something to occupy their little minds for a few minutes.  his teachers told me he always picked the puzzles.  he got loaded up on his birthday and received quite a few more at Christmas.  i even found a website where you submit your own photo, and they make a puzzle out of it!  perfect gift!  he also received this gorgeous salmon puzzle from his great aunt and uncle.  (jb pointed out that it matches the fish on our fireplace!)

 so focused.

 thank you, aunt micki & uncle richard!

MAMA, YOOK - A GRADER!  we had to run outside so jb could have a picture with it.  i do what he tells me, and i don't ask questions.  (ha!  can you imagine?!  lollipops for breakfast, sure!  fruit leathers instead of dinner, why not!  i'm laughing all the way to his tummy ache!)  and pay no attention to his attempt at muscles!