Home for the Holidays

Well, we have a new addition to our family...
Ben


A couple of weeks ago we took some supplies to the SPCA to help out the animals at the humane society. The girls were invited to feed the rabbits while we were there since they brought a load of stuff for them. Then we went to say hello to the cats and dogs that we took treats for...... Ben took one look at me and I knew we had to take him home!!


He is A.MAZ.ING!! We are so lucky! He fits into our family so nicely, it's like we've had him forever! CD tries to play dress-up with him, CJ tells him all about her day and has those special talks that every girl has with her dog. He is a sweetie!!


When I saw him and then saw that his name was Ben it made me think of the song Michael Jackson recorded in 1972 (great year by the way) and was his first #1 hit!


Ben, the two of us need look no more
We both found what we were looking for
With my friend to call my own I'll never be alone
And you my friend will see, you've got a friend in me

"Ben, you're always running here and there
You feel you're not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind and don't like what you find
There's something you should know, you've got a place to go

I used to say, "I", And "Me"
Now it's "Us", Now it's "We"

Ben, most people would turn you away
I don't listen to a word they say
They don't see you as I do I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd think again if they had a friend like Ben
Like Ben, like Ben"

Book Shopping

50% off Scholastic Book Warehouse sale:

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Friday, December 10th 8 am – 5 pm

Saturday, December 11th 9 am – 2 pm

Holiday Elfcapades

Our Elves are here!

Today these two cute little 8 inch elves were in the girl's advent calendar.



You can read more about them at

Holiday Elfcapades.

(Our elves spent some time at the salon and got hair styles different from the other elves. They wanted a Christmas makeover.)

They will be with us until Christmas Eve keeping an eye on our family and preparing a report on who is naughty and nice. Every evening they will return to the North Pole (with the use of some magic) and let Santa know all that they have seen or heard. When they come back to our house we've been told that they may have some fun/ mischief or "elfcapades." I've been told to watch out, they may hide around the house, have a cotton snowball fight with some of our other toy friends or have a movie night, peek in gifts or sleep in the freezer because they miss the North Pole.

CD named her Elf ~ Disney

Tonight I already heard CJ whispering to her elf and telling her all about her art projects and the art gala she had the night before.

CJ named her elf friend ~ Giggles.

I am so excited to start this new Christmas tradition with the girls... I wonder what Disney and Giggles will do tonight when they return?

Holiday Season

We started our holiday season a few weeks ago.
We started with our traditional brunch downtown.

CD was treated to lemon cheesecake by the chef followed by a fancy chocolate platter that the chef prepared in the kitchen just for CD!!! Next time she goes back she is to ask for the chef and she'll bring out another special little treat! What a lucky kid.. but wait that's not all the luck she had ...

After brunch, we bundled up for the Santa Claus Parade.

CD entered the colouring contest and I'm pleased to announce that for the third year in a row one of my girls won a prize!!! See, what'd I tell ya, lucky kid!! She won a family pass to ...

The Festival of Trees!!

We enjoyed the afternoon admiring all the trees and gingerbread house villages. We stopped for a snack and treated the people behind us in line to gingerbread cookies. Then we donated a stuffed puppy to the zoo tree for the kids in the hospital at Christmas and toured the gift shop.

What a fantastic day!
I love spending time with these two beautiful ladies and Moto-Moto.

Happy December 1st everyone!

Let it snow, let it snow,
let it snow!!

As soon as the girls got home today they jumped in the backyard to play in ALL the snow we got! I sure would have declared it a "snow day" but those are few and far between around here. I think we've had 2 in the last 20 years!!!

Winter is here!

Family & Friends

The best part of life is when you family becomes your friends and your friends become your family.

I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life!
I am married to a kind, loving man.
I'm Mom of two amazing daughters.
Have one of the funniest tenderhearted cousins
(with just a pinch of mischief.)
And have made some incredible friends.

"Friends are family you can choose for yourself!"

Life is good!

Week Four Winner

Congratulations to
Jenn
Hope you enjoy your prize before heading out on Free Candy Day!!

Trick or Treat Tuesday Giveaway Week Four

Happy Halloween Week!!
Halloween is creeping up on us!

Here is a prize package that will fill your little goblin's tummy before setting out on Sunday...
A box of "Trick or Cheesy" Kraft Dinner
with fun Halloween shapes
and
a Pillsbury Halloween Funfetti Cake Mix.

More treasures we picked up on our trip down south...
don't they get some fun holiday theme treats?!

Remember to leave us a comment and we'll make the draw Friday morning before school!!
Bugs & kisses
& good luck from all of us!!

Week Three Winner

Congratulations to

Juanita!!

Get me your mailing address and I'll pop
Word World Spooky Kooky Halloween
in the mail asap!!

Only 9 more sleeps until the big day!

Trick or Treat Tuesday Giveaway Week Three

One of our favorite shows is Word World.
(Click on the link for the WordWorld interactive site.)
If you have wee ones it is a fantastic show on PBS where
"words come alive."
This is a description of Word World taken from the
PBS parent's site:
"WordWorld aims to fascinate children with words and to inspire a love of words and reading. Featuring loveable, silly characters called WordFriends who embark on adventures in a world of words, WordWorld encourages preschoolers to see words as their friends, too."

We were lucky enough to find a couple of dvds on our trip ~ Welcome to WordWorld and Race to Mystery Island. I wish we found more. If you've seen them around here let us know, I'd love to pick up the rest for CD!!

This week's Trick or Treat Tuesday is:
WordWorld
Spooky Kooky Halloween.Leave us a comment and we'll make the draw on Friday!
Good Luck!

Congratulations

Congratulations to

Crystal

winner of the candy corn kisses

&

Tammy

winner of the carmel apple kisses!!

Remeber to check back next Tuesday for more Trick or Treats!!

Trick or Treat Tuesday Giveaway Week Two

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving spending time with loved ones, family & friends
or enjoying the long weekend doing what makes you happy.

We made a trip down to ND to spend some family time together, check out the zoo, swim in the hotel pool
and of course do some shopping.
The girls came home with a plastic tub full of clothing and some fun snacks that we don't get up here. We thought we should share so this week we are making two draws...

one for the Candy Corn flavour Hershey kisses

and one draw for the Carmel Apple Hershey Kisses.

I'm sad to report that we found NO Pumpkin Spice Kisses this year... that's how good they are!! None in Bismarck nor Minot!! Maybe next time!!!

Leave us a comment to
let us know which you'd prefer and how you'd use them.
We'll make the draw on Friday am before school.
Good Luck!!

Congratulations to Kindergarten Teacher
our first winner for Trick or Treat Tuesday!!
Hope you enjoy your prize!

Check back late Tuesday night for our next Trick or Treat!!
Be sure you enter!!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Trick or Treat Tuesday Giveaway

The girls and I decided to have
Trick or Treat Tuesdays
in October.

Our first giveaway is a wooden test tube rack with 6 new unused test tubes filled with all sorts of Halloween goodies perfect for decorating cupcakes or cookies.

Regular candy corn
black and orange sprinkles
a Halloween mix with green, purple, white sprinkles, pumpkins, spiders & bats
jumbo orange, black and white ghost sprinkles
purple candy corn
and black and orange candy skulls.

Leave us a comment to be entered in our draw.
We'll make the draw after school on Friday October 8th.

Make sure you check back next week for
Trick or Treat Tuesday!!
It'll be a good one.... but will it be a trick or a treat?!

Fall Photo Shoot

We lucked out with beautiful weather this weekend for our fall photo shoot.
We went to the lake and took these in the nature trail.

It's hard taking a family picture and try to be in it so that it doesn't look like I just ran down the path to get there in time.

I think I like this one better!

Costume change...

CJ wanted to take a picture of Mommy & Daddy.

They were supposed to throw leaves in the air but apparently it was way more fun throwing them at a sister!!

The girls had fun and we captured some great shots!!
What are your plans for fall photos??

Somebody's Watchin' Me

We've been thinking how to start decorating for Halloween.
I didn't really want to pull everything out yet so we started with this:

The girls just added googly eyes to our photos around the house.



Sometime this week we'll pick up some plastic spiders and fun tac and do this:

Not much else around here.
I've been laying around, blog surfing while trying to rest and recover from pneumonia.
Hope I can shake it soon, there is so much I want to do!

First Day

The girls were so excited to pick out their outfits and
pack their bags for their first day!

CD was so happy to finally be going to daycare.

All summer she's been asking to go!
We are so lucky to have the same wonderful lady that took care of CJ also watch CD while we are at work!! I know that CD is well taken care of, having so much fun that it makes it a little easier to be back at work full-time. (Thanks C!!)

I cannot believe that CJ is in grade two already!

How'd that happen?!

Everyone had a good but very busy first week...
so looking forward to spending
3 days at home with my family!
Hopefully we`ll be able to take in the
fireworks festival this long weekend!!

Hope your week went well.
What are your plans this weekend?

Back to School

I have had mixed emotions about going back to school this year... I'm sad that summer has come to an end and that I'll be going back to work full time after 1 year on maternity leave and two years of working half time BUT excited to face the challenges that the new school year has ahead. (Plus I'm moving back to work in elementary school again which is a HUGE change from the 'big kids' at high school.) The first 3 days have been incredible! It is exciting to see all the initiatives that are taking place and what a great time to be in education!

NOW to the crafty side of things....
A friend was about to pay $10 for a fancy clip board while
shopping this summer... whoa sister!! I can make that!!


The trickiest part was making the
template to go around the clip part.
Here is a great tutorial to follow to make some of your own, maybe a great teacher gift for the first day of school?!

I really like the added detail of the metal label holder on these ones.
There are lots of ideas if you search for them. You could make it more personal by adding the teacher's name or adding ribbons to the top, my friend likes things simple. I think she'll be happy.

Have a great school year!

Summer Splash

We've been BUSY with the girls enjoying the
summer weather (finally)!
Swinging, fishing, camping, garage sale-ing, visiting, splashing in puddles, dog sitting, playing in the sun showers, rescuing dragon flies from the pool,

swimming

and

loving the time we can spend with each other!!

Fairy Houses

Welcome Fairies!

We spent the morning making mud bricks ...

Enjoyed a great picnic lunch with a fabulous friend then the girls went around the yard gathering items to construct fairy homes. We saw the idea here
and have been waiting for a hot (dry) day to try it.

CJ found just the right items to size to make a chair, table and a little bed. I love the middle of a daisy that she used for the pillow. CJ spent a long time working her little fairy house.

CD reminded me of the Little Pig who built his house out of straw... get it done quick ~ go play in the sandbox and water table, slide, run around, play in the water, wash her wagon, swing, play on the monkey bars....

I wonder when the fairies will move in?!