Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Snow Days


We've had a lot of time off this winter due to snow.  Our last storm brought 10 inches of the white stuff,  so we were all home together for a good number of days.  It warmed up enough that we weren't housebound though, so we had fun together.

We've made a lot of snowstorm sugar cookies this year!
Valentine's came during the course of the storm.  Lots of love in this house.  


The kids pretended they were arctic explorers climbing mountains.  You'll be proud to know that Tess was the "first American woman" (her words, not mine) to scale several of these peaks.
Drew tried a solo expedition.


We've also had the Olympics to entertain us.  We've been letting Tess stay up late to watch a little, since she hasn't had school.  This is her tally of the different countries competing in the events.


She decided to join the games by creating her own ice skating rink.  She refused to try it out until the Olympics were on that night.


So we were out Thurs, Fri, the weekend, then President's Day on Monday.  And today was a 2-hr delay for Tess' school.  In total, she's been to school 4 out of the past 21 days.  Good thing she doesn't really learn much there anyway.  Good thing--right?

Sunday, February 16, 2014

A French 6th Birthday for Tess

We finally had Tess' French birthday party!  



This was a long time coming.  Tess has been planning this for months.  Then she had pneumonia on the scheduled date, and we had to push back 2 weeks.  A big snowstorm threatened to cancel it again, but we had a warm day and everyone was able to make it!

We invited 10 friends and they all came, so we had a full house!  The guest list included 8 friends from church (Lindsay Watson, Danielle James, Naomi Thomas, Audrey Bales, Avi Gardner, Patricia Pixton,  Alayna Gray, & Abbie Meservy), and 2 friends from her school class (Mazee Zajac and Addison Maloney).


We started by making a poodle gallery.

 

The poodles turned out so cute!  Each one was different with its own style.  They enjoyed this more than I anticipated.


Then we moved on to the Poodle Adoption Station.  Each girl got to adopt their own poodle and pick out a French name for their dog.  They filled out adoption certificates and gave Tess a coin, which she rang up with her cash register.  They also personalized doggie bowls for their poodles.  



Follwed by a rousing game of pin-the-French-flag on the Eiffel Tower.



Then poodle cake and ice cream.


  She got a million presents with Hello Kitty on them.  Lots of new projects to work on.  





I had considered another French art project, but Tess had begged, "Please Mom, can't we just have some free time to play?"  So I scrapped that idea.  So they played with their puppies and the prizes in their gift boxes.


It was lots of fun, but I'm glad we finally got it done!  Next year I'm seriously considering a half-birthday party in June!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

3 More


Drew's first "D."  He's becoming a good drawer in his own right.

Tess' writing is improving by leaps and bounds as well.

A winter scene.  
I love the ice skating marks on the pond and the snowman's hot chocolate.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Sick Days


I took these pics of Tess and Drew playing school right before she came down with an illness that knocked her out for over a week.  She caught strep and then developed pneumonia on top of that.  We couldn't figure out why her fever kept spiking to 104, even when she was on antibiotics.  A chest x-ray and some stronger antibiotics later, and she finally kicked it.  But in the meantime she had 6 days home from school.


Most of the time I was able to keep her fever down with ibuprofen.  Which meant she had a lot of time for creative projects.

First project was her own Chuck E. Cheese's, that she made for her and Drew to play.  Of course she enticed him, "Drew you want to go to Chuck E. Cheese?"  To which he responded, "Heck YA!  WE HAVEN'T LEFT THE HOUSE IN DAYS!!!!!"  Just kidding Drew--it's just Tessie's Chuck E. 


She made tickets on the computer.


This is where you enter and have to get your hand stamped.  
Just like at, well, Chuck E. Cheese.


You must slip your arm through the plastic tunnel to get your stamp.



Tess' version of skee ball.  You try and roll a marble up the wooden ramp and have it drop in the metal pot, which rewards you with a satisfying "ping!"  


Drew's favorite game at Chuck E. is the basketball shoot.  
Putting his "token" in the slot.


Next project, operation "ballet dressing room" for herself and her dolls.  
And Drew. 



She made dance posters for the dressing room walls.




Drew only knocked this over about a million times.


Last project--lots of drawing.

 Mermaid hospital.


A big sister not overly excited about visiting her new baby brother in the hospital.  Interesting study in perspective.

 The maternity ward of the Animal Princess Hospital.

 Decoration for an animal train she made with Drew.


Coloring page, to which she added her own Chinese characters.  We looked them up on the computer.   Her tea set reads, "Princess."  She is saying, "Smells good!"


For this Tess found a candle and decided to play "old-fashioned" girl.  She put on a dress and was writing in her "journal" by candlelight.  

We are very glad to have her feeling better; today was her first full day back at school.  I do wish the day wasn't quite so long though, so she had more time for her projects.  I guess that's what summer's for.