Not An Ordinary Family

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

D's Got Mad B-Ball Skills

Deacon started basketball mid-November & LOVES it. For his age, there is not a competitive team here at Fort Irwin, but they spend practice each week learning various skills & drills associated to the sport. I value that they get to take 2 years to learn about the game rather than just competing against other teams weekly so that they can actually learn skills related to basketball rather than just run around with 9 other kids trying to touch a ball. I think to date this has been his favorite sport so far & he is doing really well with it!

Pre-Warm-Up Toss with the boys

Dribbling Practice The Girls Sharing Their Ball

GOAL!!

So proud of his shots!

Running Suicides

Monday, December 3, 2012

Gingerbread Men

We can't welcome Christmastime around here without making a batch of gingerbread men! With soooo much to fit in this holiday season, we have scaled back on our learning time & teaching around here to make way for more baking, crafting, & doing lots of holiday things! I've deemed Mondays our baking day since 1. it is our one day of the week where we have nothing so it won't matter if we are covered in flour until 3:00 and 2. to have a fresh batch of munchies for the week!

This past Monday I made fudge & sugar cookies & invited the crazies into the kitchen to help make gingerbread men. We had a blast. Both got a turn to press out the dough & cut a full stone of gingerbread men. They did quite well! I did the icing as even I get pretty messy with that & couldn't imagine letting a 4 & 2 year old go to town with it -- they helped with the sugar cookies later anyway since the tube icing is easier for them to handle.

We had fun... lots of tasting, cutting, & laughter! And just like that we can officially say it is Christmastime here!

½ cup shortening

½ cup packed light brown sugar

3 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¾ cup molasses

¼ cup water

I mix it, refrigerate it for about an hour, cut, then

bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Let cool before icing.

D is quite the chef in the kitchen!

Most of K's cutting was her eating the dough that she pulled from around the men we cut out.

A cooling rack of yumminess!

The crazies were ready to dig in after they were up from naps!

Friday, November 30, 2012

J is for Jesus!!!

With Christmas nearly here, I thought there would be no better way to introduce the letter "J" than with a J is for Jesus theme. The crazies have jumped right into the Christmas story all while learning "J", Jesus, & other fun things with candy canes. We used the candy canes to show the letter J & have made plenty of crafts tied back to them. Deacon has been working on some Christmas math while Kennedy has been perfecting tracing & coloring her shapes. We spent our day in the kitchen making candy came cookies & we practiced patterns by making candy canes with our thumbprints. It has been a fun way to kick off Christmas with the crazies all while teaching the real reason for this season!!

J is for Jesus!!

One of our many books that tell the real reason for the season

D's holiday themed math

K got some new Minnie stickers that she was excited to use for shape & sticker time!

We colored candy canes, turned them into a J, & glues baby Jesus in it on some straw.

Candy canes were our go-to treat for cooperation during learning!

The candy cane cookies pre-baking... they did so good twisting the dough

Yumminess with drizzle & peppermint on top

K staying busy... she is sooo good at her busy bags

D doing some addition

All the supplies you need for a little candy cane pattern action

D & K got busy laying down red, white, red, white, red, white... you get the idea!

Look MOM!!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Peppermint Bark

We have been doing a J is for Jesus week here with the crazies & using lots of candy canes for the "J". Little did I know how MUCH my crazies love candy canes... every time we would use one they would eat one, or two, or three. I had no idea they liked them so much. So, it seemed fitting that I make one of my favorite holiday treats with them -- Peppermint Bark. It is easy peasy & only requires 3 ingredients. The hardest part is getting the plastic off of the candy cane. Seriously. So, the crazies followed me to the kitchen & I put them to work.

Here are your 3 ingredients: 12 candy canes, a bag of white chocolate morsels, & 1 tsp. peppermint oil.

Unwrap the candy canes & place them in a ziploc bag -- K was my unwrapper & D placed them in the bag.

Use a heavy spoon to crush the candy canes into tiny pieces... this was their favorite part!

While crushing, let the microwave work for you to melt the morsels. Melt in 30 second intervals. I can melt the bag in 3-30 second intervals stirring in between.

Take the crushed candy canes & pour into the melted chocolate. Add the 1 tsp. peppermint oil & stir.

Spread the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper covering about a 9x13 area. If you like yours thicker, spread it thicker. I prefer mine thin.

Let it sit & harden. Usually about an hour. Break into pieces & enjoy. An easy holiday treat... & the crazies loved it just like I thought they would!

Monday, November 26, 2012

O' Christmas Tree

We got our tree!!! We had a wrestling match with our tree trunk, & then our tree stand, but after 3 rounds, a chainsaw, & a new stand we won! And a week later the tree is still standing!!

We spent Sunday evening decorating it & had so much fun. For me, it is always a walk down memory lane. We have the usual "Baby's First Christmas" ones & a set of "Marriage Tree" ones I was given at a wedding shower, but really our tree is made up of 3 categories of ornaments.

We have a family picture ornament every year since we have been married. I usually have to lay them all out in order to make sure I am not missing one & it is so fun to see how we have grown & changed & even aged over the years. It is bittersweet for me. Hopefully one day years from now we will have 50 picture ornaments documenting our family from day 1 through the years.

We have an ornament for all of the places we travel. Traveling is our big hobby. We will forgo presents to each other at birthdays & Christmas just to say "let's call Tahoe Christmas" or "count San Diego as our anniversary". We have "ornament" rules -- we must visit the place together & we must have stayed longer than 1 night. Just traveling through a city or country doesn't count. We had to have really seen & visited the place. The ornaments on our tree are such reminders of the amazing trips we've taken & the fun things we have seen & are such fun to talk about as we decorate our tree.

Lastly, we have special deployment ornaments for the Christmases that Soldier Man has been unable to be home with us. During his first deployment, a friend sent me an ornament over the holiday season that read"Half of my heart is in Iraq" with the year & his name on it. I loved it & preceded to order 2 more during his next 2 tours at the holiday time. Those ornaments serve as a reminder of his service, our sacrifice, & the blessing of having him with us still. I am very proud of those ornaments.

So, we took our walk down memory lane & loved it. The crazies ask lots of questions too about the ornaments so it was fun to explain things to them too.

D sniffing out trees at the tree farm