A Christmas lights adventure

Last week I read about a really neat Christmas light display near Vinton that has been going on since 1965.  I thought it would be fun to take the kids to see it.  Vinton is an hour away, but La Porte City is right on the way.  Since both of our husbands were out of town for work, my friend Sarah & I did a play date and supper at her house in LPC.  Then we piled all four kids (she has two girls the same ages as our kids) into our van and headed south in the dark.

According to my printed Google map it should have been relatively simple to find the place.  However, when you're driving down unfamiliar, curvy roads in the dark with a DVD going and kids hollering/fussing in the back, it makes things a little more difficult.  I knew something was wrong when we actually entered Vinton.  By the time we got to the high school on the south side of town Sarah called her BIL, who used to live in Vinton, to ask for directions.  He sent us north on Hwy 150.  After we crossed the Cedar River and started winding through the Dudgeon Lake State Wildlife Management Area heading toward Independence I knew something was really wrong.  Where's a Garmin when you need one?!  We pulled over, studied the map again and headed back into town.  By this time the DVD was over, the preschoolers were yelling all kinds of questions from the back and both toddlers were fussing up a storm.  Sarah & I were just laughing our heads off about how this was going to be great blogging material (check out Craft Tales in my blogroll).  As soon as we crossed the river again we cut back to Hwy 218, found our turnoff and could soon see the glow of lights over the hill.

As soon as we turned off the headlights and rolled down the windows to hear the music, all the kids fell silent with only the occassional squeal of delight.  There is about a quarter mile of lighted wooden displays of every sort, including many classic cartoon characters.  There is a sign challenging you to find all 101 Dalmations.  Many of the displays are animated by homemade mechanical devices.  All the large trees in the grove behind the display are strung with lights.  It was a pretty cool sight to see.  After another loud, but direct, ride back to LPC, we dropped off the Crafts and the kids & I headed home.

On a somewhat related note, I was probably more excited to drive by and see the lights on in the brand spanking new Fareway that opened today in Waverly.  I have been salivating for months as we watched it being built directly behind the old one where we have been faithfully maneuvering the car car around the cramped and crowded aisles every week.  I can't wait to see the inside.  I got my groceries at the Cedar Falls Fareway this week based on the fact that last week the shelves were already half empty in preparation for the big move.  I may just have to come up with something I "need" yet this week to check it out. ;o)

Advent Dinner

Tonight was the annual Seasons of Advent Candlelight Dinner at our church.  It is a ladies-only event where women sign up to host tables of eight.  The hostess is in charge of the full place-setting and all decorations for their table.  Each table has a theme, and each one is very unique.  They don't even necessarily have to have a Christmas theme.  Hostesses can sell their own tickets to family/friends/neighbors or turn them in for the general public to purchase.  There is a nice meal served by male volunteers and a program with music.

I was very excited to host a table this year.  My theme was Snowflakes.  None of the people I invited could attend, so I had a nice table of new people I was able to meet!  Everything was beautiful.  Here are some pictures of my table:

There were a total of 21 tables.  Here are some others.  I happened to take pictures of a lot of the blue ones. :o)

An organizing lull

You may be wondering what happened to all the enthusiastic posts about my organizing projects around the house.  I have to confess that I have kind of fallen off the bandwagon.  The week of Thanksgiving sort of broke things up.  I really enjoyed sleeping in and just hanging out at home with the family.  Somehow that carried over into the next week, too.  Other than some Christmas-related stuff, I haven't done any organizing projects in the last two weeks, unless you count decluttering the DVR. ;o)  I have a bunch of other excuses, but it pretty much comes down to the fact that I got tired and lazy and lost my motivation.  It's not that I don't see what needs to and could be done.  In fact, I'm more aware of it than ever.  But motivation is a funny thing, and right now it is on vacation.  Or in hibernation.  Or something.  So now I'm just focusing on enjoying the holidays and will maybe try to start something up again in the New Year.

By the way, for those of you were curious and responded to my purse question, the sad thing is that I lost the piece of paper that I wrote down the exact before and after weights.  So much for organization!  However, I know that it went from 5+ lbs to 4+ lbs.  I'm enjoying the slightly lighter weight and all the extra room, which leaves plenty of space to stuff everyone's hats and mittens so they don't get lost while we're inside stores running errands. :o)

First snow

We received our first real snowfall of the season last night.  Emily couldn't have been more excited considering she was taking pictures of the flurries a couple days ago.  However, she was a bit disappointed that the grass wasn't completely covered and decided we needed more snow.  I think we're just fine with the inch dusting instead of the 5"-8" predicted (and received) a bit further to the north and east. ;o)

After 20 minutes of cutting off tags and bundling everyone up in snow gear we were ready to go out and help Austin shovel.  Emily mostly threw the snow around with her little shovel and tried to beat the snow off the bushes.  She was also disappointed that we couldn't make a snowman with the light powder, but a snow angel worked just fine.  Lincoln mostly stood around and watched and tried not to fall over.  He figured out pretty quickly that it's a lot harder to move around and climb when you're all bundled up!  I was on picture and snot patrol.  I think I used an entire travel pack of Kleenexes. :op

While it was fun to all get out and get some fresh air, our morning did not end well.  I didn't see it happen, but I'm pretty sure Emily threw a shovel of snow in Lincoln's face and he did NOT appreciate it.  This picture says it all.  Whether on purpose or by accident, Emily was not remorseful, would not apologize and put on her mad face.  I sent her inside, which resulted in 20 minutes of screaming and writhing around on the kitchen floor still dressed in her snowpants.  Lincoln fared better as soon as I got him dusted off and undressed inside.

An hour later Emily asked if we could go outside and shovel again even though Austin was all done.  I'm thinking we might have a snow bunny on our hands.

18 month portraits

We made another attempt at getting Lincoln's 18-month portraits taken today.  Unfortunately, the circumstances were almost worse than the first time.  I got up with Lincoln five times the night before, and I'm pretty sure he was awake for about 3 hours.  I let him sleep in until 9:00am, but that didn't leave near enough time for him to wake up, get dressed and eat without rushing out the door by 9:30am.  Plus his whole face was crusted over with dried snot when he woke up.  Plus he still had a big scratch across his chin from a fall two days ago.  Plus Emily was not cooperating and refused to get dressed until a major threat was issued at 9:25am.  Needless to say, it was a little stressful getting out the door.  We were running late, and I even called the portrait studio to ask about rescheduling, but we just decided to try and go ahead with it anyway. 

As expected, Lincoln was a pill and wouldn't sit or stand still for anything.  The only thing he wanted to do was sit on my lap.  After 15 minutes of sweating we finally got some close-ups while I was laying on the floor and he was sitting up on my knees.  Below are some of the best from both sessions.  You wouldn't think it was so much work to get them!

 

November 2010 videos

Apparently I only took two videos the entire month of November.  I also took significantly less pictures than usual.  I'm sure that will pick up again in December. ;o)

Here comes trouble...

4 + 1

Since it's too much work to do the math to figure out how old a kid is much past 24 months, I've decided to rename Emily's monthly posts with the year + month.  So now she's 4 + 1 and already talking about how she'll be 5 at her next birthday.  Sigh...

An interesting development this month has been the arrival of some imaginary friends.  "Alice" seems to be the favorite, although she tends to be a bit of a troublemaker.  For instance, I once asked Emily about a half a roll of TP that had been unrolled and stuffed into a basket in the upstairs bathroom.  She promptly blamed it on Alice.  Sometimes all the colored washcloths in the bathroom also get laid out in a line in the hallway at night for Alice.  Alice often plays preschool with Emily.  One time Emily referred to Alice as her sister, but when asked Emily usually says Alice is her "house girl", whatever that is.  Another friend is named "Jella".  Emily likes to make up strange sounding names that makes you think she's reading from the Old Testament or something.  Anyway, Jella also plays preschool and other games with Emily.  It's kind of fun listening to Emily's imagination churn out loud. 

A not-so-good development this month has been frequent nose-picking.  I know every kid goes through this stage at some point, but it's kind of maddening.  I've thought about instituting a strict policy where each and every time I catch her picking her nose she has to march straight to the bathroom to wash her hands with soap and water.  Although it's a very good idea to do it anyway, I haven't had the energy to actual enforce a policy like that the way it would need to be in order to be effective.  So if anyone has any easy shortcuts I'd be interested in hearing about them! ;o) 

One of the reasons I haven't gone ahead with it is the fact that washing hands is often a long, drawn-out process that involves multiple distractions, lots of reminders and another little monkey named Lincoln always getting in the way.  We're just aiming for remembering to wash hands (with soap!) after going to the bathroom.  Fortunately or unfortunately, it's pretty easy to tell whether or not Emily has done it.  If the water faucet is still dripping, the soap bottle is out of place and the towel is on the floor than she has most likely completed the task.  If everything is still in place she probably hasn't.

Another battle area this month has been seating arrangements at the kitchen table.  I usually sit in a certain spot because it offers the easiest access to getting things to and from the table and for assisting Lincoln.  However, at breakfast time it's looser since Austin usually isn't there, Lincoln doesn't need as much help and Lincoln sometimes sits on a regular chair instead of in his booster seat.  Anyway, Emily decided that she wanted to sit in "my" spot all the time and not just at breakfast and/or snack time.  I made the mistake of letting her a few times when I was too tired to fight her on it.  She has thrown fits, refused to come to the table and given lectures about how next time she's going to sit in that spot when she doesn't get her way.  Thankfully, I think we're starting to move past it.

Emily discovered the game of Hide-and-Seek this month and we have had some fun times with it.  She's not the most clever seeker yet, and our house has a lot of great hiding places, so it's pretty easy for me.  I often sneak out and just scare her from behind a corner, thus preserving the secrecy of my best hiding spots.  Both kids love been startled.  Lincoln just runs around laughing.  Emily is also not a very good hider yet.  As soon as you say "Ready or not" she immediately starts yelling from her hiding spot, and if it's not the second or third place you look she just jumps out.  I'm sure as her game evolves we'll have even more fun times.

Emily has become very interested in signs this month and is always asking what they say.  She can recognize some words on them.  I think I've explained "Left/Right turn lane must turn left/right" at least ten times.  This one is particularly interesting to her because she recently figured out right and left.

I'll close this month with a funny quote.  All of the Halloween candy is in a plastic container in the cupboard.  Every once in awhile she asks to pick one out for a snack or dessert.  Oftentimes when she does it takes her a long time to decide.  When pushed to make a selection she has said on more than one occasion, "Hmm... but I want to pick something healthy."  Sorry, honey, there ain't nothing healthy in there! :o)

Decorating for Christmas

I love the day after Thanksgiving not for the shopping (hello, sleeping in with no alarm!), but for the tradition of decorating for Christmas.  I have always looked forward to it every year.  This year Emily was very excited to help.  She even dressed up for the occasion.

Lincoln was pretty fascinated by the lights and "talked" to them for quite awhile.

I decided to let Emily decorate the whole tree herself.  The beautiful, coordinating decorations from the first 5 years of our marriage bit the dust.  Last year I put up many of my childhood ornaments except for the breakable glass balls.  Emily still managed to break 3-4 ornaments.  So this year we're doing kid-friendly hodge-podge.  The nice thing about having large storage areas in the basement is that you can carry your tree up the steps in one piece, pull off the garbage bag and have an instant Christmas tree with lighting left on from the year before and only minor fluffing required.  The bad part is discovering that one strand of lights is dead.  There are so many lights going in all directions on the tree that it actually took me awhile to even notice.  Maybe if I'm motivated enough I'll try to untangle and replace that one strand.  In the meantime, Emily had fun putting a "necklace" on the tree. 

Then came a few sturdy ornaments with the kids' names on them.  My 4-H project cross-stitch ornaments are on the top half of the tree.  We added a bow from the decorative days and a few colorful pictures thanks to an ornament coloring craft kit that was half off at Hobby Lobby this week.  This is what the tree currently looks like.  I say currently, because it changes multiple times a day.  I'm sure we'll be adding and subtracting all sorts of things throughout the season. :o)

Emily did bundle up and venture outside with me to help decorate the front porch.  However, after spilling (and picking up) an entire box of nails and shattering a glass ball on the steps, she eventually gave up.  I bought a bunch of stuff on clearance after Christmas last year with big dreams of ways to decorate our new house inside and out.  There was also some salvageable greenery left behind in the attic above the garage when we moved in.  However, a lot of it is going to have to wait until I have more motivation and/or the kid-friendly days are past.  ;o)

Thanksgiving Day

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Waukee with Austin's family.  It was a great time with great food and great conversation.  The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins.  We are so thankful and blessed!