End of the year review in pictures!

I know, I know....why the heck has it taken me this long to post about things that happened in November and December. Honestly, I don't know. But here is a quick run down on the last 2 months of our 2014.

Our first really good snow fall of the year. (a few more have come around since)

 D had another ballet recital. This was her first session of Level 2 instruction.

 Magic Tree House reading club at the library. They learned about the first Olympics.

 D made an Enderman from Minecraft in Lego Junior Squad at the library.

 L was the highest popcorn seller in his cub scout pack

 L always makes scenes that have stories behind them in his Lego Squad at the library.

 I hosted a "My favorite Things" party for my 35th birthday

D received a beautiful teacup and saucer from her Grandma, so we HAD to have a tea party.

 Setting up the tree is always a magical time

 The kids have fun putting up their own trees in their room

 Fred, our elf on the shelf returned, and his hijinks ensued.

 Visiting the large tree downtown

 Tree cookies to eat with friends

 Friends over for a craft day after school

 I got to help all the 2nd graders in D's class make these!

 Our Christmas card photo

 L and his den did a skit and sang songs at an assisted living home

 Tea Party with friends

 Cub scouts and younger siblings singing at the Pack Christmas party

 L received his prizes for selling all the popcorn. A stomp rocket set, and a new Lego set.

Gingerbread House time!

 Shopping for each other

Family time

 Lot of time spent playing with all the fun new things!

I hope you and your family enjoyed your holiday season! I know we sure did. Looking forward to what this next year may bring us.

Fall Library Fun! October

This month at the library was another fun filled one! Lego Club, Magic Tree House Club, Science Club, Halloween craft day that I put on, and trick or treating at the library!!

L is picking up on our Dr. Who fandom and created what he thinks the Tardis should look like.

This month, the book we read for the Magic Tree House was Dolphins At Daybreak. The kids had a blast doing fun activities, one of which was making deep sea diving masks. Here they showed them off for me.

This month for Science Club we learned about bats! They had this neat experiment showing us a little about echo location. Using paper towel tubes and a pie pan, each friend takes turns whispering into the tube angled at the pan while the other friend listened. They also made little paper bats to hang up at home. Both of my kids kept them in their science notebooks.

Our annual Halloween craft day! We had toss a dice monster drawings...

Thumbprint spider webs...

foam mummy ghost bookmarks, along with potato stamp ghosts, and spider play dough.

And lastly one of the libraries had a great Halloween afternoon. The kids got to come in costume, make crafts, listen to stories, see a puppet show, and go trick or treating to stations from local companies. A great time was had by all!!!

Fall Library Fun! September

As many of you know, either by talking to me in real life or reading the blog over the years, we LOVE the library!!!! We are so very lucky to have 2 amazing library systems. They are always hosting free functions for the entire family, monthly book sales, free meeting rooms, and a huge selection of books, movies, music, and magazines. We did tons of fun activities over the summer through the summer reading program, and now they have some amazing fall age appropriate events as well. This year, since the kids are older, we have been able to sign up for the Magic Tree House Reading Club, a Science Club, and L gets to go to a Lego Club. All these are free and occur just 1 per month!

The month of September we read Midnight On the Moon. They got to watch the youtube video of the first man on the moon, and then they made craters. The librarians had 2 tubs full of flour. The kids each got to pick a ball of various sizes and materials, and drop straight down into the flour.

What they were left with looked just like craters on the moon!!

L had his first Lego club in September. He was very excited to see some old friends, and meet some new friends. They were split into groups, and allowed to build whatever it was they wanted. They also had some Lego themed books out for check out, and taught them the rules to follow that spelled out the word LEGO.

We also have signed up for a fun Science Club. In September we explored how and why leaves change colors. The librarians had tons of different leaves laid out on the table. They started out by having each kid tear up a leaf into tiny pieces and then grind it up in a mortar and pestle. They added it to some rubbing alcohol and put it in a water bath. Later they added some litmus paper to see the colors make their way up.

They also had a microscope set up with various leaves on slides for them to explore. They also did a fun craft that we had done in the past. They painted a tree with a brush, and then using a q-tip, painted leaves in fall colors on the trees.

And last but not least, a Fancy Nancy Tea Party!