Days 342-347 of 365

We're in full Christmas swing here - baking, wrapping, decorating, singing and more. The countdown to winter break is on; only 8 more school days for the girls and me. I've got a lot to do to get the house in order before hosting our families for the holiday. Maybe Santa can spare me a few of his elves.

Day 341 of 365

Joe the elf was at it again last night.

Day 340 of 365

Our elf, Joe, got into the chocolate chips last night. The girls had a good laugh this morning, and ate some of the chips that he spilled on the counter. Joe has been quite mischievous this year.

Day 339 of 365

Most of the year, I hate my barberry bushes. I even pulled two of them out last summer. I do, however, love the bright red berries that are so much more visible in the winter. Add some fresh white snow and I might even be convinced to keep the ones I have left.

Days 326-338 of 365

Once again, this blog has fallen to the wayside. Insert the old "we've been really busy" excuse here. Hey, at least the house is decorated for Christmas and we all have clean underwear in our drawers!

Days 312-325 of 365

My longest stretch yet without posting. Who would have thought that a 4 and 8 year old would lead such busy lives? In addition to dance, gymnastics, karate and Brownies, we have since added Chess Club and church choir to the list. Throw in school events, work dinners, birthday parties and grown-up outings, and I've been too tired to do much of anything at night. Not too mention it's dark by 5:00, which just makes me want to be in bed by 8:00.

I have been taking photos, but must admit many of these were taken with my iPhone. And sadly, none of these have been edited. If I tried to do that at this point, I'd never get this blog updated. So, here you have a taste of the past two weeks.

Day 311 of 365

Sunday nights we usually do baths/showers right after dinner and get into our pajamas. With daylight savings time this weekend, we were all done with this by 6:00. I just love the smell of clean kids.

Days 308-310 of 365

Saturday: Filled the back of my mom's car with shopping bags from the Outlet Center. Check off some Christmas gifts from the list.

Friday: McKenna wrote an essay entitled "How to Clean Your Desk," complete with a diagram showing how it should be organized.

Thursday: McKenna has been talking a lot recently about Uncle Tony and Grandma Barb, and missing them both. We are gathering photos right now so she can make a memory book about Uncle Tony, then we'll do the same for Grandma Barb.

Day 307 of 365

The girls each get to pick 20 pieces of Halloween candy to keep, and the rest gets "donated" to the students where I teach. McKenna thinks this is fair since "high school students are too old to trick-or-treat anyway." Much to my delight, McKenna sorted all her candy by type before making her choices. I did exactly the same thing when I was young.

Day 306 of 365

Christmas is coming! I can tell by the amount of catalogs in my mailbox - this pile is just one day's worth.

Days 298-305 of 365

The past week has been a complete blur, hence no blogging. I was, however, taking photos all week! A quick run down of the past 8 days (in no particular order): Kenna receives her Bible at church, she wins three 3rd place karate trophies at the tournament, we marvel each day at the amount of geese in our neighborhood pond, a quick manicure for me, a field trip to Duluth-Superior to visit colleges with my students, pumpkin carving, playing outside with neighbors and Halloween festivities (parade, dinner and trick-or-treating). In between all that, I edited dozens of senior portraits, corrected work and did the usual household tasks of laundry, cooking, dinner, baths... You get the idea.

Day 297 of 365

Lilly had a Halloween party at dance class. Most of the girls were princesses, but Lillian chose to be a bumblebee. Imagine 15 four-year-olds dancing and prancing in costumes. I'd call it controlled chaos.