Winter Break Part 2

The second half of Winter Break was pretty good. We set up at least one play date for each kid, with a friend of their choice. Thankfully, the play dates didn't overlap, so there were a few stretches of time with fewer than 4 kids at home needing me all at once :) or with extra kids so my kids behaved differently (better? Yeah, probably better.)

We had a friend over for a "Baking, Crafts, and Games Extravaganza":

Baking cupcakes and preparing decorations (smashed candy canes, anyone?)

Decorating cupcakes with White Mountain Frosting and toppings. I'm pretty sure I made it wrong, since it piped out a lot like divinity candy or fluffy play-doh.

Ate decorated cupcakes. The taste was good, even if presentation was seriously lacking ;)

Yarn-wrapped popsicle stick stars. They turned out a lot cuter than they sound!

Fabric Mache bowls. They used SO much of the homemade paste that two bowls didn't fully dry out for 3 whole days! Alice liked the fabric mache idea, but rushed through hers to start doing paper mache. This was their favorite project, I think.

Erin braved the cold with us as we checked out the Kirby Wellness Walk at Allerton Park (Monticello, IL). They light up some of their formal gardens and sculpture gardens for the holidays. It's no temple square, and we may never do it again, but it was fun to finally see it after all these years of wanting to go! Here we are in a little plastic igloo thing along the walk. It was exclusively lit with blue strings of lights, which was cool to see, but kinda hard to take a picture in.

James has recently started reading books out loud to Matthew. He used to do it a little when he was first learning to read, but he couldn't read fast enough to keep Matthew's attention for long. Now, though, he's pretty fast, and Matthew appreciates all the extra reading time. In this picture, they are bonding over the most recent installment of the "Bad Guys" graphic novel (a series about a big bad wolf, a shark, a piranha, and a snake trying to change their "bad guy" image by performing rescues).

We spent New Year's Eve with Erin and the Evanses and Sandy: cheese fondue, chocolate fondue, and games (the kids got to watch a movie). A little sparkling grape juice at 8pm and we were ready for bedtime!

Over the break, we saw Frozen 2 as a family. The kids said, "Meh." Bobby and I said, "Meh."

Erin took the kids to play Pokemon Go one day so Bobby and I could see Star Wars IX in the theater. I really liked it! There were some lame bits, but I generally liked the action. And I really, really liked hearing female storm trooper voices shouting, "Halt!" and seeing female pilots in the rebel ships. I didn't even know that I noticed or cared about that sort of thing until I suddenly noticed and cared. Woo hoo!

And it looks like James is the lucky winner, since he managed to be in every single picture I added to this post :)