More Bread

On one of our snow days I asked the kiddos to try something new.  Parker combined my challenge and a homework assignment for his Spanish class.  He made Dia de los Muertos or Pan de Muertos or Day of the Dead bread. 

It's traditional for Nov.1 & 2, but when we need yummy bread and we're stuck inside who cares what day it is!

He made an orange glaze that was amazing. 

It went very fast. 

 

2019 Mimi's Garden

This post somehow escaped the publish button, it's from 2019... 

Ready for an awesome pun / potty joke???

Back in the day, my grandma told an awesome joke to her children, "eat every carrot and pea on your plate!"  So punderful!

When Mimi was deciding what to plant, she wanted carrots and peas so that she can eat "every carrot and pea in the garden!"

LOVE IT!

More Snow

The snow is still around.  I'll say it now during winter, I'd rather have winter and cold then a hot summer.  

 

 Yoda had a winter-wonderland activity with the youth.  It was a beautiful day! 

 

 

A few of our gutters are frozen solid, so we've had lots of icicles.  To prevent the all the ice from reforming on the ground, I've been putting out buckets to catch the drips.  Now we have all these funny bucket shaped ice blocks. 

It's very nice to have everyone home to help with shoveling! 

Probably the best thing I've seen on Twitter

Yoda's teacher captured a time-lapse movie of him solving the Rubik's cube and posted it to Twitter.  

https://twitter.com/i/status/1357730841779142658 

He's been pretty into it for a few years, it's a wonderful thing to fill his quaran-time -haha, get it?

Then another teacher saw the post and offered to lend him a 4x4 cube and a 2x2 cube and some manuals to help solve them.  He solved the 2x2 right away, but the 4x4 was tricky.  But he got it done a day later. 

This is what he calls the doughnut.  

And here's his checkerboard trio.

All that success prompted him to get out his 2x3/3x3 cube he got a couple years ago from my brother and his wife.  He's never been able to solve it before.  He ran into my room to tell me his good news!  I asked how he did it (there isn't a good tutorial online).  He said he took what he learned and used it on this one. 

Here it is mixed up, it's pretty cool mixed up too. 

Snow

So much snow, it felt endless.  Then after it did stop, it started again and we had a real snow day.  

Here are some photos...

Yoda on a snowy day when school wasn't canceled.  "I want to fulfill my life long goal of doing a face plant in a field of untouched snow."

Parker off driving in the snow and me holding my breath. 

Yoda's snowman after it toppled and I repaired it. 

When school was canceled, a family that like enough to leave the house for, invited us to go sledding. 

Here's Parker and Yoda, they liked the foam sleds. 

Here's Mimi on the left.  She liked the saucer sleds.  

And here's Yoda and ME!  I had to convince the other mom we were with it would be OK, but then I got nervous once we were up at the top of the hill.  It was very fun though, I'm glad Yoda was with me, he helped me to be brave. 

Speaking of baby photos

Parker's school needs a baby photo for the yearbook, and I can't decide which one to send in...  If you have a preference, comment below :)

A) Swing
 

B) Book 

C) Hoodie

D) Beach 

 

And here's his senior photo just for fun

Greg as a kid

 Greg's uncle texted him a bunch of photos of Greg as a kid, so cute

This week

Parker started his Senior year internship, called a walkabout.  

On Monday he got lost driving home during the 40+ minute drive.  On Tuesday he picked a scab and came home COVERED in blood.  On Wednesday he texted to say he was coming home early.  I was panicked that he had offended his mentor and something was wrong.  Nothing was wrong, the guy just needed to go home for something.  On Friday he met with the other senior walkabout students in a class called walkabout seminar, but I like to call it the talkabout-walkabout.  

********

A few minutes into watching Home Alone, Parker says, "you know this guy is like 40 now?!"

Me and Greg, "yeah, we've know who he is cause he's close to our age."

A few minutes later, Me to Greg, "So Mackle Culkin was is in [name of TV show], it was really funny."

Parker had never heard the name of the actor in Home Alone, "What's a 'Mackleculkin'?"

******** 

Me, like 30 years ago, "Women are like 1/2 the world, there should be a woman as president"

Person I was talking to, "NO!  That would mean the wrong things are happening in our country!"

Me, stunned into silence.  

Me this week, SO SO happy that we are at least a little closer to a woman as president, and I hope whoever it was that I was talking to 30 years ago is ok. 

********

Me to Greg, "when you go for a haircut, please drag Parker along, don't give him a choice."

Later, Greg to Parker, "I'm going for a haircut..." (trying to figure out what to say to make him go with him)

Parker, "Oh, do you want a ride?" (trying to get out of the haircut he knows is coming)

The lady didn't have time for him until next week, he's lucky for now... 

********

Parker, while watching a TV show that had people speaking Spanish, "Oh, my gosh, that's so weird.  I understand what they are saying...."

The robe

For birthdays and Christmas the kiddos write out wish lists. Parker and Mimi's lists are SHORT! Yoda's lists are usually LONG! A few days after all lists were done, Yoda called out during dinner, "OH NO! I forgot to add a rode to my wish list!" I couldn't help myself and found him one for his birthday.

Christmas Music

If you would like to see our kiddos playing some Christmas music, here are a couple of links.  The other players are super dedicated, practice a ton and arranged the music for this performance.  Our kiddos were along for the ride because they are good sports.

Away in a Manger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PQIF0puiLM 

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeVunBEM3Tg

 

All the Mugs

 

A while ago it hit me that our mug collection doesn't accurately reflect how colorful we are as a family.  We quickly fixed that.  We collected, made some at the pottery place, or got some as gifts!  Then we needed to display them nicely too, so I built this little shelf.  Now we may need another shelf, but I'm ok with that :)

If you're curious here's our mugs, from top to bottom and left to right: 

On the very top is Yoda's brand new Among Us mug or A-Mug-Us.

The "Val" mug that I got when I was in elementary school or middle school from a friend.

Parker's Lefty mug.  (There's a small dribble hole on the other side and you will spill on yourself if you hold it with your right hand. 

Parker's mug from seeing Kelly Live back in 2017.  His nice aunt bought it for him. 

Owl mug that Mimi made a while back.  

My "No Drama Llama", that's me!

Star Wars light saber mug, it lights up when you fill it with hot water! (from Sonya)

Spiderman mug that Yoda made.

A family photo on a mug.

My yellow mug I made.

The Notorious RBG mug I just got for Christmas! (from Sonya)

A crafty mug I got last year when our mug adventure had just began. (another one from Sonya!)

A tiny Peter Rabbit tea cup I got in England 20+years ago.

Thanks for going on our mug tour! 

Merry Christmas!