Christmas Slideshow

Every year for Christmas I do slideshows for the parents. Usually it's got one show with all the pictures of their child, and then a sort of "best-of" with a couple pictures of each child so they can see playmates and more of what goes on during the day. There was just a new update to iLife, so I can finally turn them into movies and put them on the blog!

Here's the favorites collection- maybe not all necessarily the BEST pictures, but lots of the ones that make me smile.

Thanksgiving Prep Work

Tomorrow is our big feast and we've been working on things for almost a week now. My fridge is crammed and we still have to do the dressing and the corn and the turkey.... yum. I can't wait for some good eats tomorrow.

Today we finished making the caramel apple cheesecake, but we began it a few days ago- everybody got a hammer (or a cell phone or a saw, as the case may be) and helped to pound the graham crackers and shortbread cookies to make the crust.


We've also been working on coloring Thanksgiving placemats for everyone. Bianca mostly wants to try to eat the crayons, but she had a good time being included with the big kids.


There are 2 huge pans of mashed potatoes all ready to bake tomorrow- Ariel and Sebastian were fabulous mashers.


I didn't get very many pictures of the potato-fest, but everybody had a job. Counters, washers, driers, peelers, mashers... and then everyone got to be a taster, of course. They have all pronounced it yummy.

Hmmm.....

My Princess Aurora is crying. Granted, it's nearly lunch time, nearly nap time... two good reasons for a small girl to feel cranky. I was in here fixing lunch and she started up, so I went into the playroom. She was just standing there and all six other big kids were watching Magic School Bus and not paying attention. I asked Ariel if she knew why Aurora is sad and she didn't. Which is amazing, actually, because she pretty much knows everything that is happening in the playroom at all times. Therefore I was leaning toward one of the hungry/tired reasons.

Enter O'Malley.

He leans over to me, holding his favorite plastic hammer and says, "I know why she sad. Because I didn't hit her. Ummm.... I think Mulan hit her....."

Poor Mulan- she looked very startled. It wasn't her. I'm just not sure if it was O'Malley. He definitely sounds guilty though.

Gross Motor Skills at Work

It's Dress-up Day! Pumpkins! Spiders! and all kinds of other woodsy things to finish out our Treehouse Club unit for October. This morning Spiderman, Wubbzy, Rocker Girl, and I spent a LOOOOOONNNNNG time hammering golf tees into a pumpkin. They had a great time! I was impressed with the fact that they also connected it back to porcupine day from last week and said we were making our pumpkin look like porcupine quills. :) Such smart kiddos.


Boo takes her job very seriously. :)

Friends

I am such a sucker for pictures of the backs of cute kids walking. Not sure why.

Here's Boo and Mulan.... :) They had such a good time that day.