27 December 2018

Rose Pink gave Rosebud two bottles of pink nail polish for Christmas, and she spent about 45 minutes on a lawn chair on the patio painting her toes and toenails, and fingernails, and Mama's fingernails.  I think she used half of each bottle but she was very happily and industriously engaged.

26 December 2018

A few cute items from Christmas:

*Rosebud got a pair of fairy wings in her stocking (pink, of course) and she tried them on when I asked her to, but said, 'Oh but they don't work, see?' as she jumped up and down and waved her arms.  Then she took them off, because of course, they didn't work.

*Bobo gave me an invisible present to open from him, and when I "opened" it, he gave me a big hug.  And that was the first gift of Christmas at our house this year.

*Rosebud was playing with her new Barbie, and we said, "what is she doing?" and Rosebud said, "She's rocking around the Christmas tree!"

25 December 2018

We have had a really lovely Christmas season this year.  It's been so fun to see/help the kids find gifts for each other, and then this morning the first gifts that they chose to open were from each other, which was really touching.

Saturday was my first day of holiday, and I went to the temple and then we made salt dough ornaments in the afternoon.  Mr. Brown suggested making them as memories of this year in Orlando, so we had a palm tree and a campfire and two trampoline ornaments, in addition to a tie fighter and hearts and stars and Christmas trees and a wreath.  I made initials for everyone out of the remaining.  We all jumped on the trampoline for awhile and played various games - we all got hurt with crack the egg and then the kids said that Mr. Brown and I were the worst ever logs because we kept kissing when we rolled into each other (but he and I thought it was a delightful game).  Sunday we only had one hour of church, and we worked in the yard and had a campfire for dinner with hamburgers and peppermint peeps, which were really awful.  The campfire was a lot of fun though, and we burned a bunch of the stuff that we rounded up from the yard.  But not the bougainvillea trimmings!

Christmas Eve we painted our salt dough ornaments, which was also fun.  Mr. Brown and Nut Brown had some fun video game together time, and we had another fire where we burned MORE yard waste and hung out.  Then we came in and made up the Jerusalem dinner and cleaned up and then read the Nativity and watched the church videos.  It was nice... then the kids went to bed and Mr. Brown and I filled stockings and he decorated the cereal boxes for the breakfast cereal that we bought this year for the kids.  The cereal got costumes... a ninja, a caped superhero, a gorgeous model and mine was wearing a bubble wrap bikini!

This morning they woke up at about 6:30, and we got up to see their excitement over their stockings.  We had a lovely leisurely time opening gifts, and eating lots of junk food (and some breakfast cereal) and spending time together.  This year Mr. Brown decided that he was going to get presents for all the kids, which is very unlike him, but he did and they were so excited.  Nut Brown said, "Parents give the best presents, because they know what you want."  Nut Brown also spent a couple hours drawing with the pen/paper that he received from Gia, and Rose Pink made bracelets with the loom that Grandma and Grandpa sent.  Bobo also loved the craft project that he got from his grandparents.  (Thank you very much to all of you for your generosity.) 

After presents, Mr. Brown and I worked in the yard some more, and I had my fingernails painted by Rosebud (who had some pink nail polish from Rose Pink and put at least half the bottle on my nails, her nails, and her toes) and my makeup done by Rose Pink, who got a bunch of makeup from her parents.  We played Ticket to Ride with Rose Pink and Nut Brown while Bobo spent a ton of time with his new video game, and in general had a great time playing with all our new toys.  Now we are making up Christmas dinner... ham and potatoes and rolls and roasted brussel sprouts and trifle for dessert.  It's been a lovely day.  Happy happy Christmas!

17 December 2018

I was working on something with Bobo and said to him, "I think this is the next-to-last one..." and he said quietly, almost absently, "Penultimate."

15 December 2018

We went up to see Jenn and her family the first weekend of December.  There was supposed to be a big Christmas fair and parade that weekend but it was unfortunately rained out.  We baked up a storm and had a Christmas carol singing party that Sunday night.  Here we are with the fruits of our labors -I think we made six different kinds of cookies and used an extraordinary amount of butter.

14 December 2018

Love the winter weather.  Lots of trampoline jumping and games.  We moved it closer to the back patio and the kids jump on it more now.

13 December 2019

Face paint from the Christmas festival at work.  Rosebud got a kitty face (of course) and Rose Pink asked for a sugar skull, which surprised the artist.  Nut Brown is a tiger and Bobo got a Christmas tree.

12 December 2018

Tonight for dinner we had special ramen, where Mr. Brown makes the broth and we put in lots of extras - hard boiled eggs, slices of chicken, cabbage, green onions, corn and so on.  Yum.  Nut Brown stirred his up and said, "At Olive Garden they have soup and salad.  This is salad in soup!" 

8 December 2018

Rose Pink picked up a lovely white dress at the clothing distribution in October, which she completely and totally loves, heart and soul.  She hemmed it shorter, sewed up the slit so it's a more reasonable length, and decided to dye it black.  It turned out not quite black, but purple, which was okay after the initial shock.  Our homeschool co-op has monthly dances, and the December one is semi-formal.  She's super excited for the chance to dress up for it in her creation.

7 December 2018

Mr. Brown and the kids play a game where they name title and artist for the song that's currently playing.  Last night we were driving over to Winter Park for a Christmas light walkabout with the radio on, and suddenly Rosebud's little voice from the back seat exclaims, "Oh! Oh! Imagine Dragons!" and she was right.

4 December 2018

Yesterday I spent a chunk of the afternoon wrapping and packing gifts for out-of-town shipping, and Rosebud was all about helping me.  She wielded scissors with great abandon, unleashed vast quantities of tape, and helped put gifts in boxes - her own gifts from under the tree.  Eventually she decided she needed to involve the glue, so I got out some shiny confetti and she made pictures with glue and confetti.  It was really fun to have such a busy little helper.