Christmas Outtakes Before the Calendar Flips . . .

Fuzzy appeared with only enough time this year for two pranks.

Quizzy, the Elf full of questions never appeared this year.

You see, these elves have become wildly popular recently, so they spread themselves around you know! (-;

So, this prank had Fuzzy blocking up the one doorway to the kids' bedrooms. Tricky part was the littlest of the crew still occasionally creeps into our room at night and wow, that would've been slightly alarming for her I'm sure to end up all spider-webbed in Fuzzy's trickery. So, Fuzzy left all the lights on in that area, and she never woke up! (-:

Christmas Eve Eve (yes, you read that correctly), the children were able to find their laundry piles by their stockings which no longer had a mantel to hang from. We took out an unused gas fireplace a few months ago without thinking of Christmas repercussions. 

And, finally, Christmas Eve. I left early with William for hand chime ringing warm ups. When the rest of the well-dressed family arrived, and scootched in to fill the pew, the youngest sat, facing forward in her lovely Christmas dress. I turned, admiring how wonderfully cleaned up everyone looked, reached over to stroke Livia's sleeked and tied back hair, discovering that she had found a Christmas bow even to tie it back. Turning her head from the throngs of people sitting behind her (we were fourth pew from the front), to see the festive hair decoration, I was mortified to discover the clip pictured above!!! Oh.My.Goodness.!!!

Okay, onward and upward to 2015!

No extreme travels for us this break . . .

Thank Goodness!

Sure has been nice hanging around the house and doing little trips here and there. Although the amount of video game playing still drives me crazy, but I'm glad to be around the house this Christmas break.

Yesterday, Livia's Daisy troop had an ice skating trip and everyone was able to come along. I had to snap fast to get this pic, otherwise I would've hoped not to have cut those bottom skates off in the pic.  My mom took a photo class once when I was a kid and for some reason this, "don't cut people's feet off" tip stuck with me.  Not even sure if that's from her class, but it's in my memory that way. 

(-:

I love snapping the "getting ready for a group pic" pic too. 

Usually pretty entertaining.

While Ben certainly is skating all the time, we haven't really done it much, and I totally dropped the ball on preparing for cold toes after 2 hours at an outdoor rink.  Whoo-hoo, I seriously thought I'd be losing my toes at some point.  Oh, and Aunt S., your skates fit me perfectly, yay!!

Hot cocoa break!

Earlier this week . . . 

It was mild enough in these parts that a girl and her bunny were able to do side walk chalk in late December!! Wowza!

And, another day, a girl and her mom had a fun swim at the Y, forgot their brushes and still went out to eat at a local diner that specializes in breakfast and Korean food.  Yep, you read that right, I so enjoyed my Bi Bim Bap, while Liv enjoyed her pancakes while working out her chopsticks skills!

Having some good times around here, while trying to ignore the constant clutter that keeps erupting from seven people hanging out every day. It's all a mysterious balancing act of life!

Merry Christmas! . . .

What a blessing to celebrate the birth of our Savior today with these great kids!

(Some are looking at SP while he clicked a few and some were looking at me.  This is SP's pic as mine were on my camera which I don't feel like downloading)

This pic was from our 5:30 p.m. Christmas Eve service last night in which William played hand chimes with 20 some other 3, 4, 5th graders. They played for 15 minutes of preservice music, standard Christmas carols and for a few carols throughout the service, and, they sang while they played.  It was soooooo beautiful!

I think William might have been one of the only kids to have dropped a hand chime mid song, and he did look absolutely mortified by the situation...but, when he mentioned it later that night I reminded him how simply dropping it in front of him was far better than having it slip out of his hand mid-chime and fly forward into the conductor's forehead...am I right or am I right! We got a little chuckle out of that and that seemed to ease his mind. (-;

Then, we thought it'd be a great idea to stop downtown for a bite to eat and, once we got settled into our table (waiting for tables is not my favorite thing to do with this crew when it's on the later side and everyone's famished), we had a delightful time.

I got to sit near these two charmers. We had good fun trying to get some pics.

Funny boys.

One of these funny boys scored big with an agreement to get paid to put on his Sunday finest, hint not the one with the tie.  Yes, go ahead and judge me, I can take it. (-: Sometimes, after many weeks of busyness, planning, working, cooking, cleaning, shopping, and on and on, sometimes, 2 hours before the start of a service, when you show a kid his clothes for the night, and the kid instantly responds as if he's just been sentenced to life in prison and begins listing all the horrors of buttons, collars, sweater vests...sometimes, after all that, "I'll pay you 20 bucks if you'll just wear it," just slips out as if there truly is no other response possible!

In the end he's scoring $10 because his incredibly busy mom did not have her act coordinated well enough with Santa this year and was up until 2:30a.m. yesterday finishing Christmas details.  Thus, for the first year in many years, we didn't go to the morning service today, which meant his $20 got cut in half too! These kinds of deals are pretty fluid...

(-:

 Such handsome boys!

Mr. Money Bags likes grilled squid (calamari). Even when it's just seasoned with a little parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper, no deep frying needed for this boy!

 Oh my gosh, and these beauties were to my left.

How lucky am I!!

William was certainly with us too, but at the opposite end of the table.

Next time.

(-:

Piggy Back . . .

 

Well, well, well...look who arrived just minutes before midnight three days before Christmas and just a few days after his "cousin" Fisbee...yep, Fuzzy! 

Wasn't planning on any elves this year, but alas, the kids were wondering where they could be. Thought I could do one at least for about a week, but hey, Fuzzy has a mind of his own and jumped on board tonight! 

Christmas is coming . . .

Here we see a sweet third grader after his school's lovely annual Christmas Program. Please take note of the nice, button down shirt he has on because, getting to the stage where he's standing in front of a Christmas tree, smiling while wearing said shirt has brought about at least 14 more gray hairs to my head (that I pluck out while sitting in traffic, haha...was that TMI?)!

Merry Christmas!

Overlap . . .

This year the overlap of holidays has cut it as close as ever...but I am A-O.K. with that!  Been a little bit of an adjustment adding about 22 hours of "out of the house" work to my schedule this year.  Next year I hope to have the same schedule, minus the 1/2 day kindergarten pick up at 11:30a.m. That's the sticky part this year.  BUT...I refuse to wish this year away simply for less of a "sticky part" because, you know, my last gal will be gone all day.  Oh boy...that just hit a chord...give me a moment...

O.K....on with the show.  The lovely little table wreath with the candle in the middle was given to me by William this year.  He saved up 22 Buckos from good behavior, kind gestures to others and good school work to buy that in the Bucko Shop that his teacher has.  What a sweetie!

So, will someone just get those Thanksgiving turkeys off the table already!!!

(-:

Striking me as funny right now that I can blog about it but I haven't done it, ha!

Ahhhh...the honeymoon phase . . .

This boy here is completely infatuated with my new vacuum, and I'm LOVING it!!! (-:

I think I have a very interesting history with vacuums, or the purchase of said items at least. You see, the first vacuum I purchased as an adult (which as I reflect upon this now, I wonder to myself if I ever vacuumed in the apartments I lived in before I had kids??? I mean, for real.  I have no recollection of ever purchasing a vacuum, before this story I'm about to share in a minute, or three...honest to goodness, I can not picture myself ever vacuuming in some apartments I lived in.  My hope is that my room mates had vacuums I was unaware of and did some vacuuming some time...OY VEY, what a weird and somewhat gross absence of memory.  I recall as a kid that one of my favorite cleaning things to do was to vacuum, so why I have a void of ever vacuuming from 18-28, is absolutely beyond me, wow...ok, I need to move on here...have I said...OY VEY!!!)...

O.K., where were we...So, at age 28 I decided it was time to start vacuuming again when...

I heard a "Knock, knock, knock," at my front door when Lara was just a baby, and I opened it to find an extremely friendly KIRBY VACUUM SALESMAN!  For real!!! He made a sale that day my friends.  He sold a One Thousand Dollar vacuum (12 months, no interest...I'm not that nuts!) to a lady who I guess hadn't vacuumed in ten years, and who was ready to get on with it, BIG TIME! (-: And you know what, I loved that thing.  It's still working to this day, no major problems, new belt once, new brush once (turns out, I haven't actually gotten into the love of vacuuming as I had as a kid, but enough that we were cleaner than a camping trip in here, OY, haha).  But yeah, I don't feel at all like I got sold the Brooklyn Bridge from my door to door sale.  Worth every penny.

Let's tally that then...Vacuum #1, door to door salesman.

Then, there's vacuum #2, purchased last weekend off of an INFOMERCIAL!

HAHAHA!

Nothing's wrong with the Kirby, but I've been helping a couple with some chores lately and they have a Shark vacuum, that is just the slickest little thing.  So, when Ben and I were away for a hockey tournament weekend (yeah, I indeed did pick the winning stick that weekend), and while I was busy ignoring every book I bought, every photo file I intended to organize, every little chore thing in my bag when we were in the hotel room waiting for the next game...I watched cable t.v....literally every minute I wasn't at a rink...every minute...sucked right in!  I am grateful I don't have cable tv at the house, I'm not sure I'd get anything done, hahaha!  I mean, have you seen Alaskan State Troopers???  Have you watched meatloaf cookoff competitions? How about the endless stream of "let's go buy the perfect house for you" shows?  Oh my goodness, I have had no idea what I've been missing by watching my one show per week in replay on my computer.  I'll let you guess what that could possibly be...

So, anyhoo...I was back at the "Guide" yet again and I saw the title "Shark." Boy, do I like myself those shark shows on National Geographic, so I hopped my finger on the right buttons, and zap...the Shark vacuum in all it's glory!  It picked up cheerios, dust, pet hair, came with a "free" steamer vac, had free shipping (don't ask about the phone call I needed to make a couple days later when a shipping charge showed up on my bill...although you might have overheard something like, "That charge'll need to be removed or we can cancel the order immediately thank you very much," had you been somewhere near my house that day...trust me, I didn't pay shipping, and even got $20 extra bucks off to boot, yeah...don't mess...(-:).  So, bah-dah-bing bah-dah-boom, vacuum #2, bought from the infomercial.

I got the Shark Rocket and, um, WOW, it really is actually AWESOME! I mean, it made parts of my carpet (that aren't completely beyond any hope) look as if they'd just been washed...hey, they could use that line...and...best part...The Honeymoon Phase!  The kids, well, some of them, LOVE the rocket too.  I believe tonight I heard, "Can I vacuum the other room too?"  You, do NOT need to ask sweetie, you do not need to ask! (-:

And, NOW, you know the rest of the story!

Whew!

 

B is for Bear . . .

 

And what better to do than have a "Bring your Bear to School" day then!

We've had a number of Bring your Bear to School days by now, but this year saw the fanciest bear by FAR trotting off to school in the morning! "I even put make up on her," said Liv. I didn't have the energy to ask, oy.  And, do you see what's missing?  I'll let you look, you know, for fun...well, when Liv noticed what was missing, right outside her classroom door, not in the kitchen where this picture was taken, and where it would have been a fine time to notice what was missing, this could have been the makings for a dramatic breakdown...if our gal was prone to such things, which...she's not...most often.  Nope, no problem for this, the most beautiful bear in the school that day, "It doesn't matter, we'll just get it when we get home," said Liv.  Whew!

Can you find her?

(-:

Well, remember how I mentioned our gal really isn't prone to such nonsense as dramatic displays of wild behavior, yeah, well...most often may have been mentioned too.  And so, later that night, after the glories of Bear Day had faded, a current showing of the dvd Cinderella needed to be paused for a quick piano practice, and wowza, were we all privy to quite the dramatic display.  So, our gal needed a little break in her room, when I went in to check on her it seriously took me quite some time to make this discovery. Then I stared at her for quite some time to check for breathing, oy, and then to determine if she was sleeping.  I really, really though she was asleep, which would have been awesome, it was far enough into the night that we could call it bedtime, so, I took the risk and lifted the animal covering her face to get a quick pic..."POP" up she sits, bright eyed and smiley, so proud of this great hiding spot.  And so it goes . . .

Getting there . . .

Kinda!

 

Awww...white lights on this year's tree...

 

 Well, and sometimes partially colorful...

sometimes all colorful....

and, sometimes a mixture of both!

You see, this year we're doing our first ever "fake" Christmas tree.  Funny, that word, "fake." I mean, it's still a Christmas tree, but that's what everyone seems to call a non-freshly cut Christmas tree, "fake" or "not real." Hmmm...deep thoughts.

Anyway, we were the lucky recipients of a beautiful, pre-lit, non-freshly cut, Christmas tree since Aunt S. and Uncle D. were moving and didn't want to move this tree along with them.  One day, I put it up...by the time I figured that out (yeah, it only has three pieces and I still had to take it apart a few times, haha), it was race to pick up kids and teach piano lessons time.

So, did the tree get nicely shaped and preened? Umm...not this year.

(-;

Some year that will happen, this is definitely a keeper. And, some year, I'll take time to figure out the lighting sequence.  For now though, everyone seems to be enjoying the eclectic Christmas tree light show every night!

The biggest billy goat gruff though (see if you can figure that out) is refusing to partake in the tree in any shape or fashion because it's FAKE! Ha! Let's see if he'll refuse presents tucked beneath, yeah, bet not!

(-;

So, yeah...No Thanksgiving post and now it's December! . . .

What's up with that, hey?

Well, we pulled a huge PierceAdventure last week with the Thanksgiving break and all.  Due to Disney Visa points and American Express points accumulated over many, many years and SP running into an elementary school classmate with a guesthouse we could stay in at no charge...last week we took a completely free trip to Florida to check Disney World off our to-do list. And wow-we-wow-wow...that trip was not for the faint of heart.  In order to keep it completely free, we drove down in two days, did two days of Disney parks (Epcot and Magic Kingdom) and drove back in two days.

This is what I've got:

 Here's the crew just before the first of two park days began.

Waiting to check into Epcot.

Looking at this now, I think it'd woulda been awesome to get a pic of the five at 9:50p.m. as we were debating staying for the 10:00p.m. fireworks at Magic Kingdom, the last part of two park days.  I'll tell you what, that picture wouldn't have looked ANYTHING like this picture!! Haha.

(and no...we didn't stay even the extra 10 minutes for fireworks!)

(-:

 All five having fun together being sprayed by a fountain. Those are Harrison's arms behind Lara's head. No lines, no waiting, no pushing each other in confined spaces with strangers on every side of us, and yet some of the biggest laughs. This is the type of fun they have in the Hart Plaza fountain...Hmmm,hmmm.

 

This girl I believe had the most Disney magic of all of us, simply with the purchase of this hat.  Her Rapunzel hat with it's own braid (that she loved wearing down the side and also swooshing around with the twist of her head), purchased with her traveling money from Gpa and Gma.  "Thank You, G & G!!" Lifesaver for sure!

She was having a very hard time warming up to what is known by many to be the amazingness of all that is Disney.  She spent the first hour, maybe more, saying she "hated this place" and that she wanted to "go back to that house." Truth be told, one of our first stops, we were basically in a science center, much less exciting than the one in Toledo, biding our time while the bigger folk did a simulator ride. 

So, after hearing her despair for the first hours of our day, I broke out her money and said, "Let's go shopping, sweetie." Smiles soon followed.

And now, let's see if this'll work...some video...

So, this...It's a Small World...yeah...iconic, right? I mean, I'd never been to Florida's Disney before and my only other experience was the California one when I was like two, but even I've kinda known that this It's a Small World "ride" is something, historic, iconic...something.  Well, I just couldn't stop taking video, I've got about four clips, one even way longer than this.  Every time it just kept getting crazier and crazier I thought.  Louder, more and more sounds, flashing lights, it was quite a trip I tell ya.  By the point of this video I was seriously thinking, and actually Harrison asked something similar, I was thinking this would be a great way to break a prisoner of war!!  Harrison's question was, "If you were given food and water, do you think you could live in here for a week under these conditions?" I mean seriously!  Is that place for real???

So, yeah...While I'm totally grateful we were able to show our kids a little Disney, and I do know they each had their fun moments and favorite things, I've discovered those types of "vacations" don't do as much for me as the ones like Gettysburg, Yellowstone, U.P., Lake Michigan...stuff like that.  I mean, I think I might even have more fun stories to tell about the overnight experience in the submarine when I was 7 months pregnant (I mean, come on...that one included puking, and appendectomy on our game table and boys peeing out portholes at midnight in a thunderstorm!), but that's just me...(-: Glad to check Disney off the list and let's move on to the next PierceAdventure!

44X44 . . .

 

This gal, at her kindergarten Thanksgiving party today.

Pic taken by her teacher and emailed this afternoon.

Technologies' great!

After the party Liv and I had lunch and headed to her 5 year old check up where we learned she's 44 inches tall and 44 pounds.  We thought that was cool!

 Then we went for a swim at the Y, which we love to do together.

She's a great swimmer, has been really swimming for probably a year now.

Today she was amazing at using some "crawl" arms.

A mom asked how many swimming classes she's had.

I said, none.

(-:

We just swim a lot.

(-:

Then, when I was posting this, I thought to myself, "Self, you now have three of those pine cone turkeys on your kitchen table and you know one year you helped prep a million of them for this very same party. So, count back the years and see if you blogged about it."  Then, I agreed with myself about that great idea, counted back, referenced the blog and FOUND THIS LINK. Oh my goodness do I love having this written history of my time together with the kids!  I scrolled through all of November to find this, 2008, and what a bunch of great videos and memories.  Almost makes me want to have another two year old around here...almost...

(-;

 

"Happy Birthday, Dear Livia " . . .

"Happy Birthday, to you!"

Pianos, Purple & Pink, Put it in! . . .

Yes, that's right, "pianos" plural. We now have two pianos in our house and yep, one of them is in a bedroom closet! What I would've given to have had my own private practice room growing up. SP's sister was the owner of their grandpa's piano (as the receipt still in the bench says) purchased in 1957 for $450.00. She sent word out a few weeks ago though that she's resigned to the fact that no one in her family plays and they'd like to pass it on.  I couldn't figure out how to actually house two pianos, but it didn't take me too long to come up with this bright idea.  The new owner is pretty excited about wallpapering her closet with old sheet music as per a pinterest thing she saw, and then on to painting the piano!

This gal is turning 5 tomorrow!!

(Purple and Pink is coming next)

Can you even believe this business??

At her kindergarten conferences her teacher said she was a great example as to why age limits to starting school shouldn't be enforced hard and fast sometimes.  She said if someone came in to observe their class with Livia age 4 and some students already 6, they would never have been able to pick out the 4 year old. Atta girl, Liv! (-: Her teacher says Livia is a joy every morning as she bursts through the door with a giant, "Good Morning, Mrs. M" smiling from ear to ear. Love it.

Above, our gal is preparing to make and design her birthday cupcakes.

And here's the result!

"These are the most beautiful cupcakes ever made!" were the exact words uttered quite a few times when we got to the decorating stage Monday evening.  We invited her entire 1/2 day kindergarten class (12 kids...7 boys, 5 girls...yeah) for birthday lunch, presents, cake and ice-cream and one game yesterday afternoon.  It was the most perfectly timed party at 1 hour and 15 minutes long. (-: One grandpa perfectly timed his arrival as a friendly game of Sweet Potato (my failed attempt at a play on Hot Potato), turned into some type of tackle the holder of the sweet potato (poor girl), yank the sweet potato away and everyone pile up in mass confussion..."Oh, Ryan, your grandpa's here, looks like game time's over."

(-;

An absolute purple and pink delight!

And finally, put it in!

And boy, did he.  Pretty sure the five people that look at this blog will have seen this on Facebook or email/text so far, but I thought it deserved good ol' blog presence too.  Harrison's first game last week, he was the first and last shooter of this sequence with 7 seconds left on the clock and down by one point. Wow-we-wow-wow!

Hear ye, Hear ye . . .

No, really, I'm sorry about all the Hear ye's but this one really, truly is proclamation worthy.

I mean really!

You see, SP and I both sing, we met singing, we've sung our entire marriage, we're still singing, we sing.  And NONE OF OUR CHILDREN WILL SING!

Until now that is.

SO...

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

This video is actually from last January 30th it turns out (yes, I know she's dressed for summer, ha).  I mean, the open quality of that sound, oh my goodness.  Just today in the car as a matter of fact she and I were doing a little opera echo game for fun.  She operas out a phrase of high notes and I echo it back, then vise versa...ah, just warms the heart.  It is funny though, because every now and again I'll catch a string of notes coming forth from one of the other kids when they don't think anyone's listening and, oh my goodness, they actually ALL can sing so beautifully.  But you know, gotta do something different than the 'rents...thus, three percussionists in a row.  I've been waiting for a punk rocker or some such thing, so I will gladly settle for percussionists. One of whom just passed an audition to be a percussionist for the high school symphony orchestra as well as the band.  Go Lara! 

So, yes, another Hear ye, Hear ye post, but totally reasonable on this one!

Hear ye, hear ye . . . Just kidding . . .

Actually, hmmm, maybe I'm not . . . 

Hear ye, Hear ye . . . 

The King...ehm...The President is in the house!

Read into that as you will.

(-;

The President arrived in this envelope for William recently.

Yes, that one...the one that clearly says, "Do Not Bend!"

Oy Vey!

Regardless of what side of the aisle one is on, it was still cool to receive a letter with an official White House seal on it.  William had mailed a Flat Stanley letter to the President and received a pretty interesting letter in reply of all the things Flat Stanley did with the President on one day. And no, none of the events included usurping congressional power...moving right along...

William's favorite part of the entire correspondence (since he got a bit of grief from various insensitive siblings about writing Obama of all people...), were the cool dogs pics and info that came along in the envelope.  And they weren't even bent! (-:

All the Best,

Julie

(I might need to steal that from B.O., it's got a nice ring to it)

(-:

Hear ye, Hear ye . . . again . . .

The car is in the garage!!

I heard the Polar Vortex was returning this week so extra efforts were made to squeeze this guy back into place. Of course, now I heard tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50's, but I'll take it!

Before squeezing the car into the garage, Lara, Harrison and I discovered a new store on the way home from drum lessons. Oh.My.Goodness. this place has everything and more that one would ever need for a home as can clearly be shown by the picture above! (-:

And, before stumbling upon that bevy of multi-colored Christmas trees, well, two days before to be precise...three kids had the day off school due to conferences.  We headed out on a Mystery Trip that all three proclaimed to be great fun and all want to go back again!  Great science museum that I'd been to many times with the olders and thrilled to be back with the youngers. Harrison being in the middle of the older two and the younger two had fond memories of the place and was glad to be back.

(-:

Three kids enjoying gale force winds.

Good Times!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye...I finished one of my projects!!! . . .

Scroll Down on This Link

To see how it all began!

I got as far as I could with the scrapping and sanding, never did get the hardware off, never did get it completely smooth, but...

I still love how it turned out!

Isn't that cool?

The metal inside of an old icebox fridge!

I had to know when to give a little on this project.  Didn't bother taping the inside and spraying the edges or nothin'.  Had to prioritize after all. When it's sitting in that corner, no one ever knows the difference. (-:

While I'm bummed I sanded a little too much on the original Knickerbocker label, I'm glad I taped it and didn't paint over it. Cool little detail. And, I use my "new" gardening fridge all the time.  No more crawling over van seats, shop vacs, shovels and more to get over to my gardening section of the garage.

Got a problem?  Solve it!

(-:

It was a cold night for princesses . . .

And here's a freezing cold princess now.

She never made it to one house without a coat on and we saw tiny flakes falling by the time we were done with about five houses. She and I went alone for one street before dinner, while it was still light out, just in case it got even colder and colder. It was a weird Halloween year being so cold, a little rainy (though a lot rainy all day), then the two older boys didn't want to go, which I think influenced the younger boy into poo-pooing the event, but how can a third grader not go trick or treating right?, so I tried to convince him to pull together at least something and head out for a bit...

So, he grabbed the shades he won from his teacher's Bucko Shop (an auction incentive gig she does for classroom management and stuff) and called it a costume.  Kinda like his older sister grabbed the new robe I bought her, a hair dryer and a towel (she wrapped around her head) and called that a costume (though we see her in that "costume" around our house a ton! (-:).  Yeah...you read that right, "the new robe I bought her"...Anyhoo...

Princesses wear thick, purple coats too you know!

He managed to let me plunk that black hat on his head, and one glove that was brought, no winter coat of course, and off he went...one boy with dad.  Liv didn't want to go again after dinner, she said, "I think I have enough candy," and I said, "Great!" First year we weren't all traipsing around together.  Lara and her cousin headed off on their own and since they had the cousin's mom's iPhone with some tracking app, we occasionally even were able to see which houses they were trick or treating at...so we were kinda with them in spirit...weird year this year!