Breakfast: fiber poptarts, milk

Lunch: whole grain pasta with sauce, cheese slices, peaches, cookie, milk

All ate very well (except Landon at Lunch) the big boys even got seconds for lunch

We took a trip to Target today!! With Bryce being out of school this week it was a must to get out of the house. It went well and I found a big enough cart to put all 4 kiddos in. They were very well behaved. We got some new art supplies for Bryce's new easel. Hayden and Bryce had a blast coloring with the dry erase board and black board after lunch!

Paige and Landon played well and were chasing each other around the house today :-)

Tuesday

Breakfast: pancakes, milk
Lunch: pb and marsh on high fiber bread, apples, yogurt, milk, 2 choc star cookies

Everyone ate really well today for both meals!!

Well it was a fun but full of a lot of fighting morning! We spent the entire morning just playing with all of Bryce and Landon's new toys. The kiddos had a blast but of course there was some fighting since there are new toys, kids have been off schedule with the holidays, and they haven't seen each other in a few days. No biggie and actually after lunch the bigger boys played nicely upstairs in Bryce's room for a while with no arguments (They LOVED Bryce's new easel and all drew on the chalk board for an hour!)

They loved the hotwheels race track, all the new trucks (especially the huge one) The played with the bead set and the pretend tools. Tristan and Bryce tried to play with moon sand but that stuff is weird and I think that will be a Daddy and Bryce thing to do!

So today was just a fun play day.

I'm thinking of starting our new curriculum tomorrow (Dinosaurs!!!) It's a few days early but we need some fun activities to do!

You'll be getting ;your parent news letters soon!

Wednesday

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!! haha

No pics today, sorry (camera was upstairs)

Breakfast: fiber poptarts, banana, milk
Lunch: home-aid mac n cheese, peaches, yogurt, milk (all ate mac n cheese but no one would touch their peaches or yogurt so therefore we had no chocolate star cookies today :-(

We spent the morning doing a new winter picture frame craft. then we colored our big sesame street christmas coloring book and read our christmas stories. We also talked about the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah and how Jewish children play with dreidels. I showed them what a dreidel looks like and how to spin it then we made our own dreidels. I know none of the kiddos are Jewish but I think it's good to teach them about other cultures.

We also sang Christmas carols and danced and watched Elmo's Christmas Countdown (Thomas and Paige are becoming huge fans of Elmo!)

Have a Merry Christmas!

tuesday birthday party for jesus!

Breakfast: pancakes, milk, banana,
Lunch: eggs w/cheese, pb crackers, peaches, milk and cupcakes!!
All ate well (Paige didn't eat much at all for lunch though)

What a wonderful day it's been! I even tried to upload a video I took of the kids playing the present game (but it won't work :-( )

We started our day with making birthday cards for Jesus. The kids (especially Hayden, Bryce, and Tristan) worked very hard. I told them to put their cards under their tree for Jesus so if they say something to you that's where they got them from.

Then we played "pin the star on the Christmas tree" game and all the kids really enjoyed this. It was pretty funny to watch the kids try to keep their eyes shut (they ended up squinting and loved running to the tree!)

Then we played the present opening game. We started with a huge present (which the kids were all so excited about) We sang a Christmas song then when it was over the kids all opened it. well I wrapped 6 boxes inside each other so we got to sing 6 songs and the kids had a blast opening and opening and opening the present. The little ones were climbing into the boxes and throwing paper up in the air (it was by far the best game ever!) I had this all on video and can show you on my computer if you ask some time to see it! Finally when we got down the last box they all squealed when they saw their little gifts (Disney themed baseballs) They are all sleeping with their balls as I type!

The kids had so much fun opening the gift game that I let them open the gift from the Deardorffs. Crystal Ann they LOVED the ATM machine. They all played with that thing for the rest of the morning until lunch time!

After lunch we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out candles (trick ones so everyone got a shot at it) Thomas was trying so hard to get those candles out!!! Hayden and Paige were scared of the flames but gobbled up their cake (although Paige didn't like that her hands were dirty), and Tristan and Bryce almost passed out trying to blow out the candles. Landon just sat there licking his lips!!!

After lunch we watched New Years Eve on Sesame Street! and all in bed by noon!

**Tristan needs diapers for next week!

Thank you to all for the lovely gifts!!! they are very much appreciated! Crystal I can't wait to go to Tea with you (I have hats we can wear!!!!)

monday 4 days till Christmas!!!

Breakfast: fiber poptarts, banana, milk
Lunch: home-aid mac n cheese, apples, yogurt, milk, chocolate stars for dessert (all ate very well for both meals, they loved my mac n cheese!!!

Well it was a good morning but we had some cranky/sleepy kiddos on hand! We made santa hats today with cotton balls, did the weather/calendar and counted down the days till Christmas. WE read the Christmas story and acted out our nativity and also read lots of other Christmas books. We started getting ready for our birthday party for Jesus tomorrow and made some games up like pin the star on the tree.

I had to feed the kiddos at 10:45 because we were having melt down city, but afterward all were happy! big boys played up in Bryce's room till nap and the little ones played in the play room. Oh no!!!! Thomas had a blow out and somehow ripped his diaper off and him and Landon were playing in it :-( ughhhhh, luckily I basically caught it right when it happened and stopped it quickly, but needless to say Thomas got a bath and so did my carpet!! Funny thing is this happened exactly 6 months ago except it was Landon with the blowout and ripping off his diaper (must be the age!) Thomas is sure going out with a bang huh??

Oh and Thomas was dragging around the baby cabbage patch doll and baby bottle all morning saying "baby" haha it was cute!

Hayden is super duper excited about Christmas!

- Thomas needs extra clothes, he had to put on a pair of sissy's pants until I could root thru landons clothes to find something. haha
-Paige and Tristan need diapers

Oh and reminder I'm closed on monday the 28th!

thursday

Breakfast: poptarts, banana, milk

Lunch: pb and marsh sandwiches, cheese slices, oranges, milk

(all ate very well for lunch, Tristan didn't have any breakfast here, Daddy said he ate already and he said he wasn't hungry)

Good day here! We watched Polar Express this morning (they loved the Train) Took Bryce to school. Came home for a bit and played downstairs and colored. Then took Hayden and Tristan with me to Bryce's school for the Christmas party and to see Santa (they had a great time!) Hayden got to sit on Santa (Tristan cried when he saw Santa so I didn't push it!)

Came home and had lunch (big boys played upstairs) and Thomas and Landon had a blast in the toy room while Sissy hung out with me while I cleaned up the kitchen.

All are down for naps (although many aren't sleeping??) Tristan screamed for a good half hour (hopefully he'll settle down and sleep) and Landon is jumping up and down in his crib.

Tristan and Paige need diapers for next week!

Ash

wed

Breakfast: I made pancakes, but they only wanted poptarts today!
Lunch: mac n cheese, left over pizza, grapes

No one ate that well at lunch for some reason.

Well we decorated gingerbread house #3 and I'm thinking the kiddos (and me) are about gingerbread housed out! Thankfully this was the Carver house so I'm thinking Daddy Rankin can do our last house this weekend for the Rankins!

Not too much on todays list of events (Bryce was still pretty out of it this morning) The kids honestly just played downstairs most of the morning. We had bath time after lunch (interesting with 4 kiddos) but they had a blast and it took up a good hour. Hoping all nap well (I need a nap!!! I think I'm getting something now!!!) Ughhhh

tuesday

Breakfast: fiber poptart, milk, banana

Lunch: grill cheese, yogurt, grapes

All ate pretty good for both meals

Crazy day (you know how it is when your kiddo is sick. ) We did decorate Tristan's gingerbread house then were off to the doctor's office. Don't worry I just dropped Bryce off so your kids didn't go in!

The kids enjoyed their little ride (a little too much Tristan and Paige fell asleep so who knows how nap time will go) they are quiet for now and Tristan actually asked to go to bed???

Turns out Bryce has strep throat and scarlet fever (he is on penacilin) and will not be contagious within 24 hours (so we can hopefully still go to dinner with Santa tomorrow!) Doc said your kiddos have about a 25-30 percent chance of getting it, so if they get a rash all over that kind of looks like sunburn take them to the doc asap to get a strep culture. I found out that this is going around in his classroom so I'm guessing that's where he picked it up.

Notes: Tristan needs diapers

REminder pick up at 4:45 at the latest tomorrow (we actually need to be heading out by 4:45) so if you come at 4:45 I will have kyle and my kiddos in the car ready to go and your little ones with coats and shoes on. (ummm if Landon isn't fever/rash struck yet )

monday

Lots of pics for you to enjoy today!

Breakfast: pancakes, banana, milk

Lunch: pizza, oranges/grapes, yogurt, milk. All ate well except Thomas didn't eat much at all at lunch.

It's been a fun day. We did Thomas' gingerbread house today. We are doing 1 family per day and I think that will work out well. All the kiddos help to decorate it. I chose to do this right after breakfast so their bellies would be full and it wouldn't ruin their lunches. They had so much fun (especially the older boys!) Thomas and Landon were so funny they would put 1 candy on then take it back off and eat it :-) I'm sure they'll get the hang of it as the week goes on.

We then went downstairs and did out huge new Christmas Sesame Street coloring book (which is also a story)

Then we read the Christmas story and acted out our nativity. We played downstairs (the big boys played mini golf in the play room, and choo choo's after lunch)

We then had lunch and off to nap time.

Thomas was a grumpa lumpa today :-( Hoping he was just tired and not getting sick (but his nose was running a lot!) Didn't feel warm though and went right to sleep. Hopefully a nice long nap will help him out a bit!

thursday

Breakfast: fiber poptarts, banana, milk
Lunch: marsh and pb sandwhiches (huge hit again!), cheese slices, mand oranges, applesauce (all ate very well at both meals!!

Great day today, all in great moods and played very well. We took Bryce to school and then came home and did lots of arts and crafts!! We painted more ornaments (Paige and Landon too , well Paige ended up painting herself and landon ate the paint but they tried!) yes it's non toxic and washable! Then we did playdough and made pretend christmas cookies.

We then went downstairs and played. We read our Christmas story again and played with the little people manger scene. Tristan was so cute, he would pick up Joseph and say "Jesus's Daddy" then we sang happy birthday to Jesus and Away in the Manger.

I taught the kiddos a new song "Teddy Bear" they loved it!

The big boys played well upstairs together after lunch, and the little ones played in the play room till naps!