We hurried out first thing this morning to play in the snow. When we get snow at our house, we have to play in it quick before it's gone! We tried to build a snowman but it didn't work out. We built a nice snow pile instead. Grace's gloves got all wet and cold so I put socks on her hands. She thought that was very funny. Robyn's favorite thing was to snowball fight. Good thing you don't get in trouble for that at our school! :)

Colin has been busy building things today. He built a teeter totter and a flower with his Knex. Then I helped him combine his elevator from the Marble Mania extreme with the Discovery Toys marble run. Fun stuff!

Gracie and Oreo napping on the couch.

Colin has turned six years old! I cannot believe how fast the last six years have flown by! He invited the Garcias over for cake and presents. It was very fun.
Colin designed and decorated his own cake. He wanted a triangle cake with cupcakes around it. There is a lot of math involved in cake making - like geometry which I swore I would NEVER use in my whole life. (I am so sorry Mr. Smith and Mr. Golightly - I have learned my lesson and I am grateful for all you tried to teach me. Perhaps if we had used more food in class....) Anyway, we traced the cake pan and cut out the square. Then Colin turned the square into two triangles and figured out how to put them together to make a big triangle. We needed a place to put the cake to decorate and serve it so we got a big box to make a serving tray out of. Colin used the big paper triangle and drew circles for cup cakes in the pattern that he wanted to see how big we needed the tray. Then we had to measure the drawing and transfer the measurements to the cardboard we were going to cut. Then we took turns cutting the cardboard until we had the perfect size tray. Then we had to measure the aluminum foil to fit the cardboard and wrap the tray in it to make it all pretty. Then we got to decorate the cake we made. It was fun. I like that kind of math.
Actually we have been having a lot of fun with math lately. We got a math-u-see program for our math curriculum that is a lot of fun.
Colin got a marble run from Discovery Toys for his birthday and he hasn't stopped playing with it since he opened it. He hardly took time to eat his cake and ice cream in his haste to get back to playing. If you want a marble run - go with Discovery toys and be sure to get the Crank it up accessory. We have tried a wooden marble run in the past and the blocks don't stay together well enough to play. We tried a Marble Mania Extreme last Christmas and it was great for about five minutes. It takes FOREVER to build and it is impossible for a small person to even modify slightly by himself. We got it for it's elevator - which is totally cool and the only piece that ever gets played with, but a marble elevator isn't very cool with out a marble run to drop the marbles into. Anyway - go with Discovery Toys. It's easy to build and modify, sturdy and FUN!
The kids have been playing with the marble run all morning. Too many marbles got into the crank it up accessory and they got a bit stuck. Colin said, "The marbles are stuck" and Robyn said, "stuck in committee?" It was so funny. We haven't watched School House Rock in a month or two but apparently time hasn't diminished Robyn's memory. "I'm Just a Bill" is one of our favorite songs and sometimes bills get "stuck in committee." I love listening to their conversations! It is so fun to be a mommy. Oh and the marbles are easy to get unstuck - the kids just turn the crank backwards until the excess marbles get out.

Randy, Colin, and Robyn playing at Planet Kid. Robyn loved having her daddy go with her. Everyone had a blast!

The kids earned a date to Planet Kid with their points from the Miracle Music. We went last Saturday so Randy could go to. These are pictures of Grace jumping into the ball pit - her absolute favorite thing to do at Planet Kid.

Now that I have been blogging all afternoon, it's time for the REALLY BIG NEWS. We are having a new baby (for real, not just pretend). The baby is due in June. The kids and I went to our first visit with the midwife last week and got to hear the heartbeat. It was really nice to hear the heart beat and know that I am not just a nauseated, lazy person for no reason. I am counting on the morning sickness being over in about 8 days. (12 weeks is the magic number, right???) Hopefully that nesting instict will kick in after that and I will get all those half finished projects done soon.

Currently we refer to the baby as "Racecar" because someone thought that would be a good name and I don't have anything better yet. We will work on it for real later.

This is the kids "new car." It is a red and tan van. The steering wheel is grey. You might think that the chair in front of the love seat is a seat, but it is actually the TV for the kids in the back seat to watch. The front seat is the body pillow and the CD player is also the steering wheel. Robyn is such a good mom. She makes sure all the kids are securely buckled in. Grace is seven in pretend so she doesn't need a car seat - she gets to just use the pink seatbelt that in real life is a towel.

The really fun new game recently has been - Library.
Colin is the librarian. The girls bring him books which he scans into the computer.
The girls then take the books to their pretend house and read them to their babies. Colin lives at their house at pretend night. While he is there he reads the computer to tell them when the books are due.
Then they return them to the library and Colin reshelves them.
One special feature of this library is that if you want a picture of your baby, the librarian will scan the baby too.

Playing in the snow.

Another fun Christmas activity we did last week was to make a Gingerbread house. (I cheated and bought one of those kits so it was very easy.) We had a lot of messy fun building it. We took this picture as soon as we were done. Then I moved it so I could wipe off the table. I moved it before the frosting was set and the roof crashed to the floor. I decided that was the way to do a gingerbread house because we got to have the fun of making it, and then we ate it for desert after lunch and I don't have to worry about where to keep it or get after anyone for snitching. We snacked on it for a day and then I threw the rest in the garbage.

We curled all the ribbons on the candy chains and the kids wanted to do it themselves. Everyone learned to do it, even Grace. We had curly ribbons all over the house for two days because they did it all day the first day and when they woke up the next day, they wanted to do it again. They used the ribbons to decorate the tree some more and wore them in their hair. Unfortunately, the ribbon supply was exhausted after two days of curling so that activity had to end. Luckily, I did my shopping and my wrapping early this year so I am okay that the ribbon is gone. Scratch that, Colin was reading over my shoulder and said that I am wrong - he found a giant roll of blue curling ribbon - let the fun continue!

This is us making candy chains to count down to Christmas. Colin and Robyn's chains are pretty accurate, but Grace likes to speed things up a bit and cut a candy off a few times a day. She is her momma's girl - we both love candy and cookies. She tells me, "I hungry mommy." I ask what she is hungry for and give her some suggestions like yogurt or cheese, but she always says, "candy" or "cookies." She also tells me, "We should buy licorice at the store." And she always knows exactly how many candy canes are left on the tree.

Here are some pictures of our Christmas tree. We went with Grandma and Grandpa and the cousins up to the forest to get a real tree. It was fun. The kids loved it until they got cold, but Grandpa saved the day and all was well.

When I told Colin we were going to get a tree from the forest, he asked, "How will we know where to put the branches? If we get it from the forest, it won't have colors." My poor city kids. It is about time they had a real tree for Christmas.
We had a lot of fun decorating it. Colin insisted we get pictures of it right away.
They are still having fun decorating it. It changes every day.