February?

What happened to the month of February?  Seriously.  Even with the extra day tacked on for leap year, this February whizzed by for our family.

I'm sure that's largely due to the busyness of our February calendar.  And also due to the fact that most of my February was spent wiping runny noses, delivering cough drops and popping in dvds for whoever happened to be sick at the moment.  But thankfully, our February ailments did NOT include any stomach flu bouts.  THANK YOU JESUS!

Here's a photo highlight reel of our February.  And here's to a slower-moving March!

Lots of reading, playing and indoor shenanigans happened in February.  Chloe helped me out by reading to Solomon after he woke up from his nap.  So sweet to see them snuggling together and enjoying a book!  (Believe me, this kind of sight doesn't happen often in my house.)

Making a band out of pots and pans.  Who needs toys, right?

I instituted a new chore chart for the minions this month including dish duty for the two oldest.  I can't tell you how much happier my heart is now that the kids can share the load of cleaning a tiny bit more!  More on the new chore system to come.  It's working famously for our crew so far!

Like most holidays, I feel compelled to celebrate using themed food. This was V-day breakfast.

My Clive devouring his Valentine's Day pancakes with strawberry syrup.

Chloe (notice the red sniffly nose) posing with her Valentine's Day lunch of heart shaped toast, heart shaped cheese and pink smoothies. 

February makes us all a bit stir-crazy.  In an effort to make our indoor days more fun I cleaned out the kitchen cupboards and let the kids go wild with dishes.  That's super fun, right?  :)

To celebrate Chloe's completion of her January reading chart we ate cheap pizza and subjected ourselves to the insanity of Chuck E. Cheese.  This horse ride was Chloe's favorite.

The boys preferred riding anything resembling a vehicle or that required pounding. 

Chloe was the only Horn child brave enough to hug and pose with Chuck E.

Thank you, Pinterest for so many fun valentine ideas!  There were Chloe's homemade butterfly valentines for the girls in her class.

Not to be outdone, Clive and I decorated these car valentines for his buddies.

And because the boys could NOT receive butterfly valentines, Chloe and I made these cute swedish fish cards for her male classmates.  

Patriotic food

"What is it about Memorial Day weekend that makes me want to grill up some good ole American food?" I posed to no one in general while standing in my kitchen yesterday.

"You are a product of the culture, my dear," retorted my husband.

"Thank you for that insight, Dr. Horn," was the comeback I should have fired back.  But alas, I thought of it 5 minutes later.  Sigh.

Dr. Horn is absolutely right.  But when it comes to cooking yummy barbecue food, I don't care a bit that I'm a cultural lemming.  It's delicious!  (Summer barbecue that is, not lemming.)

Here's the menu for our Memorial Day cookout dinner tomorrow:

* Bratwurst (Johnsonville, of course)
* Corn on the cob
* Baked beans
* Watermelon
* Potato chips

Nothing fancy, to be sure, but definitely patriotic!  Am I the only one who's culinary cravings are inspired by the holiday?  What are you cooking up for Memorial Day?

Foolishness

For some reason it is ingrained in my being to celebrate crazy holidays with food. Themed cupcakes, cookies, or whatnot I find it lots of fun to make out-of-the-ordinary meals. Maybe it's my way of avoiding the dull routine job of continual meal planning and preparation.

Last year I made a silly dinner of fake fish sticks, candy lima beans, meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting and jello in the juice glasses.  Chloe thought it all hilarious!  Clive, on the other hand, was confused and ended up not eating much.  So, I ended up fixing him an alternate plate of food to fill up his little tummy.

This year, I vowed to make a more health-ful April Fool's meal.  I love all the ideas on the Family Fun website but almost ALL of them are comprised completely of candy.  I settled on a menu of fauxberry pie (shepherd's pie with pink mashed potato topping), breadsticks disguised as french fries, and no-bake chocolate cookies shaped as meatloaf slices.

Unfortunately, I used leftover ground beef and potatoes for the fauxberry pie so it turned out looking NOTHING like it should have.  Still yummy though!

For lunch, we hosted some friends and I did the jello-in-the-juice-glass trick again.  The kids ALL fell for it!  I also served apples with gummy worms crawling out of them (which the kids wouldn't eat because of the hole -- the gummy worms they ate without complaint) and silly face cupcakes.

As for other pranks, we didn't do much.  I let Chloe sit on the kitchen counter to do some of her schoolwork and she got a kick out of that.  I tried another prank but Chloe didn't get it at all.  I took all the clothes out of her closet and hid them in another closet.  She came downstairs looking all distraught that her closet was a "mess" (I tend to pile up gifts, outgrown clothes, and other miscellany in the back of her closet that was then exposed when I removed her clothes).  When I told her that it was an April Fool's joke she responded with forlorn, "Mommy, I don't like that joke."  Guess we have to wait on the pranks until they get a bit older!

I fell prey to a few April Fool's Day jokes too.  My dear sister and I were skyping Thursday night and she slyly and convincingly told me of her *fake* plans to move stateside.  She made up a whole story on the spot and it seemed too good to be true.  Alas, it was too good to be true.  :(  She really got me good!

How'd you celebrate April 1st?

Chloe stuffing the french fry envelopes with breadsticks.

Clive said his April Fool's joke was to dress up like a construction worker.  :)

My Valentine

My heart is full to bursting with love for Chloe, Clive and Solomon. But, obviously my dear Matt is my #1 sweetheart.  I say *obviously* but with the way I write on this blog, sometimes it isn't very obvious.  What's obvious is that my kids are a huge part of my life and I love them tremendously. And oh yeah, I love my husband too.

That last comment was tongue-in-cheek but it's largely true.  Now that we've added three littles to our family, it's increasingly difficult to make my hubby the primary earthly object of my affection.  I often find that in giving, loving, and serving my children I have almost nothing left to give to my sweet husband at the day's end. 

When I said "I do" to Matt eight years ago, I was giddy and full of magical lovey-dovey butterflies flitting frantically in me.  Neither of us had any clue that this marriage journey would be difficult in the slightest.  Difficult?  Are you kidding me?  The thought never entered my mind.  Sure, other people's marriages might be rough but not ours.

But I'm learning that keeping a marriage unified is a serious battle.  SERIOUS.  It's hard.  Harder than anything I've ever known.  Harder even than parenting I think.  Hard because we are being pulled away from each other from every side.  The world's ideas of marriage come bombarding, other people and activities threaten to suck our time and energies, our own tendencies to settle into our separate roles without crossing paths, and our overarching selfishness threatens to destroy us. 

Andrew Peterson says the same lyrically in the song below, "Dancing in the Minefields".  (Warning: This video is seriously touching.  If you're one to shed tears at hallmark commercials you will probably need a tissue.)




I thought it'd be fun to share how Matt and I met.  After being introduced by mutual friends, Matt kept thinking and wondering about me.  Since he taught at my alma mater, he'd visit the alumni lounge and look up my photo in the old college yearbooks to remember me.  Later that year we were both at a friend's house for a small dinner party. I was floored by Matt's depth -- both of faith and intellect.  I remember so clearly as someone posed the question to the group, "What is true beauty?"  Matt eloquently, sincerely and humbly spoke about true beauty being aligned with God's likeness.  I was moved and my heart was aflutter!  We continued to meet weekly with our friends for dinner and then afterwards we all went to swing dancing lessons.  Yes, MY HUSBAND went swing dancing.  Crazy what one will do when in love, isn't it?  Soon Matt was attending my church, taking me to dinner and calling me.  But I still wasn't sure about this guy.  It wasn't until a certain Sunday morning that I knew he was the guy for me.  His folks were in town so he brought them to my church.  I was already seated at the organ to play for the service and I saw him walk in and almost did a double-take.  He had shaved (prior to this he had a full beard) and I was struck by his handsomeness.  And the rest is history!  :)

I'm so thankful that on this Valentine's Day, I don't have to worry about Matt's love floating away to land on another. We are dancing this life together and striving to keep unified with the help of God.  There's just no possible way we could keep together without God's grace!   And this love is so much more than fluttery feelings.  It's active, persevering, purposeful, and committed.   

Now it's your turn . . . How'd you meet your Valentine?

0 Days Until Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Counting down with thankfulness has been an incredibly helpful exercise for me.  Some days it was easy to tick off the thankfulness list.  Other days not so much.  It's made me remember afresh that my thankful attitude will wax and wane if I only look at circumstantial blessings.  A true and constant thankful heart will be grounded in eternal truths that don't change.  So I really CAN be thankful in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18) when I look at God and see His great great love for me.

"Thou hast given so much to me, give one thing more, - a grateful heart;

Not thankful when it pleaseth me, as if Thy blessings had spare days,

But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise."   - George Herbert

Wishing you a grateful heart this Thanksgiving Day!

Candy boatload

After two sessions of trick-or-treating, we now have LOADS of sugary goodness in our home.

Our candy consumption rule is one piece of candy per diem. The kids usually begin asking for their one piece immediately after breakfast. That's good and bad. Good in that I don't have to deal with a sugar high around nap time. Bad in that I have to deal with whining when Chloe realizes throughout the day that she's already eaten her daily allotment.

In order to sneakily decrease the stockpiles, I've been repurposing the candy by breaking it up and baking with it. Monday we made a batch of pumpkin muffins and used 4 mini-sized hershey bars broken up in place of the called-for chocolate chips. We've set aside the mini-snickers for brownie mix-ins. And the M&Ms will make for yummy cookies.

And of course Matt and I are doing our share to help the cause by snitching chocolate from the candy bowls. Now if only I could hold myself to the one piece per day rule!

How do you deal with your candy abundance?

Halloween Surprises

Surprise #1: People give candy to adults in costume

My mom is a super fun gramma. When she told me she was planning to dress-up for Halloween during her recent visit it didn't phase me. After all, she's super fun crazy young gramma. But then it hit me. That means I'd probably have to dress up too. Ugh.

My favorite thrift store in all the world bailed me out. After searching the aisles high and low for the makings of a farmer costume, I came up empty. Instead I ended up in the uniform section (yes, the store is THAT amazing that it actually has a uniform section). With my newly-purchased scrubs, the kids' doctor toys, and a hand-written nametag, I became "Dr. Mom".

My mom was stunning in her gramma gear as you'll see from the photos below. She brought smiles and laughs to many in the neighborhood. Clive clung mostly to his gramma for the trick-or-treating and he was fascinated by her gloves. Once he very sweetly went back to a house and asked them to give candy to his gramma. She was dressed up too and deserved some treats for her efforts!

Surprise #2: More pets get dolled up for Halloween than do adults

At least in our neighborhood that was the case. I'm not a big dress-up-your-pets fan but these dogs were pretty cute. Not as cute as actual children but cute none-the-less.

Surprise #3: My kids are selfish, greedy, unthankful beasts.

I don't know why that surprised me. I mean, I KNOW that we're all sinful creatures and I KNOW that sin is raging in the hearts of my children. Just as it's raging in my own heart. What surprised me is the way their selfishness came rising so quickly and acutely to the surface during our Halloween exploits.

We're pretty on top of our kids when it comes to thankfulness and practicing good manners. At the table they are usually (emphasis on the word usually) polite and pleasant to talk with. Both Chloe and Clive are generally sweet tempered, good natured and easy to correct. And maybe that's why Chloe's unthankful comments were such a surprise to me.

Because Chloe and Clive are usually polite kiddos, I didn't even prep them for the Halloween candy extravaganza that awaited them. I assumed that when people started handing them candy and complimenting their cute costumed-ness Chloe and Clive would naturally respond in kind -- with words of thanks and kindness.

Not so.

Chloe floored me with some of her comments. Here were some of the doozies:

"I already have lots of sweet tarts, do you have anything else?"
"Glow bracelets? I don't like those , I'd rather have candy."

And then there were the countless times I had to remind her to say thank you. And the times when she tried to grab more than one piece of candy without asking for more.

You're going to think I am an ogre-mom but mid-way through the trick-or-treating, I almost took Chloe straight home. I had had enough of the selfishness and it was making me sick to my stomach. I just wanted it to STOP. I realized though that would have been cruel and unusual punishment and I did NOT want to add a crying fit to the bad behavior tally for the night.

Besides the obvious lessons in thankfulness and abundance (seriously, can you imagine trick-or-treating happening ANYWHERE besides America?), this experience was a poignant visual aid for the gospel.

We are by nature selfish. Greedy. Gluttonous . Out of control. Consumed. In talking with Chloe about her behavior, it was a perfect in-the-moment teaching point about her badness and her NEED for rescuing. She couldn't control her selfishness. She needs someone to wash away the sins of her heart.

And I need rescuing too. I'm just as selfish, gluttonous, and consumed with candy (literal and figurative) as my dear children. I just have an easier time hiding and justifying away my sinful behavior.

As I look back on Halloween 2010, I'm thankful not only for the fun times, free candy, cute costumes (and truly, my children were THE CUTEST costumed kids in the state of Ohio), but also for the very real and very relevant reminder of my need for Jesus.

He's met me in my need and washed my sins all away. Removed them from my account and called me His own. WHAT LOVE! As I bask in that love, I choose to forget the bad-ness of my Chloe's words and look forward to a new day of growth and joy with her.

How was your Halloween 2010?

Happy Independence Day!

This year 4th of July weekend sneaked up on me! The month of June went by way too quickly in my humble estimation.

To kick off the weekend, Chloe and I drove to a nearby town for their annual fireworks display. This is our 3rd year going to Hudson for fireworks and I finally figured out the secret to avoiding post-fireworks gridlock. Bliss.

Chloe always cracks me up with her fireworks watching mentality. She enjoys it for about the first 10 minutes and she's complete with unfettered oohing and aahing. (So much so, that I had to start shooshing her because I was afraid she was disturbing other onlookers.) Then, she gets bored and distracted. Weird, eh? For a kid who can zone out for hours in front of a Bob the Builder dvd, I expected more from her attention span.

At least this year she asked some good questions about fireworks. None of which I was prepared to answer in depth. :) I'll be doing some good ole-fashioned wikipedia research on fireworks today (i.e. how do they work, and when did we as a nation start this whole crazy lighting up the sky tradition).

This year's display was spectacular! Even saw some new beauties this year. The golden waterfall fireworks were my fave.

This morning I'm taking the kids to a local Independence Day parade. This parade is full of firetrucks and people throwing candy. Clive will be in little boy heaven!

How are you celebrating this Independence Day weekend?

Preparing for Easter

Easter is coming alive in our household this year!

We made an Easter mountain again this year following Noel Piper's instructions. The kiddos painted it, we found sticks and a tomb-closing rock in the yard, Chloe dug up some toy pirates to be the guarding soldiers and I fashioned disciples out of pipe cleaners. We've acted out the events of Easter week several times now and it's brought the story to life!

Tuesday evening we observed a very simple passover. Very simple. I'm talking wheat pita bread and cups of grape juice here. The kids ate while I read a short account of Jesus' celebration of the passover with his disciples in the upper room. Then Matt and Chloe used various blocks to build an upper room for our pipe cleaner people.

Though our homemade visual aids have been almost silly in their simplicity, I know through our kids' eyes the immense truths of Easter are becoming slightly more comprehensible. And these family traditions we're creating are not only enjoyable but invaluable as we plant seeds of faith and truth.

This year we added another element to our Easter preparations. We made an "I'm Sorry" box using Ann Voskamp's idea which she posted over at A Holy Experience. Each time one of us does something worthy of saying "I'm Sorry" we write it down on a slip of paper and insert it into the box.

I envisioned this exercise as a helpful one for Chloe. Most times she is truly a sweet sweet girl and we often praise her for her good behavior. I thought this box would be a much-needed reminder to Chloe of her short-comings and need for a Savior. But in the process, God showed ME my own faults. Pride, impatience, anger, and lack of compassion reared their heads as I wrote out my own "I'm Sorry" slips. As a mom, it's ridiculously easy to identify the mistakes in my children and to correct them forgetting that I'm just as faulty.

Of course the crowning lesson will come on Easter morning. That's when we toss the box full of our mistakes into the garbage can symbolizing Jesus' complete forgiveness and washing away of our sins. Hallelujah!

"I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins."
(Isaiah 43:25)

Since Chloe loves to sing with me (and I realize music is a stellar way to teach) we've been learning a hymn together for Easter. She and I sing it together most nights together before bed. The Power of the Cross, written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, is vivid with imagery in its telling of Jesus' death and implications.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

And what holiday would be complete without sugar cookies?

The princess girly-girl in me thrives on the extra-special pageantry involved in preparation for Easter Sunday morning at church. Unfortunately, we can't afford to go dress-shopping for a big foo-foo Easter dress. Instead I've taken to making Chloe a new dress each year for Easter.

And this year CLIVE gets a matching tie. We'll see how long he keeps it on . . .

And yes, I realize I'm a huge cheesy nerd for forcing my kids to wear matching outfits.

If you're still with me after that monstrously long post, answer me an Easter-y question. What family Easter traditions do you have and/or how do you make Easter meaningful?

Happy April Fool's Day!

Let me be the first to wish you a very foolish and fun first day of April!

Last year I didn't initiate many traditions for celebrating April Fool's Day. I tried this "magic milk" bowl trick for our morning cereal (pictured at left) and that was it. Chloe L.O.V.E.D. how her milk turned from white to blue as she stirred up her cereal. She still talks about that magical morning meal. Didn't take much to impress my then 3 year old, eh? :)

This year I'm stepping it up a notch. And of course, because holidays in our family revolve around food, my trickery will all be food-based.

Check OUT these super fun ideas from Family Fun Mag! Since we'll be out until the afternoon, I'm planning the faux fish sticks, peas, meatloaf cupcakes and jello drinks for supper.

That's my plan. We'll see if my concoctions look anywhere near as cute and deceptive as these pictures do.

Shhh! Don't tell my family! (Don't worry, they don't read my blog.)

How do you plan to celebrate?

Belated Valentine's Day Wishes!

We've had a busy eventful week and hence, I've been neglectful of my blog yet again. My mom was here visiting this weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed her (and her new iphone).

Our Valentine's Day was rather busy as we were scheduled to serve in our church nursery. Since our church is so massive, that means we serve once every 5 weeks and we work during two back-to-back services. It also means we have to leave earlier than usual. It's always a stressful race to beat the clock on Sunday mornings!

I had little v-day gifts on waiting on the table for everyone in the morning. I had some leftover pancakes so I cut them into heart shapes and warmed them up for the kiddos. Matt also surprised me with roses, new crayons for Chloe, a new dino for Clive and a box of chocolates for my mom.

When my mom comes to visit she always pushes us out the door for a date night. :) Believe me, she doesn't have to push us too hard. And the kids are getting old enough that they remember Gramma's special babysitting nights and they do a great job! This past Saturday night, the kids didn't even bat an eye when we exited for our date. I felt as though I was interrupting just to give them goodbye hugs and kisses!

Needless to say, we ALL had a great date night. Matt and I used a gift card for dinner out, browsed World Market (I love that place and never get to wander through it's interesting aisles), and then we went to see the highly-acclaimed movie Avatar. Excellent flick! Much better than I expected it to be.

Since our family holidays always revolve around food, my mom and I planned a special v-day feast for dinner. We attempted to cook a london broil steak (turned out rather chewy but still good), mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese puffs (INCREDIBLY YUMMY), salad, and tiramisu for dessert.

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Christmas productivity

Man, seems like the days are flying by too quickly as we approach Christmas!

As usual, I have been bitten by the sewing bug for the holiday season. My mind goes into overdrive and imagines all sorts of homemade gifty projects for family and friends. Of course my excuse for this madness is frugality. In order to save money during this happiest and most expensive time of year I should put my skills (or lack there of) to work and make stuff. But in reality it's more than mere cheapness that drives me to sew/craft. I LOVE IT! I heartily enjoy combining the art of giving and creating.

I am in the midst of several projects right now and have resorted to sewing during our at-home mornings while the kids monkey around. Clive often insists on sitting on my lap at the sewing machine (that may explain my crooked seams) and sometimes tries to "help" pulling the pins out and putting in the pin cushion. That drives me to the brink of insanity and then the kids get banished to a different room for some healthy non-mommy play.

I'm also trying to get some holiday baking in here and there. Thus far I've made thumbprint cookies, ginger molasses cookies, and sugar cookies. Cookies are patiently waiting in the freezer for our pre-Christmas week of feasting. Still hoping to make a batch or two of fudge, peanut butter balls, and something lemony or minty to round out the cookie tray.

With a scary busy looking week ahead of us, I best get busy. My goal is do work on one thing a day. And if something doesn't get done it gets chucked off the to-do list. Except of course for the chocolate treats . . . they MUST be made. Especially this year. This pregnant mama needs her daily intake of dark chocolate rich in antioxidants. :)

What are your Christmas project/baking goals this year?

Preparing for Christmas

Sheesh, feels like my mind is in constant Christmas-preparation mode these days. Planning projects/gifts, thinking about holiday menus, dreaming of eating Christmas cookies (and I should get more than everyone else this year since I'm great with child).

But the real point of Christmas of course is to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Such an incomprehensible manifestation of God's love to us!

As we teach the kiddos the story of Jesus' birth I hope to also transfer excitement and anticipation to them as we countdown to Christmas. Obviously there will be some built-in excitement as they see the gifts multiply under the tree . . . but I want to convey excitement about Jesus in the mix of all the holiday traditions.

We're doing a paper chain to count down the days 'til Jesus' birthday and also an advent calendar. Also reading a few verses or singing Christmas carols after supper each night. I had hoped to make a set of nativity dolls for the kids to play with but alas, I'm way behind on that project.

Any other ideas for making Jesus' birth real to little ones this Christmas?

Thankful?

Today I am seriously questioning my thankfulness. The day is not going at ALL as I planned.

Matt was up several times in the night suffering from a minor stomach-plague. He's been in bed all day. The kids have had several conflicts resulting in spankings, crying and whining. I'm wishing I could have had a few more months before Clive learned the word "mine". Have a major to-do list to accomplish before leaving for MI tomorrow and thus far I've completed a whopping two items on the list. One of which was accompanied by a seriously major crying fit thrown by my darling Chloe. In the public library of all places (the librarians know us by name).

Now that I'm sitting down and have a few moments to reflect I know that I am thankful. During a day like this where everything is going contrary to my plans I am thankful that God's not surprised. He planned this day for me and HE is sustaining me and giving me the strength to not turn into monster mommy.

I'm so thankful for God and His unchanging character and unceasing goodness to me! Regardless of circumstances, I have MUCH to be thankful for. (Not the least of which is a york peppermint patty recently consumed -- why didn't I buy two?!?)

And with that I wish you all a happy happy Thanksgiving!

A fun and easy Thanksgiving project

With Thanksgiving literally around the corner now, we embarked on an easy peasy thankfulness-themed project last week.

I fell in LOVE with this burlap placemat project linked on craftzine's blog and then adapted it slightly to suit our tastes. Pretty much it's a cut rectangle of burlap (no sewing necessary) and it uses a homemade freezer paper stencil to create an image for the kids to paint in the center.

Since we've been talking about and trying to exercise a thankful heart in our home lately (i.e. the cure for whininess) this placemat project was perfect. Around the edges I wrote a reminder verse with a sharpie (it's Psalm 107:1 if you're wondering).

Then I made a stencil out of freezer paper. I'm totally in awe of and in crafting-love with freezer paper. It was incredibly easy and worked super well. Next we got out some paints and sponges and Chloe and Clive dabbed away. (It's seriously an easy enough project for even a little toddler guy like Clive to participate in). Check out the step-by-step tutorial here.

Though the production was fun and easy the BEST part of this placemat project has been practicing thankfulness with Chloe. Every time we eat a meal, Chloe whips out the placemat and before she chows down she tells us something she's thankful for. At first she didn't quite get it. She'd just look around the room and spurt out whatever her gaze fell upon. But now that we've been doing this for several days it's beginning to resonate with her.

And her thankfulness is contagious! Matt and I usually join in and share something we're thankful for too. It's a splendid way to start out a meal.

Now if only I could get her to tote her placemat around to remind her to be thankful in our everyday situations. Like when her brother wants to color with her crayons, when she has to change out of her princess dress and put real clothes on, or just whenever she doesn't get her way. I'm guessing that will be a lifelong lesson. This mommy needs that thankful reminder throughout the day too!

What special Thanksgiving crafts or traditions do you employ to practice thankfulness?

Christmas photo and free cards

No, the picture at left is NOT our 2009 Horn family Christmas photo. It didn't make the cut for obvious reasons.

We usually get the kids' photo taken at a cheapy-cheap portrait place and slide a copy in with each Christmas card we send out. Then I hand-write a quick 2-3 sentence note in each card.

I know that sounds laborious (and believe me, it is when we're talking about 50+ cards) but Christmas correspondence is the only way we connect with extended family and friends. Many of Matt's aunts, uncles, and cousins I've never even met but we've formed a relationship through Christmas cards. There are older ladies in my extended family too that enjoy receiving our cards and pictures each year.

Knowing the immensity of the holiday card project, I had already unpacked my Christmas box and taken out the cards and stationery for this year. (I always buy the next year's stuff during the previous year's after Christmas clearance sales.) I've already crafted a general address list and bought return address labels (check out the swell deal on these at VistaPrint).

To my elated surprise, I came across this deal advertised by Freebies 4 Mom for FREE Christmas photo cards. ABSOLUTELY FREE including shipping!!! Heather, the author of Freebies 4 Mom, will post the free coupon code sometime on Monday.

In anticipation of the free photo card deal, I dressed everyone in coordinating red and green this morning for church. If we're going to get gussied up for a photo shoot, might as well do it when we're already getting dressed up!

Are we the only crazy family that goes through this process of card writing and sending? How many cards/letters do you send out ? Do you opt for a letter or traditional card?

The princess and the pirate

I can hardly believe Halloween has come and gone already! Can we seriously be in the midst of November?!? I swear time has sped up now that I have two bambinos to chase after.

We had a smashing (pun intended) good time this year celebrating Halloween! We don't do anything spooky or scary mind you, just plain old innocent dressing-up-and-collecting-candy fun.

Our neighborhood began the candy fest at 6:00 p.m. and we were raring to go. Clive was obviously confused about what was happening but he quickly got the hang of it when he saw candy was involved. :) He then became a non-nonsense pirate and often snatched an extra piece or two at each house.

Chloe was tickled to trick-or-treat with her little girlfriend, Sarah. They were BOTH princesses and looked so cute holding hands and prancing from door to door. Showing the depth (or rather, the lack thereof) of the 4 year old mind, both Sarah and Chloe excitedly compared candy winnings after each house. :)

And Chloe displayed her utter girliness once again by opting NOT to be a pirate (for the past few months we've talked up matching pirate costumes for Chloe & Clive) at the last minute. She sat whimpering at the kitchen table and finally burst out sobbing, "Mommy, I don't want to be a pirate. I want to be something pretty!" So, the cinderella dress-up dress came out and we improvised on accessories. The princess hat consisted of stapled poster board and my wedding veil! It turned out to be a tad bit too tall and needed constant adjusting but it worked. Chloe especially enjoyed decorating the hat princess-style.

Since we were only out for 45 minutes, the kids netted a manageable amount of candy. Our house rule is 1 piece a day (not including mommy and daddy of course).

How were your Halloween festivities this year? What did your kids dress up as?