2010: A Year In Review

It's been a great year in the Flexible House.  Lots of silly, crazy fun with enough ups and downs to keep me on my toes.  If I was to write a Christmas letter I'd do it this way.  Here's a look at our family and some of my favorite posts from the year.

January

We started off the year having a difficult time with behavior... some days we still are, 12 months later.  It goes through cycles and I guess it always will.  We've become better at dealing with our crazy children and rotate through the different methods that work.   Also in January I began my Photography Class posts.  I'd like to start posting assignments again in the New Year.  We enjoyed one last day of nice weather before...

February

The big news around here in February was the SNOW!!  Snowpocalypse! Snowmageddon! snOMG! It was more snow than we'd seen in years.  The kids built snowmen, went sledding and got snowed in on purpose with friends.  What a great month!

March

The snow melted and, as much fun as it was, we were glad to see it go.  Spring arrived and we got a new sand box.  The kids played outside a LOT and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

April

We had lots of fun with Team Adventure in April.  Easter was a blast and the kids learned about homeless people.

May

The kids took their lessons on the less fortunate one step farther and did some volunteer work with a local organization that delivers food to AIDS patients.  We've been back since April and they continue to love it.  I learned that I don't enjoy playing board games with preschoolers.  Matthew had a birthday but I didn't post about it (or mine either).

June

What a crazy busy month!  Preschool ended and ballet began.  Camp prep started and we got a new babysitter.  There were more Team Adventures and a new climbing gym.  A great month, crazy but great.

July

Not much posting in July because we were busy at CAMP!!  My blog celebrated it's 6th birthday.  I learned about jowling.  We continued to deal with the kid's sleep issues.  And, while I didn't post about it, Matthew and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary.

August

Hannah turned FOUR!!  Christopher started KINDERGARTEN!!  And, I turned 36... but who's paying attention to that?

September

Hannah went back to preschool.  I finally blogged about her birthday party.  We had another really fun Team Adventure and Hannah went to her first O's game.

October

Christopher had a life changing October.  We spent Halloween with friends and had a blast.

November

Christopher turned SIX!  We participated in Operation Christmas Child.  The big events of November have yet to be posted.  Christopher fell out of a tree (over 10 feet up) and got a concussion.  It was on Pie Night, the start of the holidays around here.  I do have a Pie Night post waiting but the drama kind of got in the way.  Thanksgiving was great and Christopher is just fine.

December

Wow, if you've read this far... THANKS!  December has been a lot of fun.  We cooked a lot, snowmen and belly button cookies.  Christmas was a blast (and is waiting to be posted).  Our family ornament exchange was great and we've been enjoying lots of down time around the house.

2011

I hope you all have a fantastic New  Year!  I'm looking forward to lots more crazy kids, funny stories and (hopefully) great pictures.

Kids Say The Darndest Things #53

A couple of months ago the kids were begging to go to a park and I told them they could go play out in Main Street Park. They were confused because they'd never been to Main Street Park before. We explained the joke - since we live on Main Street* then our backyard is Main Street Park. I only had to tell them once and now they refer to the back yard as Main Street Park all the time. The other day when it started raining Hannah piped up, "I guess we won't be going to Main Street Park today!"

(For those of you who know me IRL, I know I don't live on Main Street, I just didn't want to post my address on the internet.)

C: Mom, Hannah said, 'Oh my God.'

Me: You don't have to tell on her, just let her know that's not something we say.

30 seconds later.

H: Mom, Christopher said, 'Oh my God.'

C: That's because I was praying.

When Hannah is playing alone she says the greatest things. The other day I overheard her say, "My feet are very cold, I said to myself." Like she was reading it out of a book. And last week I turned around to find her kneeling on the floor with her hands together in prayer and her eyes closed. When I asked her what she was up to she whispered (without opening her eyes), "I'm being Mary."

Driving to Grandma and Grandpa's on Christmas day I said to Christopher, "That headstand you did at Nana's this morning was awesome! I didn't know you could balance for that long."

And he replied, in an off hand tone, "Yeah, some people find me impressive."

Christmas Ornaments 2010

My family has a long standing tradition of exchanging handmade ornaments on Christmas morning.   You can read the back story here.  The ornaments this year were awesome!!

My ornament was a melted snowman.  It seems to be my theme this year.

Andrew and Ping made these rock star ornaments in honor of my nephew Silas' recent obsession with guitars.

Stacy made cute little cupcakes out of salt dough and seed beads

Dave and Julie made snow globes out of ping pong balls and flicker tea lights.  They actually turn on and flicker on the tree.  The hand painted snowmen and trees were also amazing.

Chris and Corinne made adorable little penguins out of styrofoam balls and felt.

Our friend Theresa made beautiful crosses out of sticks, wire and heart charms.

Last but not least, for her first Christmas with our family, our friend Cree made little wedges of cheese out of clay.  In honor of our family's obsession with cheese.

Nice job one and all!!

Pine Cone Cheese Ball

Every year at Christmas, for as long as I can remember, my mother in law has served a cheese ball dressed up like a pine cone.  It fascinates me!  Yummy cheese, salty almonds, a fun pine cone shape, what more could one want in a cheese ball?

Then one year we got there a little early and she asked me to make it.  YIKES!  She handed me the ingredients, gave me minimal instructions and went back to the dinner preparations.

Deer in the headlights.

Seriously people, the whole pine cone cheese ball legacy was resting on my underqualified shoulders.

I quickly learned that the pine cone cheese ball is super easy to make and everyone loves it!  This year I finally remembered to take pictures of the process.

Start off with a serving dish, a 12oz container of spreadable cheddar and a 6oz can of roasted salted almonds.

Dump the cheese onto the serving dish and use a butter knife to mold it into the shape of an egg... or a PINE CONE!  It doesn't have to be perfect because you're going to cover up the surface of the cheese with almonds.

Press the almonds into the cheese taking care to overlap each row.

Stick a sprig of evergreen into the back and VOILA!  The perfect dish to bring to a holiday party!

Give it a little face with olives or green peppers an it could be a hedgehog and you can take it to a party in the spring.  Didn't take a picture of that.

Merry Christmas

Christmas #1 (at home with the kids, Aunt Stacy and Miss. Aunt Cree) was excellent!

Christmas #2 (at Nana and Grandpa's with cousins, aunts, uncles and friends) was also excellent!

We're home now for some much needed down time before heading off to Christmas #3 (at Grandma and Grandpa's with cousins, aunts and uncles). And, I'm sure that will also be excellent.

I have the best family ever.  Seriously.

Merry Christmas Friends!

The final Christmas card pic... taken last summer, on Hannah's 4th birthday.

Family Game Night 3 - Review

I was recently given a copy of Family Game Night 3 by Hasbro to test out on our Wii and review*.   Since our kids have been playing Family Game Night 2 this past year I knew we would love Family Game Night 3!

The new version of the game is once again hosted by Mr. Potato Head and is set in an amusement park.  Five traditional games, and remixed versions, are included in this new release: Game Of Life, Clue, Mouse Trap, Twister and Yhatzee Hands Down. 


Everyone knows how I feel about playing board games with preschoolers.  YIKES!  But, for a couple of years now Christopher and I have really enjoyed playing games together on the Wii.  Now that Hannah is getting older and getting the hang of the controls she asks to play Wii too.  One of my favorite things about the Family Game Night series is how much fun we have playing games that would drive me NUTS if I had to play the regular version!

The kids really like the animations of Family Game Night.  Mr. Potato Head is cool and the games come to life with excellent graphics and fun camera angles.  Christopher (age 6) is at the young end of the target demographic for this game.  He is able to understand some of the games and others are over his head.  Hannah (age 4) likes to watch and sometimes hold the controller while someone else plays.

My kids have never played any of the originals of the games in Family Game Night 3 (unlike FGN2 where they were familiar with the real life versions).  However, they had no real problems getting into the games.  The Game of Life is Hannah's favorite and the one she was most able to understand.  Christopher really, really liked Clue and Mousetrap.  Twister was hard to pick up and Yhatzee Hands Down was over their heads.

Most games come with a quick version and a full length version which is great when playing with little ones or within a time frame.  I will say that you should play the full length version of The Game of Life if you really want to have fun and that Clue has no quick mode.

The games also have remix options when you get tired of standard play.

I'm definitely looking forward to playing this game over the next many months.  The more they played the more they understood so it stands to reason that it will become more and more entertaining.

Check out this trailer!


You can purchase Family Game Night 3 on Amazon for about $35.

*Family Game Night 3 and a link to the Hasbro website: provided by Rocket XL. The review was all mine :-)

Oh! The Christmas Food!

Here are some things I desperately want to EAT for Christmas.  Or for lunch.  Today.

The Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies from Annie's Eats look amazing.  I've never tried to make my own marshmallow but these may be just the cookies to make me give it a shot.

I seriously love Peanut Butter Buckeyes and the ones from The Arthur Clan make me want to climb up into the computer to try a few... or maybe just lick the screen.

I'm an eggnog fan so these Eggnog Cupcakes from Annie's Eats look pretty darn perfect.  Yes, I link to Annie's eats a lot.  She makes great food.

Our Best Bites is another one of my favorite food blogs and these Sugar Cookies are only one of the many reasons why.  They look bite-sized, so I could eat six or eight of them and it would be like just one regular cookie, right?

Whenever we go to a fair my mom always buys a cone full of something like these Cinnamon Almonds and Cashews from The Pursuit of Happiness.  If I can make them at home, well... I might as well fry up a funnel cake and pour a big glass of fresh squeezed lemonade to wash it down.  YUM!

Aren't these the perfect little treats? I want to take Hot Chocolate On a Stick as a hostess gift to the next party I attend. Thanks Make and Takes for the great idea!

Now, this Roast Pumpkin with Cheese Fondue from Juniper Moon Farm might look a little out of place in a post about tasty holiday food but it's something I've only just heard about this season and I'd like to give it a try.

What do YOU want to eat for Christmas?

Christmas Is Coming!!!

I am SUPER excited for Christmas!  Our house smells wonderful, the tree is up and decorated, the presents have been purchased, the Christmas cards have been mailed.  I have lots of wrapping to do and ornaments to make and then... bring on THE DAY!!

My snowman treat post was featured today over on Small Fine Print.  Check out her blog if you have a minute.  She has lots of great crafts and ideas in her archives.  It's always an honor to be featured on another blog.  Makes me grin.

In other news... nope, there's really no other news.  Christmas is coming and I'm excited.  That's about it.

I'll leave you with the song we've been singing all week.  It's kind of an odd Christmas song but one my mom sang when we were growing up and my kids love it!  I can't find a YouTube video with the second verse but this one is great because... hello... it's the Muppets!  I posted all the lyrics my mom sang to us below. 




Christmas Is Coming
Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you!

Christmas time will soon be here
The lights are on the tree
Hang up your stocking for Santa Clause to see
If you haven't got a stocking a little sock will do
If you haven't got a little sock, God bless you!

Belly Button Cookies

A couple of years ago I posted a Belly Button Cookie how to.  Because we do it every year, here it is again, with bigger kids!

Ingredients:
9oz bag of small pretzles
12oz bag of peanut M&Ms
24 oz bag of Hershey Kisses

First get your kids to unwrap the kisses... without eating every other one.  Good luck with that.

Put all your kisses in a bowl.  Don't eat them all.  Again, good luck with that.

Spread out the pretzels onto a baking sheet.

Let the kids put one kiss on top of each pretzel.

Put the tray in the oven for 5 minutes at 200 degrees.

When the timer dings, have the kids put one peanut M&M onto each melted kiss.  Make sure you push each M&M right down to the pretzel so it all sticks together.   Tell the kids that they are making belly buttons.  Enjoy them laughing.  Send the kids into the bathroom six or eight times to wash their hands since they can't stop licking their fingers.

Chill the cookies.  You could put them in your fridge but at this time of year I just stick them in the garage for 15 minutes or so.

Enjoy the Belly Buttons!!  If you're going to share them with a friend, you might want to make two batches.

A Sunday Tribute to My Favorite Beverage

Thanks Factlets!