She'll be so excited!

Aisling made some bird feeders the other day at girl scouts. As her co-leader, I can attest to the fact that the girls enjoyed making these feeders, and were very excited about helping their animal friends find food in the cold winter. They were also EXTREMELY messy to make! (Imagine 13 5-8 year olds covered in peanut butter and bird seed....!) But, also extremely easy to make.

The first one she made was this one:It's a bagel covered in peanut butter and bird seed.

Next was this one:

This is a pine cone also covered in peanut butter and bird seed

Finally was this:It's yarn with cereal and bagel pieces strung along.

We've definitely seen an increase in the bird traffic since she put these up! Today though, I was home with a sick Siobhan, so I was able to actually see some birds at the feeders. (Hopefully my boss isn't reading this, since I am "working from home" right now... but I couldn't resist!) Aisling will be so excited to see what her bird feeders were up to when she was at school!

I was using the little snapshot camera, so there wasn't a huge zoom, and I obviously didn't want to disturb the birds. But, I think it's a good testament to Aisling that her bird feeders will helping our bird friends. I think we will most likely make these again at home; they are so easy and obviously they work!

Cake!

Connor had his annual Cub Scout cake bake last night. Last year, when he had this cake bake, he ended up unable to go, because he spent the evening vomiting. But, not to worry, this year he took care of the vomiting the week before the cake bake, so we're in the clear.

The theme for the year was "Big Change Round Up". The cake bake is part of a big fundraiser the Cub Scouts do for The Vermont Children's hospital, and that's the theme. Check it out here. The children's hospital is near and dear to my heart, having taken such good care of my breathless babies... but that's another story.

This story is about cake. Connor did nearly all of the work on this cake himself. He was very proud of the cake, and I am very proud of him!

Cracking eggs.
(The cake was free of eggshells you'll be happy to know!)

Yep, he's turning on the oven.
We may regret this later.
Obligatory bowl licking.
(I promise this happened
after the cake was out of the bowl
Well, most of it did...)
Frosting:
Finished Product:
Proud boy:
Connor's cake at the auction table.
(We bought it back for $10.00.
Something seems wrong about this...)
Dr. Lewis First was there to help kick things off
and auction off the winning cakes. He seems like a really nice guy.
He was able to get someone to pay $80.00 for a cake,
So he's a pretty good money wrangler too.
Of course there was cake eating too.

Connor did a great job. His cake didn't win any prizes (last year he won second place in his den). But, he told me that he was still really proud of his cake. Not bad for the world's biggest perfectionist!

12 days of chaos

Although I realize that Epiphany (and the end of Christmas) was a few days ago, I've never been on time for anything at all, ever, so will post my 12 days of Christmas post today.

On the 12th day of Christmas my family gave to me:
12 different kinds of candy to decorate our counters gingerbread house

11 days of school vacation
(during which I managed not to kill any of my children!
A Christmas miracle indeed)

10 Various types of ornaments on the kids' Christmas tree
(that may be an underestimate)
9 Treats for Santa
8 Happy second cousins!
(Well, 9 if you count the little guy in the back...)

7 People opening presents on Christmas morning!
(Meaning: huge mess of wrapping paper and extreme excitement.
It's a wonder no pieces were lost!)

6 Pounds of sugar eaten
(Per child per day)


5 Children who mostly sat through church
(jumping and yelling during Silent Night
is acceptable when you're two, right?)
4 nice warm Snuggies
3 Excited children
2 excited babies

1 Very happy holiday season

I realized I never really wrote a post about Christmas itself. I think that's probably because I am still recovering from Christmas itself. We had a great time, but it was so crazy. Aisling and Wyatt were both pretty sick over vacation. Neither of them were able to go to church on Christmas eve. Therefore, I was also not able to get any pictures of the kids in their Christmas outfits. Aisling and Siobhan both had matching dresses that also matched dresses for their dolls; totally cute.

We generally tend to not take a lot of pictures on Christmas morning either. I don't know how people are able to get their kids to sit nice and still in their pajamas in front of the Christmas tree in the morning. My kids won't sit still long enough to eat, let alone sit for a picture. Christmas morning in our house is spent opening stockings, and then running around the house begging for Poppy to arrive so the gift opening can begin. It's the longest 3 hours of my life!

I think that the highlight of this particular Christmas season, though, was the following conversation I had with Connor. We, like most families, can get caught up in the consumer side of Christmas; it's easy to do with so many young kids in the house. We are also, however, a family that goes to church regularly and has open conversations about our faith and beliefs. I was thrilled then when Connor was able to explain to me what Christmas was about. I have gotten the stock answer of "Jesus' birthday" since the kids were in pre-school. This year, however, Connor explained to me that Jesus' birthday is important because "Jesus died for us, and that's pretty special".

I'd say he gets it.