112 minutes

Santa's Lodge. We waited in line for 1 hour 52 minutes to see Santa. What with one of Santa's elves being within a stone's throw, both kids were well behaved the whole time. You'd think the day before Christmas, the line would be short. It was in Greeley... oh yeah, that's because it was the Greeley mall where no one ever goes. Since I don't have Santa photos to put with this, here are some photos from earlier in the year:


These are from a gymnastics birthday party in November. Here, Max and the neighbor are having a contest to see who could keep their face in the snow the longest. When I went out to see what they were doing, looked a little odd after all, they decided to call it a tie. Seems like that would hurt, but both of them said it didn't.
This is from the trip to the Littleton Historical Museum.

Merry Christmas

These photos belong on Midi's page, but she's just so darned cute napping under the Christmas tree. Most of her trips under the tree involve batting at ornaments - the bottom foot or so of the tree is now ornament-less. Well, by my computer's clock, it is no longer Christmas Eve, so MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Now, off to bed, as Max will have us up very early.

Crazy hair day at school

Thursday was Crazy Hair day at school, the kids last day before Christmas break. Mom found a bottle of blue hair spray, Max made use of dad's gel, and both got a dusting of Ave's sparkly hair spray. When they got their hair washed, a day or two later, the shampoo lather was quite blue.

Stalactite

The stalactite. That wasn’t. But it was a darned interesting experiment. We dissolved a couple of tablespoons of baking soda (the king of kitchen chemistry ingredients) into 2 cups of water. Then we put paperclips on either end of a string of yarn, to weigh down the yarn, and strung it between the cups. Then we waited. This is day 1:

This is day 3:

This is day 5:

We had to conclude that Colorado, with its 19% humidity, is just too dry to make the stalactite. The yarn dripped for a little while, but not long enough. But the soda made the most interesting mushroom like formations. And yes, we ended up with two strings of yarn as the first piece was acrylic and didn’t wick water all that well. After a full week, we decided to experiment a little more. We added hot water to both cups, a little food coloring, and stirred up the solutions. The blue dye wicked through both yarn strings in just a few minutes and both yarns started dripping again. But, the next morning, the red dye had fought back, and had won one of the yarns over. Getting the water flowing again caused lots of the mushrooms to fall off, but they appeared to be rebuilding. But a week was long enough, and we dumped the lot down the kitchen sink. No stalactite, but some interesting good fun.

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's off to work I go...

Wow. I would have thought I would have posted scads of stuff whilst I was home. I didn't. For the first four weeks it was constant stress of trying to find companies that were possibly hiring to apply to. The last two weeks, having received and accepted a job offer, have been packed with projects, trying to get as much done as possible before returning to the normal routine of work. I'm really glad I got a job, particularly with all the bad economic news these days, but I will be a little sad to give up being a stay-at-home-mom. It has been nice to pick up the kids after school, have snack, and get homework done before dinner. Of course, getting up 90 minutes later in the morning wasn't too bad either. ;)

With a little luck, I will get some stuff from my 6 week 'vacation' posted soon. Stuff like the kids trying to make a stalactite. Great pictures of that kitchen chemistry experiment to share. I also finished painting my kitchen cabinets (yes, I actually finished a project). I finished knitting Ave's scarf (don't tell - it's going under the Christmas tree). I finished a project for Elise (don't tell her either - it will be going under her tree).

But, that's all for later, it's time for bed. And I have to get up early tomorrow.

oh so ugly

This guy, who lives at the Littleton Historical Museum's 1800's Farm, is really really unattractive. And unsocial. He really didn't like me or my camera. I think it is good that turkeys at the grocery don't look like this, or we would not have turkey for Thanksgiving.

We did have Thanksgiving, however, and it was lovely. Uncle Jeff came, with a delicious pumpkin pie (I believe G'ma Rita actually made it), and spent the day with us. Mostly he played Legos with Max.

The turkey was not ugly - it was juicy, flavorful and quite good looking. I don't remember making a whole turkey before, but DH says I have. So I suppose I have.

At Max's urging, we all took turns saying what we are grateful for, and despite recent setbacks, we do have a LOT to be grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

I'm back

This was the first 'measurable' snow of the fall. And you had to measure quick! The only trace left by the time the kids came home from school was a sliver of the giant snowball Max made before school. The kids were disappointed - they thought they'd make a snowman after school. But on the other hand, on Tuesday the weather was incredible - felt like summer. Ahh, Colorado. So, exactly how did this child get so cute?

If you look close, she's missing 1 front tooth in this photo. She lost the other front tooth yesterday. Really - lost it. Can't find it. She had it in the car on the way home, but where it went from there - we just don't know.

And where have I been since my last post? Yeah, got laid off. This recession just got a whole lot more personal this time. Heard a joke a long time ago: It's a recession if your neighbor gets laid off; it's a depression if you get laid off. Thank goodness DH is still gainfully employed. So, I've been working like crazy on finding any possible lead, however tenuous, writing cover letters, and applying for all sorts of jobs. On the up side, I rather like getting the kids right after school and getting homework done before dinner. Allows us to have an enjoyable evening after dad gets home.

Should be a post on Midi's page shortly too. :)