Piano Recital

Tonight was Emma's first Piano Recital with her new piano teacher. It was a much bigger group of students than she is used to. She still did a great job! Here she is with her teacher, Ellen Ortega.

Emma played two songs for the recital: Angels We Have Heard on High and Music Box Dancer. This is a video of the first song. The other video was much too big a file.

Happy Birthday Rebekah

Happy Birthday my sweet Rebekah!!

She wanted a Barbie Swan Lake cake. Here she is wearing her Swan Lake costume to match her cake. I decided this may be the last time she wants princesses for her birthday so I had better act now. I have been wanting to do these petite princess cakes for a few years now. So she got lots of little princess cakes. For he big "Barbie" cake I used a Wilton Doll Pick and a Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl.  For the petite princesses I used the actual Disney Princess polly pocket type dolls and Pampered Chef 1-cup prep bowls.

Rebekah got mostly all Brave (Princess Merida) stuff for her birthday. We invited the Williams and the Rosenlunds over to help us eat all of our birthday cakes. That's way too much cake for just the 4 of us! Most of the girls got their own petite princess which made them all very happy.

Hiking the AT

On the day after Thanksgiving, Clay planned to go hiking on the Appalachian Trail. He asked Emma if she would like to go. She said yes. He told her it would be about 10 miles and was she sure. She said yes. So off they went.

It was a beautiful sunny day, slightly warm and there was a lot to see.

Nice new trail shelters.

Beautiful view to the East. Had fun climbing on the rocks.

Emma was hesitant to get too close to the edge of the rock. Being careful is good!

Stopping for a snack break.

Just keep walking...

Lots of old rock formations along the A.T. Especially rocky in PA.

We finally made it back to the car. Should we just keep going?

Good things come...

...in large packages! 

The girls were so excited to see this huge dish pack box with their names on it. Inside was a doll bed for each of their American Girl dolls. This was a combined effort from their Auntie Heather (supplied the beds) and Grandma Chase (supplied the bedding). Thank you!!! 

Hats off to you

We had a lovely Mother/Daughter recognition night for Activity Days. We started off the evening with mothers and daughters making tea party hats like the English like to wear out of paper plates and bowls, ribbon, tissue paper, tulle, and fabric scraps. I loved the variety and creativity!

All likenesses to actual people you might know are purely coincidental. 

These are not the people you think they are.

After our parade of hats we enjoyed cheese, fruit, and finger sandwiches with hot wassail. While everyone ate we presented the girls with bracelets and charms for their achievements in the Faith in Gob program. I found a gal on Etsy_who_sells_the_bracelets for Activity Days. They are really cute and the girls were so excited to get them. 

Weird Science

Emma's favorite subject in school is science. As part of American Education Week parents are invited to come into the school to see what the kids are learning in class. Emma's class was dissecting owl pellets. If you don't know what owl pellets are there is a great song that her class learned to explain it. Click_here to listen and sing along. (Link does not work if you are receiving this via email).

I was thoroughly disgusted by this project. But Emma really enjoyed it. They found a jaw bone of a vole and lots of other pieces.

Family Pictures

Our good friend, Jeremy Rosenlund, agreed to take some pictures of our family for us. It was a beautiful day! We went to regional park close to our house that has some Civil War era ruins. So funny, but there were literally about 20 other groups taking photos at the same time. We all just took turns rotating through the different spots. Who knew it would be such a popular location that day!

Have you pinned it?

Have you been on Pinterest? I can (and have) spend hours looking at fun crafts, tasty recipes, and cool places to visit. I pin lots of things. And now I took some time to make some of the things I pinned.

My first project was a coaster tray seen here. Basically just a piece of wood with coasters glued on and a letter sticker in the corner for each member of the family. I liked that idea because I don't like sharing cups. But I also want to keep a glass out and use it all day long for water. I usually keep my cup on the  counter next to the fridge. And the girls frequently knock it over when they are climbing up to get markers or glue or paint or tape out of the cupboard. I found a storage_tray at Joanns that had 4 compartments. That solved the knocking over problem. I then used my Cricut and scrapbook paper to cut out initials for each of us. Then I used Mod Podge to glue and seal it. 

Another challenge in our house is organizing hair accessories. With two girls and one crafty mom, we have a lot! I looked around on pinterest, but there were not a lot of solutions for hair ties. I already had a ribbon_memory_board, but I didn't like the colors. So I tore off the ribbon, pulled out the buttons and  painted it. Then I added new ribbon to match. Now for the hair ties. I decided to use magnetic spice jars on a cute metal plate. I found this pink one at Joanns. Each spice jar contains a different type of accessory, from bobby pins to ties, to clips.

Finally, my friend just had a her first baby and I wanted to make a baby quilt for her. She put a beautiful vinyl tree mural in the nursery. I wanted a quilt to go with the theme. I found_this_one and loved it. I changed the colors. I also used my Creative Memories Circle Cutters to cut out the circles. I added quite a few more circles to the tree. I machine stitched everything. Here is my finished quilt.

Land o Lakes

On the 1st weekend of Nov 2012, Clay traveled to the Twin Cities to visit his friend Kris Nelson and attend the Michigan-Minnesota College Football game. Michigan won (of course), Go Blue!

It was a cold day in Minnesota for the game and we wore extra layers and gloves. The Hot Chocolate at the game was surprisingly good.

After the Football game, we drove down to Mankato, MN to see the Minnesota v. Minnesota State-Mankato Hockey Game. We ended up sitting right down by the Fox Sports North announcers. Clay realized to his satisfaction that EVERY...SINGLE...ONE...of the reporters was left-handed. And pointed it out to them, to everyone's delight (except his friend Kris'). 

It was a great weekend get-a-way.