Cooking and Crafting

The holidays are filled with events and food and expectations and schedules, but spreading a bit of cheer as our days dwindle to a mere 10 hours of sunlight feels imperative!

I made these cheesy pull apart bites a couple of times, for William's robotics, my mom's meeting, and for new year's!  They went over pretty well each time, and the peppers helped balance the platter, I thought! 

These cracker penguins were a Kroger magazine recipe.  They were so cute!!! 

Despite all of my other children requesting seasonal things, Alice's big request was for me to make egg fried rice, in the middle of the day, to offer to her history class.  They had been researching cultures, and the teacher said that they could bring in themed food one day, which turned out to be a snow day, so this was a week delayed.  Alice did all of the prep work, so I just had to make it and deliver it, though that was a cold job!

My mom signed up to bring cookies for cookie time, and picked some fancy recipes for her and the girls to make!

As the new year approached, we changed our Christmas star decoration into New Year's star decoration.

I finally remembered to not remove the random sugary items in my cart, so that Alice could make her donut snowmen!

I tired my hand at woodburning, but didn't love either result.  

Grace made molly a tiny handkerchief from some scrap fabric and a sticker.

Billy's exceptionally fancy, interactive birthday card from Juliet.

Billy did the CAD work on some adorable charms to give to Kristy for her birthday!  The goat was a shelf decoration that he was able to resize and make into a charm.  The Olmsted Homestead he had to modify a few times before we got a working product.

Both of them came out so cute, and I was so happy to present them to her when we went out for coffee!

Once we tore down the murder mystery party decorations and Billy opened his birthday cards, I broke out the Valentine's boxes to fill for my dear ones.  Refilling them is cheaper than buying new, and I get to pick the candies!

Since I could smell the artificial fruit flavors coming off of the air heads, I took those out and wrapped them up to keep the chocolate from being tainted.  I did have to put a cardboard placeholder, to keep the chocolates from sliding around.  Having the next holiday ready to go, even though it's a month early, makes me very happy!

Another Kroger magazine recipe was to cut a tortilla into snowflakes and bake it.  We added some cinnamon sugar, which made it tasty, but the addition of honey took it to another level!

My cooler bag handle ripped off one day, when I was just getting out the Aldi returnable!!! I was quite sad, but thought I could probably repair it.  It seems to be pretty sturdy at the moment, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the next handle goes. The bags are around $30 on amazon, and while I would wait to find one second hand, I'm happy that I get to keep my Texas bag a little longer!

Sometimes the organizational hacks online are brilliant, and one that I saw for organizing seeds looked awesome!  I found an old photo album for about $1.50 at the thrift store, and while it was bigger than I liked, it did have flowers on the cover!  It absolutely transformed my garden basket in the mud room, and now the seeds will be so much easier to find!!! 10/10 would recommend.

When my mom fell and broke her wrist on New Year's eve, they had to cut her out of her Alaska sweatshirt.  This saddened her enough that she cut the applique off  'to use for something.' So, at my next outing at the thrift shop, I tracked down a sweatshirt in her size whose color would complement the navy blue of the original swatch.

Once I trimmed and applied the cut decoration, it looked like someone had cut out a piece of sweatshirt, and put it on a new sweatshirt.  Which is exactly what I was doing, but in order to make it look more intentional, I cut a piece of handkerchief fabric that I had, to allow it to fray and act as a border.  I was super pleased with how it came out, but only secured it with a single line of stitching, in case my mom doesn't like it, or the sweatshirt is the wrong size.  When the single stitch fails, I can go back around and secure it in place a second time, with a more robust stitch.

I washed it after the application, to start the fraying process, but it's going to be stringy for a few washes.

Since my mom is currently (1-19-26) in Texas and hasn't seen this yet, I'm going to schedule this to post sometime next week. = )  Grace has a whole package planned to surprise her with it!

It's been a nice season of creation, and in this new year, I'm happy to already have some completed projects under our belts!  Here's to a crafty new year!

later days

Other Fun Memories

This is the post of this round where all the small events get lumped together into this hodgepodge of a post.

Grace and Juliet brought home some 'energy saving' tools from school one day.  We couldn't use many of them (our faucets are abnormally shaped apparently) but the two of us did use some of the tape in the mud room to seal up one of the windows!

I bought a tub repair kit to curtail the rust at the edge of our tub.  It was staining my shower curtain, so something had to be done!

Billy sanded it down afterward, since I won't touch sandpaper.  It's better, at least it's not staining the shower curtain any longer!

I pulled this frame from a free pile, thinking the twins could maybe use it at their talent show.  Turned out they didn't need it, but I got some interesting 'frame' shots of Emily and William.

In the basement, I repurposed two of our book trolley baskets into wall storage for my fancy St. Lucia cake pan, and the new microwave egg dish.

Grace was sad that her cookie didn't have many chocolate chips.

But she was really happy to wear all of her new Hello Kitty gear to school after her birthday.

Juliet wanted to try a new hairstyle.

So did Grace! ; )

One weekend, Emily had dance on Saturday and Sunday!  She had to be there the entire rehearsal on Saturday, and then two performances on Sunday.   As expected, she was awesome! Billy and I watched her earlier performance.  Billy was impressed by some of her flips that she's been working on all year. 

After the first show, were given the gift of precious time by Nicole.  She offered to bring Emily home after the later performance, since she and Abby were going to stay between shows.  I was super thankful!

Our family can now travel internationally! Watch out world! ; )

One afternoon, right at pick up time, a tornado warning came through.  It was such that the buses returned to the school, and parents who were in the pick-up line were brought inside.  I was in the line, and came in to be with my girls.  The rain was coming down hard, and lots of kids were nervous.  Once I tracked down my girls, I had them move together, somewhere we could all three be together.  I offered smiled and reassuring words to those who knew me and looked like they needed it.

Thankfully, the storm quickly passed, during which time the big kids also went into lock down, and they couldn't find Alice (because she's in the high school* hallway during that time) so they called me, but eventually found her.  She had been texting me, so I told her to make sure they knew where she was. 

We had to stay in lock down for about 30 minutes after the worst of it, so my girls, as did many others, started creating some art. 

I found Emily some angel wings at a rummage sale!  They hang on a wall though, so they are quite heavy.  And they are one sided, not really a good costume piece.

Once afternoon Heleena came over, and they used their magic show boxes as race cars while playing the Wii.

One spirit day, the three older kids were supposed to dress in team colors.  Apparently, Alice doesn't have any blue clothing, so she opted to paint her face blue.  And, of course, straight blue would be lame, so she gave herself a nose star in a nod to the Somalian flag.

Grace was juicing the aging oranges to make some fresh juice for everyone!

I found Archie some formal wear at one of the rummage sales!  This is his 'dinosaur' theme, but he also has a patriotic and Halloween version.

Grace was exchanging messages with Avia one day, and Grace ended up drawing a Ramberrie for some reason.?

One of Grace's birthday gifts was a USA tumbling set for her doll Molly.  One day I found a girl sized Olympic windbreaker suit.  Grace was delighted!  I told her she looks like she could be Molly's manager. = )

Last year, I found Grace an instamax camera for $10 at the state sale. I was so excited, I bought her some photo cartridges, tested it out with Emily, to make sure it worked, then sent it over to Sarah's to wait until Christmas.  Well, come Christmas time we can't find it anywhere.  = (  I think it must have been donated to the Love Clothing Center accidentally, because it is not anywhere in Sarah's basement that we can find.

Fast forward a few months later, Grace is shopping for one, because of course she still wants one, and I'm still sad about the other one.  We look one more time, without any luck.

The next day, I found a classic polaroid at the thrift store for $10.  A quick internet search helped me find some film at the nearby Target.  So, I spent over $20 for 8 picture sheets.... And ordered her one more, slightly cheaper, set online.

I'll still be looking for an instamax, since the film is cheaper, but she was one happy girl to finally have an instant camera, and it was still cheaper than buying a new camera + film.**

Every now and then, we will ride our bikes to the twins' school instead of walking.  On this day, I was wearing the skirt that I bought when Christin and I were shopping in Berlin.  = )

Grace found a water spill that resembled a heart and wanted to send it to Avia.

In Billy's old trumpet case, I found a Jump Rope for Heart flyer from the early 2000s!

I don't know what the occasion was, but I liked the picture of Grace with her chocolate bunny!

Grace also made some fry art for Avia.

Last year, just after William's weeklong nature field trip, my mom and I found some ponchos.  There were two of them, so we labelled them and stuck them in the basement for this year.  Well, had their field trip been at the same time of year, we would have missed them, but luckily it was cancelled and reworked, which turned out to be later in the semester.  Sarah found them and sent them our way.  

Of course, the twins wanted to try them out to make sure that they would work!

For Mother's Day, I sent pictures to Haley so that she could print magnets (of all the cousins) for Grandma's fridge.  She offered to send me a set while she was at it, and of course I wanted some!  I was excited to put them up! = )

At the beginning of May, I got an email that the company that I use to print my blog books was going out of business. = (  They were offering 50% off, and Sarah had me caught up to almost the present year.  By the time I got the books in order, they had upped the offer to 60% off, which was awesome.  So, now I'm all printed up to the end of 2023!  But I have to find a new book publisher^. = (

Last week, I learned that if a container has two stickers, that it actually stacks!  So, I got two pizzas for $7 at Aldi!!!  Is it the best pizza, no.  Does everyone like pizza? yes.  And it was a good deal, so: win.

Alice had her friend Melony over for the afternoon.  They went exploring in the 'bog' looking for frogs.  I think they both had a fun time!

Saturday night, Billy and I joined Steve and Natalie at Mark and Kim's for some Jackbox Games!  It was a really fun way to spend the evening. = )  We played lots of different games.  Kim and Mark were definitely the best!

The app is pretty neat, since you play it on your phone, it records various stats about your games.  Role Model was a game where we had to categorize each other, and got 'final' lab results. lol.

You could also have 'audience' members, and since Emily was bummed that she wasn't invited, I sent her the codes so that she could play with us, at least a little.  It wasn't as much fun for her, but it did allow her to mess with us at the party just a little bit.

Today was the final Memorial Day Parade we'll attend as an entire family!  Next year, Alice will be marching!!!! = O

It was chilly, and a little wet, but the parade still happened!

Whew, what a busy spring, and up next: summer!

later days

 *to add to the confusion, there is a high schooler who is also Alice C. (not the same name, but close enough.)

**I have finally admitted defeat, because Murphy's law should have kicked in as soon as she opened the second package of film, we would have 'found' the other one.

^since I had just started a new blog (since my other one was full) in August of last year, I was planning to change the cover anyhow, so now will be a good time to switch over anyhow!  I might print some overlap with the new one, so that this entire blog can have the same cover.  I did have to split the second half of 2023 into two parts, with all of the pictures that I posted from Germany.