Wordless Wednesday

Enchanted Forest and Oatmeal

Have you ever played Enchanted Forest?  If you have not you are missing out!  We had this game growing up and it was a favorite.  Just having the world ENCHANTED in the name makes it special!  The game is made by Ravensburger and I just love their games and puzzles.  My parents bought this for Syd for Christmas and her and I played on afternoon.
Under each tree is a picture and you have to travel around the board peeking under trees and remember which item is where so that when the card is up in the castle you can travel to the castle and reveal where the item is.  The first person to get 3 item cards wins.

It is great for learning to add- each time Sydney rolled I had her count the dots on the dice and then count her spaces.

It is definitely a challenge to remember what picture is under each tree.

while we played enchanted forest Griffin played oatmeal

and boy did he have fun!

does your family have any favorite games?

New Year's Eve Party

Instead of going out we hosted the Parkers for a New Year's Eve Party.
Ellie and Garret

Bill and I

Bacon wrapped dates stuffed with goat cheese-yummy- thanks Ellie

We played Pictionary- which as a hoot.

the kids enjoyed watching

and also scribbling some pictures themselves

My dear friend Ellie

Sydney and I

Syd's turn at the board

We had so many yummy snacks: bang bang shrimp, jalapeno poppers, brie, and of course Margarita's

for dessert I made crepes with strawberry sauce and a cream cheese and yogurt filling. 

Our evening was over by 10 but we had a fabulous time with friends and our kids.

windows

We are the proud owners of 4 new windows! 
The windows in our house have all been painted (by me) white and shut.  The grids are just the wooden snap in grids and some of them are broken, plus we have no screens and I cannot reach the top floor windows to clean them on the outside.

The windows on the chimney side of the house were in desperate need of repair because the wood around the window was rotting.  We would love to be able to replace all the windows at once but we have 20 some windows in our house so we are doing 1 side of the house at a time. 

I love the new windows- the grids are between the glass, we have full screens and I can tilt them in and clean them from the inside!

this is one of the older ones that is actually in okay shape- the wood is intact just peeling- Bill was home when the guys came and he did not take before pictures.  Oh well.

Bill used to sell windows so he knew just what we wanted and he measured them for the guy and we got a great price.  Yeah! 

seeing stars

I was inspired by this idea on Little Birdie Secrets blog

and I decided to make a new wreath for the front door
I cut a circle out of cardboard and glued a few flat stars to cover the cardboard then I added the dimensional stars

I decided not to embellish mine- what do you think?

see the dimension

since I was having so much fun making stars I decided to add some to the kids rooms

I want the kids to see the stars I made for them and remember they are a star to me!

simple but fun projects for the new year

first professional cut

I have been trimming Griffin's hair and my mom cut it once but it is curly and layered and I got to the point where I did not feel confident.  So I took him to Lisa and he got his first professional cut.

he was very still and quiet

it turned out cut!

do you cute your kids hair or take them to a professional?

together

two peas in a pod

these two love being together

big sis and little brother

there is nothing I love more than seeing them together