Mrs. Cucinata has the right idea

So, this is what the landscape guys do during the winter....Mrs. Cucinata has the right idea.

Cardinal

Today I thought it would be nice to get a photo of a cardinal playing in the snow, but I will settle for one at the birdfeeder. They are skitish birds and don't stand still for very long.

The snow stuck!

Well, the snow fianlly got serious around here....and we woke up to a couple of inches. I found that if I shovel the driveway and then back into the garage,I have better luck of getting up the driveway.... At least we got to school without any trouble. Michael cleared the snow on my side and left his full of snow when he left so that we could compare which way the car liked better...but by the time got home, it needed to be cleared again.

Kaley, the photographer

Kaley has quite a way when it comes to taking pictures and is pretty good at taking them of herself.

Lunching with Lucy

We met Lucy and Gina for lunch (spur of the moment) at Nordies Bistro. It was fun to have a mommy/daughter lunch with our Macys CA connection friends.

Ainsley AKA " Violet Beauregarde "

Ainsley is turning into Violet Beauregarde from Ronald Dahl's book " Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

They have done some really creative projects in Ms. Hite's Advanced Reading Group. One of which was that the students had to choose a character from the book and write a letter to Willie Wonka. Ainsley's (aka Violet) letter to Willie Wonka addressed her love of chewing gum and that she starts to turn purple when Willie tells Violet that she can't have gum any longer. Looks like this really is starting to happen.

New Years Eve and the following day

Bowling on New Years Eve. We joined many All Saints parents for some New Years Eve Bowling. We went to Cam Asian Food in Sharonville and picked up some frozen egg rolls and potstickers, plus some steamed rolls...which weren't exactly what I thought they would be. The kids really liked the fortune cookies!!

Kaley and Maddie R.
Ainlsey and Maddie B.

Go Ducks

Ladybugs live in Cinci in the winter

As we were getting ready to address Kaley's vacation fingernails....we found this ladybug crawling on her door. Only in Ohio.....

Sylvia's Tamales

We got our tamales for Christmas Eve dinner from Sylvia's in Arizona. We had the cheese and green chili tamales and they were good!!! They sent a second batch today, so we'll have tamales for our Rosebowl Party! I found Sylvia's on Chowhound. Upon calling them and asking if they often ship to the East Coast, I was told that Sylvia was just on the Today Show...and business was booming. So, how's that for luck! Sure enough, the tamales arrived right on time.

http://www.sylviascanasta.com/

Today show blog:
http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12/07/2144208.aspx

going to my first sleep over

Ainsley was just a little excited going to her first sleep over at Annie's. Kaley was just a tad bit excited to have Ainsley go to Annie's too. After we dropped off Ainsley, Kaley said "good, now it is just the three of us"!

Ainsley as a redhead

Ainsley did a book report on Anne of Green Gables and dressed in character. We braided this red wig and I tried really hard to be there for the report, but the teacher said "it is okay, we'll take care of helping Ainsley change into her costume"...so I didn't get to take a photo of her in costume :( But we have the red wig (we went to a vintage rental shop, and pieced the costume together) for dressing up.

Museum Center

The girls went to the Museum Center on Monday and had a blast. This was our second visit and still only made it through one of the three museums contained in the center. This time, we were in the Natural History Museum.

Kaley and Sophia are carving into sandstone.

Petting a black rat snake

Flossing some gigantic teeth

Inside the caves



Walls inside the bat caves.

Up on the rooftop

This area is fanatic about its' sports. We came around the corner to our house last night after dropping off Ainsley at Annie's house and when, what to my wondering eyes should appear on the neighbors' rooftop, but the words OHIO - not many duck fans here. My rebuttal....GO DUCKS.

Hiking at Caldwell Preserve

Santa brought daddy a book "60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Cinci'. We used it the day after Christmas to hike at Caldwell Preserve. Can't waste a nice, sunny- no wind 34 degree day, now can we???

Inside the gate pole, we found a wasp hive.

Wake up announcement Christmas morning.

The time.... 3:00 A.M.
The place....mommy and daddy's bedroom
The announcement by Ainsley..... "HE CAME!!!!" "GET UP" "IT'S TIME TO OPEN PRESENTS!!!!"

It was a long day Christmas day, but considering that the girls had been up late ( 11 pm- bad parents) the two nights before Christmas (watching Christmas shows), and then being up so blasted early...they did great! Could it have been the karaoke machine and Wii,which Santa brought? Most likely!
Tracking Santa on NORAD. The girls were happy to be living closer to the East...that way Santa would come sooner.


All Saints has a "Santa's Workshop" the first week in December where the students can bring in a few dollars and "shop" for their family members. I helped set up and it was really quite an operation. The committee shops all year long and then offers these great gifts for the students. The moms do a really great job at finding nice, quality items and then offering them for $1 or $2. The kids had a ball. Kaley bought Ainsley a Red Panda stuffed animal and Ainlsey bought Kaley a stuffed animal hamster. Michael ended up with monogramed "dad" hankerchiefs (from Ainsley) and a "dad" pen from Kaley. I got a #1 mom purse sized notebook from Ainsley and a #1 Mom bracelet from Kaley. The girls were delighted to see our excitement over the presents they had "shopped" for. It was fun!!!

Sing with me "YMCA"....over and over and over and over....
The Karaoke machine is neat- it has a video camera so the girls can see themselves on the tv screen as they sing.


One very tired Ainlsey by the time dinner rolled around
!

Christmas Eve and getting ready for Santa

We had a very productive Christmas Eve. In addition to having everything come together...we also made cookies for Santa. Peanut Butter Brickle cookies. Lighting the last candle of the advent wreath at dinner with the Spatz family

There was no containing Kaley after Mass. She was so excited to be joining the Spatz family for Christmas Eve dinner. Thank you Spatz family. We had a wonderful time. The food was delish and the company was enjoyable. We appreciate you sharing your family with us.

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