Ms. K's class made polar bears today.  They started by stirring together shaving cream and glue.

Then add tissue torn into small pieces...

stir some more (gotta be careful with that tissue)!

Spread it on a small styrofoam plate.

Add googly eyes, and ears and nose cut from paper and viola!  Cute little polar bear!  This will need to sit for a few hours or overnight to dry, but the texture is neat when it is done.  Soft, smooth and a little springy.

Ms. G's class was... let's say... spirited...

Here they are passing a ball around the circle playing a game called "This is a (blank)."  "A what!?" "A (blank)." "Oh! A (blank)!" 

They practiced using expression and fluency.  It was fun.  

I will leave to your imagination some of the things they pretended this ball to be...  

Make sure to give your kid's teacher an extra hug on below zero days.  It was almost torture for these kids to stay inside all day!

Today I'm working on our year end inventory at Dave's.  It is not so much fun, and I am procrastinating on the final and most time consuming step.  

I'm listening to this...

Eminem??? I don't think so...?

I find myself doing this...

I am thankful that I am sitting next to this...

Did you know that open enrollment period in Wisconsin is from February 6th - 24th?  

Here's some information on that.  

Now back to work for me!

Before and After

I LOVE before and after pictures.  People makeovers, house makeovers, room makeovers.  Doesn't matter.
This room that I am sitting in right now has been a toy room, dining room, living room, piano room... throw-everything-in-it-so-it's-out-of-the-way-room.  You name it, it's been in here.
It was going to be Dave's 'man cave'.  NOW it is going to be my craft room. (he can have the basement :)

It all started like this...

This is Chanse and Charish!  Looks to me like they are about 6 and 3.  There was styrofoam under the paneling on the outside wall.

When we bought this house in 1999 there was paneling on every wall, and carpet on every floor (except the kitchen).  If only I had taken pictures of every room!  Sadly, I didn't.

Flash forward to 2012...

The window was replaced with a patio door that goes here...

(the crazy looking thing on the left is the trampoline leaning up against the deck.)

Anyway...at one time this wall was nicely painted.  Then our sweet little Eli got up in the middle of the night and turned the water on in the sink upstairs while we were all sleeping.  I woke to Gavin frantically telling me that the whole bathroom upstairs was full of water!  The bathroom is directly above this room, the water went behind the plaster and caused it to bubble so we had to scrape it all off.  It also filled the light fixture in the center of the room, and was coming out the electric boxes in our bathroom downstairs.  

Oh, Eli.  He does things like this a lot.

So my task today was to tackle this shelf.  It was moved here from our living room.  It used to hold our homeschool supplies and books.  Now it is just a mess.  It holds everything.

And here is the big reveal...

Okay, okay, I know I still have random stuff stacked on top.  And it would be a better story if the wall was fixed and there was base trim... I can't help it, I only had one afternoon!

Here's my favorite part...

Isn't that great!  I know, I'm a dork.  Yes, they're glass.  We'll see if we have any accidents.  I'm saving the broken crayons for a project... never thought I'd be happy to see broken crayons, but I am! 

I get so excited over the littlest things.
Don't you want a better look?

In the back row are tin cans Mod Podged with scrapbook paper.  That was fun... and messy... hence, no pictures.  At the end of the school year I won't cringe when they bring back their used crayons and markers.  I have a place for them!

While I was looking for pictures of the dining room I saw lots and lots of pictures of the renovations we've done around here.  

It is so fun to look back and see how much different things were.  Makes me think of another renovation that took place about ten years ago.  I was looking for answers to questions about life.  Why there is so much sorrow and strife.  What is life really about?  Why am I really here?  I met someone who introduced me to scrapbooking.  

She also explained to me all of the things that I hadn't learned on Sundays.  

And I prayed.  

My life has changed.  I have been renovated.  It takes time, but now I know what life is really about, and why I'm here.  

The first picture reminds me of me before I knew Jesus.  Dark, stained and ugly.  The last picture reminds me of me now.  Getting shaped up, but still some work to do.  Counting it all joy.  When things are stressful and challenging and I think I'm not doing anything right I try to remember this:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish it's work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  
James 1: 2-3

I long for the peace of knowing Christ for you.  There is no makeover like it - or more important.

Back to school with Gavin and Gracie.  Love the snowman Ms. K!

Ms. G really put me to work today.  Cut, cut, cut.  But it was fun to sit in the corner and be a fly on the wall.  The kids don't notice me much anymore, so I feel like I get to see what it is really like in Gavin's classroom.  It. is. good.

There were a lot of extra things going on in my previous days at school so I hadn't gotten to see what really goes on in the morning yet.  They crammed a lot of learning into the date, time, weather, etc.  The kids had such good questions and observations.  My favorite thing that happened today was when Ms. G told someone to 'kiss their brain' after a really good observation.  They both kissed their hands and patted their heads.  Love it.

I got to hang out in the kindergarten room for a bit, and sit with them at lunch.  They had a few minutes of free time before lunch so they played Heads Up 7-Up!  I don't even remember the rules anymore!  They loved it.  It's great how something so simple can be so much fun.

I love watching Gavin work.  I am proud to be his momma.

We celebrated the freshly fallen snow with some snow man art. 

This was so much fun we did our own at home this weekend!

 Oh, Eli.  I love it.  He does this a lot.

(Charish, Me, Eli, Gracie, Gavin.)

It was another great week full of running back and forth to school and other activities.  We've added wrestling for Gavin and piano lessons for Charish and Gavin.  What am I thinking?!  I'm thinking I can't wait to hear them practice the piano every day.  Really and truly will be sweet sounds in my ears.

Birthday Celebrations

My favorite pictures of this week:

This was a very eventful week.  We celebrated Gavin and Gracie's birthdays with our family.  I love this picture of them with their cousins.  Everyone is so engrossed in the lighting of the candles.

This is a great picture of my Grandma Turben.  My eyes always give away my level of tiredness.

No hiding it.  She is 82.  I hope I look that good at 82.

I love making fun cakes.  I got to practice these first for my niece and nephew's birthdays.  Can't say they turned out any better the second time, but it was a little quicker.

I am still learning with my camera and it shows.

They share December 12th for their birthday.  Gavin had school that day, but Gracie didn't.  

Isn't this the expression we all hope to capture?

We made it a tradition to take Chanse and Charish out to eat on their birthday a few years ago and Gavin and Gracie caught on to it this year and have been begging to go to Chuck E Cheese.

We did not eat there, however.  We talked them into eating at Carlos Okelly's.  It wasn't hard.  
Have you had their fried ice cream?  I hadn't.  YUM.  I'd better not go back any time soon.

Later in the week I was at school with Gavin and Gracie.  I was there for the last full day before Christmas break.  They got to watch The Polar Express and everyone dressed in their pajamas.  It was a really fun day.

The 4Kers are usually split up and go either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday.  This day they were all there together.  Ms. Kundert paired up kids from opposite classes for their "Hello, Neighbor" song.  It was really sweet to see Gracie and her new friend.  They were both so shy at first but they stuck together for the rest of the day!

 I LOVED this part of the song.  A little hip bump - so cute.

Lois is a volunteer in the 1st grade classroom.  She read The Polar Express to them.

After lunch all of the Promise Center kids went into Ms. G's room to watch the movie on her Smart Board.

They took a snack break....

Don't these girls look tired?

... and then we finished the rest of the movie.

I joined in on the pajama theme.  I could hardly stand it by the end of the day.  Wearing pajamas all day is not for me.  

Birthdays are so special.  When I was growing up we opened our presents right away in the morning.  We usually got something new to wear to school and something else we were looking forward to.  My grandma Turben would always call us before the bus came and wish us happy birthday.  I loved that phone call.  I wonder what your birthday memories are?  I hope you'll tell me :)