December 2020

 Decorating for Christmas

The kids and I decorated the house for Christmas together. They loved hunting through the ornaments and talking about their favorites.

 

Just snuggling with Punky

 

Wonder: Language Arts

 

After we read the book Wonder we watched the movie together. It was a really fun book to read and discuss.  The kids thought it was great to get to eat a snacky lunch on the couch and watch a movie and it wasn't even a Friday.

Right before Christmas we also read the graphic novel, El Deafo. The kids loved it and we will likely check it out from the library again.

Gingerbread Houses

I love continuing the tradition of making gingerbread houses. I now make them out of buckwheat so that they can be gluten free. The kids hover when they see that I am baking and getting them ready. This year I made myself a house so that I could do it with them!

My House

 August's House

Riley's house

Nora's House

 

December 12th Snowfall

The kids were so excited to see enough snow to play in! They can spend hours outside trying to build things. We ended up going sledding as a family the next day. I didn't take the time to take pictures of that but it was a lot of fun!

The kids first flight with Dad: December 20th

On another occasion the kids asked how planes fly and Keenan explains the principles of flight to them.

Before their flight he showed them what he does for pre-flight of the plane. They each got to go on a short flight with him and it was really special.

Decorating sugar cookies: December 22

 Riley likes to make each cookie look like a work of art. Nora likes to use a lot of sprinkles. August really took his time making his cookies special also. They look forward to picking one out to eat and Nora likes to share so she is always offering me one of hers.

 

Ada Hayden December 22

Mom came up for a spur of the moment visit. She bought pizza at lunch and brought Riley a gluten free Aldi one. We decorated cookies in the morning and the kids and I went outside off and on to visit. Then after lunch it was just such a beautiful day that we wanted to take the opportunity before it got cold the next day and we went to Ada Hayden to walk and look for geese. There were a lot of geese but someone got close to them shortly after we got there and they all took off in a hurry. It looked amazing to see that many take off at once though. We had been discussing that migration is one thing that animals do during the winter and wanted to see if there were any left in Ames. 

It was great to visit with Mom and to spend part of the day outside on a warm December day! I hope maybe we will get another one but if not I guess we will try to get out anyway.