Cookie Baking Night 03/19/18

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo.

We switched up our order of events this evening. On this eve of the first day of spring, we decided to go for our first walk of the season before the sun went down. Uncle Greg was able to join us, and that was a treat. 

Greg picked up a very long stick and put it in the back of his coat. It looked like he had an antler coming of out of his head. 

This inspired the whole gang (especially the boys) to pick up sticks for the rest of the walk. 

Eventually Enzo had so many sticks, it took two hands to carry them. But, carry them, he did. He carried them on his shoulder for about a half mile. 

He said he was going to "put them in the campfire".

When we got to the house, Greg kept walking past the door. He said in a loud voice, "Everyone with sticks, follow me." 

And follow they did. 

He marched them back to the fire pit, which we could not see because it was covered in snow. Greg later confessed that he completely guessed at its location. He guessed with such confidence, no one was the wiser. 

Enzo was quite pleased with his accomplishment. Greg told him that sometime in the summer, we'll make a campfire in the backyard and roast marshmallows (okay, I added the marshmallow part, but I think that's a given). 

Once we got back home, we made our traditional "spring bird nests" with chow mien noodles, chocolate & peanut butter, and candy eggs. 

Clearly, Uncle Greg was the star of the evening. Truly, it's hard not to love him. I can see their point. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all (possibly even more fun than usual, if you can believe that). 

Cookie Baking Night 02/19/18

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo. After a few schedule conflicts, we finally celebrated Ethan's birthday (he turned 15 years old in the middle of January). For his birthday choice he wanted cheese pizza (with jalapenos) and peaches for supper. For his baking choice: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since the Winter Olympics are going on right now (Peoyong Chang, South Korea), we had our own version. We called it the Cookie Baking Winter Olympics. There was snowboarding (races with white rolled up socks balanced on a cutting board), speed skating (paper plates on the our feet made pretty good skates on the carpet), and the biathlon (scooting around on a rolling chair and taking three shots to make a basket at the end of the course--the fastest time won). 

There was a medal ceremony at the end. In this picture Ethan was awarded the gold (Twix candy bar), Carissa the silver (Three Muskateers candy bar), and Rylar the bronze (Snickers/peanut butter candy bar). 

As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Caregiving-The Lipstick 02/09/2018

 There was a lipstick on the table. When Papa-Larry and I walked out of the room, Mama found it. She still likes to look pretty. The hand might be a little shaky when it comes to applying it, but we think she looks beautiful. She looks like love to us. 

Cookie Baking Night 02/05/2018

Tonight was our first Cookie Baking Night of this year. In attendance this evening: Allison, Rylar, and Enzo.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we made peanut butter cookies with chocolate hearts in the middle. 

For our Bible lesson tonight, we read from "Does God know how to Tie Shoes?" by Nancy White Carlstrom. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it. It's a story of a little girl asking her parents questions about God. The parents answer each question from Scripture. 

Here's an example: 

"Does God know how to tie shoes, Papa?

By His Word the heavens and earth were made. He breathed and the stars took their place.

Mama, how does God talk?

Sometimes He whispers in a still, small voice. Like when you hold a seashell to your ear. Sometimes He roars over the water and His glory thunders." 

taken from Psalm 33:6 and Psalm 29:3-4

An added attention getter for our particular audience is that the little girl in the book asking the questions is named Katrina. The kids were surprised to hear my name in a book, and they giggled everytime they heard it. 

We finished the evening with a little art project taken from "365 Things to Make and Do" by Usborne books. This is also a book I highly recommend. It has a lot of fun ideas in it. 

We made robot pictures by cutting out various pictures from assorted magazines. 

We then assembled the pieces together into a robot shape. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Cookie Baking Night 12/18/2017

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night and our annual Niece and Nephew Christmas party. 

We started by making our own french pizzas for supper.

We decorated a Christmas bag to take home our goodies

Next, as is our tradition, we decorated a gingerbread house cookie

Enzo & Uncle Greg

Rylar

Allison

Uncle Greg

Ethan

Aunt Katrina 

Carissa

We played the dice game for small prizes

We read about the reason we celebrate Christmas to begin with (from the Bible). We learned how Jesus humbled himself and became a man. He started His life on earth as we all did, as a baby. When we sing classic Christmas Carols like "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" we're singing about the great Savior of the world who came to this earth to die for us, forgive us of our sins, and reconcile us to God. Oh, what a story! Oh, what a Savior!

And on that note of the Good News, we say: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.