Dan loses his first tooth

Dan lost his first tooth on Wednesday, right before the school bus came. He was pretty excited. He was the first boy in his class to lose a tooth.

Hal's Got "Skillz"

Hal started selling homemade wheat bread to his lunch table this week. The rumor spread that he has "Mad Skillz" at breadmaking. He has sold 11 loaves since Tuesday at $5 a loaf. He thought the gig was up when the lunch lady caught him but quick thinking saved the day. He gave her a slice and she is hooked. She ordered a loaf for the next day:)

Tawny Scrawny Lion

One of my favorite things about having all the kids in school is that I can now volunteer in the classrooms. When I had little ones at home this was never an option. Yesterday I had the privilege of reading in Dan's class. The Tawny Scrawny Lion is one of our families favorite books. Many of the kindergartners had not heard this book which kind of surprised me. They were all very excited to hear the book and could hardly wait for me to read the next page. One little boy in particular really wanted the lion to eat all the other animals and became very sad at the end of each page when that did not happen. It was hilarious and part of me wanted to make up an alternate ending just for him where the lion has delicious rabbit stew. Afterwards I went to Art Class with them and helped with their paper mache penguins. All the little kids kept asking me if I would get that book back out about the skinny lion. The best part.... Dan still thinks I'm cool:) I've still got him in the dark on that little secret:)

Snowstorm

20.2 inches of snow. The third most in Chicago history.

Dan 5 minutes after the cousins left

Dan had so much fun with his cousins over the holiday weekend. This is how we found him 5 minutes after the cousins left for Indiana. The second he woke up he wanted to know when we could see the cousins again:)

Christmas Eve Fun

We went downtown this morning to see Santa and the German Christmas village. Had a nice time, and left just as the snow started to pick up.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Christmas activities are in full swing at our house. I love Christmas activities except for one. That one is making Christmas Cookies with the kids. I hate the mess with icing everywhere and ending up with ugly cookies. I always have to guess at what character they have decorated. They don't like it much when I guess wrong and think their "Jesus" is a snowman. However things have changed. This year I went to a cookie exchange with some friends from church and one lady brought the most darling cookies. She called them Cookie Carolers. She makes sugar cookie dough and cuts off several chunks of dough and tints them different colors. The kiddos use the dough like play dough to make their amazing creations and then you bake. The kids loved this activity (even my teenagers). They had so much fun that they asked if we could call that our trial run and do it again. The best part for me is that it's not as messy and they turn out so cute. Love It!!!