Fun at the Crayola Factory

Hello! When my grandmother was just here we went to visit the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA. My grandmother used to live there with her father back in the 40's and my mom lived there with her mom and sisters when she was a kid too, so just driving around the town was very nostalgic for them. But since we had the kids in tow and we wanted to make more out of a long drive, we went to the Crayola factory in the same town. I really think it is more for kids who are older and can use scissors and glue and also not be tempted to put everything in their mouths (RJ). Nevertheless, we all had fun an blessedly it wasn't busy at all and we learned about a lot of Crayola Products we didn't know of previously (like did you know they have modeling clay/play dough like stuff called Model Magic which is awesome and ten times better than Pay dough will ever be??!)

Sorry about the picture quality but these were taken with my phone as I forgot my camera

Meemaw and Grand-Grammy

Coloring on the floors

Coloring on the walls with a lighted marker

Surfers

Motion sensing whatdoyacallit

All of us in it

Coloring on the plexiglass walls

running along and coloring

color explosion markers and paper

Just getting in and going to the small tutorial about how they make crayons. And Meemaw answered a question right and she got a box of 4 crayons...woo-hoo!

and this is just an old pic I got off of my phone and i love it. This is something he used to do often and we spent a long time trying to teach him to keep his shirt on; although the colder weather might have something to do with it too!

It's snowing inside!!

We have been as festive as possible this year and last night we started making it "snow" in the house. We found some really great online snowflake templates and these are just some of the ones we made last night. But my mom wants the whole downstairs to be covered in falling "snow" so we may need to make a LOT more!! Good thing they're so cheap!

Can you tell what they are? That's right, Snowmen holding hands! How awesome?!

Snow is falling all around...

Just finished this one for my niece. Hope she likes it as I think it's awesome!

Letters to Santa. This year we actually made out our letters to Santa and we found out that if you deliver them into a special mailbox in Macys' they will donate money for every letter delivered there. Hope you can see what RJ wrote; tried to play around with the picture and fix it but this is as good as it gets without photoshop! He asked for cars and a Buzz Lightyear.

This is Adas' letter. She didn't like me helping her write it as she has to do everything herself, but we got through it. Isn't it humbling? All she keeps asking for is chapstick and a toy (although after going to Ashers' chocolate store up near Harleysville, she has now added chocolate pretzels!)

She has been wanting a tutu for months! But I couldn't quite justify spending $10 on one but when we just recently stopped in to Old Navy she brought me this one. I hate/love the face she makes when she wants something, and so I looked at the tag: $14.50??! No way! So I told her we couldn't get it and she needed to put it back and instead of melting down or crying, she sadly said, "Ok Mama." She put it back and as I was passing them by, I noticed some had discounted tags on them. I looked at the other side of the tag of the tutu Ada gave me and it was $4!! She was so happy to get one I had a hard time keeping her from wearing it over her jeans. This past Sunday, she INSISTED on wearing it and even though it was the Sunday before Christmas, I let her. She wore it all day long.

Ok so Skye can knit just about anything you can imagine and this is what she has made for my nephew Bobby. We tried it on RJ to see how it fit him to make sure she had made it the right side (approximately anyway, RJ is much skinnier than anyone in our family, even though Bobby is almost 4 months younger than he is!) He wouldn't take it off after that; we had to wait a while before coming up with a viable excuse to him to take it off.

making more cookies. Josh has been asking me to make him these for a few weeks now.

playing with the trash. What is it with kids and boxes?!

At the Please Touch Museum. RJ loves: goats/sheep, cows, dogs and geese. So when he saw the goat on the carousel, he just about lost it!

And Miss Ada had to be on the cat

He Moo-ed at this cow for a few minutes as it was Moo-ing back!

See? Told you!

Going down the Rabbit Hole. The bottom floor is mostly themed for Alice and Wonderland.

Playing in the water

He had to have a duck!

Meemaws' birthday party! She wanted a Carmel Pear Cake for her birthday and I think it turned out really well!

He LOVES pizza!

Everyone loves an Ada kiss

Loving the decor. Sorry Skye but this pic was too awesome not to post!

She was surprised as her birthday was on Dec 12th and this party happened on the Thursday before as Will and Skye wanted to be there.

A bunch of friends over for cookie decorating/making. With so many kids and moms (we tend to talk a lot) we barely made any cookies! This picture is so funny! Ada and RJ wanted to see the cookies in the oven so they brought chairs over. Suddenly, every kid had the same idea and they were all anxiously awaiting the cookies!!

Two weeks ago, I was in charge of the treat so I made this! It's double layered too!

Thanksgiving and onto Christmas

We were able to have lots of family here for Thanksgiving and it was really great!! We even got to see Papa (my Dad) and we haven't seen him, more than Skype-ing, since Ada was only 5 months old!! So he hasn't seen any grandchildren who have been born since Ada, which is every other kid. So this was a super special treat for everyone! We got to hang out, have Thanksgiving dinner, go to the Please Touch Museum (where we now have a membership which is so beyond amazing I am having trouble putting it into the appropriate words), went swimming, had Chinese and Britt and Alicia introduced some of us to Indian fare (which was delicious!). We had so much fun it was hard to have everyone leave so we could get back to our hum-drum life filled with staying inside most days and potty training Ada.

Ada trying on Meemaws' sweatshirt
Alicia, Saffron and Abhisneha

Papa and Ada. She LOVED him the first day he was there, even wanting him to take her to the potty every single time, and then after that liked having him around but wasn't to keen on having him be too close.

Decoarting the house...and kids. Ada and RJ wanted to have the garland tied around their bellies so they could be presents too. Yes, my kids are a little goofy!

Ada checkin' hers out

RJ peeking around the multiplicity of Meemaws' nutcrackers (she has 21 large ones-not counting the smaller ones on the Christmas tree!).

Ada found a Book of Mormon and decided to read it often. And she had such a fun time doing it! Perhaps I need to take a lesson from my daughter and get more out of reading my scriptures...

A cute smile from my little boy

Wal-Mart is selling 30 oz containers of pre-made gingerbread for only $3!! So needless to say we bought a few and made some already. The kids had such a great time that we are doing it again, but having a bunch of friends over and decorating them this time too! Ada and RJ are very excited everytime I tell them about it.

These are some decorative blocks I won from www.writings-on-the-wall.com If you go onto their blog and leave a comment you're in their weekly drawing for free stuff that she makes!! It's an awesome site so check it out!

Ada helping to decorate the tree

being cheesey

RJ with his ornament that he will NOT leave alone so we had to take it off of the tree for his and the trees' safety. Then he wanted the goose as well (the one he has in his hands is a black sheep) and of course Ada wanted one too: so she has a dog that she babies and "cleans" up after him when he doesn't make it to the potty...

I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!!