Happy 4th Birthday Deefers!

All I Want for Christmas is the Stomach Flu

During the last 10 days, someone in this house has been sick with the stomach flu. First Allie, who missed two days of school. Then Meredith, who graciously waited till the weekend. And finally Jason and me. Poor Allie, she's afraid that Santa won't come to our house if someone is sick. But fortunately, it's only a 24 hour bug so we should be all better in time for the Big Guy's arrival tonight!!

The Kids Decorated Christmas Cookies

Let me rephrase that...Allie decorated Christmas cookies.

This is what Deefers did!

Can't Find the Cat?

Look under the tree!

This is where she spends most of her time these days!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We made the annual holiday trek out to Dan's tree farm to pick our Christmas tree today. It was a cold morning and with Meredith's zero tolerance of zero degree weather, we quickly found the tree...

...cut it down...

...rode the horses and headed home.

We picked a pretty big tree this year, maybe a little too big. As I write this, Meredith is upset because if she sits on the sofa, she can't see the TV. The tree is in the way!

Meredith's 3 Year Old Preschool Portrait

Tag...You're It!

I was tagged by Charity.

The instructions are to post the fourth picture in the fourth folder of your pictures file.

Tell us about the picture.

Tag a friend or two.

Isn't this the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

This is Knittin Brit's little guy, EBers. This picture was taken back in May. He was here to play. Meredith was dressed in Allie's dance costume. We had some music playing and one thing led to another.

Now it's your turn...consider yourself TAGGED!

Allie's First Grade Portrait

Scenes from Preschool

Trick or Treat!

Meow! It's the Allie Cat and the Butterfly!

And here is the group we Trick or Treated with...

...Mikala the Witch, Meredith the Butterfly, Cousin Olivia and Cousin Amelia the Pink Poodles, Allie the Black Cat, Taylor the Rocker Girl, Mikayla the Scream Ghost, and Jackson as Spiderman.

Carving Pumpkins

My Dilemma...And How I Solved It

The Problem:

Allie can read but doesn't have much interest in doing so.

Meredith loves to look at books but cannot read.

The Solution:

I bought two CD audiobooks from the local bookstore. We keep them in the car and in the 10-15 minutes it takes us to get somewhere, the girls can listen to a book. Meredith pretends like she's reading and Allie actually reads along with the voice on the CD.

But buying audiobooks can get expensive. I purchased two from our favorite series, Skippyjon Jones, and they were $10 each.

I tried downloading an audiobook from iTunes but it didn't have the beeping sound that tells you it's time to turn the page. That was "too confusing" for Meredith.

Today I had a great idea! I searched our library's website for audio CD's of books that we already own. I found twelve. I put a hold on all of them and when I check them out, I will download the audiobook to my iPod and PRESTO! instant read-along books for the kids.

The Empty Bowl

On Saturday, the girls and I attended a local charity event called Wausau Area Empty Bowls.

"Come together with your friends and neighbors to end hunger in our neighborhood! Pick out a handmade bowl, enjoy a meal of soup, bread, beverage and dessert and leave with your bowl — now empty — as a reminder of all the bowls that need filling in our neighborhood and community… and that you’ve done something to help fill them! All proceeds will benefit the food pantry at The Neighbors’ Place."

Besides wanting to help those less fortunate, we were on a mission to find the bowl that Allie had made during one of her classes at the Center for Visual Arts. There were hundreds of bowls to choose from, all made by local artists, students, and residents of the Wausau area. I had no idea what her bowl looked like but I was amazed when we finally found it...it's beautiful!

A Field Trip to the Wausau School Forest

Within the Wausau School District, there is a unique educational opportunity for students of all ages called the Wausau School Forest.

Click here to read all about it.

Allie's first grade class went on a field trip to the School Forest yesterday and I went along as a parent volunteer.

It was a cool and rainy day so our morning activities were indoors. First, the kids went into a log cabin classroom complete with a roaring fire in the fireplace to keep us all warm. Here they were able to look at all kinds of rocks...

...with magnifying glasses...


...and microscopes.


Afterwards, they had a lesson in the different ways to describe how rocks look and feel. The teacher even incorporated some math into the lesson.

After a snack, the group went into the arts & crafts building to build and decorate a wooden boat that would later be used in a boat race down a creek.

There is a cafeteria at the School Forest. They have round tables that seat six and the meal is served family style. Each person at the table was given a task for serving the meal and also for cleaning up afterwards.

After lunch, we hiked out to the creek for the boat races. The kids dropped their wooden boats into the water and watched them float down the creek.

Allie's boat was the winner of the second race!


We also toured the small wildlife museum located in the basement of the main building and went through an obstacle course in the woods.

I thought for sure we'd have some napping kids on the bus ride home but they all managed to stay awake.

I was exhausted!

Art by Allie

Allie took a class at the Center for Visual Arts in downtown Wausau.

For three Saturday mornings, she worked on a pottery project.

And this is what she made... a fish plate which is now proudly displayed on our fireplace mantle.

A Pumpkin Patch Full of Preschoolers

Sumo Wrestling for a Cause

It's not every day you get to see your husband dressed in a sumo wrestling suit.

He was a good sport and suited up to raise money for the United Way campaign last month.

His poor opponent was a gal just half his size.

But in the end...

...the bigger they are, the harder they fall!

Meredith's Favorite Game

It's called Snail's Pace Race.

Meredith has been playing it at preschool and talks about it all the time. It was a little hard to find. We have a learning store in town but they didn't carry it. The other store I called said they were having a hard time keeping it in stock. So I recently purchased our own game online from KidSurplus.

What I like best about the game is it's fast and she can play alone if she wants. When we play games together she gets sad when she loses. But with this game, no one loses because it's the snails that are racing. It's also good for learning to take turns and for learning colors.

If you have a child or a niece or nephew age 3 and up, Meredith and I highly recommend this game!

Sunday Fun

This may very well be the last nice weekend of autumn so we took advantage of it and went up to Rib Mountain for a hike.

We let Meredith take the lead.

And found some big leaves along the way.

After our hike and a little lunch, we drove out to Helene's Hilltop Orchard and picked pumpkins for carving.

There were so many from which to choose.

It took Jason a long time to find the perfect one, tall and skinny.

Stay tuned to see how we carve them!