Category: Family Fun

Snow Cream…..

Every time it snows….everybody wants to have snow cream for dessert.  In our family, there are two different ways to make it.  For either version, you need a big bowl of fresh snow!

For the first variety, all you need is maple syrup…just pour in as much as you like…which in our families case, is a lot!  Stir it up and enjoy…..very simple.

The other version involves sugar and vanilla!  It all depends on your mood.

For this version, all you do is add about a teaspoon of vanilla and sugar…..a lot of sugar, if you are one of my children!

And of course, you have to mush it all up before you can enjoy it!

Snow…..

We got hit with a big snowstorm yesterday…..it is so windy and cold…but of course, the kids love it…especially River.

She doesn’t want to come inside…she would rather stay out in the snow all day….If you are having snow..I hope you are safe and warm……and if you aren’t having snow…I hope you are safe and warm….enjoy….

Making Christmas cards…another tradition….

So, another Christmas tradition, in our family, is making our own cards.  We love to think and think about what we will do for that year.  The card usually involves some type of photo of the children…..though one year we had them draw the card.

It doesn’t always go as planned or as smoothly as I had hoped…..but in the end, we always love them.  I usually work with the photo in Photoshop and print them out using Publisher.  Sometimes we get them printed at a print shop, but most times I print them out at home using cardstock.

After doing the upside down chin photos earlier this month for my blog, my daughter Tuesday, decided those would be perfect for our Christmas card.

For quite a few years now, we wanted to do a twist on the family Christmas letter….. and then finally we thought of MadLibs.  So, this year, we decided to combine the two ideas…and we made up a Christmas family letter in MadLib form.  It was  a lot of fun coming up with the letter…but it was hard to put it into the right format, so it looked just like the real MadLibs.

In the end, I think our Christmas cards reflected who we are as a family…..pretty goofy!

Yule Lads….

The Yule Lads have started coming to our house.  Another tradition.  Every year, starting on December 12th, the Yule Lads begin to arrive.  We love the little guys.

Each night, we read about the Yule Lad who is coming that night…we get out the little statue….and then the children leave a shoe in their window.

So far, we’ve been visited by Stekkjarstaur, who likes sheep, Giljagaur, who steals milk, and Stufur…who is the little short guy.

In our house, they are all very friendly, and they leave little gifts for good children.  (If you are bad, they leave you a rotten potato!)  Sometimes the Yule Lads do slightly mischievous things, like drink our milk and leave the empty container on the floor!

We haven’t talked too much about Gryla, the Yule Lads mother, or the Yule Cat, because they are a bit too scary.   If you are interested in learning more about the Yule Lads, there are a few good websites..but I love the book that we have entitled The Yule Lads by Brian Pilkington….the illustrations are wonderful!

Visiting Santa…..

Another Christmas tradition,  in our family, is visiting Santa.  After Tuesday was born, for the first seven years, we went to the same place and there was the same Santa!  He had a real beard….but wasn’t too friendly..but it was neat that he was the same Santa .  We were so disappointed when there was a different Santa…..with a fake beard the next year.    I don’t like the Santas with fake beards.  So, this year I called different places asking if their Santa had a real beard or a fake beard…they must get that question a lot…..because they didn’t seem to think it was strange.

I also don’t like it when they won’t let you bring in your own camera..that really bugs me.  Anyway, we found a local farmers market that had a wonderful Santa..and it was free (He was on a tractor, which was sort of funny).  You just had to bring your own camera.  There was no line and the kids had time to actually “talk” to Santa….a rarity.  He was so friendly and patient. River was so nervous and almost couldn’t get any words out..it was adorable.

This is Tuesday with Santa when she was a few days old.  The Santa was so nervous to hold her.  Here are some other past Santa shots…..

Bring on the Christmas traditions….

So this month…I think I might be talking a lot about our Christmas traditions…I’ve done it a bit in the past..but it might be more this year..so be warned.

One of our first traditions is getting out our advent calendar.  My mom gave this to us years ago and I love it because it is reusable.  I also love it because it challenges me to get gifts that are small enough that they fit into these little tiny drawers..which usually means candy or small amounts of change…which is a good thing..because to me the advent calendar is about little tiny things…..(okay..the first day I cheated…I put a little note in the drawer that said to look somewhere else..I got snowman candy bars and they wouldn’t fit in the drawer…but I couldn’t resist..they were delicious…white and dark chocolate with pepermint pieces!!)

We try to do the advent calendar first thing in the morning…when things aren’t too crazy…but River doesn’t always cooperate.  She likes to sleep in..and Tuesday and Quinn have to be off early for school.  So, we will either do it first thing in the morning…or right after school.  If we end up not doing it in the morning, it drives River crazy.  She spends the whole day asking why Tuesday and Quinn aren’t home from school yet!!

Embrace the Camera……photo booth style…


It is Embrace the Camera time…..better late than never…I didn’t get this post up til late!…oh well…..I so rarely get a shot with me and all my children..I thought it would be fun to do a photo booth style shot….so here it is..I love the site Laphotocabine.com.  It is a lot of fun…try it out!

Our Thanksgiving trip to Niagra Falls…..

This Thanksgiving we decided to do something totally different….and take a trip over Thanksgiving.  It was the first time that we have ever done something like that.  At first, we thought we would go somewhere local…maybe camping….then it sort of grew and grew and grew from there…….we ended up going to Niagara Falls!  It was so much fun!

We don’t take many trips, so it was a lot of fun and a great adventure!  I have never been to any part of Canada, so I really loved finally getting to go……we all had a blast.

We saw the Falls from the Canadian side (Tuesday almost fell in…or at least pretended to….), ate in a revolving restaurant, went behind the Falls (the boat tour was closed for the season…..), saw a rainbow, froze, got wet, went swimming in an incredible water park, saw the Falls from the American side, ate a lot of food, did a lot of Mad Libs, saw snow and froze some more!!

It was very cold…so there were hardly any tourists around!  I’m sure if we went in the summer…..we would have been complaining it was too hot!  It was a great little vacation!