Eva's Cinderella Book

As crazy as this winter has been, our last snow day, Eva woke with the desire to create a book. 

And she was off.  She worked on it the whole day.  It was her interpretation of the Cinderella story. 

When she was through illustrating, I bound the book, and journaled for her.  She rambled on and on, and I tried my best to keep up with her thoughts.

Here are some of the pages for viewing.

My little author/illustrator!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pizza again....Tio Chris style!!!

Dyleva thought they were going to visit and hang out with their cousins, little did they know Tio Chris had a surprise for them. 

My little pizza chefs just perfected the pizza-making process with Tia Jenna, and now Tio Chris had his own method for creating delicious pizza. 

Check out these in the moment photos! 
 

 
 

 

My Brilliant Five-Year-Old

When I tuck Eva in to bed at night, we talk.  She often asks me about my students and what we do in class.

Today I explained to her that my students are learning about the heart.  They are drawing it, listening to it, and I am asking them questions about it.

"What do you ask them, Mommy?"

"Well, what is it for, why do we have one, what is it's job."

"What do they say?" She asked.

"Most of the kids think it has to do with breathing and that you need it to survive.                 What do you think, Eva?"

She paused a moment, and then said, "I think it helps you breathe too."  She thought, and then finished, "I think the heart is like a soccer coach and the bones are the team, and the heart tells the rest of the body what to do.  The heart is like Mrs. Vullo (her teacher), and is in charge and the rest of the body listens and does its job."

Leave it to Eva to answer in analogy.

"Am I right, Mommy?"

Ice Skating AND Sledding

Talk about an ambitious day.   

Jeff really wanted to go sledding today.  He was outvoted by Dyleva and myself.  We wanted to go ice skating. 

The ninos had fun....eventually....but it wasn't the lighthearted experience it was the first time they had gone.

Eva immediately whining that her skates are too tight. (They are not easy for anyone to get on in my opinion). 

And where Dylan was cracking up last time, each time he fell to the ice, this time he started moaning and complaining, "I can't DO IT!" and getting super frustrated. 

By the end, they were zooming (kind of..) all over the ice.

And then, this crazy family went sledding in the afternoon just before sunset.  Dyleva got a new sled for Christmas from Santa and needed to try it out.  It was a double, so the ninos got to go down together. 

And Daddy got to go sledding.
 

Pizza from Scratch

Aunt Jenna rocks.  She remembered from months ago when Dyleva asked to make pizza with her. 
(They had already made bread with her). 








So this weekend she came over with all her supplies in tow-including her pizza stone and flipper.





Dyleva made the crust from scratch.  The ninos had a lot of fun playing with the sticky masa.  Then they put it aside so the dough would rise.  Wow.  We had a lot of pizzas to make!







Pizzas MUST have pineapple and cherries on them to be meet the nino's standards.  We created like seven pizzas total.  They were delicious. 







Thank you Aunt Jenna!



 

Sick. Sick. Sick.

Our holiday was turned upside down, almost from the moment school ended.  Bummer.  Three out of the four residents of our house became violently ill just before, during, and after the holiday.   The fourth resident, for the record who shall remain nameless, was extremely cranky, difficult and out of sorts.  Not exactly helping the already difficult situation. 

So our Christmas stunk.  We barely acknowledged it.  If it weren't for that damn fat man in a red suit and his schedule, we may have postponed the entire holiday. 

But when you have an advent calendar and a Christmas chain, you can't really tell the ninos, "Don't worry, Santa will come tomorrow, I promise."  Instead you muddle through.  Some call it hell.  

At least...the sickness (for me) hit just as I finished preparation.  Thank goodness.  It would have been worse to not be done...and helpless.  Last year we almost lost the gifts to the Great Flood of 2013.  There is always reason to be thankful.

Dyleva was very excited about their gifts.  Eva, when she was able, stumbled to the tree and yelled, "There's 100 presents under the tree!!!"  Dylan's first reaction was "Wow!!!"

So for me, still recovering, I am trying to find the good, out of this five day awful ordeal.  In the end I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas, (just under the absolute worst circumstances), open ended time with my family.   

Here are some photos of having fun-preparing for Christmas, before the great epidemic.

Eva's letter to Santa

Hide and Go Seek during tree selection

Olaf

No!  I'm Olaf!





Eva's Christmas tree for her dollhouse

Presents for classmates

Hard at work

My little musician

Caroling bus

Christmas Morning.  I would like to point out
that this area was surrounded by dry-heaving
individuals.

Thank you Tia Linda.

Digger man

 

Coal

So the ninos and I were watching video messages that Santa had sent to them.  At the end, they either light up red, for "naughty," or green, for "good."

Dylan was in a mood, and said he didn't care what color he was, because he didn't want any presents.

Well this comment clearly was unacceptable to his sister.

"Dylan, you better care.  Because do you know what you get if you don't get presents?  Coal.  And then your hands will get all dirty, and you don't want that.  I wouldn't appreciate it.  I wouldn't appreciate getting coal," she explained very passionately. 

"Eva," I asked, "What is coal?"  Wondering where she has heard this from.

"It's a dirty rock Mommy.  I wouldn't appreciate getting it.  Dylan, you want green so you don't get coal."

Dylan still looked as if he didn't care.