New Year's Eve

The girls and I headed down to the Dallas Museum of Arts for their annual Kids New Year's Eve celebration....at noon.
No pictures, but the girls won a creativity contest for the "best wrapping of a mom". (No pictures because I was wrapped up.)

Christmas Eve

I gave the kids their dolls on Christmas Eve....early. I didn't want the really cool things to overshadow my efforts. ;) The kids were in absolute awe. Especially, Libby. She kept saying, "You actually made ALL made all of this?!"
I also had the girls put the dresses on that I made them so that they would match the dolls when they were opened.

I finished the dolls!

In the middle of November, I decided that it would be a good idea to make dolls for the kids for Christmas. A month should be PLENTY of time, right?! I finished the last seam and button last night. Two nights before Christmas Eve. If I had a bit more time, I would have been more elaborate with the costumes, but I did all six outfits this week, so I couldn't do too much. I can always add to the wardrobes, right?
So, here they are:
My favorite, Alaric (oh, I named them for the kids, so they don't end up being called brownie, blackie, Mr. Curly, etc. :p). Alaric means Ruler of All in German.
His shirt is made from a scrap of gingham that I had and a sweater of Ken's that had shrunk. I washed it in hot water to felt it even more (boy, is it thick!).
The first two are Joseph's.

This is Zuri (Swahili for "Good Looking")


Libby is getting Darby (Free in Gaelic)

and Marisol (Sunny Sea in Spanish)


Caroline is getting Erin (peace in Gaelic)

and Meiying (Beautiful flower in Mandarin)

Ginger Cookies and Berry Ink

We have been studying the Civil War in Moving Beyond the Page and today we talked about what a soldier's life would have been like.
After we finished our reading, we had a couple of fun things to do.
First, we made ink out of leftover raspberries (how lucky was that?!), vinegar and salt. Did you know that raspberry ink is blue when it dries? We didn't have any quill pens handy, so I snipped the end of straws to make a point. It worked great!

Then, we made gingerbread cookies. We had an assembly line going....scoop, roll in sugar, place on pan (we rotated so that everyone got to roll the balls in the sugar. ;)) The cookies are really yummy.