Rio and Hallah made us some cinnamon buns for our Swedish St Lucia Day. They were delicious! They love this tradition. ( We even found a wreath for Hallahs doll at hospice.) If you look closely you can see the candles in their wreaths. They dont wear these wreaths long because they are so itchy. 
I cut out a new shape this year, the kids were very resistant. They like tradition.
This should be a requirement for Christmas holiday team building. I used to let the kids go wild, anything goes. But in my wisdom, I've decided it's too much work to have a shoddy lookin' shack. So now I make them plan it out a bit. 
Just as much gets eaten as goes onto the house!
When it snows, the state shuts down! With kids in 3 different schools, we had 2, 3, and 5, snow days! This is our last snow day. (we're tired of sledding at this point!)
Boones famous funnel cakes!
What is a snow day without hot cocoa!
Not a sled to be found in this place, so we're making do, sledding down on snowboards and boogie boards!
You would think that with almost a week of being snowed in, we would have time to crochet, sew and just get nice and rested. Wrong..... we just play, play, sled, eat, watch movies, go moonlight sledding, come in and make cookies at 11:oo p.m. We then pop some corn and watch more movies til the wee hours of the morning. Then wake up the next morning--totally exhausted.
I must say, this is the most beautiful place in the world!!!
I walked in Cole and Boones room and found a pleuthera of words to live by!! Cole and Boone (and Soren, of course) spent hours using the sharpies to write quotes all over their walls- (famous ones as well as their own.) So now when I need a little inspiration I will go and wander about their room (even as smelly and dirty as it gets.) I love what the boredom of summer inspires us to do!
I'm coming up. (One breast at a time)patience please
Lay back on the boat!
Oh yah!!!!
Who's your Mama boys!!!
This lovely apron started as a way to use up some of my scraps. Once I got started I just couldn't stop. I added trims and laces, it's full of many lovely finds. This is one of my favorite aprons because it just kept evolving piece after piece. This apron has gone to a good home but I will definitely be scrapping more of them. 
Thrifting, I found this.
That with a little fabric and trim ( and glitter spray)
turned into this
With the inside looking like this.
Well, not me, but these dresses are headed there. Thanks to my mom, Rio and Hallah for working so hard to get these made for African girls in need of dresses. We were able to get 40 dresses made! Now if only I was the one delivering them, hmmmm, a trip to Africa, sounds good. Who's going with me????
What does a 13-year old boy want for his birthday? Plaid flannel shirts, of course. These are Boone's new favorite clothing item. I hit the jackpot when I stopped in at my local thrift store, Snowline Hospice (a.k.a. HotSpice) and found 7 plaid flannel shirts outside on the 'fill a bag for a dollar' rack. Nevertheless the boys were thrilled with the 'party favor', and I, thrilled with my crazy bargain huntress skills.
What does a 15-year old boy want for his birthday? Yarn of course. Yarn. Oh yeah, yarn.
What do I want for my birthing day? (a reason for my sister and I to give each other a gift to celebrate our pains and joys of birth.) Another dancing, twirly, square-dancing, fluffy slip. I have 3, a black, pink and white one.What does one woman do with a collection of twirling slips? Stash them under your bed, display them on the wall, use them as curtains, the possibilities are endless. What do I do with such nonsense?Well my daughters wear them more often than not and when everyone is at school.........
Thanks to everyone, family, friends and neighbors for supporting our efforts in raising money for Bead for Life. Together we raised over $1300.00!! Beadforlife is a non profit organization providing impoverished Ugandan women an opportunity to lift their families out of poverty by making beaded jewelry out of recycled paper. BEAUTIFUL--colors, jewelry,people! My kids were so touched by the video they had to buy some too! To find out more, to purchase or to host a party go to www.beadforlife.org. 
