January 11- 31

January 11th
Kirsten turned 9 a couple of weeks ago and we decided to have her party after the kids got back into school.  She designed the invitation with a little of my help.  I think she is pretty artistic and did a pretty good job.  We decided to do a craft and pizza party.  Kirsten was a big help as we decided what to do.

I made 7 of these aprons for Kirsten and all her friends.  They turned out super cute and the kids loved them.  It was two fold.  To keep their clothes clean and to have a great take home item.

We started by making individual pizzas.  The girls had fun creating their own pizzas, but once they were cooked it was a little hard to determine which pizza belonged to which girl.  But they were very similar and so the girls just ate the ones in front of them.

Next we created bracelets with beads and elastic string.  The girls made very beautiful bracelets.  Some were very simple and others were more detailed.  All turned out pretty and the girls really had a great time.

Next thanks to the generosity of Meagan Johnson, we were able to make fun cards to give each other or to others.  The girls glued and pasted and put together some pretty fun cards.  Some with lots of flowers some with just a couple flowers.  Kirsten made the cute Thank you card and then gave it to me.  It said  "Dear Mom, Thank you for doing my birthday party. Love, Kirsten."  It made all the hard work and effort worth it.  What a sweet girl and everything was so fun.

Last we decorated the cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles.  As I suspected the cupcakes were almost more sprinkles then frosting.  The girls were enjoying sprinkling the cupcakes and eating their creations.  As they were finishing up the parents were coming.  We hadn't opened presents and so we quickly opened presents and then sent everyone home.  I didn't get any pictures because I was running around trying to make sure everyone had all the things they had made.  I think it was a pretty fun and Kirsten enjoyed her party.

 January 16th,
The Big Chill 3rd and 4th grade concert.  Kirsten's class sang all about having a snow day, after they had 4 cold/snow days that had canceled the original concert date.  It was fun to watch and listen to them sing songs about cold and snow.  Outside the weather was snowy and everywhere you looked there were snow piles from the snow that had been going on for the last couple of weeks.  Kind of ironic they were singing about getting more snow when we had more then enough already.

January 27th,

Usually I get up earlier then the kids and do my exercises, but this morning I knew the kids were not going to school and I slept in a little bit and so when I decided to do my exercises I had three kids doing it along with me.  I think they are pretty good at it.

January 2nd to 7th

January 2nd - We had a pretty intense storm today that produce a ton of snow.  Everything we had planned for the morning was being cancelled and so we decided to brave the snow and pull out our sleds and go sledding.  The roads were not plowed, the snow was continuing to fall in a rapid pace but we endured.  When we got to Ebersold Park there were a handful of brave souls that came out to sled.  The snow was a little fluffy and hard to slide down.  We found the best way to get down the hill was on our large purple sled with all 4 of us.  Of course Kirsten and Esther found it best to ride backwards, especially if they were at the front since the powder just flew up in our faces.  We didn't last too long the snow was not only flying up in our face but the snow was almost snowing sideways and when you were going down hill you were getting a  bunch of snow in your face too.  Back to home for hot cocoa and marshmallows.  YUM!

January 5th - After getting ourselves ready and out the door for church, the bishopric decided that there were so many people missing that there might not be enough teachers to run the rest of the meetings at church and so they sent us home.  We as a primary presidency (and most especially the Primary President) were so glad.  She had been sitting in the back formulating a plan to cover classes and teachers.  She said that many of the kids were there but a lot of teachers were not.  She was greatly relieved and so were we.  We trudged back to our cars and went home.
We decided we needed to see how much snow we had accumulated in the last couple of days and so we went out back and took our ruler out to measure the snow on the dog house.  It was about 14 1/2 inches.  I am amazed at how much snow that has fallen.  There are predictions that tomorrow will be super cold.  The school district has cancelled school for tomorrow.  The kids get an extended winter break.

 January 6th
BRRRR!  It is super cold outside.  I guess it is good that the kids don't have school.  Problem is we still had to go out in it and go to an appointment for me.  With all 3 kids in tow.  Good thing they are super good kids.

January 7th - a second cold day.  Boo hoo for mom!  I officially deem today Pajama day! Everything we had to do today has been canceled. My van is in the shop. So we have no transportation, no desire to go out and the temperature is -11 degrees with -30 windchill. Let the fun begin. Now I need to go out and grab the water balloons I put outside last night and see what they look like.
If you follow me on Facebook, then this will be a repeat of what we did, but I want to keep a record of it here on the blog.

Experiment #1 fill water balloons with a little bit of food coloring and water. Then place outside overnight. Glassy water marbles. Cool.

Experiment #2 hot air balloon flying. 

Experiment #3 freezing bubbles. The key way to catch it on the wand, then wait and watch it change.

Experiment #4 boiling water to steam. This would have worked better yesterday. But who wanted to be outside?

Take 2

Experiment #5 stained glass with sharpies. We took some drawing paper and drew designs with sharpies. Of course we found it on Pinterest. Sorry for filling up your news feed. I am taking the advice of my neighbor and friend Lori Spisak that said, we should take advantage of the time our kids still want to do something with us and they think we are cool. I was NOT happy they had one more day home, but then I realized that I could complain about it or make it fun for all of us. Hope you have enjoyed our adventures.

Then the kids took my tablet and ran around the house taking random pictures in different modes.  I guess it could be experiment #6, but I was too exhausted and was just glad they could entertain themselves.