Stone Soup

We had a stone soup party this month. I hope it's the beginning of a new winter tradition. We started with a reading of Stone Soup. There are several versions, my favorite so far is the one by Heather Forest. After story time, we moved into the kitchen to prepare our own stone soup. Each family brought a few ingredients to contribute... (just like in the story)

Then while the real soup was cooking, we did a little craft, creating and coloring a pot and ingredients for the kids to make soup.

The littlest ones weren't very involved in any of the above activities, but they enjoyed each other's company!

And the tastiest part of the evening? Eating the soup of course!

SNOW!

These are from the first or second big snowfall. How many have we had now?!?! And more is coming I've heard.

It doesn't show so much in the picture, but it was snowing hard the afternoon my dad took this picture for us. She likes it!

holiday traditions

We start preparing for Christmas the first day of Advent. Out comes the Advent calendar and the Advent wreath and

even some gifts. Through out Advent they get "new" books. Some really are new, others they have seen before but they've been put away for 12 months.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

(Conrad and Norrie opening their first book of the season)

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Someday I hope to have a slightly larger nativity set. In the meantime, I use this little ornament. Noah's Ark is our Advent Calendar - each morning CW gets to open a door to see what animal is waiting to come out.

We also celebrate St Nick's day in early December. We read about St Nick and how he saved three daughters from being sold into slavery by secretly leaving gold in their stockings. Instead of gold, our kids get little things like chocolate, oranges, new markers, a sippy cup. :)

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

New this year is our gratitude journal. We started it on Thanksgiving and try to add something every day. We've missed several days due to being "snowed out" and there's also been a few days missed when Conrad falls asleep on the way home. It's great practice for both drawing and writing, and it's good for both of us to be mindful of all we can be thankful for. (in this picture, he was drawing the earth)

change of scenery

And sometimes we do appreciate a change of environment (different faces, different toys, more space). A couple weeks ago we stayed overnight with some good friends. Their first son is 6 months younger than Conrad and their second son is 5-6 weeks older than Norrie. Not only do the kids all have someone to play with, when our 4 year old melts down and has a total fit over something stupid, our friends TOTALLY understand because they have been there too.

Sadly, I only have pictures of the babies. I don't remember the older two boys slowing down long enough for a picture...

more time at home

We often get asked how we live in such a small space. How we could possibly survive, what the heck do we do in the evenings? Well, first of all, there's not a whole lot of "spare time". We get home, make and eat dinner, do dishes and go to bed. I can't figure out how anyone can spend 2+ hours a night to watch tv, and still get the day to day stuff accomplished and get 8 hours of sleep. I've been told it's usually the 8 hours of sleep that doesn't happen. I guess I like my sleep too much. But maybe it's convenience foods, or a dishwasher, that helps add hours into an evening for some?

Anyway, we do make it work living in a small space. We read, play pretend, work with play-doh, get out some toys, games, puzzles. There's plenty to do!