20 Dozen

Viggo and I were in Illinois this weekend.
Nate stayed home with the girls.
They completely surprised Viggo and I with 20 dozen Christmas cookies.

I knew there were cookies waiting for us but I was not prepared for the amount and variety. There were several containers on the counter full of cookies.

I said to Nate, "Did you make these? All of them?" Not that Nate isn't capable of making them. But, I mean, that was a ton of work, and I have witnessed Nate purchasing plates of Christmas cookies for church fundraising. Made by people who have the time to make them.

Yes. He and the girls made all of them. He even went shopping to buy all the fixins' so he wouldn't wipe out my stash of ingredients. What. A. Guy.

They made sugar cookies. LOTS of them.

Chocolate cookies with chocolate stars, on the left.
Yes, those are chocolate cookies with Andes mints on the right, and no, I'm not sharing them.

Peanut butter blossoms with chocolate stars.

Christmas wreaths . . . not sure what these are made out of, but I have a feeling green food coloring is involved. With cinnamon red-hots. We're so super-festive.

Chocolate-dipped peanut butter balls.

The inside of one. It's crispy/creamy/crunchy/peanut-buttery heaven.

If you are not at our house right now, you are missing out.

But wait; there's more! Anything else that wasn't nailed down in the pantry was also dipped in chocolate. So there's some chocolate-dipped skorpa, and chocolate-dipped Nilla wafers.

I told the kids to have a Christmas cookie this morning and Elin pulled a stool right up to the counter and dug in.

Viggo said, "I know Daddy rarely cooks, but when he cooks, he cooks crazy-good things." Nate is amazing. I'm not sharing him either.

Fall Photorama

Today we're going back in time . . . just a little bit.

Happy birthday to Nate!

Nate got special gifts.

Special gifts from special little people.

Some coins from the V-man for Nate's collection.

Elin loves birthdays. Sharing in the excitement with Nate's was so fun for her!

Birthday hugs.

Cozy reading on the couch.

I got special birthday presents too, like this beautiful Ekelund tablecloth from my folks! It is so soft, I had to refrain from sleeping with it . . .

And I also got a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos . . . yes that's right, I love Cool Ranch Doritos, and I'm proud of it.

Funny fingers.

Crazy pumpkin carvers.

Beautiful handmade quilts from our wonderful friend Cindy!

Snacks in the kitchen with Dad.

Thanksgiving with the Woods family!

Eating huge turkey legs with cousins is oh so much fun!

Thanksgiving exercise.

Warm weather on Thanksgiving and being with family . . . what a gift :)

A date with Svea and Josh Groban

Svea and I went out today. Just the two of us.

We decided to go to Barnes & Noble.

After looking around for quite some time, Svea wanted to sit and play with the duplos, so that's what we did.

Svea loves to take pictures whenever she can, and since I was the only one around to take pictures of, well . . . here I am. I love her pictures. Some are really quite good!

Then we went to Scheel's. In front of Scheel's sits two statues of our founding fathers, but Svea is convinced that one of them is actually Josh Groban.

As you can see, the similarity between George Washington and Josh Groban is really remarkable.

And I got to have my picture taken with Josh Groban too.

While at Scheel's, checking the status of the live bait is always a must.

Our dates together are super-exciting!

Before we left Scheel's I took a picture of Svea with Thomas Jefferson . . . Josh Groban's twin brother.

I'm not quite sure what this post is all about, but I'm here.

We're just keepin' it real here at the house.

Viggo works on his homework while the girls make lunch. Yes, the island is a mess . . . amazing that there was room to perch a computer there.

I handed little safety-serrated "knives" to the girls to slice bananas for pb/banana/honey sandwiches (Viggo requested this for lunch today). I was impressed with the neat slices Elin made! Things got extra sticky and messy when the honey appeared - but whatever. My goals today were to:

1) do school with Viggo

2) keep everyone busy

3) not worry about the mess

Viggo just finished a chapter on social insects in his homeschool curriculum. I am not prepared to host an ant colony here like the "activity" part of the chapter suggested. But I will allow drawn ant farms to be on the fridge. I was trying to let messes go today, but . . . I draw the line with ants inside. I am remembering a kitchen in Delaware where every ant on the eastern seaboard wanted to hang out. Not going back to that.

It started to snow today! I counted 4 flakes. The girls saw many more.

Svea brought home this sheet of vegetable preferences from preschool. How does she know she doesn't like green bell peppers? Nate and I hate bell peppers . . . green bell peppers have never darkened our doorway. She must instinctively know green bell peppers are disgusting. What a smart girl.

Meatballs for dinner . . .

. . . and the mess that goes with them.

Yuck.

We went to camp last weekend.

To see all our favorite quilters.

They, too, weren't so concerned with organization.

I love going up to camp during quilter's retreats becase there are lovely pink bags filled with pop that are just sitting around.

I also love the quilters becase they were shirts I wish I could wear.

The end.

Just another Tuesday

Tuesdays are busy for us - especially this Tuesday.

On Tuesday mornings, we gear up for our busiest day of the week. We're out of the door early for preschool for Svea and the MOMS group I volunteer with. Thankfully preschool and MOMS are at the same church. It is a fun but busy morning.

I help out with clean-up at MOMS, and Elin likes to hitch a ride on the tea and coffee cart when I bring it back to the catering kitchen at the church. So she gets a little ride every week. She loves to put the creamers away in the fridge there.

Then this afternoon, Viggo was scheduled for a field trip to the Surgical Center. However, the person who planned it emailed me with the wrong time and the wrong date. So we showed up at the Surgical Center and ended up with our own private tour! It was extra-fun because Viggo was excited to see where his Grandpa Zeke had worked!

Viggo was walked through the process of what it would be like if he was a patient anticipating surgery.

Viggo gets his heart rate and oxygen level checked. If was preparing for surgery, he would have been good to go!

It was fun for Viggo to see where his grandpa worked, and what it would be like to be a patient. The nurses were wonderful and we both had a great time. We were so thankful for the time they spent to show us around.

Then after the Surgical Center, but before dinner, off Svea and I went to swimming lessons.

Svea thinks it is so amazing to get dressed in her swimsuit in the big girls' locker room. She loves to see all the different colored padlocks on the lockers.

Svea thinks the huge clock that sits by the pool is amazing.

She has a few different teachers and is one of four girls in her class. She does a great job!

She loved to play catch with the instructor!

Viggo gave his grandpa a call tonight and told him about the field trip. Yes, that is a stick-on thermometer he is wearing.

And then we put them all to bed :)