awards

Sophie had her first middle school awards ceremony the other day & she got two awards.  One for academic excellence & one for scholarly traits.  Job well done!

give a girl a little money for Christmas...

...and look what happens...

(someone named Stormy comes to live with you)

Emblazoned

Emblazoned will forever be emblazoned in Julia's memory...that is the mighty word that knocked her out of today's school Spelling Bee at a respectable 5th place.  She did a great job & had some hearty words to reckon with...she got a lot farther than I would have!!!  I would have been out at obsidian which she spelled correctly a few words earlier.  Great Job Julia!!!

Julia's ski day!

Wind+snow+Bronco home playoff game=empty slopes & one nice ski day! 
Thanks for taking Julia to practice her skills, Karen & Mark!

Downton's Back

 

speaking of crafty

Sophie decided to go minimalist on her Singing Sisters choir girls Sculpey creation.  I thought it turned out great!  I think they'll live on my dresser and not in the Christmas box in the basement!

And Julia has been going to town with her Rainbow Loom bracelet making kit (all the rage at school, don't you know).  She's been watching online tutorials & has created these beyond-the-basics bracelets.  She'll be the big hit when school starts up again!  My favorites are the Honeybee:

 and the Rose Garden:

 

Whew...busy bees at my house!

crafting

Usually 2 out of 3 of my children can sit and happily craft for hours.  This year, all 3 got something crafty from Santa.  This was the initial response to the craft challenge:

 But upon successfully creating one pair of beautifully hand-crafted earrings, the non-crafty kid got much more chipper.  Maybe she'll be a crafter after all...(and she even sat down to make another pair of earrings from her kit this morning!!)

holiday party

Party on

Merry Kissmas!