Cooking with the Mouskins

A couple of days ago we continued our holiday preparations with the Mouskins. Remember them? The sweet mouse family in the book we got from the library, Christmas with the Mouskins, that has craft projects and recipes for getting ready for Christmas? It's super fun.  

We finally got around to trying out some of their recipes. 

The boys busted out their new personalized gingerbread man aprons (purchased at Joann's, embroidered by moi). 

Eli is quite the passionate baker and chef. Amos prefers other ventures. 

We whipped up some Cinnamon Snail Cookies and they were a tasty delight. What are you baking these days?

Santa Baby

 We took all 3 kiddos to see Santa on Saturday. 


This is remarkable for a number of reasons:
1) Nobody Cried. 
2) When I say nobody, I mean not even me. The whole Santa thing used to freak me out. Like, what's your motivation here? Why do you wanna dress up and have kids sit on your lap? Creepy. But now I just find it entertaining to see my kids so excited, so I'm over it.
3) We went to the fancy downtown street to see the very lovely Clauses, Mr. and Mrs. We go to this location because it's free and you take your own photos. The remarkable part: there was no line. Just one family in front of us and then we were in. 
4)The family in front of us had triplets. No matter what, triplets....always remarkable. 

Eli insisted on wearing his Santa hat AND BEARD. And when we got there Santa scooted over on his bench to make room for Eli Claus and exclaimed, "We're twins!" Eli loves being twins. With anybody. 

 Hazel was not phased. Bless that girl. 

 Amos, good middle child that he is, was the funniest. 

He cut his eyes suspiciously and sat in his spot but WOULD NOT look at Santa. 

 And grinned like a polecat. 

Then when Santa offered up a highfive, Amos did the chicken dance. 


Chicken dance. The clear choice in such a scenario. 


I love these little cuties, and I hope they get all their Christmas wishes. 

Hazey Faces

Somehow, somewhere, we acquired a delightful musical playmat. It has a sweet blue bird suspended in the center from a little bird house. It chirps and plays music while swinging back and forth. 

And I can not remember for the life of me from whence it came. 

So, if you gave it to me...many thanks.

All my babies have loved it. Hazel is no exception. I even lug it to work with me to keep her entertained.

 It makes her so happy...

 and smile so big.

Yummy. Yum. Yum. 

Thanksgiving Peek of the Week - November 25, 2011

Does it count as a peek if it includes nearly 40 photos? Probably not. Oh well. 

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

 

So, a Thanksgiving Peek:


This was possibly my favorite Thanksgiving to date. Only one rivals it - our first as a married couple. We were at Vanderbilt living in Disciples House and everyone else had gone home for the holiday. The fella and I helped make and serve Thanksgiving lunch to homeless folks in the morning and then went back to Disciples House, made manicotti and ate in the lobby on the floor. Good times. 


This Thanksgiving included:

tree climbing

bocci

hide and seek

bouncy castle jumping

theological discussion

naps

stomp rockets

italian slingshots

croquet

chocolate delight

and Rudolph noses. 

Of course... Rudolph noses. 


Oh...and Hazel! Happy 1st Thanksgiving baby daughter!


The house was full of lovely folks and the food was dope. 


The clincher may have been hosting it in our home. I think that's the way to go. The kids are in their own environment and we're not on edge worrying that they'll disassemble someone else's. We know they can run around safely and other parents can relax and not worry about their kids trashing the place because our kids already are. Win win.

Kids' Table!

Tree climbing with Gil and Kaia.

Bocci strategy session. 

Love.

Kids' croquet set with giraffe wickets!

            

Getting all the goody off that plate.

Yaya bought these awesome led-lit slingshot helicopter things in San Marco's Square in Venice. They were a big hit. 

Micah devised a target point system to take things to the next level. 

This was one fun bunch. There are a few missing from this shot, but you get the idea. 

Everybody was happy and worn out by dark. Once people left we put on a movie and Amos and Hazel cashed in their chips almost immediately. I'm about ready to join them. I hope you all had a lovely blessed Thanksgiving. We'd love to see all about it. Link it up to the Peek!


You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Oh what a peek. That would be enough - that cute little face - to make a fun Peek of the Week. But the real news is...Amos got a Big Boy Do. 

Before:

 After!:

 Holy Moly.

Good ol' Sandy, our go-to kid haircutting gal, gave me the confidence to go for it with Amos. I'm still too chicken to cut Eli's hair short. It's just so Bieberific. But Amos had a fro and it hasn't been working for him for a while. So the fella and I had decided on getting him a real Big Boy cut. And Sandy did a beautiful job. 

Even though it's crazy cute, I still burst into laughter every time I see him. But man I do love to kiss and snuggle his new bald little head.

So that was my Peek of the Week. 

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

 

You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.