I’m not sure where they got the idea, but the moment we took down the Christmas tree the kids decided that they wanted to ride it. I’m not really sure what they had in mind, but I had a simple solution. We took the tree, tossed it on the wagon and strapped it down. All that was left was for them to climb on. They loved it!

The first night we just walked around the back yard. The next morning we went out front and ran up and down the sidewalk and street.  They didn’t want to stop.  I hope this doesn’t become a tradition.

 

Of course, it wasn’t just us. We had the whole family involved: Kathleen, Dave, Amber, Joshua, Adrianne, Cody, Corey, Willow, Wesley, Aidan and Jillian (I think that is roughly by age).

The train heads down the tracks a short ways, stops near a small waterfall and then heads back the other way. While the train is stopped the engine is moved from one end of the train to the other. So our car was the first on the way out and the last on the way back in. The perfect combination if you ask me.  The train cars are from the early 1900s and in surprisingly good shape. When we were kids it seems to me that the engine was steam and the cars were more open, but I guess things have changed a little.

Starting at one end Santa comes down the train and sits with each of the kids. He takes their seat and does his usual thing. Wesley was really excited that he got to be the first kid on the train to sit on Santa’s lap. And Jillian didn’t scream at all this year!!

From the opposite end of the train as Santa comes Ben the banjo player. He plays and everyone sings carols.

We had hot chocolate, apple cider and lots of fun.  Look at these faces and tell me they didn’t have a great time.

 

More than being really difficult, the trouble with going homemade is just how long it takes. First we made the dough. This was fun and Jillian was a big help. But then you have to bake the shapes three times for each house. The roof and long side get baked twice and the other side of the pan, the small sides and chimney, get baked just once. But you can’t bake them back-to-back because the pan is hot. You have to wait for it to cool and that takes hours. So, for each house it took me three days. I’d make the dough and then bake each side a night. Then repeat the process for the second house. I wanted my own house, but I was too lazy to make any more.

Once all of the pieces were baked I took another day to assemble the houses so they could dry and be sturdy enough for the kids to work with. We used a pretty standard royal icing recipe and it gave us structurally sound little houses.

Finally, a week later, we were ready to decorate these little guys. Amber bought a ton of candy and there was plenty to go around. Interestingly, even though we divvied everything up 50/50 some strange things happened. Some of Wesley’s candy bowls were empty even though hardly any of them were on the house. Where did they go?

To start with we let the kids go there own way. Once they had made good progress Amber and I each started adding little touches and giving the kids some more complicated ideas. They each came up with great ideas of their own and copied from each other when they saw something they liked.

They had fun. Here they are with the finished product. The houses had to be moved to the mantle almost immediately since pieces of candy were being removed even before the frosting was dry.

 

Joshua’s cannon design was great and really launched his hand carved cannon balls.  Wesley and Jillian both loved playing with it before it went into the cake.

Then I needed to put it in the cake…

Wesley wanted blueberry cake, so I found a blueberry bunt cake recipe and made it in 9×13 pans.

Here is how I created it:

Joshua thought to reuse this blue basket for the base. He then cut a piece of thin wood to fit in the basket for a strong base for the cake.

Here is the sculpted cake with a blueberry cream cheese filling between the layers.

I had to use a lot of skewers in the cake to keep the layers together.

I put on a thin crumb coating, then Joshua and I put in the cannons. The green thing is the launching pad taken from a game we have called FroggO.

The stern of the cake ship.

The bow of the cake ship.

The "front" of the cake with the cannons facing out.

Then I used brown gel coloring to make the cream cheese frosting brown.  Blue water was added then ocean animals were glued onto the basket to make it look like it is really in the sea.

The front of the cake.

The sails are made out of chopsticks and fancy paper.

The stern of the ship. The rigging, wheel and ladder are made with melted chocolate.

"W"'s and upside down "w"'s and the #6

The back side of the cake.

There is even a plank...with shark infested waters.

The bow of the ship.

Close up of the bow.

Hours spent:
Building the cannon & carving the balls – 2 hours
Baking the cake and making the frosting – 3 hours
Carving & decorating the ship – 5 hours
Total hours spent: 10. 

 

Happy birthday sweet boy!

 

What are they?  Eagle of the Month awards are given to students who have demonstrated growth in one or more of the Lifelong Learning Skills or achievement of a remarkable academic goal. *

What are Lifelong Learning Skills?  Lifelong Learning Skills are skills that help us navigate the social world and help us to be successful at home, at school and in the workplace.  Edmonds school District has identified six Lifelong Learning Skills essential to healthy social/emotional development. They are Respect, Responsibility, Cooperation, Problem-Solving/Decision Making, Reflection/Self Awareness and Independent Work Habits. Teachers not only evaluate student’s skills in these areas but they also explicitly teach and continue to provide opportunities for growth & practice of these skills. Each student’s progress in these areas is reflected on their report card.*

How are students nominated for Eagle of the Month Awards? Eagle of the Month awards will be awarded to those students who have shown outstanding effort and growth in these areas.  Please encourage discussions with your children at home about the meaning of these skills.*

Does every student get an EOM award by the end of the school year?  Not necessarily.  Students are recognized for making a concerted effort and for demonstrating marked improvement.  “Self-esteem is most likely to be fostered when children are esteemed and receive meaningful feedback in the form of appreciation rather than empty praise and flattery”*.  Therefore, teachers take great care to describe the specific ways in which students have progressed.  It is important to remember that classroom teachers also recognize students for positive feats in other ways.  Many are rewarded with trips to the classroom treasure box, are given Kool Kid awards, are reinforced for reaching personal goals as outlined on positive behavior charts, or are recognized and celebrated within their own classrooms.*

(*Quoted from the school counselor’s monthly newsletter)

Respect is defined as: “demonstrates empathy and kindness toward others; appreciates diversity; follows classroom and school rules; takes care of classroom and school environment.” 

Responsibility is defined as: “demonstrates self-control and self-management, handling frustration appropriately.  Reflects on and evaluates learning and behavior for the purpose improvement; sets goals”.

Here he is getting his award from the principal. (The awards are normally given out during the school assembly... which will be Thursday afternoon, but since he goes to am kindergarten, the principal came into his class.)

With his principal

With his teacher and the other nominated student from his class.

We are super proud of you Wesley!!!  Keep up the good work.

 

Today we picked at Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm in Bellevue.  We would probably go there again – the berries were close to the parking lot and they had real bathrooms.

We took Sarah with us today.  She is in kindergarten with Wesley (and she was also in his preschool class).

They are ready to GO!

Sarah suggested we stop for another picture on the way...

We found a row to pick on.

They got right to work!

Showing me her favorite berry.

He could not decide - so he chose two.

Jillian just did it because the others did it too.

He was very proud of his way to use both hands.

We finally made it to the “lake”.

A few more pictures with the berries and the lake in the background:

So much love!

Such good friends!!

After picking for an hour – they were done.

And I picked 1.17 pounds.  And the price was really good too – 2.39 pounds = $2.98.

We really did have a good time!

Yummy! Let's eat them.

 

Yay... they were both looking.

Look at that air!

She tends to run down the slip-and-slide.

What a nice way to cool down. 

 

and it’s Wesley’s first day of school!

Hooray! I am a kindergartener now!!

So before school we had a big photo session:

Then we loaded into the car and drove to the school:

In the parking lot heading over to the school.

Waiting to cross the street.

Let's go in!

Waiting for their teacher in the lunch room.

At his cubby.

Unpacking his folder.

Yep...he has the top shelf cubby.

Working on a coloring page while everyone gets settled.

Joshua and Jillian watch from the other side of the room.

Joshua takes a picture with his phone.

Jillian comes over to see what Wesley is working on.

Then it is time to go to the carpet. The teacher asks them to stand up and push in their chairs. Maybe 1/4 of the class is able to follow that direction (way to go Wes).

They sit and listen to "The Night Before Kindergarten" by Natasha Wing.

At the end of the book the kids wave goodbye and give hugs to their families - so Wesley got to do the same.

Jillian was the 1st to get a hug.

Dad...

Then Me.

Joshua, Jillian and I then went home.  It was strange driving away thinking about him in that big school “all alone”.  A tear did come to my eye and it made me think about how fast he has grown up!

We had 2 hours at home before we had to go back and get him.  (He is in school 2 hours and 40 minutes.)

Joshua was awesome with Jillian - making her feel loved and special. Here they are reading - 11 books together (she had 21 more ready in a pile for him to read too). Before that they played games in her room and they even started a game of memory before we had to go.

We arrived early to pick up Wesley – good thing too, because they came out early. 

Waiting for his teacher to call his name to leave.

He was so excited to see us!

There he is - done with his 1st day of kindergarten!!!

Then we went to get lunch to celebrate…

And what would be the best way to finish off such a great day…. ice cream of course. 

And she did not want to miss a drop of that ice cream!

 

When we went for kindergarten testing another kid had his backpack… So I started to think of ways to make it more unique.  And since it is mostly white – I was worried that it would become mostly brown in no time.

So I decided to color it.  At first I was just going to color a few.  Then that evolved into coloring them all.  Then Wesley wanted the background area a color too…

Here is my finished product:

Wesley LOVES his Mario backpack even more now that when he picked it out from the store.  I have to say… I love it more now too. 

I can’t wait to see it on him tomorrow for his first day of kindergarten!