Merry Christmas 2011

The annual gingerbread house that I would have forgotten about but Hunter asked for it!  :)  Nathan didn't help decorate but he did eat bits of it while it was out.  

Kreger Christmas:

The 3 siblings (Jeff, Lisa and Brian)

Samuel and Hunter with Macy

An attempt at a grandkid photo

Christmas Day:

Not the best pic of the tree but we had so many big presents this year that it looked like we had a ton of things under there.  The twins were BOTH up at 3am--explain that.  They slept in front of the tree until Samuel got up at 6am.  We then had to wait (patiently?) for Nathan to get up, which was at 7am. 

Samuel with his pillow pet!  All the kids {finally} got one but Nathan opened his 1st and Samuel cried and cried.  I made sure he opened his next!  :)

Nathan got into opening a bit more that morning but still not his favorite thing.

Total surprise that Lily got a last minute addition to her wish list.  :)

Chewbacca makes funny sounds!  :)

It was a really good Christmas day--the kids were all excited over the day and their toys and we had lots of good food and we enjoyed being home as a family!!

Pettyjohn Christmas:

The older grandkids showing how social they are.

A craft to pass the time.

A nap to pass the time (did I mention we couldn't open presents until 6pm???).

The men gathered together.

Sisters

Lily got an American Girl doll!  She loves that catalog so much!

Samuel was d-o-n-e after all those Christmas celebrations!

Brian and I spent a lot of time opening packages and putting together toys.  The Playmobil sets were the most labor-intensive!  I spent a little over an hour on the pirate set for Samuel.  Brian worked on that spy set for Hunter for about 3 or so hours.  No kidding.  We were happy to be done!!!

It was a wonderful Christmas and Brian has been off so we've really enjoyed this little vacation.  We quickly packed up Christmas decorations and put toys in the respective room so that we could prepare for *someone's* birthday!!

We Are Ready!!

We had a very laid back week here!  We spent Monday doing some Christmas-y things, Tuesday was a sick day so we didn't do much of anything, Wednesday was spent at my parents' house so that left today (Thursday) to finish up any Christmas activities.  We read the Christmas story from the Bible and made a nativity--that was a lot of fun!  Nathan colored the barn, Samuel colored the shepherds, Hunter colored the wise men and Lily colored Joseph/Mary/baby Jesus.  We cut it out and put it all together--so fun!  We've made gingerbread men, candy canes, nutcrackers, gingerbread houses, Santa Clauses, etc...  We've been crafty and we've read a lot of books and it's just been a really fun, laid back week!  I've actually had time to keep the house pretty clean!  We're looking forward to celebrating Christmas with our family!!

A Quick Week in Review:

Last Sunday, Lily was a drum ornament in the Christmas play.  The boys did not want to participate and that was fine with us!  Lily took the script to bed and memorized her lines in record time--I was impressed!!  She did a great job and had little to no shyness about getting up there, in costume, and doing her lines.  My favorite part was that the script said [SMILE] at one point so she would stop and give a big smile before continuing with her line.  Ha!  I think she had fun being in the play!

Nathan had another marker-to-the-face morning.  *sigh*  He's getting to be a bit more work because when it's time for Samuel to sit down for preschool, Nathan comes to sit down and points at his lap desk.  He wants work to do and he wants it to be just like Samuel's work!!  I am working up some plans for after the holiday!

I bought a play dough kit that was half off so this kept Nathan busy one morning while the other kids did some other work.  That peppermint play dough is still soft--love that stuff.  I'm going to make a new batch every month or so, I think.  The kit is from Melissa and Doug and all the kids LOVED it {and fought over it}.

Working together for a nice change...

Grinch masks!

One morning when I was getting ready for the day, Hunter and Lily wrote letters to Santa and put them in their stockings.  They were so cute so I decided to type them up to share...Grandparents will appreciate this!  :)

Dear Santa Claus, I hope we get presents and can you bring our cat some presents?  Can you bring some candy?  Could you bring my parents some presents?  They would appreciate that.  Do you have a wife or children?  Love, Hunter.  P.S. I would like a trophy please.  I am doing perfect in school.

Dear Santa Claus, My brother Hunter wants a sega genesis game please.  Nathan would really like a dinosaur stuffed animal.  Samuel would really like a sticky eyeball.  I would like a monster high doll please.  Love, Lily  P. S. Hunter wants a sticky eyeball, too...and me!

Last Week of Regularly Scheduled Programs....

Yes, one of the great thing about homeschooling is being able to make our own schedule.  I have school planned for another week and few days but we are setting aside our regular books to pick up some Christmas-themed studies.  So, we spent this week wrapping up math, spelling and reading so we could have an easy place to pick up after the holidays.

This week, Hunter and Lily made ice cream.  It actually turned out all right!  They thought we should be on a cooking show after that.  :)

This is a game I printed off called "Cookie Bang!".  The night before I gave it to them, I started to wonder what I was thinking because it sounded pretty competitive.  Thankfully, it worked out all right.

Otherwise, Hunter and Lily spent a lot of time on learning to tell time and spelling plural words.  They worked hard this week so it will be fun to switch gears!

Samuel worked on 'M' this week, which was supposed to be for m&m's in our curriculum but we added 'M is for monsters', too, because Samuel loves monsters more than m&m's!!  :)

Counting monsters and clipping the right number.

 The Monster Mash!  This was a HUGE hit with Samuel.  I called out a letter and he mashed it with a spatula.  Everyone had to gather round for this and I'm the only one that was injured--a finger mashed with a monster.  :)

Samuel with the monster he made.

We also did a fun experiment with m&m's but I accidentally deleted the picture.  Woops.  I was just happy it turned out!

No picture of Nathan this week but here's one of Cinders.  It must be getting colder because she has started sleeping on the cable box, which gets almost-hot.  :)

We are doing *some* of our regular schoolwork next week but we'll mainly be doing a unit study on the Grinch.  I can't wait!!!

Christmas Cookies

We made our Christmas cookies this weekend! It seemed so early but when we looked at last year's pictures, we saw it was right on schedule--only we had snow last year!  We made dough the night before and when we got it out Saturday morning, it was just not good.  Here's Brian trying to make it work but we ended up tossing it and starting over with a different recipe:

Finally getting to use the cookie cutters.  Nathan was napping so he missed this part.

The frosting was a hit!  I used blue food coloring this year--I didn't put in much so it still looks a bit greenish = festive.  It was a hit with the kids.  They licked the beaters/spoon!

Time to decorate.  We wiped out our decorating supplies this year.  Everyone had different sprinkles so it will be easy to tell which cookie belongs to each child ('cause that stuff matters to them!).

Someone started licking frosting off cookies before he had his sprinkles.  The sprinkles them seemed to be another thing to eat.  He did decorate but also managed to lick at least 2 cookies.  These will be the cookies for guests.  :)

Yummy cookies and we kept the tradition going!  :) 

December is Here!

Well, this week has been a whirlwind but I'm so happy December is here!!  The Christmas season is in full swing and I love it.  Although, I did just realize it's also Nathan's birth month so my baby will be 2!!!  That is kind of shocking so I won't think about it yet.

On Sunday night, after what seemed like a l-o-n-g vacation from school and regular life, I made a *big* deal about 2 surprises I had for the kids on Monday.  That helped us all to feel some excitement about starting back!  The kids were not disappointed!

Here they are waiting for the 1st surprise!

 It was a Christmas sensory box that I have been working on since before Halloween, I think.  I found so many fun things at the Dollar Tree and in the dollar bins at Target!  This was our 1st time with a sensory bin and I was a little nervous the twins would feel too old for it.  I didn't need to worry!!  They sorted the items and played 'market' with it every time I got it out this week!  This picture cracks me up--real life pushing and shoving:

 Peek!  Nathan actually moved on before any of the other kids but he did enjoy putting smaller items into a plastic container.  Sounds fun?!

The 2nd surprise I had was homemade red, peppermint playdough.  This was also a big hit--with all the kids.  They loved to smell it and it was so soft!  I let them use the Christmas cookie cutters for the 1st couple days--then I took them back to wash so we're ready for our cookie baking!  :)

 

I also have been downloading free Christmas things online like crazy.  The kids have had Christmas-themed things to do all week.

Nathan with Christmas magnet sheets.  Actually, all 4 kids played with these, as well.  :)

Hunter and Lily had something Christmas-y every day but I got a picture of their parts of speech activity--presents had different words and they had to sort them under the right tree (noun, verb or adjective).  This was a hit--it was fun and it helped them to grasp these terms better.  (I can't link to it because I can't find the info on the product.)  They also did some Santa math today.  Fridays = fun days!

Something else that happened this week was a trip to the doctor.  Hunter and Lily had physicals and then we all got flu shots.  Always a fun time.  Anyway, I fit in the schoolwork in the morning so that we didn't have to worry about it in the afternoon--or lagging behind because Christmas break will come early here!  Having school with Nathan awake is not something I want to do every day!  It was definitely a louder, more chaotic experience.  Ha!

 

Hunter and Samuel are quite the best buddies lately, which I think is awesome.  I printed some gingbread books and had the twins draw the pictures, according to the story.  Here is Hunter reading his story to Samuel.  He later colored the pictures and we assembled the book--he proudly read it to his Dad later.  Lily doesn't like to draw so I think she would have preferred to write the book!  :)

 Doing schoolwork in robes.  Who wouldn't love that??  :)  Hunter is journaling and Samuel is sorting 'L/l' ladybugs. 

Not to be outdone, here are the other 2 kids bonding.  :)  Nathan does love "uh-wuh".

 

Some Christmas pics to round out the post.  Who doesn't love a frowning Santa?  Nathan loves this hat--he puts it on every day!

 Do you see the cat in the Christmas tree?  Bad cat!  It hasn't been knocked over yet, thankfully!

One more week of school (71 days so far!) done.  We have one more week of regular work + Christmas activities thrown in before we go to mainly Christmas-themed work.  :)