Ten kids and a Dog: December 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

24 Hour Drama Project-update..

This is the photo on the front page of the local paper. Amy is top right.

A few weeks ago my kids started talking about something called the 24 Hour Drama Project. I paid little attention. They love being in plays, musicals, acting classes, and anything else that pertains to the theater.

I did start to pay attention when I listened more carefully to them talk. They would have 2 rehearsals-for the whole play. They would get a script at the first rehearsal. The rehearsals would run from 12 noon to 12 midnight. At the end of the second night, at midnight-the show would go on--at 12:00 MIDNIGHT. They really, really wanted their father and I to attend--at MIDNIGHT--after 2 twelve hour rehearsals.

After taking naps, (their father and I) we headed out the door at 11:00pm. This is my sleeping time--it felt very strange to leave the house at this hour--but I was very surprised to see that there were others out and about. HOW STRANGE...I thought only kids home from college were out at this time of night.
At 24 seconds before midnight-we all counted down, and then the show began.

I have to admit I didn't understand all parts of the show--it was very deep, especially for the hour it was performed. I did figure out that Danny represented time-time who obviously likes to snack?

Becky was day-and the guy to her right was night.

They fell in love.

Danny accompanied by "science".

Amy and Laura were humans--dancing humans.

Becky.

Amy

The Collins' performers after the show-at 2:00 am.

We are all a little tired today!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Cobweb Curtain-and craft

Last year we read the story of The Cobweb Christmas and then made a simple craft with the kids.

This year we got The Cobweb Curtain from the library. It is the story of the Holy Family's flight into Egypt and the spider that consealed them from soldiers as they hid in a cave. It is a great story that we all enjoyed.

After reading, we looked back at the spider webs we made last year and Mark remembered reading about how to make a spider web from the book 100 Things You Should Know About Insects and Spiders.

We tried to follow the directions...

We taped down the straight strings to begin the web. This went fine,

then things got way too messy and a little too difficult for a mother and 4 children under the age of 9 to do. You are supposed to dip the string into the glitter glue and then place it in a circular pattern around the web. This sounded easy--it stuck to everything, our fingers, the table, hair, and small children.

I stopped this technique and used a toothpick to spread the glue where I wanted it. (I should have just squirted the glue out of the bottle, but it was in a bowl because we put the string into it at first.) This way it was easy to place the string onto the cardboard using the plastic end of a paintbrush. After the string was down, I used clear "school glue" to cover the strings some more so that when it dried it would be very secure.

The next day, I was able to take the tape off the cardboard circle and trim the stiffened string. I then let the littlest among us paint over the whole web to give it more sparkle. We used my new favorite glittery glue paint.

It is so nice and shimmery. It would be much prettier if we had painted the cardboard black. (Maybe next time.) You can't really tell from the picture how is shines. We trimmed it and added a paper clip for hanging. I wasn't really going to put it on the Christmas tree, but Mark insisted, remember, it was his craft idea. In fact, it goes quite nicely on our almost totally homemade tree. In this picture you can see part of a borax snowflake, a popcorn string, a paper chain, pipe cleaners with pony beads and part of a handsewn ornament--very child friendly!

Luke's new "fuzzy" outfit

I made Luke some pants last week which he likes to call his fuzzy, cozy pants. I finished up a fleece top to go with them today, now he calls this his fuzzy outfit.

It came out very cute. My favorite aspect of this top is the fact that it has a velcro closure on the top right shoulder--very handy and easy.
The pattern I have used you have seen before, here and here.
As you might be able to tell, I love this pattern, but it is falling apart, and is kept in a ziplock bag. I also cut it on the size 4 line (I usually never cut a pattern out on a small size, I usually fold it over and cut it out so I have many, many years of use out of it.) Now, I find out that this pattern, Butterick 6362, is out of print. So if anyone has this pattern in a size biggger that 4, let me know, I will make an offer on it.

Kimberly is wearing nothing new in this picture, she was just angry that Luke got to stand on the table and have his picture taken, so she wanted her turn--she received her turn--after all--she is my baby!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Tot School--Christmas!!

Luke is 3 1/2 and Kim is 2 1/2.

No school this week , but a lot of Christmas!

It started on Christmas Eve with our annual family gift exchange. The ten kids had exchanged names on Thanksgiving and we give our gifts on Christmas Eve. Of course, I helped Kim and Luke, but they wrapped their gifts and were so happy when they got to hand them out.
Luke loves Thomas the Tank trains.

Kim received her first Colorform set, and I am amazed how long it keeps her attention. This will be a regular activity during Tot-school.

Christmas morning arrived at 5:30 in this house, but everyone was wide awake when they saw the gifts that Santa had brought.

This has been Luke's main position since getting some Geo Trak's trains. Between these and his Thomas trains, we have the engineering field covered.

Christmas day was spent with Grandma and Grandpa. Kim enjoys stories so much, and Grandpa was happy to read, and read, and read to her.

Luke and his big brother Mark love the Hess trucks they got from Grandma and Grandpa.

Dress-up is something Kimberly enjoys-A LOT. She is a princess in her new outfit, and make sure you don't call her anything else-even her name.

The game Horton Hears a Who has been a big hit.

They love taking turns wearing the Horton hat and searching the room for clover.

In the midst of Christmas excitement Kimberly's God-Mother's son got married. This was a great experience for the tot's around here. God-Mother, Auntie Kim, poses with Kimberly in front of a beautiful Christmas tree at the reception.