Best Christmas present

I often wondered, as a teacher, if the letter I have my students write to their parents as a Christmas gift... is enough.  It is a short letter; tells parents thank you, recalls a special memory from the year, or says something they like about their parents.  After receiving my first one this year, I KNOW it is enough.  I love these moments as a mom, so thankful for these two blessings in my life:)

Christmas at the Dodd's

We always have Christmas at my mom and dad's house on Christmas Eve with all 12 of us.  Mom made a wonderful meal with turkey and ham and our families each brought a side dish.  Lots of yummy leftover to take home too!

Luckily, I thought to take a picture of the kids before we left for Grandma and Grandpa's because within an hour, Lanie had her dress off and was in more comfortable clothes:)

  We ate around 5 and then I wanted to try something new I had read about on Pinterest. The ideas was to do a Reader's Theater of a poem or favorite Christmas story as a whole family, I must say as a teacher, I am quite disappointed in myself that I had never thought of this before!  We videotaped it and now we'll always have our family's voices reading that story together.  My goal is to do this every year:) I had to trim it into 2 pieces, here's the first half.

The key was to do the reader's theater first, then open presents!  A little motivation and stretch the night out:)

Beautiful picture of Groat kids

Always a Menards gift card:)

Looks good, Steve!

She got her favorite perfume:)

For the soon to be ISU student:)

My first pair of black boots!

The adults played Sequence at the kitchen table while the kids played with their new toys.  Boys won...again.  We couldn't stay too late though, Santa was on his way and the kids all needed to get home to bed:)

Christmas with the Cousins

I had wanted to make this December sleep over extra special for the kids as I had been reading so many great ideas on Pinterest.  I picked up a gingerbread train kit from the store but didn't realize til we were piecing it together that it had to sit for 24 hours before you should decorate it:( I had found some cute nail painting ideas on Pinterest and found some cute toes to try them on...and of course the girls LOVE being pampered!

Candycane toenails:)

We had kid-friendly Kielbasa and Heidi's corn casserole for supper and then shortly after, we all got our PJ's on to load the Durango Express to go look at Christmas lights.  Although not pictured, the kids got to drink hot chocolate and Mommy and Daddy got to stop for some yummy cappuccino. Nevada's lights looked great!

We ended the night watching an old favorite Christmas movie of mine from the 80's called Santa Claus the movie on the big screen upstairs.  The Santa's workshop in the movie always amazes me!

We are so lucky to get to be with each other so often!

Friend play dates 2012 - 2013 School Year

I made it a goal at the beginning of the school year to have a friend play date for Carter and Lanie once-a-month.  It didn't sound like a lot when I decided it, but once-a-month is better than no times a month and it's worked out really nice.  There really aren't very many young kids in the neighborhood for the kids to play with so it definitely has to be planned.  The rules are; Carter and Lanie have to take turns deciding what to do on the inexpensive play date, it has to be on a Sunday, usually the first one of the month (when Daddy is at work), chores have to be caught up, and it has to be a different friend each month unless you've gotten invited back to their house to play, then you can repeat.  I know...rules, rules, rules. 

My hopes were that Carter and Lanie would of course have fun, make closer friendships that would carry over into the school environment, and get to work on social skills with my help.

In October we just invited friends over to the house to play.  This was the first time Lanie had invited someone over and she was very excited to play some of the things she usually plays by herself with a friend.

In November, Lanie voted to go swimming at a hotel pool.  What a great, inexpensive way to spend an afternoon with the kids.  We brought swim toys and a yummy chex mix snack from my mom and the kids were happy for hours.

In December we had planned to go to a movie, but it there was nothing at the dollar theater you wanted to see.  So the kids each invited a friend over to play at the house.  The girls played for a while and then decorated Nutter Butter Snowman cookies with me.  The boys mostly played on the wii.  I forgot to take pictures:(

In January, Carter picked the dollar theater to watch a movie.  So the 4 kids and I headed out on a Sunday afternoon to watch Hotel Transylvania.  We got the largest popcorn possible to share and a big pop too.  After the movie, the kids came back to the house to play for a while.  The girls had fun finishing decorate the Gingerbread train from Christmas.  

Winter Bucket List 2013

So I realized having a seasonal bucket list helped me make sure the things I enjoy and get to do with the kids every season happen.  So many great people have ideas that they share on their blogs and I love adding them to mine!  Here is my bucket list so far, in no particular order, but there will sure to be more things to add:)

Winter Bucket List 2013

X 1. Friend playdate - movie at the dollar theater
X 2.  Swimming at hotel
3.  Ice skating
X 4. Sledding
X 5.  Hot cocoa
6.  Hockey game
X 7.  ISU Gymnastics
X 8.  Snowman
X 9. Durango express - Holiday lights
10.  Shopping for sibling gifts (didn't do but will make it a priority next year)
X 11. Christmas Reader's Theater on Christmas Eve with Dodd Dozen
X 12.  Public Library Christmas
X 13.  Picture with Santa
X 14.  Decorate sugar cookies
X 15.  Gingerbread something:)
X 16.  Card for teachers
17.  Letter to Santa (didn't do, but will try again next year)
X 18.  Christmas breakfast
19.  Roller skating

December Snapshots

So, I was definitely not keeping up weekly with pictures, so I'm going to try monthly:)  Through keeping this blog, I've realized how blessed I truly am and need to appreciate each day I have.

Very first snow of 2012...we got less than an inch but the kids were so excited to see the "white stuff", they wanted to go sledding anyway:)

Mom, Shannon, the kids, and I had lunch at the highschool FFA's appreciation luncheon and then went to see the ISU Men's Accapella group, Just Shy of a Dozen, in the new auditorium.   I felt like I was in "Glee"!  You know they were good when its over and Carter stands up and says, "I want to be like them one day:)"

Winter Bucket List #1...Check.  Nevada Public Library Christmas Event.  And look who we ran into, but our good friends Amber and Cayden.

Look who we got to listen to a story from:)

Lanie joined girl scouts this year and got to go caroling at the Long Term Care, something I used to do when I was a little girl.  There were some very nice middle school girls that helped Lanie with the words and quickly became her mentors:)

Mom, Shannon, the kids and I had a wonderful Sunday afternoon together trying to squeeze in more Winter bucket list ideas, some happened, others didn't.  We took the kids to Bass Pro Shops, hoping to get to see Santa and get some new ideas for Christmas gifts.  The wait to see Santa was over 3 hours long, so unfortunately that DID NOT happen.  The kids DID get to ride on a carousel, play games, pet a stuffed reindeer, make crafts, climb around on the boats and other outdoor toys, and walk around the store.   Lastly, we went back to Grandma's to decorate sugar cookies.  They worked really hard and were super proud of their creations.

First School Snow Day in 2 years.  Lanie is with Kaelan and Kaleigh and is holding her "Flat Lanie" for an assignment for school.  One of the best things about Iowa... is neighbors' snow-covered backyard hills:)

Christmas Card 2012

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Sunday Snapshots Nov. 25, 2012

It was the Multi-Age Community's Harvest Breakfast on Wednesday, before Thanksgiving break.  The program began with a song called "Grateful".  Then we had a yummy, light breakfast of muffins, little smokies (cooked by Matthew for close to 500 people), fruit, and drinks.

Each class then got to choose a performance to reflect on what the kids had been learning so far in the year.   Lanie's class performed a reader's theater about the water cycle.  We practiced again and again to get her to slow down and say each of the 4 words, but once she got on the stage she got nervous (totally understandable) and put them all together.  Her words were supposed to be, "Hi, how are you."  Carter's class performed 3 beautiful poems.  Carter's part was to introduce the first poem and then join in chorally for the last 2.  The first poem was called "Iowa Child" (I must use it in my classroom soon!) and the last 2 poems were a beautiful thank you to parents for their support and guidance, of course I cried then.

The morning ended with the kids forming a circle around the audience and singing and signing the song, "Swimmin' to the Other Side."  

Most of the family was able to come celebrate:)

We are SO thankful for our wonderful teachers' patience and kindness.

Sunday Snapshots November 18, 2012

 Love my good friend Heidi!  We celebrated another good friend's 30th birthday on Saturday night.  Ate a yummy meal at Oddfellows, then headed uptown to Della Vita's for a glass of wine:)

 Spent a wonderfully, warm November afternoon with Mindy and Aidan at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park.  Really interesting sculptures but not relaxing at all because of the tall cement walls and barely there railings to keep kids safe.  Would be great for a romantic picnic though:)

 I think this one is "cute".  Reminds me of a precious moment, but Mindy says it's creepy:)