Global Winter Wonderland

Last night, Kevin and I took the boys to the Global Winter Wonderland. This is apparently its first time in the US. It's in the parking lot of Great America (an amusement park, if you aren't' local). Actually, I believe it's the parking lot that may soon be the new 49er stadium. Anyway, there have been commercials on TV and one day I decided to google it, and it looked very interesting to me. It was interesting, and very colorful too!

These are all giant lanterns which light up. This dragon pagoda is pretty cool.

Quinn, don't ask me what he's doing. He always has a plan.

Cute, colorful snowman!

This is a really big shoe. I guess the old lady who lives in a shoe, celebrates Christmas too. Jeez, I bet Christmas is expensive when you have so many children (that you don't know what to do).

A very Disneyish castle.

I love these trees!

This is made entirely out of dishes: plates, glasses and spoons. Look closely. Very cool.

To see the rest of our Global Winter Wonderland pictures, click HERE.

I Am Still Here

It seems like I have been absent from my blog a lot lately. Work. I am so busy at school, and then shuttling these boys all over to activities and appointments, leaves me exhausted in the evenings. It's been crazy. Anyway, I am here now, on Winter Break, but it doesn't feel like a break getting ready for Christmas and all! Here's a little about what's been going on around here...

My mother in law made me this yo-yo tree. Isn't it cute?

The UPS guy in our neighborhood, delivers on bike! It's so cool!

This is our tree this year. I have a TON of ornaments. I really should streamline them. We do have another little tree, full of nothing but ornaments we got at Disneyland or Disney World. I should take a picture of that. We are Disney geeks.

We have a Christmas yeti. Doesn't everyone?

Riley had his first band performance last week. All of the bands at his school are awesome! His music teacher is amazing. Riley can play that clarinet! It's so cool.

We went to a cookie decorating party last weekend.

We HAD lots of pretty, decorated cookies, but they have somehow disappeared! Imagine that!

Quinn, "testing" a cookie.

He approved! Cookies taste good.

I am going to try my best to be around here more often.

Reminiscing Still

I had four completed puzzles on my island! Last night I cleaned them all up. One of them was kinda fun!

It was very stiff and all the pieces stuck together! I said to Quinn, "Here, hold my puzzle!" I think Maya thinks it's something to eat!

I am still thinking about my Thanksgiving break! Ahhhh, good times.

I got some oven bake clay, and Quinn and I set to work.

Quinn made the Angry Bird, Kirby, a coffee bean, and eyeball, and the gingerbread house with the cherry on top! I made the other gingerbread house.

I put Mr. Obama's ugly Christmas sweater on him. He's ready for the holidays!

I took pictures of the girls, and their cute reindeer friend.

I wore my Hello Kitty slippers!

Kevin and I went to China Chili for dinner one night. He had a very giant beer, and we sat next to a very fancy arrangement. We had food for several days afterward too!!

It was a great break. Two and a half weeks and I get another one!

I updated my classroom blog tonight. Check it out-go see what our elf is up to. The link is on my sidebar. Crossman Crew.

Crafting

I made a trip to the bead store over Thanksgiving break. I had an urge to make a bracelet like one I saw on Etsy. Check it out HERE. It has been sold already, but I just love it.

These are the supplies I got at the bead store.

This is the bracelet that I made. It's not nearly as nice as the one on Etsy, but it's close. The artist ordered the owl bead from HERE, and so I ordered one too! I simply sent her a message asking for a bead with holes on the side. She let me choose my color too!

I also made this bracelet. I was going to use the big red bead (which is actually a button) on the owl bracelet, but decided it was just too busy. I simplified.

I also made this ribbon flower, and then sewed a button in the middle, and made it into a bracelet. Now that my craft room is nice and clean, I can get busy and make some more jewelry!

By the way, if you would like to see what we are up to in Room 24, you can find my classroom blog on the side bar. It's called Crossman Crew, and it's under Family Love to your right. We have an elf!

Cleaning.

While the boys were at Disneyland, I used the quiet, empty house, to do some cleaning. I started in Riley's room. OH. MY. GOSH.

HUGE mess!! This boy does NOT believe in several things: garbage cans, a safe place to store his money, and the laundry room. I found so many candy wrappers, juice boxes and cans, and a whole, uneaten apple in his room! I also found TONS of dirty clothes (socks mostly) and $66 behind his bed!! In addition I found at least 5 DS games and ALL of the chip clips that I have been looking for! It was a big project, and my legs hurt for several days afterward!

BUT, it's clean!

Really clean, and vacuumed and dusted.

It looks so nice. It's even mostly still clean today! I did have to remind him to take the pile of clothing to the laundry room.

My next project was my side of our office. My craft desk had become a dumping ground for everything, and I had wanted to sort ALL of the boxes of craft items, and put like things together.

Success!! Everything is put away, and I know where it all is too!!

All of my boxes are sorted and organized!

Um, I think I have A LOT of beads.

Pictures from Thanksgiving, from my iPhone

You have to read the next post to get the full story from these pictures. Basically, we went to a restaurant in Capitola, for Thanksgiving. These are pictures taken with my iPhone.

Kevin and I, taken by Kevin's parents, with my phone.

The inside of Shadowbrook, before all of the people arrived. We were early!

Isn't that cute? I love the Swiss details inside.

The outside of the restaurant.

Thanksgiving in Capitola

The boys spent some time at Disneyland this week. They left Monday morning, with my parents. I had conferences at school all day Monday, and then Tuesday morning. The boys were at Disneyland until Thanksgiving, when they made the 6 hour drive home. Kevin and I, and his parents, decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner in Capitola, by the beach! It seemed silly to make an entire turkey for just four of us, so we opted to eat out. We went to Shadowbrook in Capitola.

Check out the view from Shadowbrook!

We parked at the top of the hill, and then made our way down a bunch of stairs, to the restaurant. We decided to take the little tram UP the hill after dinner.

The view up the tram tracks!

Look at how peaceful the water is!

Here's the restaurant from outside, in their little courtyard by the water.

After dinner we drove down to the little downtown in Capitola, and walked to the wharf. We walked past these cute condos on our way. I totally want to stay in one of these!

Aren't they cute? The ones at the front, facing the ocean, are all bright colors. Super cute!

See? I love this green one! It's two stories even! Although, they might not be connected. They might be individual units.

It was overcast, threatening rain, on Thanksgiving, but we walked onto the wharf anyway.

The views are still pretty spectacular.

We made a new friend. This pelican wanted the fish that people were catching. He was even trying to bite at people as they walked past him. Kevin got a little bit, teasing him. That's what he gets! To see the rest of my pictures, click HERE.