We are having fun baking around here this week.  We started off with our favorite Christmas cookie, Chocolate surprise cookies.

CHOCOLATE SURPRISE COOKIES

(bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees~makes about 8 dozen)

Cream Together

1 1/2 cup of butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

Beat In

2 eggs

4 teas vanilla

1 teas almond extract

Add and mix thoroughly

3 1/2 cups flour

1 teas baking powder

1/2 tea salt

1 cup very finely chopped blanched almonds

Refrigerate dough to make it less stick.  Form balls around each kiss so kiss is completely enclosed.  The thinner the dough on each kiss, the more kisses can be covered.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes on ungreased cookie sheet until starting to turn light golden color.  Taste best at room temp.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We made a double batch so that there would be plenty left over for Christmas gifts.

First the kids counted out 200 kisses using a tally system.

Then the kids peeled the foil off the kisses.

Next the creamed the butter and sugars.

Next the kids chopped the blanched almonds.

Then they took a break for a sensory moment.  Ahhh...feel the blanched almonds.

Now we mixed in the rest of the flour and such.  This was about the time mommy realized that she really did not have a big enough bowl for a double batch and she really NEEDS a kitchen aid mixer.  The kids started getting really messy and the dog started waiting for flying food to land at her feet.

After giving up on the mixer and mommy mixing the dough with her hands it looked like this.

The kids rolled kisses into dough and put them on a baking sheet.

Yummy loveliness!  You can dress them up with some frosting and sprinkles if you wish.

Blessings,

Dawn

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  We had our first Christmas party of the season Friday morning.   We hosted a FIAR party for our support group.  We had only 7 kids but the group is slowly growing.  Our FIAR book  this month was Warm As Wool.  The kids all brought a warm item of clothing to the party so that we could send it to Covenant House, a home for homeless teens in New York City.  We then did a few crafts, ate lots of great food and played for a few hours.  Because all the children at the party were special needs, we had to do lots of balancing of what everyone needed to be comfortable.  However, it all went well with minimal tears. In fact, all the tears were at the very end when all the sensory children had had enough.

The dog was a very big hit.

After the party we had to rest and prepare for Round Two.  Friday night, we were invited to our huge Family Support Network party for special needs kids.  It covers five counties, and there were a few hundred kids present. Of course, I forgot my camera!!  Unfortunately, Goldilocks was not able to attend because  of her behavior.  Often she can only handle one event a day or even every few days.  She just could not pull herself back together after party one and was being very rude.  Grandma saved the day and babysat her so that the rest of us could still go.

The lady who painted faces did a great job.  Here are two of my children.  Tom Sawyer is about to fall asleep standing there lol.

Tom Sawyer won a gingerbread house for coming in close in an estimation game.  I guess all that work we are doing in estimation is paying off.

Today, we are getting some snowflakes!  They will probably not amount to much, but it is nice and Christmassy anyway.

Blessings,

Dawn

Last year we started a new family tradition for Advent.  We count down the days to Christmas by unwrapping one of our Christmas books and reading it for bedtime.  We also do a small activity or something small that is related to the book.  This year's line up is as follows.

1. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey - Put up our Nativity.
2. An Ellis Island Christmas - Bring one favorite stuffed animal/doll to storytime.
3. Christmas Tapestry - Look at and do some repair of my childhood quilt with kids.
4. Grandfather's Christmas Camp - We will have hot chocolate with crackers.
5. The Crippled Lamb - We will talk about what makes each of us special and unique.
6. Christmas in the Trenches - Listen to songs by John McCutcheon.
7. Too Many Tamales - Eat Mexican food, maybe some Tamales?
8. The Animals' Christmas Carol - Put out some birdseed treats for wild animals.
9. The Biggest Snowman Ever - Make snowmen out of marshmallows and eat them.
10. One Winter's Night - Attend the live performance of Return to Bethlehem at a local church.
11. The Chanakkah Guest - Have a Jewish meal and play a Jewish game.
12. Gingerbread Baby  - Have gluten-free gingerbread while Daddy reads.
13. Jingle the Christmas Clown - Make star cookies for the neighbors.
14. The Christmas Day Kitten - Wrap up cat treats for Grandma's cat.
15. The Dog Who Found Christmas - Wrap up dog treats for our dog.
16. The Legend of the Poinsettia - Make Poinsettia ornament.
17. All Is Well - Collect a box of give-away for Goodwill. 
18. Woodland Christmas - Sing the 12 days of Christmas.
19. The Steadfast Tin Soldier - Eat biscuits with a small toy baked into them.
20. Merry Christmas Strega Nona - Have late night pizza.
21. Silver Packages - Wrap sibling gifts.
22. Drummer Boy - Play music together.
23. The Christmas Candle - Read the story by candle light.
24. The Christmas Story - Go to church.

We place the advent books under the tree.  The kids will have fun taking them out each day and then doing the little activity.

Blessings,

Dawn

The room is done!   There is even some furniture moved in already.  It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less...  The whole experience was great!  The contractor was super GREAT!   The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done.  Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals.  He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn ~ the leftovers of a business that had gone under.  We got them for $1 a linear foot ... they retailed for over $5 a linear foot.  They are perfect!!  He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost.  Let's put it this way.  Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam.  He did the job for $76 ~ the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper.  The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be ....  So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?

Yay! Well, this is all you are getting right now.  The big reveal will be just after Christmas.  This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the children's bedrooms.  I'll show you all the rooms once we have curtains up and such.

In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room.  We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it.  My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project, and they have not held up as well as we would have expected.  So for now we will paint this floor instead.  We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week. 

That is all for now!  

Blessings,

Dawn

What an amazing day we had today! Goldilocks has been struggling to learn to read for 2 years now.  Most of the time, it seemed like we were spinning our wheels and making no progress.  We have switched reading programs five times and tried all kinds of different games with very little improvement.  Then today happened ... Goldilocks sat down for her lesson as usual and said she wanted her reading party today.  I said that she had to finish the entire Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane (1st grade) to have her reading party.  She said she was going to finish that book today and have her party.  Mind you, she had only previously read the first page of the 193 page book when she sat down with me this morning!!!  Over the next 2 1/2 hours she read the entire book!!!! All 193 pages!!!  I would have never believed it was possible!!!  This is the child who can take 40 minutes to write 3 sentences in her copywork book and has spent the better part of the year screaming, hiding and crying about reading 3 pages in a Bob Book.  I switched her to Dick and Jane about a week ago.  She seemed to like it more than other programs.  Then I decided to start giving her hard boiled eggs and Kiwi each day (brain food) which is supposed to help with ADHD symptoms and improve a person's IQ.  I can't say what happened differently today but AMEN!

This picture was taken when Goldilocks was on the last few pages.  Kids were piled up everywhere to see her make it to being a READER!

Reading the last page!

Goldilocks with her book and certificate ....

Goldilocks had a confetti cake with strawberry frosting and a black sugar bunny in the corner!

Blessings,

Dawn

When I sit down and think in the quiet hours of the evening about what I want for my children, one of the things that always comes up is charity.  I want my children to have charitable hearts for those less fortunate.  I want them to be an active force in their communities when they are grown and to think of others and what they can do to serve them. The best way to train our children in this is to have them serve in their community now and see us serve in our community as well.  Our children are so blessed.  They have so much while others go without.  In light of our children all getting separate rooms in a few weeks, it weighs on my mind all the more how important it is that they know how privileged they are and learn early to care for others. 

So, I want to reaffirm how we teach our children to be charitable.  In the past, we have done charity here and there and then heavily at Christmas time.  There seems to be so many opportunities at Christmas time that it is very easy.  However, how are we as parents showing our children that charity is one of our core values, if it is not at the forefront of our teachings?  To me, when I turn them out into the world in just a few short years, my children's character is more important than their academic abilities.  So we are going to put charity at the forefront of our teachings in the next year.  Whether it be at home (with sibs) or out and about, it will be one of our driving themes.

To get this new idea started, we are going to pick a charity to focus on each month.  For the month of November, we will be raising money for polar bears.  This was easy to decide upon because we are studying the Arctic this month.  The kids are very interested in polar bears and were sad to see how hard their lives have become due to the change in climate. (We watched the Disney movie, Earth, for our Sunday night movie night yesterday.) I was able to find a charity where we could make a tiny impact for $25.  To make this come to life for the kids (instead of Mom writing a check), we are going to earn the money by cutting back in different ways at home. 

• One night this week we will only eat rice for dinner.  This will save us about $4.75 from the amount of an average dinner. 
• The kids are going to put any change in the jar they find on the ground.  I have one child who finds a penny or two almost every time we leave the house! 
• We will skip the Blockbuster Sunday night movie and make do with the library to find our Sunday night movie.  (We often do this anyway.)

Well, that will be a good start.  The kids are excited (except Tom Sawyer about eating only rice for dinner -- ne never forgets to thank God for food during his evening prayers LOL).  If you all have any great ideas of charities, leave them for me in comments.  Just as we did last year, we will be doing a charity each week from Thanksgiving through the New year.  I still am plotting those charities out.

Blessings,

Dawn

Wow!  This week has flown by.  With all of the distractions the house is presenting right now, plus a flood in the basement and dear Goldilocks having a major meltdown and needing to leave home for a two day respite with her one-on-one therapeutic worker, the week had its downs.  Still, we got loads of living and learning done.  So, here is some glimpses of our week, in no particular order.

Apple pie making and tasting...

A dreamed for and saved for first violin.  Little Red Ridinghood saved up her allowance and bought it herself.  This is the Strike a Chord violin, and it is much nicer than I expected.  It plays 18 classical songs that the child can listen to and then play by rubbing the bow across the violin.  It plays the song at the speed of the childs bowing.  It also can be turned off for the child to just play the scales.  Very cool! (Notice the paint in little ones hair)...

Writing on the wall, literally.  This counts for handwriting and spelling, right?

A nature walk to see the latest flood.  This park is less than a mile from our home.  Our city is in the process of doing a wonderful job of turning much of the flood zone into wetland parks.  There is a little bit of everything for everybody ~ playgrounds, picnic areas, hockey and volleyball courts, walking trails, dog park, nature trails, decks over the river to fish from and much more in the works.  When the river leaves her banks, the park fills with water and there is minimal loss and damages.

Goldilocks returned home much happier and calmer ~ ready to be a family member once again.  The kids are working on creating an arctic book, using their Draw Write Now book #4.

Lunch out and play date with some friends ...

and tea time, painting walls, chores, reading lessons, painting walls, furniture moving, movie watching and painting walls.  Just a few more hours of painting and I should be in the clear.  At least with painting the walls that is ~ lots of furniture to still refinish and paint for Little Red Ridinghood's Christmas gift .

Blessings,

Dawn

Our Five in a Row group studied Madeline this month.  To go along with our study, I decided to coordinate a field trip to our local kids' science museum.  They have an exhibit right now called Grossology~The Impolite Science of the Human Body.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  It was a little boy's dream come true and my girls loved it, too. 

Did you ever want to know the science behind a sneeze?  Well, this exhibit not only explained the process but then the giant nose you stand inside of sneezes on you!!!

This lovely fellow explained all about allergies, sniffles, colds and anything else that can cause you to have a runny nose.  Yes, his nose ran frequently! See what I mean about a little boy's dream....

The kids spent lots of time at the life-size Operation game.  Remember that game? What a concrete way to learn where all the body parts go.  It didn't hurt their eye-hand coordination either.

The girls could have stayed in the digestive system playground all day.  Yes, they crawled through the whole digestive system.  The joke of where they came out of the digestive tract was not lost on them either. Yucky!!

The skin climbing wall was loads of fun too.  While they climbed along, they were supposed to guess if they were climbing over a pimple or mole or hair follicle.

I did not take pictures of all the things to smell.  Really gross things to smell.  Aren't you glad this is not a scratch and sniff blog? LOL!  Somehow I missed pictures of the statue that you crank up and make burp or the tooting machine.  We will have to go back when it is less crowded.  The exhibit just overwhelmed us and lots of the school groups were there, so we finally had to leave.   All in all, it was a really cool and gross exhibit.  Hey, IT"S GROSSOLOGY!

Blessings,

Dawn