My little SI model cute as a lady bug

You might have noticed I haven't had as much to time to update the blog. Not nearly as much as I would like, even though I have a lot to say. I've just been so busy with life (which btw has been action-packed) and all of Soph's homework and projects. So here's a quick snapshot to show how we've been busy with life, especially where Soph is concerned.

She's so looking forward to being the "Everyday Hero" this Friday. They have been learning about patriotic symbols, learning about the flag, it's colors, stars and stripes and what it all represents. So we had to create a flag that represented Sophie on standard size paper. In a nutshell, this flag portrays Soph.

Everyday Hero

You may not be able to see everything, but the stripes represent her age. The pink and purple represent her two favorite colors. You'll see her favorite food is spaghetti and favorite dessert is yogurt. Her favorite shows are Dragon Tales, Kipper, Noddy, Berenstein Bears and the Goodnight Show. She wants to be an Artist and a Doctor when she grows up. She taught herself how to hula hoop when she was just 4 years old. Her two favorite princesses are Snow White and Aurora. Sophie is so proud the way her flag turned out and can't wait to share with everyone in her class.

100 Days

Soph's school is about to approach 100 days at school. The assignment for next week was to make a collection of 100 items... whether it be cheerios, marshmallows, stars, toothpicks, etc. We decided to use noodles... actually garlic, spinach fettuccine. And at the same time construct a house with it. Soph kept saying, "this isn't going to look good, I want to do a Christmas tree, this isn't going to look good, etc." Still, I had her color all the noodles and to her surprise, she ended up loving it and can't wait to bring it to school next week.

Switching gears, we went to Gymboree to buy another pair of jeans as she's growing like a weed, however this bathing suit was the highlight. Doesn't she look like a SI model?

My Little Lady Bug

Okay, okay maybe not.

Hope everyone's New Year is off to a good start!

Strands of beads and snow

Next school project / homework assignment: Decorate the Christmas tree

Sophie had a lot of fun decorating this tree. I always try and let her do as much as she can on her own. Her favorite part was stringing the beads and coloring. In school, they have been learning a lot about patterns and so she was having a ball creating her own pattern, which was used as garland to trim the tree. Adding the snow to the tree was something we did a couple of years ago to our own tree.

2007 was the year it snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed... And so I decided to carry the theme inside our house with our Christmas tree. Also, while driving through Little Cottonwood Canyon, to Alta, the trees were beautiful, covered with cotton ball looking snow on the branches and limbs. Hence the name "Cottonwood," I suppose. Of course, I had to try and replicate that with our Christmas tree (see below).

So far this year, the snow has been minimal (thank goodness...a nice break); our Christmas tree was decorated with slight snow at the top and beads to match Soph's Christmas tree. You can't see the beads very well, but they are there, little green dangles. Also, this Christmas tree has Sophie's touch at the top. We used her blue fairy star wand as the tree topper.

I can't believe this, but we put our Christmas tree up and decorated the house before December. This is the first time this has happened. Usually, we decorate the tree 2 weeks before Christmas. (I believe having Soph has a lot to do with it.) Also, hubby and I are going to actually buy presents for each other to put under the tree along with Soph's, that way she knows it isn't always about her. (Okay, lets see I want a cellercise, SmartSole, I want it all bracelet ...LOL... that's all :D). Sophie gets a lot of gifts due to the fact her Birthday is the 22nd :o/ And, yes I do wrap her birthday presents in birthday paper so she knows the difference.

BTW, she's still afraid of Santa Claus. So still no picture of her with Santa to date. I might have to wait until she's a teenager. But then again, at that age I don't want her sitting on Santa's lap...how weird (as in hehehe) as I was typing Santa, I accidentally typed Satan....hmmm.

Family turkey project & making Halloween crafts

One of Soph's homework assignment as a "family activity" was to disguise a turkey. He is afraid because Thanksgiving is coming! And needs to be all dressed up in a disguise so he won't get caught!

Mrs. Westover said in the past family turkeys have been dressed like ballerinas, football players, farmers, hula dancers, Elvis, doctors, spys, etc. Well, all of those sounded really cute but a little complicated to me especially since I am not that artistic. Soph originally wanted me to dress him up as a scarecrow, but I was scared I would botch that up as well.

After about 30 minutes of brainstorming, we finally agreed on disguising the turkey with leaves to blend in with nature. Sophie was thrilled and I was even more since I didn't have to draw anything, just cut with the help of a leaf template I found online. Soph did all the coloring and I cut out the leaves. Great teamwork, huh?

Here are some pictures of the turkey who is actually a girl (of course), named Leaf (how original)...lol.

Now you see her

Now you don't

Now you see her

Now you don't

The Halloween party was also a success. I was responsible for crafts and we made these cute, witch's broom with treats. All the kids had lots of fun putting their broom together.

Here are the instructions to make a paper bag witch's broom:

Supplies Needed

• Paper bags (size depends on how large you want your broom)
• Raffia
• Scissors
• Dowel rods or sticks or wooden spoon (I used a wooden spoon/spatula)
• Cereal or candy

1. 1. Fold a paper bag in half, overlap if you want broom bristles to be long. Carefully trim the ends of the folded part of the bag to make fringes (creating the bristles of the broom).

   
   

   
   

   2. Fold another paper bag in half and cut the top off. Proceed to cut slits in the bag to make more fringes for another layer of broom bristles.

   
   

   
   

   3. Fold the bristles back to expose sack. Then, fill your bag with different cereal, popcorn, treats or toys and insert the stick into your bag while cinching the bag around the stick. Add your extra paper bag that is fringed over the top of the first bag and cinch it around the stick also. The cut bags SHOULD cover the base of your paper bag.

   
   

   
   

   4. Tie the bags to the stick with raffia. The paper bag fringe is the broom bristles and the stick is the broom handle. If you want you can color the bags or add any decorative embellishments to dress it up.

   
   

   
   

   Happy Halloween!