Gingerbread House Party

We had our annual gingerbread house party today ... minus the gingerbread. I tried making bricks from cereal treats and then having the kids mortar them together. Learning experience but the kids still had fun. Assembling the bricks was a bit trickier than I imagined it would be.



I helped Juniper sorta ... until she took the mortar away from me and insisted on doing everything herself. She wanted a dragon house like Bruce but it turned out more like a half excavated puebloan ruin. Cute ... lots and lots of candy piled inside.

Bel's (a house with a peak) and Peggy's (flat, puebloan style) houses actually looked like houses so the cereal thing can work. Think rectangle bricks instead of squares would be easier for the kids to work with next time.

Nonnie helped Bruce create his Dragon House with a nice open roof for the dragons to fly in through.


AS created a zoo house for lots of animals ... gummy animals that is. They also had a huge store of food (candy) piled inside the open roof. I made the mistake of asking if that was for the fire smoke to escape through and was informed it was so the animals had enough air.

Juney and G spent quite a bit of time "debating" over who should ride the giraffe. Eventually they agreed to ride at the same time.

Not sure what Juney was upset about ....

... but as soon as she realized I was taking pictures she remembered to smile. I actually think she was crashing from her sugar high and all the excitement.

First Snow in Tijeras

First good snow of the season. We got about a foot. Hope Bruce is this gungho about shoveling snow in a few years. He shoveled about 20 feet before moving onto something else. Kids and dog had a ball in the fluff. Spent about two hours out there digging with the sand toys into the snow, building snowmen, and doing snow based experiments in the drained bird bath.

Chemistry Boy

Bruce is very much into the chemistry thing. We did an experiment together with milk, soap, and food coloring. Put a few drops of food coloring into a saucer of milk. Ad a drop of soap and ... poof ... emulsification. He did say the word and could explain what was happening. He insisted on taking this for show-and-tell and he apparently did an amazing job explaining the experiment and fielding questions. His teacher said he didn't need help with any of it and he wowed everyone with the experiment and his public speaking performance.

Mad laugh ...

Halloween

vampiress & the Chemist ...

The Chemist modeling his handmade candy ... I mean chemistry bag.

Diego the Animal Rescuer ... note the sparkly pink shoes which I think Diego normally wouldn't be caught dead in.

The Vampiress vamping ...what else. Chemist seems a bit bemused by it all.

We took the kids to a neighborhood where they shut down the streets and a firetruck is usually there too and they're so sweet about letting the kids sit in the truck.

Memorial Tree

Bruce started asking about his twin. In October we decided to start giving water to Taliesin's apple tree on the farm to remember her. At Bruce's school they do a similar ritual and adopting it at the farm seemed to soothe his sadness.

Frou Frou Trampoline

Periodically the boys could be cajoled off the trampoline so the little girls could have a turn. Petticoats and ribbons everywhere.

Auntie Gilly's Wedding

Gillian and Colt publically married on the 10th of October. The kids helped with her processional. I convinced Bel to do Juniper's hair. Juney wasn't thrilled with the process but she sure did look cute.


Juniper had already seen her dress but Bruce hadn't seen his shirt. The first thing he did when we got to their house was trot off in desperate search for Gilly so he could get his fancy shirt.


There were three flower girls including Juniper, Kaiya, and Kaiya's cousin Alice. Gillian, as usual, looked absolutely gorgeous. Her dress was amazing.


The processional began at the top of the hill. We kept seeing little faces pop around the corner.





Deedee holding a pink puff of meringue.




The girls on the trampoline were so funny. Pink puffs of petticoats floating up and everywhere. What different energy from the boys who perferred wrestling and leaping over each other (with numerous reminders about the safety rules from 4-6 adults watching at any one time).

Static girl....

Legos ... one of the most brilliant inventions of all times. Bruce was thrilled when he discovered Kaiya's box. BTW, Kaiya dumped them all over the floor not Bruce.

A satellite or so I was informed.


After the wedding we stopped for buffalo gourds along the side of the road. Bel has a plan for them. Of course, Deedee saw us on the side of the road and slammed on the breaks to fix the Jeep ... So they got to help us collect gourds.

And we learned that Deedee could juggle ... I had no idea and you know how old I am.

Brother does hair

Can you believe Big Brother wanted to do his sister's hair. Did a pretty good job too... good enough to wear to school.

Horny Toads ... Horned Lizard

Horny toad, horny lizard, horned lizard ... it's all semantics to a kid who just loves catching and holding. We found this tiny guy while hiking through 4th of July Canyon. Leaves hadn't started changing yet but probably have by now.