Painting the Icicles "Red" and Rainbow

Analise loves icicles and regularly goes around collecting them from all sides of our house. When she was bummed that her friend Tessa was sick and could not come over Erin and Emma decided to get her in a happy spirit by designing icicles.

"We are painting the icicles red, painting, painting, painting...painting the icicles red." Well, it was not exactly like Wonderland rose bushes, we actually painted them many colors using food coloring and a bit of water.

We also spray painted the snow with our food coloring filled spray bottles with a "Love you" message for Dan (who is working hard designing a program for Erin to use with her students to help with vocabulary development).

More Snow Means More Skiing

We went out at the warmest part of the day yesterday for some more cc skiing. The sun was shining causing the snow to look like sparkling diamonds. Everyone was pushing forward until we met the giant snow mountain at the road crossing. Everyone eventually scaled it but many had to slide back down multiple times before they were able to continue on. We plan to ski again in the next few days now that we have received a few more inches of snow.

Glide Time with Friends

Emma got together with her friends, Nevaeh, Tabi and Lily at the TCO open skate in Vadnais Heights. The girls had a great time meeting up and chatting about their Christmas break thus far. The snow is coming tomorrow so hopefully there will be some good new fluff for us to ski and play in soon.

Everyone got their chance to help Tabi learn how to skate and hold her up when she was unstable. They are a great team!

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpas

We spent the afternoon hanging out with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mark. We shared memories of Christmases past, played some games, opened presents and had a meal together. The girls enjoyed their bouncy balls that they got from Aunt Joan and Uncle Don as well as their gift cards from Grandma Kathy's cousin, Jeanne.

Finally It is Christmas

This year school lasted until the day before Christmas Eve. It was harder to get in the spirit of the event when working all the way through so we decided to visit the house of a man who recreated the holiday tradition from the Dayton's display.

The line was long and stretched down the block as people waited to see the holiday creation. We were impressed that so many people were lovers of the holiday show. It was fun to talk to people in line about their memories of visiting Dayton's each year and which stories they remembered most. The woman in front of us said she loved Frog and Toad.

When the girls were little, we took them every year to see Santa's workshop with all the elves and magical animals getting ready for Christmas. Emma remembered the singing trees. It is hard to believe that they closed down the event almost ten years ago.

Erin still remembers going to it as a girl each year they told a different story. When she was in first grade she had a dream of a career designing the sets for all the characters. It was Dayton's display or Disney World animation that had her attention. Unfortunately teaching was the more feasible route to take in the end.

Luckily, the man who designed his house to incorporate the Dayton's display windows collected some of the singing trees so Emma got to see them once again.

Christmas Choir Concert

Emma and Analise had their choir concert this week. It was fun to see everyone come walking in with candles.

Analise's group sang, Sing of a Merry Christmas and Midwinter Snow. Emma's group sang Riu Riu Chiu and Humble. It was also enjoyable to sing along to popular Christmas Carols as the groups rotated on stage.

Skiing and Holiday Mug Making

We have received the gift of more snow in December. Usually we can't get out cross country skiing until Christmas break. We have already made it out twice to the trails. There is something so peaceful about skiing on newly fallen snow.

Besides skiing, we took some time for creativity and made some holiday mugs at the White Bear Center for the Arts. We used all of the funds from the sand castle competition wins over the years to finally take a class at the center. It was an enjoyable time hanging out and learning a new skill.

PJs and Puzzles Thanksgiving

It was a cold Thanksgiving this year. We celebrated Dan's birthday with pizza, a movie, and puzzles. We were supposed to go to Arcola Bluffs for a hike but it was too cold so we did a quick walk around the neighborhood instead.

On Friday Analise had Tessa over and Emma went to skate with Nevaeh at Central Park in Maple Grove. We spent some time at the YMCA pool and indoor walking track as well. The girls have started to decorate for Christmas and we shoveled multiple times. The next few weeks will most likely fly by.

First Gymnastics Meet of the Season

Analise had her first meet of the season. Bars are a bit tricker with her new hand grips and she is trying more advanced moves on the beam. She did well overall and scored highest of the members on her team. We ran into an old friend Sofie who was on a different gymnastics team that was at the meet. Erin's friend Yeng took at picture of the two girls after the competition was complete.

Sofie is Emma's age. Here is a photo from when they were younger. Analise was just learning to walk at that point and did not want to go canoeing. My how time flies!

Aurora Borealis

We did get to the see the aurora borealis over our house this past month. Dan got some great videos as well. It was a magical night.

State Meet

Emma ran in the state meet today. It was cold and rainy. She came in 16th place. There were thousands of people out of the race. This race was all middle school students in the state (both public and private schools attended). Overall, it was a good experience to have but quite a long day.

Emma with her coach Mrs. Zenner.

Emma and Lily being silly. Plus a few more of Emma in action during the race and the final after race hug.

MEA break

We visited my parents house to make candy corn this year. Emma's favorite candy is candy corn but it is made with food coloring that may be linked to cancer. We looked and looked trying to find a kind that was sold without the food coloring but couldn't find any. So we took to making it ourselves.

It was quite a process to melt the sugar and get everything at the exact temperatures for mixing.

Overall it was an intense process that took us about 2 1/2 hours. Analise seemed to be the only one in a silly mood today. Everyone else was focused on not getting their fingers stuck and following the instructions so we wouldn't have to start again. The recipe was four pages long and had a lot of trouble shooting notes. There was no room for slipping up.

The food coloring actually worked out really well. We thought it would be really light but it turned out to be a nice deep yellow and orange without much added. After freezing the dough-like candy for a bit, it was much easier to cut (We didn't learn about the importance of the freezer though until we made quite a few mistakes). Emma and Ani made some giant candy corn when the dough exploded across their tray. In the end, they looked somewhat like the store bought ones. The real proof was in the taste. Emma said that they tasted just like them but were definitely fresher.

We also went hiking as a family near Lindstrom, Mn. We started out by some smaller ponds with lots of grasses.

Then we hiked up and down some hills which had great views. Many of the leaves were starting to change.

Next we took in some great sunset pictures and found great trees to climb in.

We ended up exploring the pennisula and going out all the way to the end.

There were lots of great places to kayak and canoe in this area. The lakes were gorgeous. There were so many great spots for photo opportunities.

This final one was our favorite of the day.

After the hike, we and went on a pumpkin walk in Wyoming, Mn. Wade, Li Ming and Kiris joined us for the event. We started by hanging out with the farm animals and fun kid activities.

Don't forget the ostriches. But beware. They have a mean look in their eye and those necks sure do swing fast.

Emma and Kiris feeding the alpacas.

Analise and the kangaroos.

Watch out for those camels. Best to use the big scoop when feeding them.

Then we headed for the trail.

Again there were lots of great places for photos. Kiris was so excited by the 1,000s of pumpkins they had on display. It was fun to be there with a five year old. Five year olds definitely bring the excitement and wonder back to things that may seem rather ordinary to the older crowd we have become.

Emma seemed to take to walking Kiris around and showing her everything she wanted to know about.

Although the weather was dreary this past week, it was decent evening and we enjoyed time together.