A picture perfect winter day

If you can't tell, they are playing with a sprinkler and yes that was today, December 16th.  I had to crop the picture since they had no pants :o)

Soup anyone?

Once the lever fun was over that day Scott wanted to build a chimney.  Sydney LOVES Mary Poppins so they have seen the chimney sweep part many a times.  He was now using his lever as a broom to clean out a chimney.  He didn't like any of my suggestions so I said I couldn't do a chimney but here's a stove.  They went to work making some soup...

First you must gather your ingredients: 

Next, mix together and let simmer for awhile.

When the flavors have mixed really well give it a little taste test.

Mmmm...that's some yummy soup!

Levers

Scott has been into levers lately.   He wanted to make one outside so I raided the trashcan and came up with a few pieces.  We screwed a cup onto the end of old laminate wood flooring and put that on top of a brick and piece of wood.  

Yea!  It works!

Will the lever last??  The wiffle ball seems to be pushing it to breaking point.

 No, the wiffle ball did not do this.  I did.  I tried hitting the lever with a bat.  I guess Scott's method was the better approach.

During this time Sydney was picking flowers :o)

And doing a little wood work.  

Ally

 It's hard to believe 8 years ago Ally was this little ball of wrinkles. 

Bonding with her brother.

Now she's content to nap all day, perhaps chew a bone and take in a walk or game of soccer at night.

Sadly, today I took Ally to an oncologist.  She had a skin biopsy right before Thanksgiving and it came back as a mast cell tumor.  The tumor is not a lump but spread all over her skin.  It's hard to describe but she's pretty much hairless at the affected area from licking or scratching and it's inflamed.  She wears a shirt to help keep her away from the area.  If it were a lump then they would surgically remove it and be done.  It's stage 2 of 3 and only affecting her skin (not internal organs) so I'm optimistic that treatment will help.  Right now it's on her left side and spreading to her leg.  It's itchy or bothersome to her because if she's not wearing a shirt she licks and licks and licks.  Other than that she acts normal.

She has started chemotherapy today which consists of two pills once a day.  She may or may not have side effects but if she does then another treatment will be tried.  After a month I'll take her back to the oncologist and they will re-evaluate her situation.  I just hate giving her medicine that I have to wear gloves to handle.  That's got to be some potent stuff!  We're hoping for the best!

What are we going to do today?

What a morning!  We filled our time with a variety of crafts and I still can't believe it's only 1pm!  What are we going to do this afternoon?  Maybe I'll make it to the grocery store after all.

I showed Scott how to use a stapler while Sydney was busy beading.  I can't remember where I saw this beading activity but it's perfect for Sydney and actually Scott too except he wasn't too interested.

Scott stapling away...

He never actually stapled anything together but did make a love picture of staples!

Next they practiced spelling their names and counting on the clothesline.  I then made some number cards for both of them which Scott hung up and Sydney decided to color on. I guess I didn't make them pretty enough for her :o)

Now it's time to blastoff, ship out or drive away...

Our house is slowly filling with shipping boxes the closer we get to Christmas so we put a couple to good use today.  

They come complete with telscopes, phones, buttons and a steering wheel.  

Dining in is optional...

The boxes are currently outside letting the paint dry.  Yes, they attempted to paint them but their attention span was not long enough to paint the entire thing.

Not so good on the foam snowflake.  

And the adventures continued outside.  Please note it's currently 73 degrees outside but Sydney has insisted on wearing her hat for the past several days outside.  I bought some droppers the other day and yesterday they painted paper using the droppers.  It didn't work too well so we tried some other materials I had on hand.  

Cotton balls ended up being the best since they soaked up all the liquid.  We'll probably use them for something else after they dry.  Sydney pursued other interests--mixing--while Scott was seeing how far he could shoot colored water when he thought I wasn't looking. 

The house is now an even bigger mess than before so until another day... 

December 1st zoo trip

The weather was great for the zoo this afternoon! We stopped to feed the ducks on our way in and boy did they show up when the bread came out. It was a little overwhelming so it didn't last too long.

It looks like Scott is having words with this greedy fellow but in all actuality I think he was saying, "Hi little ducky!"

They sure cleared out when the bread was gone!

Now the following 3 pictures were taken at the request of Scott. He would pose and tell me to take his picture. Who knows how long he would of gone on before I ended his little photo shoot.

Expressions

The kids were a little excited after lunch today since Eric and I were taking them to the zoo. It turned out to be a perfect weather and no one was at the zoo today either!

They were just being goofy...