Emily reminds me a lot of myself at times, and so when I was at the thrift store and found a stash of 50 or so hair tie sets that someone had made (maybe to sell at a craft show?) I grabbed them. When I presented them to Emily, it was for her to pick through to give to her friends at school.
She carefully selected patterns and colors for each of her friends, then bagged then up with some candy and labelled them. So as not to exclude the boys in her group, she made up some strictly candy goodie bags too.
Also in the bag were these two nifty hair pieces, for which we had to find a youtube video to learn how to use. lol. They are really cute though!
The second fundraising roller skate night was two days before Christmas break, so we were all tired, but it was nice to order a pizza and hang out while the kids went to hang out with their friends. Even the big girls had fun. They considered it a practice for the field trip they would get to go on the next day with their classmates!
Grace got some gloves from someone at school as a Christmas present.
The look of delight on William's face when he found this kitchen "gun" that we were using to decorate some cupcakes was priceless. I caught it just as he was turning away though.
Eggs used to be a cheap protein choice, but now they are running around $5 a dozen (thanks to avian flu and a few other bird illnesses) so these deviled eggs were an expensive "treat" but they came out very tasty!
I made some fresh bread, because it just seemed like something I hadn't done all year, so I got at least one loaf in. = )
We found this secret message book at the thrift store one day. It had lots of neat codes in it, but the red filter cutout was missing, so some of the codes were quite tricky to try and decipher. After a search of likely places for some 3D glasses came up empty, I was so proud when Grace colored a piece of tape with red sharpie to help her decode the words. = )
The twins were particularly goofy when Renae came over to hang out one weekend.
In her absence, Avia left money to treat us to a milkshake during happy hour at Arby's. Some of my children opted for the larger shake, others opted for the smaller shake and fries. = )
I'm sure I've told the story here before, but have no idea where, so I'll tell it here again. Many years ago, Emily was reading the tags under the Christmas tree and found one for Billy. It read "to" Daddy from: ALL." Emily came to me full of disbelief and asked "mutti, who is A-L-L???" like she absolutely couldn't believe that this person, of whom she'd never heard, would be giving Billy a gift!!!
After teasing her, and still doing so occasionally to this day, A-L-L has become our invisible 'monster' who is never on the floor of the house we are on. He lives mostly upstairs and in the basement. Well, one day I was driving through town and learned that A-L-L got a job!! We don't know what he does, but that is totally his van.
Alice is carving a niche out for herself as the resident band snack provider. Now that her band director has returned, she brought some blueberry muffins to share with her class.
At a thrift shop, Emily and I found a squishimal that was designed to look like bubble tea. She had never had bubble tea, so we ventured out to a nearby shop. Sadly, this was during the break and they were closed until after the New Year. So, the following weekend, she asked if we could go get some. When Billy heard we were going for bubble tea, he assumed we were heading to East Lansing, where there are several bubble tea shops, and he wanted to come along and get some No Thai.
They are one of the few stores, outside of doctor's offices, that are still requiring masks to enter. So, we had to run out to the car to grab our masks.
They had the strangest combination of a German name, Chinese characters and English translations as an afterthought.
I had done some research in anticipation of our first trip and picked out the Taro flavored bubble tea. Emily and Grace both wimped out and picked an oreo flavored drink. I did have them try mine though, so that they would know what bubble tea tastes like, should anyone ask whether or not they like it. Bubble tea is not my favorite, I really dont like "chunks' in my food or drink. But the flavor was spot on and I would totally recommend it if you're new to bubble tea and need a starting point.
At the thrift shop, I found a Tucana friend for the cockatoo that Chelsea bought me years ago!
Alice and Emily are part of Monday cooking club. On their first day, they made cupcakes, the second round was from scratch pretzels!! I think they are having a good time, and the pretzels were pretty good (a little undercooked, since they ran out of time.)
We celebrated Billy's 41st birthday with a resee's peanut butter cup ice cream cake for breakfast!
He saved his birthday gifts for after work. He got a pile of homemade gifts and cards from the kids. I added some subway gift cards and a new Halloween house for his budding Halloween village.
Alice is on the internet alot, and was telling me how very little I knew about modern fashion. Particularly "suede goth with preppy vibes." I told her all except for one of those has been a thing *at least* since I was in high school. The little girls decided to dress up to see if they could nail the look. lol.
Alice was not amused. I thought it was hilarious.
later days
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