Q-tip Painting

If you haven't noticed,
it's ridiculously cold outside.

So we took to pinterest to find some indoor activities.
Any easy, fun one was this pin:

Q-tip Painting!

I just printed out a few pictures for each kid

and set up a paper plate color palette.

This activity kept them busy -

and they really enjoyed it.

 

It was a good change of pace from 

their regular coloring books.

If your kids are tired of being stuck indoors,

give this easy craft a try!

Oh Christmas Tree . . . Farm

We visited a tree farm while we were

in Long Prairie over Thanksgiving.

It was a beautiful place and unexpectedly

became the setting for this year's Christmas card photo!

The cousins all came out for the fun -

and piled into this wagon for a hay ride all around the property.

Of course, they loved it.

  We also got to visit some donkeys -

 and pet them a little.

But the real hit was what was inside 

this little red house that had a cool hay bale tunnel  -

SANTA! Little Ruby climbed onto his lap first.

How could he ever say no to that face?

Walt went next and rattled off a few things he was hoping for.

Here's their annual photo with Santa for Christmas 2013 -

 

I can't believe how big they are getting!

Here's a little reminder -

Christmas 2012

  

 Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

We hope you've had a wonderful Christmas season 

full of many blessings.

Learning Lefse

I LOVE lefse.

There's nothing like it,

warm and fresh off the griddle,

with butter and brown sugar melting inside.

Mmmmmm!

I labeled myself the Lefse Queen this year.

Here I am in all my glory -

But making lefse is a lot of work, 

so it's sort of a family affair.

Here I am with my mom -

 and here she is working hard with her mom -

Three generations of lefse makers.

This year I figured it was time 

Walt and Ruby began learning how it's done.

Ruby worked on rolling-

And Walt not only rolled out his own piece -

but he also used a turning stick to get it to the griddle -

and helped me cook it!

 I know his favorite part is probably still just eating it,

but he sure was proud of making his own piece of lefse

and I had a great time introducing my kids to a family tradition.

A Thanks-filled Day

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving this year!

We hosted on Thanksgiving day,

so I had leaves out for people to add to our Thankful Tree -  

 and I used some of the extras in my decorating,

like on this "Thankful" banner -

(which I never would've finished and got hung up 

without help from my dad & niece.)

My decor was pretty simple this year.

I made a few fun pieces for the table -

Like this mason jar turned candle holder -

  

I bought boxes of these little plastic leaves and pumpkins on clearance for 50 cents a box at Target,

and just filled a few jars with them and popped a tea light inside.

 This pin inspired me to save

 Walt & Ruby's little gourd pumpkins

to drill out and hold tea lights as well.

 

Then I just mixed in some fresh greens and baby's breath.

 

 Simple and cute!

  But one of the most fun things we did this year 

was a little photo booth of sorts.

I had an empty frame lying about and some dry erase boards,

so I had people write down what they were thankful for 

and hold up the frame.

Some were sweet -

Some were funny - 

Some were just plain adorable -

  and some just said it all, 

literally -

We also had a little fun when we let his sister write one 

for him to hold up without knowing what it said  -

 He was a good sport and laughed when he got to read his sign.

But then of course he got the chance to do the same to her -

 and you can about guess which person wrote this one out -

 We had a lot of food, 

 fun, and family, 

so I'd label Thanksgiving 2013 a success!