Fun in the snow? This time yes!

While everyone was in town for Christmas this year we happened to get a big snowstorm, which dumped a nice amount of snow on us so that we could go sledding (without having to wade through deep deep snow)! Grandma corralled the kids into getting outside, and I’m glad she persisted because the kids (and adults) had a blast. Elijah was much more cooperative this time as well (see previous post), once he saw that the other kids were getting on all their snow gear and heading out.

We just went down the little hill behind my parent’s house, and that was great since the kids could walk back up it on their own, and if the adults pulled them it didn’t tire us out. Grandma had bought a big family sled which worked the best, especially when it was loaded down with little ones. :) Elijah liked to lie in the sled instead of sit, and he and Andrew rode down the hill quite a bit that way.

After sledding for a while the attention turned to snowball fights! The boys ganged up on Uncle Jon a bit, but Uncle Jon got them back pretty well, throwing snow furiously backwards over his head. We played snow tag and made snow angels too, and then the littler ones headed in, while Jon, Grandma, me, Noah, Nathan, Andrew, and Tori, stayed outside and had a snowball fight in the woods. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much in quite a while. We all ganged up on Grandma, and then Uncle Jon, and then of course me. No pictures of the snowball fight (I’m not crazy enough to put my camera in that kind of danger!). What a fun afternoon playing in the snow!

Eli's underprivileged? I don't think so!

Elijah got one present which I just had to tell the story of – a moose Webkinz, from Nathan. At Nathan’s school a lady organized a toy drive where the kids were given a toy that they had to give away to an underprivileged child. Nathan got a moose Webkinz, which he told Scott he wanted to give to Noah. Since they were already actually giving Noah a Webkinz for Christmas, Scott said that they couldn’t give it to Noah. Nathan deduced that they couldn’t give it to the girls because there was only one moose and two girls, so that wouldn’t work. So then Nathan decided that he should give the moose to Elijah. Scott explained that Elijah wasn’t an underprivileged child, to which Nathan replied, “Well, he doesn’t have a house!” I guess it is hard for a seven year old to understand why Elijah is living at Grandma and Grandpa’s house instead of in his own house! So, Elijah is now an underprivileged child, at least in Natey’s eyes. Poor Eli, his life is so rough. :) At least he has a furry moose to cuddle with now!

Special present for the girls!

For Christmas I had the idea to paint a dress up trunk for Lexi and Tori and fill it with dress up clothes. Lori has asked the girls, separately and at different times, how they wanted to decorate their room at the new house. Lexi said that she wanted it to be purple with green polka dots, and Tori said that she wanted it to be green with purple polka dots. Lexi’s favorite color is purple, and Tori’s favorite color is green. So I thought it would be cool to paint a trunk with green and purple polka dots, with their names across the top! Jon found a trunk at IKEA which was a good size and fit our budget (a solid wood trunk is very expensive it turns out). And I was able to paint the wood frame and then stencil polka dots and their names on the white inset of the trunk. It was a lot of work but I had a lot of fun doing it!

When the girls come over we often play “brave knights in armor,” where Lexi is a princess, Tori is a brave knight, Eli is a prince, and I am a dragon (which they either fight or they ride depending on their mood). Lexi is super in to princesses and Tori likes them too, but prefers to be a knight. I found some great princess and girly dresses at resale shops, and found some princess "beauty sets" as well. And then at Costco the day before we opened presents I stumbled upon a knight’s dress up costume which was perfect for Tori! So the dress up trunk had princess clothes and a knight’s outfit too!

When they opened the trunk up the girls were excited, and I’m really glad I got the knight’s outfit, because Tori looked at one of the dresses and said, “Princesses wear that, not me.” Then she put on the knight’s costume and looked super-cute. Lexi got all decked out as a princess, complete with tiara, and I was so happy to see them so happy. Lexi came up to me the next day and gave me a big hug and told me thank you for her pretty trunk and pretty clothes. All the hours of work were worth it paid off to see the smile on the girls’ faces and hear that they liked their present!

Koorndyk Christmas

Me and my brothers and their families and Mom and Dad had such a good time all being together over the Christmas holiday, that I can’t even begin to tell everything that happened. All of us were staying at my parent’s house pretty much the whole time, so we were packed in, but the cousins loved being together, and Elijah was constantly entertained (maybe 6 kids isn’t such a bad idea? Naw, don’t think so.) Here are the highlights:

• Jon hooked up his Wii to the TV in the living room so the kids could play games out there, and the three older boys loved playing Super Mario Kart together. Aunt Missy played a bit too; even Elijah tried to get in on the action. The boys were so cute with Eli, who just held the controller and didn’t make his car move. They would tell Eli he was doing great, and at the end of the race that he won. Eli would throw his hand in the air, cheer, and say, “I won!” Natey told Grandma, “He’s not really winning; we’re just telling him that.” It was cute though when one time Elijah got his car to move a little bit. The boys all started shouting, “He’s moving! Yay, Eli, you’re moving!”

• We lost power in a storm on Saturday night at 3 in the morning, so we had breakfast by candlelight, which the kids thought was pretty cool. We got power back in the late afternoon of Sunday, just in time to open the kids’ Christmas gifts (and not freeze our butts off with the furnace not working!).

• There was a rousing game of Uno Attack, which was quite hilarious to watch. Elijah was playing with Grandma, and all the kids would just go nuts when the launcher would spit out a bunch of cards to one of them.

• Elijah had a transportation Christmas, getting Mack from the Cars movie, two Lightening McQueen cars, a big Lightening McQueen, a Thomas the Tank Engine Aqua doodle set, and a CAT bulldozer! He loved them all; though I think the gift he was the most excited about was the play food which the girls got to go in their new play kitchen. He couldn’t understand why they weren’t HIS and why we weren’t opening them!

• On Christmas Eve we had a fantastic dinner all together (14 of us around the big table – I don’t know where the baby is going next year!). Then afterwards it was early to bed for the younger kiddies and the adults opened presents. No pictures of that though (we’re just not as cute as the little ones). The boys stayed around to watch us open presents and all of us thought it was nice to have the presents shuttled to us by the youngins. Using child labor to hand us lazy bones our presents is a great idea.

• Grandma had the great idea to make snowflakes out of paper, and it only took four adults to decipher the directions from Martha Stewart on how to fold the paper. The kids were interested for a bit, but not nearly as long as the adults were. Jeff made a snowflake with the Michigan block M on it, and Scott made all kinds of intricate snowflake designs. I went traditional for a bit and then decided to do some contemporary designs, and made one with polka dots (which the girls thought was cool). Grandma and the girls hung some of the snowflakes in Elijah’s room to surprise him when he came home from celebrating Christmas with the Schneider side of the family, and they look really pretty.

• Overheard by me – Lexi was explaining to Elijah that she was his cousin. Elijah replied, “No, you not my cousin. Andrew my cousin.” Lexi tried to tell him that Andrew and Lexi were both his cousins, but he couldn’t quite grasp the concept. Apparently, though, by the time you are four you understand perfectly!

• The adults had a great time playing games together (I think we played every night!), and spending 5 days together, which is a treat. Uncle Scott got sick at the end of the visit, so that wasn’t so great though. He missed out on some of the gaming, so we’re going to have to have some makeup sessions I think. Let’s start planning our next get together!

Moments like these . . .

I was out finishing Christmas shopping one night, so Jon had put Eli to bed long before I made it home. When I did get home I had to check on Eli though so I crept into his room to peek in his crib. Elijah immediately rolled over towards me and stretched out his hand towards mine. Then he opened his eyes and looked up at me. I thought, “Oh no! I woke him up!” but Elijah just whispered, “I love you mommy,” and closed his eyes again. What a sweetie. Moments like these make all the hard work of parenting worth it!