Walking and Hiking

Winter has set in the little town of Pendleton once again with a dusting of snow.    

So, Sunday after church, I spent the day at the Indianapolis Children's Museum with the kiddies.  We made a quick stop for lunch at Hardees before heading to the big city.

The kids were happy and excited to get to go.

I've been here at least a half a dozen times now, and each time I still learn new stuff.  This time was no different.  Troy asked me if the dinosaur's bones were real or not.  I showed him the chart.  Everything in black is real fossil, the white bones are casted.  What I didn't know was, if there isn't a chart, you can tell which bones are real ones by the way in which they are supported.  Fossils are heavy and will not be drilled in (cause they crack easy), so they are usually set upon some sort of support structure.  And now you know too.  :)
 

I like the old Engine that Could.  It was the first to make it up a big hill.  Reminded me of the Think-I-can story.

When I wasn't filling my head with facts, I was spying on Lexi and Gladdie.  They never knew I was watching them and took their pic.

Troy hung out with Glenn and I, while Lexi and Gladys were allowed to wonder a bit more.  It felt good to be able to walk around the museum this time, for the last few times I was hobbling due to my foot being in a cast.

One of Troy's favorite events was the skate pond.

Such concentration and gracefulness!

Oh, oh, OH-- Guess What I found!!?  A morel!!!!  I've only been looking for this mysterious fungi for the last 7 years now.  :)

This is Bumblebee the Transformer.  I like his knit hat.  Wouldn't want that metal headie gettin cold now.  Hehe.

 

Gladys has been a bracelet making maniac lately.  Troy, her sales agent brother, asked Sophie to model her latest creations:

Here's the bracelet Gladys made just for me:




Speaking of crafts, in the above pic I'm modeling a knit sweater that I am making one like it.  The feature I like are the sleeves.  I feel like I have wings in this sweater.  Tee-he.

My new friend Lavonne and I went for hike today.  The weather was brisk, but not too bad for hiking in the woods on a fresh dusting of snow. 
 

This pretty birdie girl posed for a pic:

Stay Warm!

More Christmas 2013

Put your dancing shoes ON!!

For the Christmas celebration is not over yet! 

Grace and my in-laws came to visit on December 26.  The girls and I rocked out while we waited for them to arrive.  

 

Speaking of rocking out, lemme show you my rockin Christmas manicure:

 

Glenn and I put on a Christmas dance for the group.

The routine was meant for an ice skating performance, but we made do with the living room carpet.

Freckles, especially liked our performance; just look at that smile:

Have I showed off my favorite Christmas ornaments?  I don't believe so.  My Grandma had bought these as ornament kits. When I was a little kid my sisters and I made these from the kits:

They have been on a tree every Christmas for as long as I can remember.

Troy got Ono for a Christmas gift, so we played a few rounds of that.

We all went out for pizza at the best pizza place south of the Kankakee, Small Town Pizza.

I ate way too much, and loved every bite.  Heck, it's the holidays. 

Between pizza and cookies, I am going to really have to get my ice skates sharpened up and skate off a few thousand calories. 

Before they headed home, we took the traditional family photos.  Grace crocheted the pretty flowers on the girl's headbands. 

Merry Christmas Everyone! 

Christmas 2013 & Thumbprint Cookies

On Christmas morning, before sunrise, the pitter patter of little feet running down the stairs and into my room woke me up.

The kids waited impatiently in the living room for everyone to get up, then devised a plan.  Gladys climbed into a huge gift bag and Troy pulled it over to Glenn's usual spot in the living room.  Unsuspectingly, and half asleep, he went to open his "gift" and all of the sudden a 10 year old girl pops up!  Moral of the story-- beware of gifts in this household.  :)

Troy has my gift giving skills, that is to say, he isn't very good at it.  One example of this, is how he "shops" in other people's bedrooms for gifts.  He went into Glady's room and took her belonging (a vinyl bag), and wrapped it up as a gift for Glenn. 

And to teach Troy a lesson this year, Gladys went into Jean's room and "borrowed" a bra to wrap up to give to Troy.  Two bras actually, in two separate gifts.  Troy wasn't sure what to think of receiving a bra.  Then when he opened a second bra and after he thought about it for a minute, he thought it was hilarious.  He exclaimed, "Oh boy, I got two bras and my BOOBS have not even came in yet!".  We were all laughing so hard cocoa came out our noses. If nothing else, it made receiving a "normal" gift extra special.

 

On Christmas Day, after opening gifts, the kids were busy as could be playing toys.

 

Troy had played out his own adventures.

 

Then decided to make cabins for Gladdie's Barbies to go camping in.  He made and entire campground.

 

Gladys introduced her Barbies to their new home.  She liked the homemade Barbie furniture too, btw.

 

Gladdie received a duct tape art set from Santa.  She was busy into crafting for a good portion of the afternoon.

 

She is modeling some of the items she created out of duct tape-- a headband, glasses, and a belt:

 

Is my girl stylin or what!?!

  

 Since it's the holidays, we had to bump up the security around here.

 

 Troy stood guard at the front door, and occasionally preformed perimeter checks too.

Meanwhile, back inside, the crafting didn't stop with the duct taped items.  Jean and Gladys made bracelets.  (I'll show them soon, in newer posts.)

 

The kids had a really good Christmas.

Troy got a circuit board set from Santa. 

 

It was one of the more unique gifts I have seen this Christmas.  Building electrical projects kept him busy for hours.

 

All Christmas day we played; toys, games, pretend, crafts; we even baked cookies.

As I was mixing up the batter, Troy was learning how to make homemade snowflakes.  A few bits of paper snowflakes in the cookie batter never hurt no one. ;)

These cookies remind me of little pies.  Even the batter resembles pie crust, only sweeter.

So, after mixing it up, and making little balls, then they get rolled in pecans and thumb indented; like little pie shells.

They can be filled with any kind of jelly before baking.  I used strawberry preserves on a most of them.

A few of them I left empty to fill with just cream cheese frosting after they finished baking.  Some of them I filled with the preserves and then topped with a dot of frosting.

 

The cookies were a bit hit with family and friends that came to call. 

 Check it out, this one looks like a heart:

I found the recipe in one of those paper booklets circa 1980.  I used real butter in place of the Parkay margarine and real vanilla in place of the almond extract.

 

Yum!