The Saturday 7

1. Lucy puked a few times Sunday night and got out of going to school on Monday. It's inevitable that Lucy will have the flu around Christmas. I think she has every year since she was a year old. But at least she got it out of her system quickly and before her class party and the other various Christmas events we have going on. She actually felt fine on Monday, so she and Lena played together all day and we made some fun ornaments.

2. Tuesday was the girls' school parties. It was the first year I had to bounce back and forth between them since their parties were on the same day at the same time. I feel like it was kind of a fail. Every time I'd switch to another class they'd be in transition between activities so I missed a lot. Oops.

Levi loved tagging along

Bean bag toss - she got all 3 in a can. She definitely didn't get her hand/eye coordination from me.

He found some cars.

Pin the nose on the snowman

Lucy is in a "no pictures" phase, so I didn't document her party.

3. Our other Advent activities from this week included making gingerbread houses (from a kit!)

These are the faces I get when I try to take her picture.

We also spent almost two hours yesterday morning making Christmas-themed Lego creations. It was way harder than I expected. Haha.

Christmas tree

Snowmen

4. I realized recently that I only have a few more books to go to reach 100 this year. I was going to just be happy with meeting my goal of 75, but now I feel like I have to push for 100. I read 4 books in 4 days this week. One of them (If Ever I Would Leave You) was a novella, which is kind of cheating, but my game my rules! I also read Edenbrooke (loved it!), The Memoir of Johnny Devine (good, but not great), and Troubled Waters. I only have 6 more to get to 100, so I guess I know what I'll be doing next week during Christmas break! (The high temps are supposed to be in the single digits, so we're definitely not going anywhere if we can help it. Hopefully the kids will be content to play with their new toys and I will be able to sit by the fire reading. Ha! Hahahaha!)

5. Lucy had a doctor appointment yesterday for a well-child checkup. She weighs as much at 7 years old as I did entering 7th grade. Lol. But she's also probably as tall as I was in 7th grade! It never ceases to amaze me how big she is compared to Lena and Levi - and even Justin and I as kids! But the doctor was perfectly fine with her BMI and said she's not worried. Whew! Guess that diet of mac n' cheese and pizza is working for her! ;-)

6. Our Christmas festivities start tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. I love Christmas so much. I have all my wrapping done and can't wait for everyone to open their gifts. My mom and I spent all day cleaning today. It's kind of ridiculous because the only people coming over are our immediate family. They're here all the time and we don't clean for them then! Lol. But I think we use the holidays as an excuse to deep clean and do more than we usually skate by on. We also made sugar cookies this afternoon. Lena loves making "the frosting cookies." She adores using cookie cutters to help cut them out, and could spend hours slathering layers of frosting and sprinkles on each cookie. Lucy, on the other hand, cut out two cookies and decorated one before she declared it "boring" and moved on to better things (screen time). Sugar cookies are one of the few sweets I don't like. If it doesn't have chocolate it's not worth the calories. ;-)

7. Pictures!

Can you see the additions Levi made to the Nativity set? #anachronism!

Playing cars with this cutie

I made chicken and dumplings for dinner on Monday. The girls refused to eat it, but Levi loved it. He couldn't shovel it in fast enough (and spilled half of it down the front of himself in his haste to get it to his mouth).