Tag: Books

Snowy morning of baking and crafting

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The day started with an early morning drive to take M (23) to work, right as the snow began to fall. It came down fast and thick, making it hard to see far ahead, so I drove slowly and carefully.

I had checked the forecast earlier that morning and didn’t see snow mentioned, so it caught me by surprise.

I always get nervous driving in the snow, so I made sure to drive carefully and at a slower speed.

A quick photo of my view of the snow from the car. It’s always snowing, it seems! ❄️☃️

I had originally planned to run errands, but the snowy weather felt like the perfect excuse to stay home instead.

It turned into a cozy day of baking homemade cookies and working on fun crafts.

Zaya (5) painting one wall from our wooden dollhouse. Zephaniah (8) had a creative idea to repaint the dollhouse and make their own designs.
Zhen’s (13) Homemade Christmas card. 😸✨️

So, the kids spent part of the day making homemade Christmas cards for their Nana and working on their crafts.

While they created, I read aloud the storybook Christmas with the Mousekins by Maggie Smith.

We loved the illustrations with scenes of baking, decorating for Christmas, and cute cottage homes in the mouse village.

This storybook also features festive crafts and recipes, so we plan on doing a few of the activities sometime this week.

The kids really want to make the gingerbread mice and a Christmas tree hat (see below).

I also baked homemade cookies—with Zaya,of course! She loves cooking. 😊

We made Kitchen Sink Cookies with chocolate chips, crushed walnuts, and caramel.

I sprinkled sea salt on top of the cookies once we took them out the oven. The cookies were DELICIOUS!

It was hard to eat just one. 😄🍪

Zaya mixing the cookie batter.
Photo by Zaya. 🥰

As we baked the cookies, we listened to the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack (the Keira Knightley version—my favorite!), and the whole experience felt dreamy and cottagecore. 😌✨️

Zaya said the sweetest thing to me while we were making the cookie dough batter:

“I love making things with you, Mom. And I love making things with Dad. Making things with you and Dad is the funnest thing I can do.” 🥰🥹💜

That just made my heart melt. 😊🩷

All images in this blog post are my own photography. If you’d like to use a photo, please contact me first for permission. Thank you!

Painting snow globes at the library

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With the cold weather and all of this snow we’ve been getting lately, it was nice to get out of the house for a few hours and get a change of scenery.

The kids had a homeschool meet-up at the library. December’s activity was painting a snow globe on canvas.

I loved how the librarian had the tables set up with mini easels and canvases for the kids. It looked like a little art studio!

Reminded me of the painting with a twist classes I’ve taken a couple of times.

The painting prompt was to paint snowmen and a Christmas tree inside of a snow globe.

The boys, however decided to do their own thing and create their own design for their snow globes— a log cabin and an Igloo.

I always love it when the kids think creatively and decide to try a new idea. 😊

Zhen decided to stick with the original design of the painting theme. Her artwork turned out beautifully. 😍

After the meetup, the kids wanted to stay at the library longer to play for awhile.

We ended up checking out a lot of Christmas books and DVDs. 😄

But the sweetest part of our day at the library was writing letters to Santa Claus. 🥹🎅🏾🤶🏾

Although we don’t do Santa, we do like to participate in festive Santa activities at Christmastime. It’s a fun way to celebrate the holiday season.

The cool part about this Letters to Santa Claus activity is the kids will receive a letter back before Christmas!

I think that’s the biggest reason why they wanted to write a letter to Santa. They love getting mail sent to them. 😊

We ended up staying at the library until closing. I made sure to get myself a book before we headed out.

I really wanted to get Jenny Colgan’s The Christmas Bookshop (I think that’s what it’s called 🤔), but it was checked out.

I have been trying to get The Christmas Bookshop for a long time, but it is always checked out– at every library in the metro area! 😲

So instead, I thought I’d read Colgan’s novel Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe. I hope it’s good.

I love this book Christmas tree! 😍📚 The library puts this display up every December, and I always look forward to seeing it.

Today’s library day was full of creativity, joy, and inspiration. I love that we spent four hours at the library. The library is one of our favorite places to hang out.

And now I’m exhausted and ready to get some sleep!

All images in this blog post are my own photography. If you’d like to use a photo, please contact me first for permission. Thank you!