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rney and while the universal force of gravity gives them a shared destination the expansive space in the air gives each snowflake the opportunity to take their own path they are on the same journey but each takes a different path along this gravity driven journey some snowflakes collide and damage each other some collide and join together some are influenced by wind there are so many transitions and changes that take place along the journey of the snowflake but no matter what the transition the snowflake always finds itself perfectly shaped for its journey 1 comment a nerf battle party posted on december 1 2016 by go2net wow has another year gone by already okay i m going straight to winter again instead of talking about what we did in spring summer or fall because well our son had a really neat 9th birthday party because we were able to hold it outdoors in november he s been wanting a nerf battle party since we took him to a nerf arena except the business closed and the nearest one is in idaho once the guest list exceeded 24 boys i certainly didn t want it in our backyard either so rain or shine we advised our guests and their parents it will be held in a park we couldn t believe our luck when we had beautiful clear blue skies that day so what do you need to have a nerf battle themed birthday party besides a good weather and outdoor venue lots of nerf guns of course we got some good ones from thrift stores as you can see from the price but for most part everyone but two of our guests brought their own and not just one but two or more to share the next component which is important are the ammo i have amazon prime to thank for that i ordered 500 darts and gave each guest 10 as part of their party favor bag we also told them that every dart they find and pick they can keep why would i want darts in my own home through amazon we also got safety lenses mesh drawstring bags and bandannas the bandannas were in blue and green because there was supposed to be a real battle but none of the grownups had the energy to officiate it that s okay everyone still had fun shooting at each other and the targets that our wonderful neighbors made out of buckets to complete the theme my husband decorated the venue with blue and orange balloons some of which were attached to trees for kids to shoot at afterwards we brought the remaining guns ammo and there were still a lot lef targets and balloons back home so the kids can continue to play although the weather has not been ideal for outdoor games since this slideshow requires javascript leave a comment creating christmas memories week 4 posted on december 25 2015 by go2net snow snow and more snow how fitting that on the last day of school we started to get snow and more snow that weekend the kids on our cul de sac had a blast building snowmen and pelting each other with snowballs one family tied their german shepherd to a sled and let him loose on the unplowed street with their 7 year old on it we took our son and his playmates to a conservation area in north spokane just two miles from our place with hills that were perfect for sledding for beginners and those with intermediate skills alike cookie party and no christmas is perfect without cookies once again we invited our neighbor over for a cookie party it was a good opportunity to use the set of 40 christmas cookie cutters that i bought at the thrift store we baked sugar cookies gingerbread cookies and my favorite edible playdo cookies the kids helped prepare and decorate the first batches but once it started to snow again they abandoned us for another snowball fight in the backyard us moms had to finish the job and that s how i discovered how talented our neighbor is with the fabulous cookies she made edible playdoh cookie recipe letter from santa it s cool that our son got a letter from one of santa s elves thru his school explaining that santa was very busy but it s way even better to actually have a letter from santa himself delivered to our mailbox three days before christmas here is the ready to print letter where you can add your child s name and city place on christmas eve we followed santa s instructions and left not only sugar cookies and milk for him but also carrots for his reindeer it tied up perfectly with the book we were reading the night before christmas so our son could count the number of reindeer and their names on christmas day he woke up everyone in the household yelling santa ate all the cookies drank the milk and took the carrots for his reindeer christmas with family for children the best christmas are always the ones celebrated with family especially when their grandparents aunts and uncles shower them with presents and when they have cousins to play with as grownups did their last minute shopping and preparations it is often a challenge to keep the kids away from the tv and gadgets thankfully i scored a lot of christmas craft kits from michael s 50 70 percent off to keep them busy we also made snocones from real snow which the boys loved grandpa s backyard is also good for sledding but the best place turned out to be the chelan golf course 2 comments creating christmas memories week 3 posted on december 24 2015 by go2net journey to the north pole cruise we crossed the state line to take our 8 year old on a cruise to the north pole at lake couer d alene idaho i m glad we got 50 percent off groupon because it was a trip i never thought we d do again last year he kept insisting that s not santa that s a man in a costume wherever we took him but he watched the polar express many times and would not stop asking when are we going to the north pole compared to last year we were certainly luckier this time because it wasn t raining and the boat was a lot less crowded maybe because we booked a later cruise on school night my husband certainly appreciated that all the stores were already closed at that hour besides frosty and some elves our son also got to meet jack frost his favorite character from rise of the guardians he was also pretty excited to see the grinch lurking on the docks hearing santa read the names of kids on the nice list remains my favorite part our son got very quiet and tense especially when his friends names were called out just like last year his name was among the last 5 or 10 that santa read it was so cute to see the look of relief on his face as he fist pumped the air advance present from santa last year i got one of the elves to have the mall santa give our son a christmas book as advance present this year i simply distracted our son so his dad could slip in the present because he was so fascinated by the polar express movie and wanted a silver bell i not only got him a silver bell at michael s of course but also wrapped it in similar foil candy cane wrapper from costco just like in the movie and i added a musical santa toy from a thrift store that sings santa claus is coming to town oh i got such a big kick when he opened the car and found the present on his booster seat and a bigger kick when he saw what was in the box i ve always wanted this he exclaimed he now goes to sleep every night with that santa toy diy christmas ornament project over the weekend my son and i worked on our christmas presents for his grandparents aunts teachers and friends i chose the melted snowman ornament after seeing a former student bring one to our school secretary last year it s really pretty cool yet easy to put together once you have all the materials from michael s and the grocery store the glass ornaments salt peppercorns silk ribbons and orange polymer clay to make the carrot noses for the arms i simply snapped off some twigs from our bushes instructions melted snowman ornament everyone in the family chipped in that is our son put everything in after i poured the salt and the hubby helped tape the ribbon around the ornament that was our son s own idea by the way which made our ornament different to the ornament we also added a cute poem with our son s picture i made a little snowman i made him round and fat then the sun came out and melted him now my snowman s flat lastly we put the ornament in this cute cookie box with handles we kept one for ourselves because the ornament is made of somewhat heavy large glass ball we did not hang it up our tree but set it safely on a jar lid on our bookshelf leave a comment creating christmas memories week 2 posted on december 23 2015 by go2net the first weekend of december had us driving all over town with our son s best friend z when you live in spokane there are many events and activities to choose from home depot kids workshop home depot holds a free kids workshop every first saturday of the month j has been to four previous ones but this was the first one for z it s cool that the kids get to build toys using a few pieces of wood hammer glue and nails my only gripe is they don t provide paint in spokane unlike the home depot that my cousin in michigan goes to and she s always posting photos of her daughters colorful projects in fact i learned about the kids workshop thru her facebook my sister in law took her son to the home depot in wenatchee wa and they also got paint but she told me it was too messy that i m better off without it oh well our boys didn t care j did use up a lot of markers trying to color the base black writing a letter to santa okay this is one activity that we never thought would be so complicated we like this letter to santa template because it s not just a list of what kids want from santa first of all they have to write why they deserve to be on santa s nice list second it makes them think about their friends and what they should get from santa as well we had fun discussing their thoughts and ideas to fill in the blanks getting them to copy everything by hand was tedious work though that s why this activity took us over two hours once we got the letter and envelope done we drove to the mall downtown where santa was holding court the boys personally presented their letters and had their pictures taken with santa by the way this is j s third christmas in spokane and third portrait with santa it is interesting to put all three pictures in a collage for our christmas card and see how he s grown while santa looks pretty much the same spokane winter glow spectacular we walked to the city park to check out the christmas light display it s wonderful and free j loved the north pole and animal light zoo best if we had more time it would have been nice to get on the polar express and the horse carriage rides but since the display is on until new year s eve we can schedule another visit downtown journey to bethlehem imagine traveling back in time to bethlehem the night jesus was born the journey to bethlehem living nativity is a must see for those who wish to observe a more christ centered christmas a hundred actors men women children from seven denominations take part in this pageant there are also live animals including a camel we had no idea this was a big event so when we saw the long long long line 2 500 visitors that night after a long day we called it off we came back the next day making sure to arrive 30 minutes early and had no trouble finding a parking spot and walking right in the church no doubt we ll be making this a part of our annual family christmas tradition from now on leave a comment creating christmas memories week 1 posted on december 20 2015 by go2net we work hard to keep the christmas spirit strong in our home these are the activities we did the weekend right after thanksgiving christmas tree s the first thing we did as soon as thanksgiving was over besides ordering some presents on black friday was take out all the christmas decorations and had our 8 year old decorate the tree before and after the seahawks game dad rearranged the furniture so the christmas tree would be right by the living room window he also put lights on the two fir trees by the driveway many of our christmas tree ornaments and decorations come with their own stories like my husband s santa collection from his childhood that his mother turned over to us after we were married these represent his various interests such as skiing santas and musician santa others were handmade souvenirs collected from countries we lived in and mostly non breakable because those were the years when we had four cats and a baby christmas books our collection of christmas books is meager less than 12 in fact but i found enough books in thrift stores and our public library so we could start reading at least one christmas book each day i made a list on pinterest you will note that many have christ centered themes but other elements and characters associated with christmas like santa and rudolph are also present we have some of these and have read about half advent calendar back when we still lived overseas and always traveled during winter break i found a felt advent calendar that was easy to carry around we still use it until now but i was inspired by the 25 days of christ kit to come up with our own handmade advent ornaments i found a tub of christmas cookie cutters at the thrift store and used these to cut shapes from felt which i hand sewed with polyfill fiber stuffing they look cute with the number pins from michael s but it wasn t such a good idea after all because i got very busy with other tasks and work as substitute teacher it s now dec 20 and i still only have eight the idea was to match the ornament with the book we re reading so we have a christmas tree snowman reindeer sleigh and even a dinosaur for the book dinosaur christmas but even though i have 20 cookie designs it also started to get difficult to match these to the books i have of course i will try to finish this project seeing that classes are over now leave a comment lego birthday party on a budget posted on november 11 2015 by go2net handmade invitations for once i surprised my husband by not using photoshop but our son is old enough to write his guests and his own name on each card the circles are made of foam bought from the dollar store and i used the tin cap from olive oil bottle to make the shapes the decorations lego party favor bags the punch out pinatas more on that later and presents disguised as decorations we also got yellow balloons but forgot to draw faces on those the t shirts i found the lego man stencil from this site the dollar store has colored t shirts although these were mostly l and m youth sizes and i had to get the 2t and 3t sizes in white for higher prices elsewhere three methods for shirt printing were used with varying degrees of success the original plan was to use heat transfers and wal mart sells these cheaper than avery online about 1 per sheet michael s was selling another brand for about 10 with only 3 sheets because the celebrant was celebrating his 8th birthday i made two shirts with different designs one involving the use of freezer paper as stencil and tulip fabric paint i got ...