Gingerbread Houses

This past week has been a lot of fun, and a lot of work. Monday brought a snowstorm that kept Madie home from school, but before the kids could get out to play, it started raining. Our driveway has been a lethal threat since.

We made gingerbread houses for family night on Monday. The kids always love it, and always pile the decorations on so thick that when you stand up the pieces to put them together, half the candy falls off.

"You guys, if it's not touching the icing, it's not going to stay put."

Whatever. They just eat them anyway.

This is Madie's I-AM-smiling face.

I don't know what face this is. I guess it's an effort to look nonchalant? Like, "Oh, I just made this house. By myself. Well, my mum helped a little."

Madie has memorized the chorus to Jingle Bells on the piano. She says she now wants to learn a "fancy" version. I told her we could do that, but we might not get to it until after Christmas. She's cool with that. She just likes to play songs she knows well. 

But hear this: she's also been after me to teach her more (major) scales on the piano. I told her we would, once she had C, F, and G mastered. (I was planning on it after New Years.) She took it upon herself to just learn all the other major scales (starting on white keys only--she hasn't realized you can play it starting on any key). She can now play A, B, C, D, E, F, and G major scales. THEN--and here the bragging is really ridiculous--she taught herself to transpose the chorus of Jingle Bells into all those keys. Good grief. What next. She basically teaches herself.

This is not the version she has learned, but it is an aspiration. Perhaps next year.

Tuesday was gorgeous. I was downtown alone, for some reason, and saw this great sign. It's not until Friday, but it's never too early to break out the Festivus pole.

Madie was sick on Friday, so she stayed home from school. Some sort of stomach bug. Petya had it a little, too, on Wednesday. Today (or I guess, yesterday. Saturday is what I mean.) she still wasn't 100%, but hopefully tomorrow will be a marked improvement.

All this time home and inside has meant breaking out the marble run. The kids love it, even though it leads to some stress-induced arguments. It's always good for at least a few minutes.