Christmas Break

So it is over. The kids go back to school in the morning. I am actually quite sad (usually I am counting hours). It has been a lot of fun around here. Or maybe I just love the lack of homework stress.
Once the big day was over and we played with all the toys we broke out a few craft projects courtesy of pinterest. I cannot express how much I love pinterest.

I have been dying to try the melted crayon art that was big on pinterest. Brittany saw one on there that had the girl with umbrella silhouette so she wanted to try that. Aren't they great?

Tie dying with permanent markers and rubbing alcohol. The site I looked at advised using sharpies but I am too cheap and didn't want to hand over my sharpies to the kids so we used cheap permanent markers I bought for $3 for the set. They worked just as well. Such a fun project. Found it here. It is my new favorite way to tie dye. No need to buy any Rit dye or worry about spilling vats of dye.

Slime. Not a pinterest original. We have made this before but Matthew requested it. Look, Josh made a cute snowman.

Then he turned it into a fierce fist!

Finally, we had a family party on New Year's Eve Day. Once we found a church we could get into (we planned to have it at ours but when we showed up we had been bumped by a funeral!) it was great, laid back fun. We ate, the kids drove their remote control stuff around the gym and played with Nerf guns, we exchanged gifts and visited. Pretty much perfect except that we missed three of the families and Oma and Opa. I love this picture because even though I said "Hey everyone, look at me!" they all ignored me except Matthew who hid from me.

I put away all the Christmas decorations today but ran out of energy before I could put all the regular decorations back so it looks like we just moved in. I have to admit after the wonderful chaos of the holidays I am kind of enjoying the simple clean effect. But I know I will have it all back the way it was before a couple of days have passed. Just like we will be resuming our regular some-what crazy life tomorrow.