What a week!

The weather has been gorgeous here. In the low-mid 60's. Cynjyn finally tried out her new bike she got for her birthday!! In a santa hat too!! Tanner has had projects galore to prepare. He and Arianna, Brittany and Sierra have been working on an Egypt project for about two weeks. Here they are putting the final touches on their pyramid. It is for AP History and they'd better get a good grade for all the effort and time they've put into it.

Cynjyn had parent teacher conferences on Wednesday, so no school for her. We took advantage and made her teachers gift and a few other things. It was a crafty good day and she got glowing reviews from her teacher. All A's and one B in writing (she needs to work on spelling!!)

We got sad news this week. Her teacher, whom she LOVES, is moving to Georgia and today will be her last day of teaching. They will have a new teacher when they return from Christmas break. Cynjyn was SO SAD!! She loved Mrs. Traverso.

Last night, Tanner made a big batch of gingerbread to take to a couple of classes for class parties. He is in a food and nutrition class and they can earn extra credit by making stuff at home and having their parent evaluate it.

He had a friend over, Jewell and they had to make tamales for a spanish fiesta they're having today. These were a dessert tamamle made with corn, no filling. They were very messy and the recipe was very dry so we added a can of cream corn to the mix to moisten it.

Jewell and Tanner kept asking if they were going to turn out, I didn't know because I've never made one either!!

Tanner also had to dress up today for AP History as a historical character. His teacher assigned him Atilla the Hun and if they dress up and bring in some sort of treat, they get extra credit. So he turned a few of his gingerbread men into Atilla the Hun men. They are all limbless after Atilla got done with them!!

The tamales sorta turned out. We steamed them in my steam canner for 45 minutes, but they still didn't hold together too well, but we put some whipcream on them and I really liked them. Tanner, not so much, but it may be a texture thing for him. They weren't overly sweet. I'm not sure the kids in the class will like them, but I thought they turned out interestingly good.

He turned the rest of his gingerbread cookies into little cookies, too much of a pain to roll out everything. They were so yummy!!

And, here is Atilla the Hun ready to conquer 6th period AP History!!

This is his menacing look with his raised eyebrow!

Also, yesterday amidst the gingerbread and tamale making, I rolled some marshmellows in melted chocolate and then in some crused candy canes. After they hardened, I put them in bags and tied them and made some little baggies of hot cocoa mix and the kids are taking them to school to hand out to their friends for Christmas. You make the hot cocoa and then put the marshmellow stick into it to stir it. As the chocolate and candy cane melt off, it flavors your hot chocolate and then you have a big ole marshmellow in it as well. They are really yummy too!! I made 37 of them.

And finally, here is the gift for Cynjyn's teacher. We made some cute magnets out of clear rocks and put them in a cute tin. And we took a small picture frame (those plastic ones where you slide the picture into the back and they have a little base preattached) and put some cute scrapbook paper in it and glued a ribbon and flower to the outside and it makes a cute post it note holder. And of course, some hot cocoa marshmellows!!


We are all so ready for our two weeks off now!!