Project Life 2011 Week 2

Last week the girls and I continued our Jazz Up January activities for my picture of the day. So far we have had fun with the crafts and activities and most of them have worked out exactly as I thought they would.

January 10, 2011

Tonight we didn't have a fun Jazz Up January planned since it was supposed to be dance day. However since school was closed due to the weather, dance was canceled too. So I scrambled quick and found this idea on the internet. The girls had fun first making their snowman and then decorating them with markers, glue and glitter. I love this idea and will definitely keep it in my bag of tricks for art projects.




January 11, 2011

Tonight we had a rousing game of "pin the carrot on the snowman". I used clip art to find a snowman and carrot and then printed them out. It is difficult to find activities that both girls will find interesting. This one worked pretty well. I was able to point Tricia in the wrong direction and Ryleigh in the right direction. Though we didn't really have a competition, Ryleigh ended up "winning" with this carrot. I tricked Tricia in the end by moving the piece of tape since she was using the tape as a guide to place the carrot exactly where it needed to be.




January 12, 2011

Tonight the activity was to complete a winter-themed scrapbook page. I had a fun series of pictures from last winter so I let each of the girls create their own page. I helped Ryleigh but Tricia pretty much did hers on her own. The pages will be inserted into the scrapbook just like those that I make.




January 13, 2011

Today's activity was a fun one. I saw these outdoor sun catchers on McMama's blog the other day. Before I went to work I made some colored ice cubes - blue and yellow. When we got ready to make the sun catchers I let the girls pick their colors. Tricia chose blue and Ryleigh chose yellow. We just poured the water into a pie tin and plopped the ice cubes in and then stuck them outside to freeze (trust me, didn't take long with the weather we're having here in Minnesota!). We just used some yarn so we could hang them outside. Grandma Peg loved these so much that she wants them to make one for her too. By the way, these pictures do not do them justice ... they are very pretty hanging outside.





January 14, 2011

No Jazz Up January or POTD today. I had a basketball game to work at tonight.

January 15, 2011

Tonight's activity was a tasty one again. We baked a chocolate cake and frosted it with cream cheese frosting. Yummy. I had gone to Brookings with Tonia earlier in the day so she could order her new kitchen stuff - can you say JEALOUS! She will have a beautiful kitchen when it all gets done.




January 16, 2011

Today's activity was somewhat delayed because Tricia was not feeling well. But before bed we grabbed the old magazines and catalogs and let the girls cut out pictures for a collage. Ryleigh's was mainly food stuff - a giant peanut butter cup, milk and a peanut and Tricia's had a bunch of shoes on it. Ahh, my girls are so different!



We are still going strong with Jazz Up January! Like I said before, the hardest part is finding things that both girls will enjoy since there is such an age difference. But they mostly love crafting in all its forms so I've had quite a bit of success with the crafts.

Make sure you head over to Jessica's site to see the other Project Life posts.

Project Life 2011 Week 1

Welcome to 2011! My first Project Life update for the new year. This post also contains my Jazz Up January activities with the girls. So far we have had fun doing arts and crafts, baking, and other fun stuff. It is a good thing I am doing Jazz Up January, since we have had so many snow days lately it is crazy!




January 1, 2011

Watching the Rose Parade is always a little nostalgic for me. It brings back memories of my senior year in high school when the Pipestone-Jasper marching band got to march the parade. During my senior year my back was bad and I could not march with the bells like I had in the past, so Mr. Carlson had me fill a hole in the show and I pretended to play trumpet for the entire marching season, including the Rose Parade. This float was very pretty, in honor of 9-11.




January 1, 2011 - Bonus picture

Since our New Year's Eve plans were put on hold due to weather we decided to do Dar's and then bowling with the Czech family. We had such a blast! The kids did great until it got to be after 9:00 and they all started getting crabby.



January 2, 2011

Today we went shopping in Sioux Falls to get Tricia's Christmas iPod. Can you tell just how happy she is??? She started digging for apps and music as soon as we got it home and charged up.


January 3, 2011

We have always told Ryleigh that her birthday is after Christmas. So usually about December 26 she starts asking and asking and asking when her birthday is coming. So I decided I'd make a chain so she can pull off a link each day until her birthday. The chain is pretty long! We hung it on her bed so the first thing she does every morning is to tear a loop off the chain.


January 5, 2011

Here is where we starting Jazzing Up January! Tonight the girls had a blast making snowflakes out of coffee filters, markers and a spray bottle of water. They turned out so pretty. They are now hanging up in the dining room.



January 6, 2011

Tonight for Jazz Up January, we went out to eat with Grandma Peg at the Villager. On the menu tonight ...

Grandma - Indian Taco
Mom - Pizza Burger with Tots
Tricia - Hot Chocolate and Nachos
Ryleigh - Hot Dog and Fries

The Villager is always yummy! I love taking the girls to the restaurant where I worked for three years during high school.


January 7, 2011

YUMMY COOKIES! Today we made some girly cookies to bring to Holland for Great Grandma's, Livi's, and Grandma's birthday celebration tomorrow. I got the idea and recipe here. (Side note: I cannot take a good food picture to save my soul! The cookies were super yummy and turned out way cuter than this picture shows.) Honestly, I did the majority of this Jazz Up January by myself. Oh well, the girls just weren't too interested in baking tonight.


January 8, 2011

For today's activity, I wanted to do something that Livi could do with us. So I found these cute candy necklaces here. Tricia was too busy playing Wii with Troy, Patty and even Grandma Darlene to stop and make her necklace, but the two littler girls had fun with this project. I used Tootsie Rolls and Starburst for the candy.


January 9, 2011

Today's activity was to build a fort. So the girls put a little fort together in Tricia's room and then rented Despicable Me from the satellite. And don't forget the popcorn!



We have been dealing with snowy weather since last Friday. School was out early on Friday and there was no school yesterday or today. Thank goodness the district decided to build snow days into their calendar this year so we won't be going to school until mid-June again this year.

I hope everyone is having a great start to 2011! We are having fun Jazzing Up January with lots of great activities. I found almost all of my activities by searching the internet, you can do it too!

Remember to head over to Jessica's site to check out some other Project Life posts. And if you need to, head here to Becky Higgins' site to learn about Project Life. (Full disclosure - I have not yet gotten my Project Life kit for 2011. They were sold out by the time I went to order on Amazon. I can't wait to get my copy when they are back in stock!)

Jazz Up January

My latest venture is going to be called Jazz Up January. I originally got the idea here at Serving Pink Lemonade. This month as a way to make a boring month more exciting, I am going to do fun little activities and crafts with the girls. I am not 100% sure if we'll have very much time to do all of them, so some of the activities are very short and sweet.

The activities range from little things like reading a winter theme story to baking to crafting and finally to activities as a family.

I am also going to use pictures of the activities as my picture of the day. Here's hoping that we can have some fun during an otherwise boring month.

Final Project Life for 2010

I got way behind posting my project life pictures. Here is my very last Project Life post for 2010. I managed to take a picture - or at least fake a picture - for nearly every day of 2010. My folder has 360 pictures in it, so not half bad if I do say so myself.

December 5, 2010

We have been reading a Christmas / Holiday / Winter book every night this month. Tricia decided to take over tonight and read Ryleigh Twas the Night Before Christmas. I love the illustrations in this book. Next year, I hope to have a craft / activity planned for each book as well.


December 6, 2010

We bought puppy gifts at Loopy's today. The cute snowflake bones came in sets of two so Tricia just had to open it up and give Holly one of them. You can see just how long the stuffed squeaky toy lasted!


December 7, 2010

This was what I saw when I took Holly outside early this morning. The fog, while not much fun to drive in, creates such beautiful things. The trees around town all looked just like this.


December 8, 2010

Frosty the Elf brought the girls each a gift for being good. Tricia got a pink lava lamp! How cool is that?!?! It is so much fun to watch the blobs of color ooze around the lamp.


December 9, 2010

Tricia had her school Christmas program tonight. For the first time since she has been in school, she purposely did not smile at my camera. I could not get a smiling picture of her for the entire program. Methinks my little girl is growing up.


December 10, 2010

The girls did a little Christmas crafting again tonight. They made these cute make-n-bake suncatcher ornaments. They will be given as teacher gifts.


December 11, 2010

The cookie weekend that wasn't. We were supposed to be decorating several dozen Christmas cookies today with the rest of the family. The weather had other ideas, unfortunately. The girls and I ventured over to Mom and Dad's house Friday night so that we could for sure be there to frost cookies on Saturday. Dad came home after I did. It snowed and snowed and snowed. We tried to get from Mom's house to Grandma's using Dad's van but it kept getting stuck. So we just hunkered down and played some cards instead. Cookies were very quickly frosted on Sunday morning once the storm had passed.


December 12, 2010

Since we decorated in such a hurry, this is the only picture I have of the two girls together. Most of the rest of the pictures feature one or the other of the girls licking frosting off their fingers. The best part about cookie weekend is the cream cheese frosting.


December 13, 2010

Today is always a day when I spend time reflecting and missing Tricia. 18 years ago today I skipped work at the Villager, pretending to be sick. I count that as divine intervention since had I been at work I would not have been able to say goodbye to Tricia for the last time and mom would have been alone in the house when the Sheriff pulled up to the door carrying her purse.

The girls put together their gingerbread house tonight. Actually Frosty the Elf found a different set and it was actually a small gingerbread village. This is another tradition that I love.


December 15, 2010

Tonight was Ryleigh's Christmas program for preschool at St. Paul Lutheran. She was such a smiley little thing up there on the stage. She was also very proud of herself that she wasn't in the front row, which in her mind means she isn't the shortest.

I had a good chuckle with mom and Dave remembering when Tricia was in her last year of preschool at St. Paul's. Tricia's costume was to be a sheep. The kids laughed at her when she put it on at school. So she pretended to be sick so she would not have to be in the program. Ahh memories.


December 16, 2010

A random picture of some holiday decorations. We have purchased the Hallmark singing snowman every year since they started. They are really ridiculous and absolutely take over the house, but I love them anyway and so does Ryleigh.


December 17, 2010

Our small but growing Nutcracker collection. This year I found and purchased two new ones: the fishing one and the hunting one.


December 18, 2010

Our mantel decorated for the holidays. I tend to keep the blue and silver theme up here each year. This year I completely forgot to put out the big Santa and train that usually goes above the gun cabinet. Next year I guess.


December 19, 2010

Holly LOVES the snow! Here she is with her nose buried in the snow. She loves to be outside when the temperatures are not too cold. She can sit out there for a long time before her feet finally get too cold.


December 20, 2010

Snowing again. Gotta love winter in Minnesota. Today is one of the days when I wonder why I still live here.


December 21, 2010

Dave and Holly doing what they do best in December ... blowing snow and playing in it!


December 22, 2010

The next several pictures are not necessarily from the date indicated. I have just picked several favorites from the holiday season and included them here. Here is Miss Ryleigh in her hand-me-down Christmas dress. She looked so adorable for her program.


December 23, 2010

This is Tricia's dress for her Christmas program. I can hardly believe how grown up she is getting. She is every bit a pre-teen!


December 24, 2010

The girls took a minute out of their present-opening to leave Santa his milk and cookies by the fireplace. I sure hope the big guy is hungry when he stops at the Nissen house!


December 25, 2010

This is one of my favorites from Christmas at Mom and Dad's house. After playing our two dice games for gifts, all of the girls lined up to help pick up the wrapping paper. I thought this picture was too adorable with all of the girls standing there with handfuls of garbage throwing it away.


Bonus Picture - December 25, 2010

This is a bonus picture of the girls posing with their newly unwrapped presents. I love to see the smiles on their faces as they see what their new gifts are.


December 26, 2010

On Sunday, we went back over to Holland to spend a little more time with Troy, Patty and Olivia. We took Holly with so that she could play with Belle for a while. This is my attempt at getting a picture of the three girls in the back of the car.


December 27, 2010

This is my favorite picture of Tricia at Christmas time this year. This is her after opening up the note saying she would be getting her iPod. Love the screaming smile she has going on there1


December 28, 2010

This is my favorite picture of Ryleigh. What a big smile and huge eyes she has!


December 29, 2010

Ryleigh doing what she does best these days ... coloring with a stuffed animal always nearby while watching cartoons.


December 30, 2010

Tricia had Maciah over for a sleepover. I got them some stuff to make some New Year's Eve crafts. The girls made special 2011 cups and several poppers filled with candy.


December 31, 2010

The final picture of 2010 ... This was our exciting New Year's Eve! Dave and Ryleigh slept while Tricia played in her room and I watched TV in the living room. Our NYE plans with the Czechs were interrupted by another storm (that was not nearly as bad as they said it was going to be) so we ended up taking the girls for a late supper at Swanny's and then watching The Sorcerer's Apprentice on TV. Not the most exciting of families I guess.


Make sure to head over to Jessica's site to check out the other Project Life posts - most of which are the final posts for 2010!

So there you have it. One entire year in pictures. I have all but this last group of pictures printed and in the album along with a bunch of memorabilia stuff. I have also typed up all my journaling cards and just need to print those out. I've started taking pictures for 2011 and have ordered the new kit so we'll see how I end up tackling the project in the coming year.