Art Projects

So, we have this day room off the kitchen that has been turned into a toy room. It is a great room. Nice and bright, the girls can play in there while I cook and I can keep an eye on them. The idea is that their toys on the first floor will be in there and not take over the the other rooms but that is not always the case. We have been trying to figure out what to put on the wall in there for a while. Simon feels strongly that all artwork in our house should have a story. Great idea but you can only have so many heirloom picutres and apparently, "I went to the store and liked this picture" isn't a story that is a approved. Our friend Bridget (who is totally crafty and used to be our interior decorator when we lived in Columbus) gave us the idea of having the girls paint canvases and then hang them in the the room.

We finally took the time to go to the store with the girls and let them pick out some colors of paint. Ruthie picked pink and Lulu picked purple (shocker I know) and I picked an avacado green since the walls are a slate/green/blue color with white trim. We let them paint one color at a time. Lulu's pictures were exactly what we had envisioned for the room. And Ruthie being completely type A began to freak out at any white space. So, she turned her 2 canvases into solid colors. Simon's idea was to put their andprints and ours on her sli canvas to give it a little something more than just solid pink or purple. It was such a great family activity and I know the girls really enjoyed themselves and now we have a cool story to tell about the artwork on our walls.

Groundhogs Day

Seriously, what is up with the date on this blog. I am not really that tech savy and I am starting to get annoyed that i can't change the date. For example my Christmas post says it was on December 19th.

Make it stop!

Team Bisson Christmas Pajamas

Oh yes, as if all the craziness of Team Bisson and the Christmas cards and address labels wasn't excitement enough, I may have forgot to mention that we also have to have Team Bisson Christmas pajamas every year. The girls have matching and Simon and I have matching. I know totally hot right?!

Also, thought I would highlight some of the best parts of our Christmas vacation.

* The girls had a great time with their Gammy. We had a great time with Gammy taking great care of the girls.

* Seeing Katie & Tim and Marty & Elizabeth is always great. I just wish we lived closer or got to see them more often but when we do get to see eachother it is like no time went by at all. Also, seeing Katie's impression of the dance from Little Miss Sunshine on Christmas night was certainly a big highlight. A couple of years ago she did this leg jump and landed flat on her face and usually she brings out the Rockette High kicks but we made it out of this year's charade night with only the Little Miss Sunshine dance. Lucky us!

* Great to see Grandpa, Mary Jo, Regan and Kevin. Uncle Kevin who is 12 spent alot of time on the computer with Ruthie as she is obsessed with playing computer games. She really has taken the computer world by storm at the ripe old age of 2. Aunt Regan just found out a week before Christmas that she got into Georgetown early action so that made her Christmas.

* Hanging out with great friends for the night while my mom babysat was super awesome. Too bad I paid for it for the whole next day, but I never really get to do that so when you get the chance you have to live it up.

* We had a very loud Christmas. All the presents seem to make noise and loud music. Thank goodness for off buttons. Although, Barney doesn't have an off button. Lulu loves that he sings the I Love you song. Barney rocks!

* Ruthie and Lulu got lots of Baby dolls. Thank goodness as that was the only thing that Ruthie said she wanted everytime she went to see Santa.

* Lulu's godmother Bridget got the girls a 5 piece music set. It has a harmonica, a flute, a tamborine, a keyboard with a microphone and a 6 piece drum set. OH MY GOODNESS! We are so excited. This was such a generous gift and the girls are completely in love with it. I could not be happier since they love to rock it out with their dance parties. Bridget is way to good to the girls. I know that people may think that we have lost our mind but it is not like they will be playing it while I am trying to sleep (sleep what is that?) As long as we are up the noise level in our house it out of control regardless!

* Lulu spent most of the vacation sick. Hence the Paci in every picture. When you don't feel well and you are not in your own home, you need to do whatever it takes to make you happy. We really are going to take 2008 to be the year of no Paci. A big thank you to Lulu who infected all of us with her sickness and now we are all miserable.

* Simon is off work until January 3rd and we are looking forward to having some quality Team Bisson family time.

Christmas 2007

We had an amazing time in Cleveland. It was so great to see family and friends. Brief Rundown of events.

Friday: Went shopping at Nordie's and Whole Foods (Again, I have to always hit my favorite spots while in a big city) Also took Grammy Ruthie out to dinner. Pretty cool to have 4 generations of Women at the table. Grammy Ruthie, Gammy (Molly's Mom), Molly, and then the girls.

Saturday: More shopping, hung out with Grandpa (Molly's Dad) and just took it easy

Sunday: Met Kristen for Brunch, more shopping, and then went to the Cavs game and out partying with Nicole and Trav.

Monday: Seriously paid for the night of partying for most of the day. Then went to the Children's Mass at the Church at my gradeschool. Ordered in dinner and relaxed while waiting for Santa to arrive.

Tuesday: Went to Grandpa's in the morning after opening presents at Gammy's. Hung out at Gammy's for the day waiting for the festivites to begin at Gammy's house. Uncle Marty and Elizabeth and Katie and Tim all spoiled the girls beyond belief and then we were honored with the the DeJohn Family and the Hall family for dinner and family game night. Family game night is a long standing tradition. Where we literally play charades for hours. This year we added a new element with a cool left, right and center dice game!

Wednesday: More shopping and lunch with just Team Bisson. Shopping with Katie and Gammy in the afternoon and dinner and drinks with the McGann side of the family.

Thursday: WE were ready to go home and relax.

There was seriously not a moment of down time in the entire trip. But we really had a fabulous time and would not miss Cleveland for anything.

Rock and Roll Dance Party

Simon was actually the one to come up with this Family Party. I think it was on a Snowy Sunday last year when we were stuck inside and we needed to tire Ruthie out. What else do you do when there is nothing to do? DANCE PARTY. (Remember we met as counselors at Summer Camp. )

Needless to say, we have a dance party just about every day at our house. It is something we have started to have to ration as who can really dance all day every day? We have a bad 80's CD and the girls love to dance to: Ice Ice Baby, Jesse's Girl, What I like about you, Tainted Love, etc. I think it is cool that they both know the words to these classics. Since we have been taking music class they have added a new element to the dance parties with their Wiggles guitars and makeshift drums. I have asked for real drums for the girls for Christmas and everyone thinks I am totally crazy. I say BRING IT ON!

We are headed to Cleveland tomorrow for the Holiday's and we are so excited. The girls can't wait to see their Gammy and their Grandpa. Also, I am looking forward to seeing family and friends and sleeping in and not changing diapers.

KEEP ON ROCKIN!

More Snow

It is confirmed that Lulu does in fact like the snow. She just doesn't like it when Simon is around as she insists on being held by Daddy ALL THE TIME.

Pink Coat Mafia


Lulu

Ruthie

SNOW!!!!

Talking a walk behind our house

This morning we woke up to tons of snow! Ruthie could hardly wait to get outside and play in it. Lulu was a little hesitant and it took some convincing to get her ready for the great outdoors. We compromised and let her take her Paci outside, of course she kept dropping it and couldn't figure out why it was freezing and covered with white stuff. Ruthie wanted to walk all over the neighborhood and Lulu insisted on being carried the entire time. After many frozen tears, Simon took Lulu inside and Ruthie and I went and got our babysitter that lives a few houses away and played outside for about an hour. She had so much fun. We built a hill in the front from where the plow piled the snow and finally got to use her new red sled. After a while she started to walk to the front door when I asked her where she was going she said.... "I am going inside to see Daddy, I am freezing."

Lulu and Daddy sledding

Ruthie and Mommy

Ruthie and Andrea making snow angels

Chocolate Covered Treats

Every year I like to make chocolate covered treats for the people that Simon works with. It gets me in the Christmas spirit and I know that the treats are well received at his work. I usually stick with pretzels, who doesn't love them, but this year Simon wanted to also do Oreo's. He is a bit of a chocolate addict. Saturday night I put Ruthie and Simon in charge of the Oreo's, I must admit I get to be a little crazy in the kitchen with this project. Simon doesn't realize that presentation is half of it and he tends to just throw things around with chocolate all over the place. Anyway, the oreo's turned out great and they were a little rough around the perfection edges so I melted some white chocolate and drizzled over the milk chocolate and they looked great! I got beautiful bags, ribbon and tags for the gifts and I hope they are a hit.

Here are some pics of my little helpers. Lulu refused to help as she just got a new Wiggles video from the library and she couldn't tear herself away. Maybe next year.

Lulu's First Haircut

We took Lulu to get her first haircut last night. Even though she is a year and 8 months, her hair is taking it's time coming in. This is not something Simon and I are remotely concerned about. I never had hair and I am a proud member of the big hair club so she is fine.

She was so good, the woman brought her a Zebra cape which she loved. She sat all stoic and was taking it all in. She was just focusing on Daddy, who of course was holding back the tears. Just before everything was over, she started saying "OK, all done, OK... all done, all done" and kept trying to get up. We put the pacifier in but we figred it was best to just let it be over. She did so great.

Buying product

Being patient

Ruthie may have a future as a hairdresser.

Lunch with Santa

They really do like Santa

This was the closest Lulu would get to him

Every year Starr has a lunch for all the students, and staff. There are a few hundred people at this lunch. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves last year and especially liked seeing Santa so we could hardly wait for this year's lunch. It is a great time to be at Starr. The excitement in the room, the choir singing just really gets you ready for Christmas. We were super excited about seeing Santa again. A selected staff member reads the the traditional Christmas story and then the youngest student gets to light the fire. (It is a really old Gymnasium with a Fireplace at one end) Floyd Starr the founder of Starr started this tradition and said that it will only take 1 match because there should be enough love in the room to keep the fire burning. The fire was huge which means the lunch was a big success. Starr is such a great place!

2006 Christmas Lunch