sisters

lP and M are often at odds.  They are the best of friends and the worst sisters.  Last night lP was doing a good job of playing nicely and I let her have a bracelet that was in my collection of stuff.  I forgot that M had been given it by a primary teacher.  M is given a lot of stuff by primary teachers.  She has had the strange luck of always having primary teachers that gift and treat a lot.  But this small CTR bracelet was small even for lP.  M got mad and demanded the bracelet that I had taken a long time ago because I had to clean up a mess that included the bracelet.

I sent M to her room and the evening proceeded so peacefully.  Nobody was fighting or running around the house.  G read a book quietly.  B and lP played.  L went to sleep!  M stayed in her room a long time.  I talked to her about how everything was so nice and quiet.  I pointed out to her that all her nice stuff was given to her and that nobody ever gives lP treats or trinkets.  lP is older now than M was when she got to go to disney twice.  Eventually decided to do something kind for lP.  She made lP a coupon book for nice things to do with M and plans to give it to her for Christmas.

I'm really trying to encourage the children to make gifts this year.  We're less busy and that means we have a bit more time to think and plan some home made gifts rather than just going and picking up something from the store.

We made these little snowmen out of marshmallows and pretzels decorated with candy.

We went to a candy store for a field trip with homeschool group.  It was pretty fun and a good opportunity to experience navigating downtown Jtown.  I was worried it would be like NYC but it wasn't so hard to figure out, and way less traffic...  At the end of the tour of course they lead you to a room with hundreds of candy choices.  I told the kids we weren't going to get any and they didn't fuss.  They just enjoyed going around and pointing out all the amazing candies they had never seen before.  So I decided after they had looked at it, to go a head and get a box with a few of many things.  It is nice to treat them when they behave.