Christmas Coloring contest winners

The kids are always excited when Delphina Rose Art's annual Christmas Coloring Page Contest comes out mid-December.

Here was this year's coloring page image.

Iris knocked out a BUNCH in the first few days!

A couple of Opal's

Penny had to see what all of the fuss was about- this coloring page that was taking up all of our table space.

Zeke's

Joel's

Toby's

I just loved this one by Iris

And these ones by Opal. They seemed to get better and better with each one they cranked out :-D

This one done in watercolor pencils by Opal, was one of the 8-12 age group winners.

Iris and one other girl were the winners in the 13-17 age group. I wasn't surprised this one won- I was blown away by her creativity and skill- and her use of color.

The contest was open from December 15-January 15, and a couple of days before the entry due date, I decided to do one myself. And won! (I was one of two winners in the adult category) We each won some pretty stickers and prints from Rebecca Gorzynska (Delphina Rose Art), one of my favorite Catholic artists, who I got to meet in person two summers ago in Virginia!

We got a bunch of her beautiful prints and stickers in the mail as prizes.

January Happenings

A beautiful sunrise one morning (before all the snow)

Oh, this little lady

And this boy... "Take a picture of me, Mom!"

Abigail watched him for me one night and sent me this :-D

The new year brought with it some sickness- it tore through most of us, fast and furious

Opal got a "rented" violin for Christmas and started lessons up in Madison once a week. So far she is liking it. She's mostly been learning notes by plucking the strings and has been practicing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, and Frère Jacques

Abigail's hairstyling skills

This one's been warming to her Daddy

Storytime

Toby and Joel earned their green belts!

Trying to think of new incentives to get this one potty trained (he had complained a lot of the seat hurting)... Spoiler alert: a soft Bluey potty wasn't the answer.

Weekly poetry teatime

Penny Lu Who

This one found a pair of scissors.

Toby was proud to show me he'd put her in here by himself <3

Sledding with friends on the Belleville sledding hill

I came home from a dr. appt one day to find this

She was pretty pleased with herself to be eatng a cookie on the counter (she got the stool to get up there and the cookie herself)

Are these not the most adorable tiny braids? (by Abigail)

Abigail made these (very delicious!) cinnamon rolls.

Tomorrow is Febraury! I hope we get another pretty snow, as it's looking drained and patchy outside right now.