Snowman and gingerbread people

Just some pictures from the past week or so...

We played out in the snow last Saturday... well, what was left of the snow. Ari had been begging us to build a snowman, and we finally got around to it. Tony got it started, and she grabbed a big shovel to help. I'm not exactly sure how she intended to help with that shovel, but at least she didn't knock it all down.



Of course, within about 5 minutes, she lost interest, leaving Tony to finish it.



She decided snow angels were a much better idea. The snow was a bit too crunchy, though, and she didn't have enough weight to really leave a good impression.



Then it was time to swing. Don't you love this face? She was mad because she wanted me to push her and I told her to try on her own. (She is so at this phase where rather than even try something, or do something we know she can do, she'll whine for help, moaning that she can't do it. So our tactic is to tell her she needs to at least try before she asks for help... which leads to more whining. But more often than not, she'll give it a shot and end up doing it completely on her own, without our help. If only she would remember this. *sigh* Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, I gave her a push after I took this picture. I'm not completely heartless.)



Tony, putting the finishing touches on the snowman...



Can you tell I forced her to pose with the snowman? Hey, I figured if she was going to drag us out in the cold and insist on making a snowman, she was going to at least pose with it.



Back to making snow angels. (I love the expression on her face here.)



Tony instigated a snowball fight with her. Here she is, launching a counter-attack...



If you look close, you can see the snowball "exploding" on her chest. I love the look on Tony's face. (And don't worry... she loved every second of this.)



And that's where these pictures end, because at that point, Tony talked her into ganging up on me, and I fled for cover inside the house. I mean, uh, at that point, I was getting really cold and decided to go inside and warm up. Yeh, that's it.

These pictures are from a few days later. We bought a gingerbread cookie kit (with the cookies already pre-made), and Ari had been begging to make them, so we did these quickly before bedtime. I did the icing (though I asked her what she wanted me to do), and she was happy to put on the candy pieces and gumdrops. (Don't mind the mess on the rest of the table--our church small group has been collecting clothes for a family, and we were organizing them last night.)



A close-up of a few of the ginger-people. After she went to bed, I decorated some of them a little more, since I had a ton of extra icing and candy. I may have overdone a few of them. So this picture is a bit better than the final result.



Putting on gumdrops...



She took her job quite seriously...



And that's all for now. One week till Christmas!