Christmas Preparations

December just wouldn't be December, if Sean and the boys didn't spend every night the first week of the month delivering wreaths and poinsettias to people who ordered them. First we helped unload 400 poinsettas, and 600 wreaths into trucks, and then unloaded them into the scoutmaster's garage.

The McMullins took 5 dozen items home, and started spreading the holiday cheer around town. (Sean is a very good sport for tackling this fundraiser with the boys.)

Christmas starts for Sylvia when we bring out the nativity set. She immediately starts arranging the pieces in the oddest places.

Baking plays a big role. Here is Sylvia "Queen of the Sprinkles" hard at work with some sugar cookies. Her motto: "You can never have enough sprinkles!"

Mattias is getting well known for his Polish cookies, Kolocky. The dough has cream cheese to make it soft, and then he puts poppy seed filling in them. He made a giant quadruple batch to bring to the church Christmas party.

At the church Christmas party, I sang Scandinavian Christmas songs with ladies from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Asher played the viola, and Mattias played the piano. Sylvia dazzled the crowd with her Santa Lucia entrance.

The party ended with Santa Clause. Sylvia was not sure if she wanted to go anywhere near this jolly elf, but she did take the chocolate he gave her, and ate it all before she went to bed!

Sean is our own private baking elf. For 3rd Advent, he made a massive pile of Swedish cardamon bullar, with pearl sugar on top. It is a good thing we took this picture, because within minutes of letting the crowd loose to devour the bullar... there was nary a crumb left.

My favorite part of the Christmas season is Advent. For those of you that are not Advent celebrators, it is the four Sunday evenings before Christmas day. We have some tasty snack (like gingerbread men or bullar) with hot chocolate, and light the advent candles.

When everyone's mouth is empty, we sing Christmas carols a capella. It is really beautiful, with just the light of the candles flickering and the touching music. The boys have learned to sing the tenor and alto parts this year... so it sounds amazing. I love Advent with my family!

Thanksgiving 2011

We kept Sylvia busy until the big Thanksgiving dinner with more craft ideas from my sisters blog. Everybody joined in coloring the pilgrims for the Mayflower.

They may look a little strange, because the older kids started making them look like cartoon characters from the show Avatar. If you are familiar with the show, you understand why there is flying white bison above the Mayflower.

We tried to do some pioneer games and crafts this year. Sylvia was very excited to make butter, by shaking a jar full of cream. I had read on the internet, that it goes faster if you put a marble into the jar, along with the cream.

This is a very bad idea. While Sean was having a turn shaking the jar, his powerful muscles helped the marble to shatter the bottom off the jar. Leaving cream and glass all over the living room floor.

It was a memorable activity. Luckily, I had a little more cream in the fridge, and we tried it again (without the marble). Sylvia patted the fresh butter into rose-shaped candy molds. We chilled them, and were able to each have our own pat of fresh butter for Thanksgiving dinner.

The big hit of the day was an Native American game we had read about. You throw spears at a moving target. Our "buffalo" was a hoola hoop.

It was a fun challenge for all ages. We would roll the hoop, bounce the hoop, and throw it in the air for variety.

Asher was born to be a javelin thrower.

Here is the whole tribe of buffalo hunters, with the buffalo (at Asher's side).

When it got dark, we went inside and played Blind Mans Bluff, a game we read the pilgrims had played. Sylvia was an addict! She would've played for hours. Luckily, we had a pinata that needed smashing. It was the only reason we are not still playing Blind Man's Bluff.

Sylvia and Noel made the turkey pinata out of a paper bag this year. Mattias made the home-made fudge that we filled it with. Yum!

Below is the video requested by one of my sisters. It shows the final moments of the pinata. Everybody had gotten several chances at hitting the bag, but it simply wouldn't break, so Asher took matters into his own hands. (And yes, Sylvia does get some candy.)

Lego League Competition 2011

Every fall has been "Lego Season" around the McMullin household, at least for the past four years.

The kids work for two months building and programming a robot to do certain tasks on a competition table. They are also required to do a research project on a topic, which changes every year. Finally, after hours of work, and weeks of meetings, they compete at a regional competition against hundreds of other kids.

Here is this years team...with some friendly chickens.


The topic this year was Food Safety. The boys' team decided to research making eggs salmonella free by designing better chicken coops. (They found that free range hens, in less cramped conditions, laid healthier eggs.) After visiting a commercial egg farm, that was organic and free range, they made up a skit to show the judges their findings. Here the boys are on their fieldtrip, helping bring in eggs from 400 chickens.

Below, Mattias gets a prop ready for their skit, as they wait to be allowed in the judges room on the day of the regional competition.

The team has written a skit with talking chickens, who demand better living conditions. An elite task force of Commando Chickens eventually rescue them. Thus, all the chicken head gear.

Once they preform for the judges, they answer questions about their research data, and how it has impacted their community. Earlier in the fall, we had toured a chicken farm, and the boys were excited to tell the judges all about it.

The next interview session was in a room with judges that ask about their robot's design, and the program code they wrote. They have to answer questions about sensors and gears they chose to use, and how why they chose to design the robot like they did.

The last interview is a less stressful one. It is the "Teamwork" portion of the competition. The judges assign a project, and then judge the team on how well they work together. (Listening to everybody's suggestions, complementing each other, etc.)

The team is gathered around a pile of dry spaghetti and marshmallows, building a structure that will hold a beach ball.

After a lunch break, the teams line for the grand entry, with representives carrying their team banner. We had 33 teams at our regional tournament.

After the entry, the afternoon is full of the robot table-game competitions. With music blasting, and a disco ball spinning, the gym is transformed into a dramatic setting to watch each teams robot show what it can do. There are 4 big screen TV's placed around the gymn so everybody has a good view of the action happening on the table.

After a rough start (our robot broke in half on it's first run), the team rallied, and moved into an amazing third place.

Here is everyone, except Mattias, and the robot. They are waiting for their last chance to score points. (Your robot gets three runs.)

At the end of a very long day, there are closing ceremonies where the awards are given out. Our team won the top programming award. They also finished sixth overall, qualifying them to move on to the state competition.


Unfortunately, State is scheduled to be on a Sunday this year... so the team is going to Milwaukee in December without the McMullins. It was a good season though, as we are excited to see how the rest of the team does next month.

Halloween in all its Glory!

Keeping Sylvia happy during the day was tricky - she was going to die before evening came. We did several crafts throughout the day. One project was to put together this adorable witch, and pose it on the wall.

We have gone trick-or-treating every year with our neighbors, two houses up. Here is a shot of the mixed families, before the pre-trick-or-treating party got rolling.

Sylvia adores our neighbor's baby, Teome.

The McMullins had a pair of medieval archers, and a pink butterfly-princess-angel ready to take the streets by storm.

Noel had a friend, Dorie, come over to help her pass out candy. For some reason, high school girls think they are too cool to trick-or-treat. Or, maybe they just have the right idea. Instead of walking around for 2 hours, getting one candy at a time, they just sit on the porch with a full bowl of candy between them, and laugh at everybody else.

Maritza even took time to paint my face as a clown. I think she is a very talented face paint artist. She may be an addict though. For days after Halloween, Sylvia and Evan would get their faces painted every time they played together.



We had some fun Halloween fare, like grilled cheese sandwiches with Jack-o-Lantern faces cut into the bread. The boys enjoyed hanging out together feeling mature since they got to eat in the living room, while the younger crowd had to eat in the dining room.

Orange punch, deviled eggs that looked like eyeballs, and a vegi plate rounded out the meal.

Evan had a rough time stopping laughing long enough to bob for apples.

Sylvia finally got one, although I think there was some cheating going on.

A favorite game for years has been to tie mini-donuts onto a strings, and race to see who eats their donut first. (Hands kept behind the backs.)

Asher had an amazingly huge mouth, and was able to devour it in one chomp. It was pretty shocking.

This is a fun game to watch, as well as to play. Noel had a good time being the donut stick holder with Dorie.

Everyone wanted to keep playing, but the town siren sounded, and the countdown had begun.
Stoughton is an unusual town, in that they have the town tornado siren sound at 6 pm to signal the start of door to door trick-or-treating. They sound it again at 8 pm. They don't allow kids to be banging on people's door outside those hours.

At first, I thought it was crazy... but I've gotten to appreciate it. You don't have knocks on your door late at night, and everybody in town is out on the sidewalks during those 2 hours. It is great to pass friends and neighbors traveling in huge packs along the sidewalks.

Sylvia and Evan had a great night trick or treating together. The older boys ran off together to cover as much ground as possible.

One of the best parts of Halloween is the "Great Trade" of the next day. In the McMullin house, it has become tradition for the each child to line up all their candies by type, and start a trading session that rivals Wall Street.




They spend hours behind a bedroom door, taking turns as they rotate around the circle. "I'll give you a Snickers Bar plus a bag of pretzels. for your Reese's Peanut Butter cup," is the sort of comment you will hear if you enter. It was a little sad to have only 3 of the 4 kids in trading, since Noel didn't go out. I guess I will have to get used to them growing up eventually.

Still, I love our neighborhood in the autumn, and the traditions our family has around this fun holiday. It was a great Halloween!