Spring looked like it might arrive, then we had freezing rain.
I did a bit of rearranging and reorganizing with some of our homeschool materials. (The above picture may or may not have been the reason behind it.)
We added a bit of green to our day...
...and this mama was happy to come up with simple things that only required one dish with food coloring.
Thirteen inches....
Ice storm....
Branches and trees crumbling....
Power out for almost five days.....
Trapped in the house (our drive way and road)...
.... and in between all that was going on, this little guy turned one. With the help of four wheel drive, we managed to make it to Target to buy gifts and headed Grandma's house who had the electricity to bake a cake.
As the holiday decorations have come out of boxes they have watched (and helped) transform the family room into a "Christmas Wonderland" (a name which they came up with) and with it an excitement has filled the air announcing that Christmas is coming! Although, when they go into their rooms they feel as if something is lacking and the whole magic of Christmas seems to disappear.
When out Black Friday shopping, I picked up some glittery floral picks and wreaths that were on sale. It seemed like a good solution - something fun and sparkly, but won't clutter their room. This morning we finally got around to putting them together and hung them on their doors. Then this afternoon we vacuumed and I quickly remembered why I don't like glitter. Oh, well. They are very pleased with them and hopefully this will be enough for their rooms. Not likely, though. I don't think that it will ever be possible to keep up with the many different craft projects that my girls dream up.
Our simple little project that has us thinking and reminding us each day of what we are thankful for.
{Hannah as a Cowgirl and Becca as a Hamster}
A couple of moments from our Halloween weekend. A trunk-or-treat with our church and trick-or-treating with cousins. Those two nights of trick-or-treating gave us way more candy that what we ever thought possible. I'm not exagerating. Those piles above are just from the trunk-or-treat. Last night's trick-or-treating gave us at least three times that amount. I do believe that we are going to go through it and donate some to our gingerbread houses this year.
This weekend:
*baseball was played
*Egss were colored, broken, eaten, and found.
*so was lots of chocolate*brunch was served
*girls ran around in matching dresses
*trees were climbed
We're not much into Valentine gifts around here. Yup, we're pretty boring that way (at least according to our kids). So as I was helping my girls clear off the top of their bookshelf this week, I noticed that they love to keep all theirs letters and cards from friends and family (and all the other nick-knacks they've acquired as well). An idea sprang into my mind about the Letter Keeper that I remembered seeing in this book.
Of course it happened late Saturday night when it seems all my good ideas and motivation seem to appear (does this happen to you, too?), I whipped up these little guys and had them ready by Sunday morning. Now they sit upon a much tidier bookshelf holding cherished letters that they can read over and over again and know exactly where to find them.
Simple traditions are the ones that I love. To me, they are the ones that are most likely to be carried out and are easily looked forward to (by both the participants and the ones who actually do the carrying out). Because lets face it, life just gets tricky and it doesn't slow down for holidays. So this little tradition that we have of making heart-shaped pancakes for dinner on Valentines day fits right into that philosophy.
This year, I had some helpers for dinner. Hannah and I manned the pancake station, while Kevin and Becca tackled the hash browns and scrambled eggs. We miraculously pulled it off in this tiny kitchen of ours and by the end, Hannah had mastered the art of the heart-shaped pancake and both could actually flip the pancakes (although there were some fatalities in the learning process).
When asked what they would like to do on Valentines Day, they responded just like they would for any other day - eat chocolate and play Pokemon Cards. So we spent the night, even a little past bedtime (which is also another daily request), playing Pokemon and eating stuff dipped in chocolate. Just a few simple, little things that made a Valentine's Day a little bit more.
We're getting ready for the weekend...... a simple, homemade Valentine banner, cookies from our new cookie press (which broke half way through. Lesson learned - don't buy the cheap one.) and homemade Valentines to come.
