Sunday, December 12, 2010

Gratitude Week 5

holy experience




#41 - children unloading the dishwasher, without being asked

#42 - pie eating contest, watching not participating

#43 - live performance of Annie

#44 - hearing children memorize the Word of God

#45 - shoes

#46 - hot baths on these cold nights

#47 - watching children dance in the living room

#48 - my beloved's unconditional love

#49  -watching my daughter play Mary in the children's Christmas
          program at church

#50 - FBC Roanoke's Christmas Cantata

Monday, December 6, 2010

Gratitude Week 4



#31 - spending time with my daughter teaching her an old past time - sewing

#32 - Christmas parades

#33 - an evening out with my beloved

#34 - watching my husband sew, because he loves me

#35 - finding a box of old sermon notes

#36 - finding a box of old letters and cards from my beloved before he became my husband

#37 - homemade Christmas gifts

#38 - gift cards

#39 - late night talks with my niece

#40 - Text messages from my beloved all day long while he is away at work

Monday, November 22, 2010

Gratitude Week 2

holy experience


It's Monday again, and here's what I am thankful for:

#11 - my church family

#12 - my home

#13 - my dad

#14 - healthy children

#15 - God's mercy

#16 - lunch with good friends today

#17 - teaching Children's church

#18 - Emma's American Heritage Girl's troop

#19 - our vehicles

#20 - Ms. Sharon

Jointhe Gratitude Community here.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Gratitude

holy experience

I am joining Ann Voskamp in her Gratitude Community and going to spend Mondays here on the blog focusing on the things I am thankful for.

#1 - my children's laughter

#2 - a loving husband

#3 - clean running water

#4 - My Savior's unending grace

#5 - floors that have to be swept daily

#6 - our Pastor, who is not afraid to preach God's word boldy

#7 - my mom

#8 -  a warm comfy bed to climb into on these chilly nights

#9 - the ability to homeschool my children

#10 - good friends

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Partying Blood

I had to go in for some blood work the other day. So the kids and I go to the doctor's office and I get my blood work done. We then leave and head out to get some lunch. We park and are about to get out of the truck. My arm was wrapped in the bright blue tape. Not wanting to go in to eat with the bright blue tape on my arm; I check my arm to see if it is still bleeding. Ethan is right there with me checking everything out. It is done bleeding and so I remove the tape. Then Ethan says to me "Mom why do they take your blood from right there in the bend of your arm?" I said, "Well that's just the best place to draw blood from on most people honey." He then says, "Oh is that where your blood parties?"

All I could do was laugh! I love this kid. He always comes up with the funniest things.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

WFMW - Flip Top Crayola Markers



The kiddos and I were in Target a couple of weeks ago.

I don't know about ya'll but our first stop is ALWAYS the Dollar bins in Target!

We just happened upon these great markers by Crayola. They are called Flip Top Markers.

I don't know how these sweet little things made it in the dollar bins, because I know I would have paid a lot more for them had I known about them previously.


Since, they were only a dollar, I did what any smart homeschooling momma would do, I bought 4 packs of them! Yes I did!

Now, one pack I did send to my sister in law for my 3 year old nephew. Because this kind of stuff should be shared ya'll! Which is the reason I am telling you about it today!




The cap is attached so you never lose it and have a dried out marker.

It doesn't just flip open to the side and possibly get in your way while coloring (tragedy!)

Oh no, it slides all the way down the marker and allows you to place it on the other end of the marker. Like so:


My daughter who loves to do all things artsy; but who would never color with markers because she said she "hates the way they sound" has colored with nothing but these since we bought them.

My son LOVES them too. As a matter of fact he just made me this great picture of Elvis yesterday! Not bad for a 5 year old. We love Elvis around here...what can I say!

And, I love them because I don't have to turn the house upside down anymore looking for marker lids.  I love anything, that saves me time and only cost me a DOLLAR!!!

Now, go join Kristen at We are THAT family and tell us what works for you!

I have been in no way compensated for this. Just found a great thing and wanted to share it.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Powdered Wig

I went looking for a fun craft to go along with our social study lesson on government leaders. It happen to fall right here around President's Day. So I thought we would talk about President's Day and why we celebrate it as well.

I happened across this website http://www.freekidcrafts.com/presidential-powdered-wig.html where we found the directions on how to make a powdered wig.

So, today in honor of President's Day we made a powdered wig. Here is Emma modeling the wig:

 

  

  

It was really easy to do. You can find the instructions by clicking on the link above.

We learned several things today about George Washington. He didn't actually wear a powdered wig. His hair was red and he powdered it to make it look white. 

We also grew up being taught that Washington had wooden teeth. It seems that is not true either, actually the  set made when he became President was carved from hippopotamus and elephant ivory, held together with gold springs. The hippo ivory was used for the plate, into which real human teeth and bits of horses' and donkeys' teeth were inserted.  Ewww...gross....I'm just sayin'.

We learned some new things today...hope you did too!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Snow Day in Texas


We have got 8 plus inches of snow today here in North Texas. It's been a while since we have seen that much snow in this area.

We of course had to bundle up and go play in the white fluffiness for a while. Here's a few pics.

Jumping on the snow covered trampoline.


Ethan making a snow angel.


 
 Our crazy dog eating a snowball out of Emma's hand.


 
Emma and daddy building a snowman.



 Emma throwing a snowball at daddy



The finished "Cowboy" snowman



Emma making a snow angel


Emma's snow angel


Daddy and Ethan having a snow ball fight.

Fun was had by all. We were cold and covered in snow, but memories were made.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Monster Bash

My little guy turned 5 this January. I can't believe he is already 5. We found some great loot bag items in the dollar bins at Target back in September; and that's how we decided to have a Monster bash.

We made up a invite calling all monsters to Ethan's 5th Birthday Monster bash.

We found plates and napkins with cute little monsters playing instruments through Oriental Trading. That so fits Ethan because he loves music.


For decorations we took these same monsters; printed them out and made a transparency out of them. We did this by sliding the picture into a clear page protector and tracing with a black permanent marker. We then placed them on an overhead and blew up to about 3-4 feet tall. We taped white paper onto the wall; and using the overhead traced first with a pencil. We then painted them with Tempera paint. Then after they dried we then took a black permanent marker and outlined them to give them a finished look. Here's how they turned out.


 

  

Ethan absolutely loved them! We thought they were pretty great too!

Here is Ethan with a couple of his friends. Notice their monster headbands. A friend of mine made these headbands for everyone. We used thin wire headbands and craft foam to make these. Everyone wore these and loved them; even the adults.

We danced to some great music like; Monster Mash, the Purple Peopleater, Thriller, Addams Family theme and many more great monster themed songs.

Then we moved to the kitchen table and everyone got to make there own monster. These little craft kits were part of the great items we found in the dollar bin at Target. Here's the birthday boy and a few of his friends with their monsters they made:

 

We then played the mummy wrap game. I split the group of kids up into 3 groups of three. One would be the mummy getting wrapped, the other two would be wrapping. We gave the two wrappers a roll of toilet paper and yelled go. Here's a few pics of the game:





And last, but not least...the cake. Here is the monster I created. I baked 2 8 inch round cakes and then baked a third cake in an 8 inch round pyrex bowl. I stacked the three cakes together with bowl cake on top to give it the rounded top. I then iced it with a large star tip, by pulling straight out. I made my butter cream stiff so it would stick out.  We used ping pong balls for the eyes. Mouth, tongue and the blue balls on the antennae are all fondant. The arms, my husband cut out of a styrofoam plate. Ethan absolutely loved it!

 
Unfortunately I did not get a picture of our loot bags that we got from the dollar bin. They had these cute little bags made out of the recycled plastic with handles; that had pictures of the monsters on them. In them we put monster theme notepads, pencils, sticker books, capsules that you soak in water and out pops a monster sponge.

A great time was had by all and memories were made!