Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Love her!

Have you ever had a conversation with a five-year-old? Ours (unfortunately!) usually "gets it right." She doesn't say nearly enough off the wall things, and it is pretty notable when she does. I had to share, therefore, this lovely little morsel.

"Mommy! It's raining frost!"
"Is it snowing out there?"
"I don't know! I haven't tasted it yet!"

I pray that we'll all remember to savor the flavor of the Christmas season as it envelopes us this year!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

And when we're not making messes...

We're eating!  :)  Sometimes we do both at the same time.  Those are fun times!  I like food projects.  I like cutting and measuring and building.  I like mixing and mashing and molding.  These are important life skills, and trust me, the wives of all these little boys (5, right now, on a daily basis) will thank me!

The kids asked me the other day if they could help make lunch.  I wasn't sure how I'd do it...it was bologna day.  Bologna day is easy.  You just slap a little bologna on some bread and go!  Not much cooking or measuring or mixing there.  I wanted to let them help, though.  So, I had two options.  Change my plans or adapt them.  I decided to let the kids make their own sandwiches!  I know that doesn't sound too exciting, but they are 2, 3, and 4.  Putting together a sandwich is big business!


The two-year-old left his pieces on the plate exactly where I put them and he ate piece by piece.  He did ask for ketchup (into which he dipped his grapes).


The three and four-year-olds, however, put together perfect little sandwiches. 

It didn't really matter what they looked like.  The kids made their own lunches.  They were proud.  They learned something!  And they ate well!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Pumpkin Craft!

We love making things at our house!  Messes, memories...crafts...  Here is one of the crafts we made the other day.  The kids were really excited to do a project with toilet paper!  You wouldn't believe how happy they are to make simple projects with everyday items!



It was the easiest project ever.  I cut strips of scrapbook paper ahead of time in various shades of browns and oranges.


The kids crumpled their own paper strips and straightened them back out.  They thought this part was especially fun!  They aren't in the habit of wadding up their projects before they even put them together!


After the papers were flattened out again, we wrapped them around rolls of toilet paper.  This was just a bit more difficult for the kids than I anticipated!  I had to help a lot.



We used the cheapest tp we could find...$1 for 4 rolls.




I pre-cut rectangles of brown paper and leaf-shaped green patterned paper. 



The kids rolled the stems and I helped them place the stems and leaves.  They turned out great!  You can see from this picture that Thing 1 did hers all by herself.  She's in kindergarten, though, so she thinks she can do everything by herself now!


Like I said, we LOVE making things!  These have been fun decorations for the last couple weeks.  It's nearly time to take down the "fallish" decorations to make room for more Christmas-y things.  Since fall is my very favorite season (and we really haven't seen nearly enough fall weather) it makes me a bit sad to think about it.  We'll be working on some winter projects soon, though!  You'll need to check back each day.  I'll be posting daily about our shenanigans here!  We have a great time!

Back???

Unfortunately my kids have been taking turns being sick (or being stinkers!) for several weeks now.  This translates to less computer time for their momma and therefore less blogging!  As you can see, I promised a daily blog and...well...nearly a month later here I am again.  I am sorry!

So, starting today, I WILL make time each day.  More than likely, my kids will still get fed, my laundry will still be clean, my dishes will still be loaded into the dishwasher and pulled out when I need them, and the kids will still be bathed and put to bed on time.  I'll just have to force myself to carve out a little time in each day. I actually think I'm going to write out a daily shedule for myself...I need to get some exercise in there, too!

I'm back, folks.  I'm back and better than ever!  ;)