Spring at Dusk

The weather has been so nice this week and we are finally adjusting to the time change.  We have been leaving the kitchen table a mess to enjoy the last hour of daylight each night after dinner.  J rides his bike while the rest of us walk and chase K or push her stroller.  Tonight we played in the front yard for a bit before baths.  K is just now big enough for the little coupe.  She still can't make it move but she had fun climbing in and out and honking the horn. 

It's so nice to relax together at the end of each day.  Blake and I can catch up on conversation and watch our children laugh and play.  J notices the moon growing brighter as the sunlight fades away.  The colors of the sky, the drop in temperature, and the whispering of the leaves in the trees make us grateful for the beauty in which God has surrounded us.  The changing of seasons are my favorite times of year. 


Does the eagle mount up at your command,
And make its nest on high?
Job 39:27 NKJV

Winter Activities and Hex Bugs

A stomach bug has come to visit at our house.  Gross!  I know!  Luckily, so far, K and I are the only ones who have been invaded by the nasty little bug.  Let's hope it stays that way.  Other than that, here is what we have been up to the last couple of days.
What to do with a four year old when you must spend the majority of your day holding the baby?  Make snow!  I made a place in the floor for J to play while I rocked our baby.  We mixed flour and baby oil to make the most fun snow ever!  My whole house smelled wonderful and J had the best time.  He buried animals, made roads for trains and trucks.  I gave him a cake mold to fill and dump like a sand bucket but it didn't work that well for him.  K even woke up and played for a bit.  It was super messy but a great break in our marathon movie week!  You can find the recipe here.

That afternoon, I let J play with a big bowl of ice. He used warm water to watch it melt and played ice hockey on the table. 

Later when the bowl was full of icy water, he told me his hand was cold.  We talked about polar bears and why they don't get cold in the icy water.  We used Crisco and plastic wrap to show him that the fat on the polar bear keeps him warm.  The Crisco really kept his hand from being cold.  I saw that activity here. 

Mamaw came over and helped build stables and race tracks for his horses.  They used the sugar cubes from the winter party.  Those sugar cubes have been great!  He plays with them every day.

When I got sick, J's activities decreased considerably!  We broke out the hexbugs that we found on sale after Christmas.  Mamaw might have brought some more later in the day!  He played with those guys for hours.  I am glad we saved those for a day like today.

Have a great weekend!

Winter Crafts

J made this cute little paper snowman found here.  I had all the pieces cut out and he glued them together. 

We also made storytelling materials to go along with The Mitten by Jan Brett. He colored all of the animals and both sides of the mitten. We stapled the mitten together then read the book while he used his animals to tell the story. After reading the book, he tried to tell me the story again. He did pretty good. 

K even colored with us today. 

Chinese New Year

This is the year of the dragon so J and I made a dragon mask today.  I think it's funny that he was wearing his Hiccup vest and a dragon mask at the same time!  Tonight we went to eat at the local China buffet.  I don't like Chinese food but I wanted to do something different with J.  Mamaw went with us and J ate all of the fried American food so of course he loved it!  I still don't like it!  Blake read two books about Chinese New Year to J tonight and they found out that J was born in the year of the pig and K was born in the year of the tiger.  I don't know what all of that means yet but I will get back to you soon.

We also made salt snow art today.  We used glue to "draw" our pictures then covered them with salt.  J made a sailboat and it turned out really cute! 

We are going to try and finish our winter activities this week so we can begin some Valentine's Day crafts!  I got my decorations out today and I am ready to set them all out. 

Winter Party

The winter party was today and I think the kids all had a super time!  We played some games, painted, and decorated sugar cookies.  J said it was a wonderful party! 

A Winter Wonderland...I found snow and snow blankets 90% off at Target!  I filled some of my glassware with the snow and used the snowblanket on my mantel and the food table.  J helped me cut out snowflakes with the Cricket and we strung them on fishing line to make a little banner.  I used blue plastic tablecloths from Wal-Mart on the tables and covered my big flower picture (one of them!) with white paper to add to the winter theme. 

We had chocolate crinkle cookes, snowman banana pops (which didn't turn out like I had planned!), chocolate chip cookies, and milk with flavored straws.  I saw the chocolate chip cookie lids here and found the straws at Target.  I also had peach tea and hot chocolate with chocolate dipped marshmallow stirrers for the mommies!

Painting the Paper White...One table was set up for painting.  The kids used white paint and blue paper to make a winter painting.  Their painting supplies were q-tips, toilet paper rolls, rubber balls, sponges, and big wheel trucks.  J told me he painted "a snowy ice land."  They all seemed to like painting and made some great looking pictures!

A Little Icing Please!...The big hit of the party was the cookie decorating.  Sprinkles, marshmallows, sugars, and chocolate chips were used with white and blue icing.  I put the icing in decorator bottles for easy squeezing!  They each had a snowman and a mitten cookie.  They made some pretty fancy sugar cookies!  Major sugar overload was their biggest goal although most of them didn't eat the cookies.  They just had a great time making them pretty!

And remember that bare snowman I told you about in the last post?  Here he is all dressed up for a cold, winter's day.  The big kids found all of his missing parts and put him back together.  And, yes, I know he doesn't have arms or a broom but they didn't care!

There was a lot of playing, running, laughing, and silliness going on today!  I think the winter party was a success!  Maybe next time we will remember to take a group picture.  Oops!

The sugar cubes and the spice jar snowmen were the favorite winter games in the playroom.  There was no mitten matching or reading going on in that room today!  J and I will have to do that later.