Library Time

Here are some really cute books we have enjoyed from the library recently. Lissy's Friends is about a girl who is new to school so she makes origami animals to become her friends. Eventually she makes friends and shows them how to make origami.

This is one of my favorite books we have gotten in a long time. It is very sweet and simple but we all loved it!!!!!

Pink is about a girl who wants a pink doll to fit in with the "Pinks" at school. She discovers you don't always get what you want but most of the time what you already have is better anyway. Such a great little message. Ellie really enjoyed this book!!

Wordless Wednesday

More Of What Matters Most

I posted a few weeks ago that I wanted to start incorporating more godly talk, ways etc. into our everyday life with the girls but I wasn't sure exactly how to do it. I have been doing some research and found some really great ideas. We bought a Gigi bible for Chris and I to read with Ellie at night and Emily when she is older. So far we have only got a chance to do it a few times but she really really likes it. There was a little play about Adam and Eve and Chris and I acted it out for her and she LOVED it. We got a standing ovation and Bravo:) We took turns acting it out several times. I have found several good ideas from Totally Tots . Once you go to the site go to Bible Bits on the right hand side. They have great activities to do with kids that bring the bible to life. I also found this awesome blog where the mom was great enough to write out a lot of activities to do with you child about love. I still have not been reading my bible in front of Ellie or taking time to pray with her during the day so I need to make some changes but hopefully by using some of the great ideas it will put us in the right direction. The last thing I want to share is this amazing article on Grace Parenting. I highly recommend everyone read it!!!!

I Heart Scrapbook Paper

I know it sounds crazy but I love scrapbook paper. There are so many things you can do with it and thanks to the blog world I am learning about quite a few. Some of the projects that I have done lately is make these cute little bunnies for Easter. It costs a grand total of $1.25 and didn't take long at all. The idea came from this blog. I also used scrapbook paper to make artwork for the girls bathroom. I recently redid their bathroom in cats and dogs but couldn't find anything cute to hang on the wall so I saw this idea and loved it. So here is what I came up with. And remember these I made for Emily's room from scrapbook paper. Some of the ideas that I plan on doing in the near future are using them to write on pots. She used fabric but I think it would totally work with paper. How cute is that and what a great gift too. I love this idea too!!! You could do this for just about any holiday. I saw XOXO at Valentines day and it was so cute. Another cute gift idea is to cover unattractive notebooks. There is a tutorial here. You can also laminate it to make place mats for the kids. I can't remember which blogs I saw the following ideas on but they covered the back wall of a book shelf with paper so when you looked at the book shelf you saw this cool design in the back and they covered cardboard magazine holders with scrapbook paper (cute way to store holiday or seasonal books by using seasonal paper). These are just a few the many ways to use scrapbook paper. What ideas do you guys have?

Emily's Crib

For some reason every time Ellie has a friend over they end up in Emily's crib. It is so funny. Out of all of the toys to play with this is what seems to be the biggest hit. I honestly think every child we have ever had over has ended up in there even before Emily came along and the crib was Ellie's. Anyway, we had a friend visiting from out of town a few weeks ago and guess where they had the most fun????

Happy Birthday Ellie!!

I can't believe Ellie is 4 years old!!!!

Preschool

I haven't done a preschool post in awhile. Here are some things we have been doing.

Trying to cut on the lines and then uses the cut pieces like a puzzle.

Spelling out our word worm words. She did so great with this!!

Bead pattering.

Fishing in the sink for hard animals.
Coloring rice

Playing with the newly colored rice

Practical life skills (aka...breaking child labor laws)

Making words with Polar Bear ABC game

Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

We had been painting earlier so she was running around in her diaper and I was out of the room for 2 sec. and came back to this. She is going to give me a run for my money:)

My Little Artist

I broke out the finger paints a few weeks ago and let Emily paint for the first time. Ellie was so excited that Emily was getting to paint too! Emily dug right in and of course she had to taste test a little of it:) All and all I think she did great!

Felt Crown

I was checking out blogs a few months ago and saw the cutest felt crown and knew I wanted to make one for Ellie to wear on her birthday! I was intimidated by the directions but decided to give it a try. Now mine looks no where near as good as this but I am still so excited!!!! As a matter of fact mine is full of flaws but oh well:) The tutorial was so easy to follow so give it a try!

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday:)

Fruit Smoothie

I have finally found a smoothie recipe that I love!

1 banana
2 cups of frozen berries (I used strawberries)
1 cup milk
1 cup plain yogurt (I used vanilla)
2 Tbsp. of honey

Both girls LOVED it and Ellie enjoyed making them! I also put in a 1/4 of fresh blueberries.

Dinner and Stuff

This weeks menu:

Breakfast for dinner: Waffles and turkey bacon

Chili w/cornbread

Loaded salad and baked potato

Spaghetti

Chicken Casserole that I never made last week:)

Seriously, I am in a dinner rut. Who wants to help me out with some yummy healthy dinner options? Anyone, please:)



Girls:

Breakfast:Waffles, Oatmeal, Boiled Eggs, Cereal, Cheese Toast

Lunch: Shrimp, Cracker Sandwiches, Turkey Dog, Ham and Cheese Rollup, and PB&Honey Sandwiches



I know I have mentioned before that dinner time can get a bit stressful around here so once we sit down to dinner I am pooped and not very chatty. I want dinner time to be a fun family time for us so made up some questions and sentence starters for us to pick from at dinner a couple of nights a week. Here are a few samples:

My favorite movie is...
I am greatful to God for..
My favorite food is...
If I could be any animal I would be... because...
I am scared of...because...

That is all I can remember at the moment.