Hat

Out went the worksheet again.  I should just stop making copies.  We are working on the letter Hh, and I thought we should make a snowman with an emphasis on it's hat.  They painted a snowy scene.

Piece by piece, the snowman appeared! 

They glued on the buttons.  We used fabric for the hat strip and scarf.  It's fun to use scraps that we find!

We used tiny foam snowflakes for the eyes.  

Hh is for hat!

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Glue Paint Resist/Fun Gift Wrapping

We have created crayon resist art several times.   I recently saw on Pinterest to try it with Elmer's Glue.  Why not?  I scribbled some glue snowflakes onto some white paper early in the morning.  I wasn't sure how long it would take them to dry.

It certainly didn't take long once I set them on top of the hot wood stove. :)

Over the summer I purchased new water color refills.  How exciting it was to get them out! (I know, nerd alert, right?)  I am not ashamed.  It was great to see them use brand new paint.

The idea is to paint the entire paper.  We tried very hard to only use blue and purple.  I was interested to see what the glue would do.

They got busy!

The glue did not pop out as well as a white crayon drawing does.

They could see what was happening, though!  I didn't tell them what I had drawn on the papers.

In the end, the glue was very sticky and wet, and it didn't stay white, but soaked up the colors of the paint!  Pretty neat!

Meanwhile, I have been having a lot of fun with gift wrapping.  This year I have been interested in something more special than the basic wrapping paper and sticker tag.  It has me digging through my art supplies and other things around the house.

This special gift is for the person I drew for Christmas.  I cut up some burlap from a large coffee bag I have, used some bakers twine and a button from my art supplies.  I love to wrap gifts in paper grocery sacks or newspaper.  For the longest time it was only because I didn't have wrapping paper around, but now I see people using newspaper on purpose and I feel smart.  

♥♥♥Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Cookie Decorating

This post is a few hours late, the computer was throwing a tizzy.  It's finished now. ☻

It is certainly the season for cookies.  With all of the baking and snacking that has been going on here, I'm sure to need a good exercise routine when this is all over.  It was the kids' turn yesterday to decorate some cookies!

I baked these a couple of weeks ago when I had some free time.  They waited in the freezer for just the right day.  This sure makes cookie decorating day a snap!

It was my job to apply frosting.  The kids would then decorate their cookies and pop them into the cute gingerbread house box for safe keeping. 

It dawned on me how blessed I am to have such great kids in the house.  It's really fun to be able to actually complete tasks like this with them!  There were no problems, no fighting, no arguing.  They congratulated each other on the fine jobs that they were all doing with each cookie.

The only hard part was that they didn't like that the frosting was on their fingers.  I had instructed them to try their hardest NOT to lick their fingers until we were all finished.  Trust me- that is HARD!!  I found myself trying to lick my own probably 100 times.

It was finally time for them to eat one of their creations!  We talked about how we are all planning on sharing these cookies with people.  I asked them each who they would share with.  The older we get, the harder it is to share.  I know that it seems backwards, but these 3 and 4 year olds are always very excited to share their creations with their families.  I could learn a lesson or two from THEM. 

Yum!!

We folded up the boxes and up they went until it was time for pick-up.

Smudge was the Christmas kitty.

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Happy Birthday Aiden!

♥Look at my baby!♥  He had such a perfectly round little head.  I loved that he always had his kissy lips out.  Today is Aiden's 8th Birthday.  Where has time gone?  Aiden is my "snuggy pie" child.  The only one who really needed to snuggle.  We began each day that way.  I would stop what I was doing and plop down to receive him in my lap with his blankie and we would get some good snuggle time in before we continued.  I get all gushy just thinking about it.  

Here he is being so adorable that I have to stop and look at this photo every time I walk past my refrigerator.  Look at his pudgy rolls!  I want to squeeze them.   He was probably about 7 months old in this picture, he had just started wearing the helmet to reshape his head.  Grandpa later on painted it up as a Seahawks helmet.  We still have the helmet.

Aiden is such a friendly guy.  Here he is with his cousin.  (They were playing "Adam and Nicole".)

SMOOCH on those cheeks!!

We can't believe how much Aiden has grown.  He no longer looks like a toddler.  

That's him- the one with two eye patches.  He enjoyed time with his friends from school over the weekend to celebrate.  

Happy Birthday to my snug pie!  I love you to pieces!  (Even if you aren't sure about whether or not I should continue the notes in your lunch every day..)  He is really growing up.

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

P.S.  Zuko is doing well and has forgiven us for the snipping yesterday.  Phew!

Reindeer

We still haven't seen snow this month in Snohomish.  The news talked about it, and people all around us were mentioning their flurries.  Nope.  Not here.  (Insert sad face.)  The kids painted some snow onto their papers. 

Onto the papers went the trees!  It reminds me of the old animation films like 'The year Without A Santa Clause'.  

I painted just one hand, and onto the paper went an upside down hand print.

*We talked about the snow.  Where, oh where is our lovely snow fall?  *

They added some foam snowflakes to the reindeer scene.

Ta-da!  

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Tunnel Vision

Look at the babies.  They didn't want to go outside just yet because it was so cold.  Zuko (left)  is quickly catching up to Petra, isn't he?  He is 6 months old now, and Petra is one year. 

They are best friends.  I love it!

I have had tunnel vision lately and haven't done much with the kids.  I've been baking and freezing EVERYTHING.  It began with Stephanie wanting to bake some cookies for friends.  Now I have decided that since we will be hosting both sides of our families here at our place for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, I want loads of cookies to set out for each gathering.  When I decide something like this- I go into tunnel vision overdrive and turn into a work horse.  

Yesterday, it was the biscotti.  I hadn't ever before made this, and I can't believe I have missed out for so long.  It is delicious.  You can find the recipe I used here.  I baked it for 20 minutes, then used a pizza cutter to slice it while warm, and toasted it for 8 minutes on each side.  I added Craisins to half of a batch, white chocolate chips to another, almond slivers to another, and left one plain.  

Meanwhile, the kids have enjoyed some extra play time.  I know that this is valuable, but I feel guilty for skipping out on the stuff I had originally planned.  We will now play catch up so we don't miss out on the best stuff.  I got out the puppets and re-introduced them one day.  The kids were very happy!

Puppets are amazing. They played with them for half an hour.

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

PS- Please pray that my cats do not kill us in our sleep tonight.  Zuko is going to the vet to be fixed tomorrow and can't eat or drink anything starting at 8:00 tonight.  This means that NONE of the cats can.  I have to hide to bag of cat food so nobody breaks into it.  The three cats already act like they are starving, it's going to be rough.  Especially in the morning.

♫The kids are currently dancing to this:  "Christmas This Year" by Toby Mac.  ♫

Baby Jesus - King Of The World

I think with all of the commercialism that happens, (even BEFORE Halloween),  most children don't remember that Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth.  We've been talking about Him and reading books about the birth of the king of the world.  It can be kind of rough getting them to understand who Jesus is, and why this tiny baby is so special.  Even more confusing, is why he's sleeping with the animals.  I believe that was all a part of God's plan!  Jesus humbled himself, right from the beginning. :)

Instead of paintbrushes, we used clothes pins and cotton balls.  It's fun to switch up our tools every now and then. 

 We had a bit of trouble understanding that our job was not to squeeze the clothespin because it then releases the cotton ball.  It did become a game to grab the cotton ball back up again, though! 

The kids painted the paper plate yellow.  "Why are we painting it yellow?"  One asked.  "Because Jesus is the light of the world."  I told them.  (Blank stares.)  They think I'm crazy and they don't understand what I'm saying.  We carried on.  Nod and smile.  Crazy Nicole.

They glued on the pieces.  We learned about what a manger is.  

They added some strips of hay.

Finally, a star on top!  We have been talking about the large star that the shepherds followed. Baby Jesus, the king of the world!  What an incredible gift he is.♥

The catnip toy slumber is still in effect.  This photo says it all.

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥