Puppet Theater

Grandma O made a puppet theater and puppets for the kids! I was able to find the perfect place for the theater to hang in our play room.

The kids were so excited they were doing puppet shows all day! The cutest thing was when they came up to me and handed me a paper. They told me that the paper was an invitation to the theater to watch a show. I obliged and brought my camera with me. I hope you enjoy their shows...

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had fun taking some pictures for the holiday. Here are my favorite ones! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling very grateful today for such sweet children who bring a lot of joy into my life. :)

Spontaneous Girls Night At The Beach!

My friend Casandra was visiting teaching me when we decided to kidnap our friend Shelley who is 39 weeks pregnant and ready to be done. Our plot: make her jog on the beach to induce labor. We had a lot of fun. :)

 The "Yay! It is girl night" picture.

Surfing on a log. LOL- We were trying to decide if the red light above me was alien or just meant I was some kind of mystical faerie.

 Me with my friend Shelley. She is awesome!

We found a nice lady to take a picture of all of us. So we posed for the camera. LOL, yup, I'm wearing my pajamas (spontaneity is fun!) I feel so blessed to have fun friends who are willing to run to the beach and be crazy for a night. ;) It is nice that even with motherhood, we haven't lost that. I hope for many more kidnapping adventures with my friends. Oh, Shelley did get a few nice contractions from our walk, but unfortunately, little baby girl is still not ready to come out!  

Spring Has Arrived!

We had a couple absolutely beautiful, sunny days! It was sooo wonderful to throw the kids out of the house. And Jeremiah set up the slide on our swing set so the kids were extra excited.

For the boys it was all about MUD.

and PUDDLES! (the cute blondie is my friend's son Caleb. These boys are only 5 days apart)

Caleb liked to smile for the camera.

Hyrum kept turning away from the camera and smiling- just a little shy, I guess.

Another fun spring activity: BIKES!

SLIDES!

I was watching this girl too, Caleb's sister Kaylee. She has the coolest hair everytime I take pictures.

 

SWINGS, TEETERS, AND SLIDES- Oh My!!!

They were all lining up for a turn on the newly assembled slide.

Traffic jam!!!

It was a fun Spring day! I hope to see a lot more sunshine in the future! Sunshine lifts my spirits. Vitamin D is my happy drug. lol. Now...I better get back to my Spring cleaning!

 

Teaching Them To Serve

I don't know if I have ever mentioned it, but I created a "Mommy and Me" group with my friends. I call it "Beach Buddies" (since we live by the beach). Our goal is to meet once a week doing crafts or letting the kids learn skills like cooking or dancing.Then, we let them play while the mommies chat a bit. Since we are a group of several mommies, we have so much talent! I feel blessed that my kids get to be exposed to such a variety of activities because of the various talent in our group. Our other goal is to have 1 activity a month be service.We want to teach the kids that there are always opportunities to help others and show them some of the different ways they, even as small as they are, can serve. This week we picked up litter in our community.

First, we had our troops line up and put on some gloves!

 

Group 1

Group 2

 

Then we divided them into groups (divide and conquer)

Bria helped push our garbage wagon

We had a dedicated te am delving right into the brush and canals to get every last piece of trash.

When all was finished, we had 3 full bags of trash! I was proud of the kids for their hard work.

It was a rainy day, but it is important to always help, even if it is difficult. Besides, getting a little cold is the perfect excuse to make homemade hot cocoa! (Thanks to my friend Casandra Anderson for hosting the activity and for providing the hot cocoa!)

 

Joy of Joys!

Nothing like a bubble bath with your favorite pal, rubber ducky!

Rubber Duckie, you're the one
You make bathtime lots of fun
Rubber Duckie, I'm awfully fond of you

Rubber Duckie, joy of joys
When I squeeze you, you make noise!
Rubber Duckie, you're my very best friend, it's true!

Every day when I
Make my way to the tubby
I find a little fella who's
Cute and yellow and chubby

Rubber Duckie, you're so fine
And I'm lucky that you're mine
Rubber duckie, I'm awfully fond of you

(doo doo, be doo)

Letter Transformations

I love the way kids see things. Today Bria (2yrs.) was looking at words in a book and trying to name the letters. When she got to "y" she called it a kite. I laughed and told her it looked like a kite, but the name of the letter was y (why). Then she wanted me to tell her all the names of the different letters. When I got to h, she said, "h looks like a chair!"

(Doodles from my journal.)

As adults we "know" everything [well, a lot of things! ;)]. And that knowledge takes away the need for imagination. I like being reminded by my kids to think outside the box, look a littler further, and see the possibilities.  

 

(Yes, I still like to draw stick people!....don't judge me! lol.)

 

Imagine * Create * See The Possibilities