Dress of the week

Winter Fun =)

I was going to take the kids sledding with some friends yesterday, but it snowed a ton and the visibility was horrible. Gordon was really dissapointed, so I decided to try and make a hill for him to slide down in our yard. It is quite flat, so it took a little engineering, but Gordon liked it. Neil didn't trust my work, so he just watched. Then later Matthew and I went out to eat and then went skating on the river at the Forks. Every time I go there I amazed at how beautiful it is. It is such an amazing experience. Everyone should try it at least once. They had all these cool warming huts all over the place. I took pictures of several of them and they are at the end of the video. One is made of hay and one is made of some kind of cloth that is sprayed with water. Since it is below freezing for a long period of time, the water freezes and provides great insulation. Anyway, I thought they were pretty cool.

Snowflakes and stick puppets

Here are a couple of really easy crafts. The snowflakes are good because it helps kids practice using scissors and they can't mess up.

The puppets are kind of cheater crafts. They come in a kit and the things you put on them are just stickers. It helps with their fine motor skills, though, taking off the backs of the stickers. Neil got pretty creative with his lion. =)

Always Prepared Man and Flageeba - a Gordon invention

A Mess and A Dress =)

Tegan and Neil, partners in crime. I was working with Gordon on his Music for Young Children(MYC). Tegan and Neil sounded like they were playing so nicely together. When I went in, this is what I saw. I just have to laugh.

I recently started reading a book called The Explosive Child by Dr. Ross W. Greene. I feel like I am learning a lot about my kids. So I am learning different words to use, when and how to communicate with them, and realizing even more that I need to not lose my temper. That way I can help them learn to be able to face opposition positively... hopefully. So hurray for my blog in helping me to find learning experiences and entertainment in our messes. You only see a small portion of the mess.

Dress of the Week. =) Doesn't Gordon look so cute in those glasses? We are gradually working on having him wear them all the time. He is getting better at not take them off and placing them in random places during the day. He has an astigmatism.

Super O and Super Z

Monkey Puppet

My SIL, Megan, gave me this idea. I thought it was so cute, that I had to do it. We made them with some friends that I have been watching lately. I found the monkey template here . Next time I would probably make the head bigger, but the kids loved them. =)

Super C and Super E

Ok, I can't keep all of Gordon's pictures, so I thought maybe I would keep some of them in the virtual world. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff, but I find it quite entertaining.

Pictures, dreams, eating, drawing, and marshmallows

When I uploaded my pictures this week onto my computer. I found a bunch of pictures like this and random stuff like ceilings, chairs, toys. I think someone was playing with the camera.

There is the culprit!

I saw this picture the other day and I totally want one. Isn't it cool!

A secret door in the floor that leads to an awesome slide. I have seen other ones attached to stairs, but I think this is even better! Every once in a while I dream about if I had unlimited funds what my home might look like. I am not sure I am totally digging the yellow, but the slide is awesome.

Tegan prefers to sit with everyone else now. She holds a fork and picks up the food with her other hand. =)

She learns from the best. 1/4 in the mouth, 1/4 on the table, 1/4 on the floor, and 1/4 on themselves. Those are the rules we appear to live by.

I am not exactly sure where Neil's plate went. Hmm...

Here is Tegan's dress of the week. It is so hard to get her to hold still these days to take a picture.

Her and the cat are buds. She is actually surprisingly gentle with Max most of the time. He always makes her smile. I started watching a couple kids two mornings a week, which I love. They love Max too, so he is definitely a keeper.

Here is an example of one of Gordon's drawings. He is a little drawing machine. He can sit for like an hour and just draw picture after picture. He has such a big imagination and brings his drawings to life. I love his tree. I would have never thought to make one like that.

So Jamin won this thing and it came in the mail this week. It is a marshmallow crossbow. That's right... it is a contraption that shoots marshmallows across a room. I had no idea such things existed, but wow! So far I have only let the kids play with it once. But oh man, marshmallows flying across the room. Then of course they had to eat them. It was crazy and they loved it.

Neil's choice of clothing, Dress of the Week and FHE

Dress of the Week

I thought this picture was cute. It looks like she is about to serve a ball.

Now she just needs a ball. =)

Neil is a character. He likes to dress himself, but prefers having his clothes on backwards. I just thought this was a particularly interesting choice... shorts with his shirt inside out and backwards. I normally try to choose my battles carefully, but shorts in a Manitoban winter just doesn't work.

You may have noticed, I added some FHE buttons to my blog. I have been using The FHE Spot fairly regularly for our weekly lessons. I have found it to be quite handy. Someone asked me if I would share the site with them, so I thought it would be handy to have here. This was a really cute one that I found. You can see the full lesson here at http://nataliesfhespot.blogspot.com/2009/07/strenthening-our-family.htmlSo here is the Orange family who stick together so they cannot be blown over by the "Sin Machine" aka the blow dryer... There is a Mom and a Dad and four kids, three boys and a girl.

And here is the Cup family. They don't get along and are always fighting or doing their own thing. They got blown over quite easily.

New Years Eve crafts

These were noise makers that we made. I used beans from our food storage and put them inside Easter eggs. Then I had them wrap them in festive paper and tied them up. It was easy and fast and even the little kids were able to do it.

Some of the kids at our party made resolution/reminder magnets... only the two older girls. They turned out cute, though.

Here is the Happy New Year banner that we made with Gordon's and Jamin's paintings between the words and at the ends.

Christmas Break continued... The New Year

Where we live, it is cold, very cold. Everything is frozen for about half the year. I'll be honest, this was a very difficult adjustment for me. I guess my kids have helped me adjust. In the fall, they are excited when the snow comes. In the spring they are sad when it leaves. They love sledding, skating, building snow forts, and looking at it's beauty when it is too cold to go out. This week we even tried painting the snow with a little food coloring and water in spray bottles. Didn't work amazingly well, but it was fun anyway. They have given me a gift of gratitude for the fantastic snow and cold that we enjoy. Plus there are no bugs for half the year.

Matthew took the boys skating.

We all went swimming

Neil was a little fish with absolutely no fear. At one point he ran over to the deep end and jumped in, sank, and the life guard jumped in after him to save him. Then he grabbed a noodle and did it again without any hesitation. Didn't phase him at all.

We did some painting this week. I had the boys paint pictures to put on our Happy New Year banner. I guess I should take a picture of the final product.

Gordon and Jamin love this kind of stuff.

Neil wasn't too in to it. He likes making messes, but doesn't actually like being messy. He would rub his hands in the paint and then had to clean them right away.

Gordon being silly, as usual. =)

Dress of the Week

- Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson.