Celebrating Babies Cookie Style

I went to a surprise baby shower for 2 friends this weekend (same party, 2 surprises!!) It was a blast, and they were both very surprised.  We did it potluck style, and I decided to make cookies.  My inspiration came from the party store.  I saw  little "Bun in the Oven" favors that had a cinnamon bun candle inside.  They were so cute! I drew out my design on the way home from Huntington Beach and went for it.  I did check online to see if anyone else made bun in the oven cookies and I found a very cute one on Bake at 350.  I really liked Bridget's the idea of doing the buns ahead of time and I knew that I could practice a little more and get the buns to look exactly the way I wanted them to. 

The Bun... made with royal icing a few days ahead of time on wax paper

They peeled right off and when I was ready to use them I attached them to the cookie with a little dab of royal icing.

I made my own marshmallow fondant... the little white square is for the oven window.

Outlining...

More outlining...

Adding dimension to my oven...

Swirlling on the stove coils and adding buttons...

Finally, put the bun in the oven!

I added a little bit of cinnamon to the dark brown royal icing to give it that yummy cinnamon bun smell and taste. 

These are the extra little buns to accent the plate.

Over all I was really pleased with the way they turned out even with some of them looking a little wonky!

Yay for baby showers!!

Library Mondays

"The love of reading is caught, not taught. " Jim Trelease

For the last month we have made our Monday our day to visit the library.  Instead of just grabbing some books and heading home, we set up shop and school right there.  It has been a lot of fun as well as a training process.  After all we have at least seen, if not been, the mom at the library, feeling crazy, with the kids running around pulling books off the shelves and being entirely too loud!  At least I have! 

The first weeks have been about practicing using our library whispers and staying at out table while we are doing our school work.  We are still working on keeping Josiah off the computers when we are looking for books... he insists that he is "working!"  One of the things the kids enjoy is picking out one movie from the kids section each week.  They are also enjoying finding books about the topic that we are studying... there are SO many books!!  I LOVE it!!

I love watching how the kids are maturing... seeing Josiah walk across the library to use the little potty-without mommy coming in with him (watching the door like a hawk), and teaching Charity how to find books on the library shelves after we look them up on the computer.  This is such a fun adventure!  I feel so blessed to be on this journey!

Here are some great books that we have recently read:

• The Read-Aloud Handbook By Jim Trelease: Great book for mom's and dad's to dig into on how to have a reader friendly home (and how to lure kids away from the T.V.), also includes a section with suggested read-alouds for all ages.
• What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs by John Morris and Ken Ham: Giving your kids a Biblical world view, beginning with creation.
• Whistle For Willie by Ezra Jack Keats: A cute story about perseverance
• Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett: A confused armadillo follows a red cowboy boot on a great adventure.
• Bedtime in the Southwest by Mona Hodgson:  Great illustrations and encourages obedience at bedtime.
• Love You Forever by Robert Munsch: I love this story... but I cannot read this book without crying.  Even when I taught I cried reading it to my class... despite that, the kids think it is so silly that the mom comes and rocks her grown up son!
• Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood:  Tells about all the wonderful qualities and things that we can do that make us so special.
• Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner: A Siamese cat who pretends to be a Chihuahua... need I say more?  Kids love it if you do the accent too!
• Skippyjon Jones Lost is Spice by Judy Schachner: Another fun Skippy Adventure! They are as much fun to read as they are to listen to.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: We just finished listening the the audio version of this book... the kids really enjoyed it and car rides were so quiet!  I loved it because I have seen the movies and was constantly comparing to see how true Hollywood was to the book.

A Pre-schooler in Kindergarten: Shapes and Colors

Our kindergarten curriculum is SO much fun!  I am having a blast learning with the kids and seeing how much we can do with out "schooling!"  One of the biggest challenges is keeping Josiah engaged and excited.  So, the month of July was our normal kindergarten stuff, littered with colors and shapes, and pre-school concepts.  Charity really enjoyed it (she LOVES learning) and Josiah was so excited to have special things to do as well.  Here are some of the fun things that we did with colors and shapes during the month...

• Each day was a different color (first 2 weeks) or shape (second 2 weeks)
• Each day we tried to wear something that color or something with the shape on it.
• Everywhere we went, even in our house, we searched for things in the color or shape of the day.
• Sing songs about the colors
• Made a healthy food color rainbow with pictures from the weekly ads and magazines
• Colored whatever food was on our menu the color of the day (see picture- purple oatmeal for breakfast)
• Make Shape pancakes or cookies
• Make play-doh
• Color Snacks:
• Red: ladybugs on a leaf snack- strawberries fastened by toothpick to a honeydew or celery
• Orange: orange lollipops or fruit
• Yellow: make fresh squeezed lemonade
• Green: Green sugar cookies (we made leaves, our topic from that week)
• Blue: Stopped at Sonic and got Ocean Water
• Purple: Jello
• Black: Jelly Beans
• Pink: pink juice (fruit punch)
• Brown: chocolate pudding
• White: white chocolate
• Shape Snacks/Activities
• Circle: grapes
• Oval: hard boiled eggs
• Triangles: cut-up quesadilla
• Star: Campbell's Chicken and Stars soup
• Heart: Heart shaped rice krispy treats
• Square: Chex cereal
• Rectangle: toast with cinnamon and sugar cut in half to make rectangles
• Semi-circle: english muffin pizzas, cut in half

Continuing on into August I am continuing to keep Josiah engaged by modifying activities to his level, and letting him go off and play when he is done.  He is surprising me all the time with the things that he is picking up on and listening to when I am not realizing it.  Just today in the car he sang the "Month-erena" all by himself!  Love it!

I Love Back to School!

"I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms." You've Got Mail (1998)

I love back to school time.  Maybe it's the teacher in me, or just the Arizonian in me that is hopeful for cooler weather.  Whatever the reason, this time of year makes me feel like a kid all over again.  Aisles in the stores are filled with delightful little things like backpacks with matching lunch boxes and thermos' and ice packs, and new markers for a dollar, and twenty-five cent crayons.  Glue sticks, pencil sharpeners, folders and loads of paper just waiting to be used by an excited child ready to embark down a new path on his educational journey.  

That's just who we were today. Charity, Josiah and I... three kids walking down the aisles at Target trying on all the backpacks and admiring the lunch boxes, picking out folders and markers and glue. We picked out a few things and delighted in bringing them home and stocking our classroom, sharpening our pencils to dangerous point, and making precise strokes with new markers.

 

We've been working hard all summer on our schooling, it's like a little reward to have these fun, new things. And when the dream of cooler weather becomes a reality, we can pack our lunch boxes (yet to be picked out... there are SO many choices!!) and go enjoy the weather that leaves us smitten until next summer arrives.

 

 

Hooray for back to school and all the sales!

Our Homeschooling Journey: The first of many posts

"Education is not the filling of a bucket,

but the lighting of a fire." William Butler Yeats

Our homeschooling adventure has begun!  We decided that along with swimming, schooling was probably one of the more productive things that we could do this summer, so after returning from Taylor's Marines graduation at the beginning of June we got busy.  We have really enjoyed our time so far, I think the best part is that the kids don't really know when we're schooling and when we aren't.  We don't have a "classroom" in our house, our house, our community, our world has become our classroom!

We spent the first 10 days enjoying the days of creation in Genesis.  Everything has come back to those days even now that we have moved on... as we look up at the moon and star- filled sky up and the cabin I heard Charity proclaim the beauty of God's creation, and when we were really hot at swimming lessons, Charity asked why God made the sun so hot!  Love it!

We have since completed 5 weeks of school.  Learning about the sun, the moon, leaves, apples, and baby animals... all attached to truths from God's word.  In a effort to keep Josiah engaged as well, we have been doing a lot of fun preschool activities as well.  We have celebrated the colors of the rainbow and are going through shapes right now.  Josiah is hanging in there with Charity, singing the "Month-erena" and the "Days of the Week" songs, singing the letter sound songs and working on his fine motor and visual discrimination skills.  He is going to ROCK kindergarten when it's his turn!

This last weekend Troy and I enjoyed a refreshing and inspiring weekend at the AFHE homeschool convention downtown. I have no idea how I crammed that much new information into my brain! It was amazing to hear from Ken Ham, and the many homeschool families as they shared from their experiences.

Troy and I are so excited about the journey ahead!

Purple Day!!

 Learning about all the varieties of apples and taste testing them... Charity's favorite was the Braeburn apple, Josiah like Granny Smith, and I was smitten with the Macintosh!

 Charity recored what color each apple was and identified her favorite.

 Balancing act!  with bags of rice on their heads.

 Painting to some classical music.

 Nests: God takes care of me.

 This kind of nest was just for eating!

 Yummy!

 Practicing letters and shapes in shaving cream!

Some messy business!!

 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Dates with the Littles

For Father's Day, Charity got Troy a date with his girl... dinner and a movie. She was so excited about planning out some special time for just her and her daddy! They went to dinner at Filaberto's, and saw Cars 2, followed by a special treat at Krispy Kreme. They had a blast... and forgot a camera. But not to worry... while they were off having a great time, Josiah and I had a date night of our own. Dinner at Peter Piper Pizza... mostly for the games (basketball) and the prizes. We had a great time! Then we went out for yogurt and went to play with all the fun sporting equipment at Dick's.

 Me and my handsome date

 playing some skee ball

playing the motorcycle game

 Josiah and his prizes

 playing ball at Dick's

 All tuckered out after date nights.

I got to have a special date day with Charity last week while the boys were out getting soda and going to Lowes.  I decided to take Charity to get her nails painted at a nail salon.  She was so excited!  When we were all finished she said, "Mom, this was such a great time with you.  I just love to come here and get my nails painted!"  She has been asking to go every few days since.  I may have created a monster!!

Escaping the Heat at the Cabin

This post is dedicated to Grammies and Grandpa!  We LOVE going to the cabin!  Thank you so much for all the time and effort and resources spent on making the cabin such an awesome place for us to go to spend time as a family and enjoy the beauty of God's awesome creation- especially when it is 110 degrees at home!  We have enjoyed making great memories together and look forward to so many more fun times up north! Here are some of the highlights of our cabin times so far this summer.

Our hike at Woods Canyon Lake.

 Charity at the waters edge

 Troy out in the water!

 Hiking through the creek.

 Enjoying the cool water

 Looking for crawdads

 Dirt-boy!

 Yum! 

 Taking a rest on Daddy

 Our friends James, Kim, and Zach came up for a day picnic!  We had so much fun!

 Playing ball

 Look! We found a horned lizard

 Charity holding the lizard

 Now Josiah!

 Grammies, I took this picture especially with you in mind!

 Josiah doesn't want to take another step!

 Enjoying a picnic on the porch

 Another hike

 Grammies, I know you won't love this picture, but we did have fun shooting the BB gun... I even hit the can!

 4th of July

We only get to see the back of Charity... she was having a fit!!