Joyfully Weary

Today the kids I got all bundled up and went outside to play in our barely-there snow.  Big Buddy spent most of the time pulling Little Lady around in her sled. he adores her :) He worked really hard at making it fun for her - going at different speeds and jabbering away the whole time.  Once in awhile she would reward him with a small smile, you can see the corners of her mouth lifting up a little but for the most part she just sat their stoic. "is this all you got"  If it wasn't for the fact that she cried  screamed every time he stopped we would of never guessed she enjoyed it so much.

During our winter unit we have also been learning about polar animals.  Last week we spent a lot of time talking and reading about penguins. Here are a few of our favorite non-fiction finds: i am not a fan of the illustrations but the boys enjoyed it great photos and facts presented in a way that is easy for children to relate  to and comprehend. amazing pictures and tons of information   We also crafted some of our own penguins. supplies: two potatoes, knife, foam brushes, black & white paint, google eyes, orange triangles, blue paper cut potatoes as shown 1- paint oval shape potatoes black 2 - make prints *we did not, but you can use the wedges you cut from the top to  make the wings 3 -let black paint dry then paint circle shape potatoes white and add bellies 4 - finish by adding eyes and an orange triangle beak big buddies penguins mini man's penguins The acti...

A weekly reflection inspired in part by Bob Bennett's song "Small Graces". snow & snow suits snowboards a post-sleepover breakfast & pajamas dreaming up future betrothals  game night spit bubbles just for fun band-aids fake fur, stripes, & polka dots forts, pillows, blankets, & little book lovers finished pin-up board  i love the stamps and (now) bronze bars

This week Little Lady turns one - what follows is a short note with a lot of photos. Sweet Little Lady - I can't believe it's already been a year. You'd think by now I would have figured out how fast the first year flies. But once again it has slipped by so quickly, it's hard to track the moments. You have been such a blessing to us; you are more than we ever could of hoped for or expected. Your daddy is completely smitten.  We worried that your big brothers would be a little jealous but they adore you as much as we do.  They have welcomed you in to their games and you've had no trouble keeping up. You even mastered the superhero pose before they did. I love that you already play so well with them but I also delight in the moments when you show your more feminine side: you love admiring yourself in mirrors,    babies bring you great delight,  and you play with dolls in a way your brot...

Little Lady has a love/hate relationship with shape sorters. She loves the satisfaction of dropping the shapes and she really loves emptying the sorter out.  However, she hates that the shapes only fit in specific holes and that her chubby little hands have trouble lining them up correctly. It broke my heart to watch her get so frustrated so I decided make her a slightly simpler version of the toy. Since I think it will only be a couple months before she's ready to master shape sorters I didn't want to spend any money and thus scavenged the house for supplies.  10 milk caps, number stickers, scissors, x-acto knife, foam brush, 2 sheets of card stock, mod podge, and a small oatmeal container I any didn't take pictures of myself putting the toy together but it was simple and only took about 10 minutes use x-acto to cut a hole slightly larger than milk cap in lid of oatmeal container place card stock over oatmeal container, mark the excess, and trim to fit...