Joyfully Weary

A weekly reflection inspired in part by Bob Bennett's song "Small Graces". " these are the small graces, the little moments when the miracles come... they are a reminder to the heart there is more to life than meets the eye... He is in the small graces.... small graces pointing me to the larger one... little glimpses of the kingdom come..." grandparents who live just a few minutes away and are always up for last minute visits.  a sweet sibling moment sleepy mornings filled with cuddles and books stumbling upon (thanks to maca) free balusters to replace our rotting ones. and the two strong men who got them put up in less than a day mini man also worked very hard a busy tongue during school time  finding the toilet paper roll replaced - it's a step in the right direction surfing apartment therapy's website and seeing that they shared our ocean party . later in the week they als...

We are currently in the middle of an oceans unit and today we looked at octopuses more closely. We decided to try our hand at making our own, using paper plates for the main portion of the body and bubble wrap for the sucker-covered tentacles.  Our supplies: bubble wrap, a paper plate, googly eyes, paint, paint brush, & tape i highly recommend cutting the bubble wrap into eight strips before painting since the the paint will most likely be a bit flaky  Step 1: paint back side of paper plate little lady didn't make an octopus but she had a lot of fun painting a plate her face  Step 2: paint bubble wrap Step 3: let paint dry completely Step 4: fold two sides of plate towards the middle and tape (so you create a cylinder shape) Step 5: tape on bubble wrap tentacles              *the taping was a little complicated for my kids and required a bit of mom's assistance; hence, no...

A weekly reflection inspired in part by Bob Bennett's song "Small Graces". "sometimes they slip by without notice sometimes they are very hard to see other times it's very clear when they are happening to me"  the zoo and how it makes them excited every time making a memory (albeit a gross one) with my fearless mini man *we are tasting cooked larvae an evening snack: dark chocolate chip cookies with sea salt and a mug of milk  my "coffee" drinking companion  she's also a very busy mommy art induced giggles a man who cannot only fix cars and is a great dad but also.... is pretty smart. *he passed his 1st architect licensing exam!! " these are the small graces, the little moments when the miracles come... they are a reminder to the heart there is more to life than meets the eye... He is in the small graces.... small graces pointing me to the larger one.....

This week the kids and I had a TON of fun doing the silly little art activity, snap painting.  Supplies: an large old frame, a sheet of paper larger than your frame, washable paint, foam brushes, various size rubber bands.  Step 1: pull rubber bands around frame the kids were only able to do about half the bands, i helped with the rest Step 2: paint top portion of rubber bands you can see here that big buddy started to paint the bottom of the rubber band too. it doesn't matter too much - it just makes it more difficult to see the splatters.  Step 3: snap the rubber bands it makes a pretty cool snap sound on top of splattering the paint - mini man thought it was hilarious Step 4: repeat steps 2 & 3 until you are pleased with your design creation #1 creation #2 This activity can get a little messy but it is totally worth it for all the giggles it produces. 

To celebrate Big Buddy's and Mini Man's respective birthdays we hosted a little a party last weekend. Since the boys birthdays are just a couple weeks apart we've always combined their celebrations. This summer the boys have been really interested in oceans so we went with a sea theme. I didn't want to spend a whole lot on decorations so we did what we could with balloons and streamers.  I also included the boys in the prep a little bit and had them help me make paper chains and paper plate fish. We had a couple activities set up for the guest to enjoy.  Since most of the eighteen children in attendance were preschoolers or toddlers we kept the activities pretty unstructured and set them up in stations so that children were free to enjoy them at their leisure.  a sandy sea shell search  water beads and sea animals  an easy & mess free aquarium craft  The activities seemed to be a hit but the most popular are...

A weekly reflection inspired in part by Bob Bennett's song "Small Graces". " these are the small graces, the little moments when the miracles come... they are a reminder to the heart there is more to life than meets the eye... someone can now climb the playground rock all-by-himself! birthday monkey bread with a "vintage"  - it was daddy's - candle holder mini man  spiderman is 3 - this is his scary face that big buddy still isn't too big to sit my lap when he's sad a peaceful bike ride home from work  a little sea side fun *more pictures to come early next week lessons from a playmobil master friendly boxing matches  He is in the small graces.... small graces pointing me to the larger one... little glimpses of the kingdom come..."