We went to a wonderful, several acre outdoor space with gardens and ponds.
Everything is just starting to turn green, flowers are popping up, ducks are swimming in the ponds.
The air was crisp, fresh, perfect.
We walked around for 2 hours, discovering. They have a super fun kids area, the kids can climb rocks, sit in a “cave”, and jump all around. They also had a dock by the stream, perfect for pretending -this day, it was a huge ship that we all lived on. :O)
As you may have seen from an earlier post, my son and I went on a date recently. We had a really great time. I wanted to share with you, a sweet, intimate moment between the 2 of us. While at a restaurant I excused myself to use the restroom. When I came around the corner to our booth, my son was sitting in my seat, I watched for a second and realized he was taking pictures of himself with the camera. I sneaked up behind him and joined in the pictures, he never knew I was behind him.
When I sat down he told me to look at the pics on the camera. I told him he should look with me. He was so surprised to see me in some of the pics, he loved it. BUT THE BEST PART … I had another surprise coming too. While looking through them I realized that in each picture he is signing a word to form I LOVE YOU, through the succession of pictures.
Here they are:
Loved the date, loved this gesture, love my BOY!
This past weekend I took my 7 year old on a date to downtown Denver. I secretly bought a Groupon to see the Imagination Movers live.
**Disclaimer – I had no clue who they were, my poor boy was the oldest one there, by far! He was not that amused, although he started to enjoy the show**
We started by taking the light rail, then off to explore Downtown, ate some chocolate cake, watched the show, and topped it off with a big bucket of movie theater popcorn for the ride home on the light rail.
I really enjoyed our time and I am reminded how important it is to spend time alone with each child.
My 7 year old attends a weekly club for boys. He loves it and his Daddy is a helper so it provides a fantastic time for them to bond.
Last week each boy was given $2 and challenged to use the money for someone else. To do an unselfish thing with it. When he came we discussed some possibilities that he might choose from. He thought about it and said he thought of another thing.
He said that he wanted to buy his little brother a piece of his favorite pie from the Pie Shop across the street from our house. My first thought was that wasn’t the exact idea here, but I stopped myself. He loves his brother but he is not one to put his brother first, ever. So I thought this really was a kind, unselfish act.
How cool that I got to see it play out! I took them to the pie shop and let them order, pay and eat alone while I waited in the car. I noticed the oldest cleared the table for the workers too – BONUS!
I have such fond memories of watching my teacher use a felt board to tell a story. LOVED it so much. Gathering around her and finding a comfy spot to watch the story unfold.
Always wanted to get some to play with as a kid but never did, seemed like a teacher “exclusive” item.
I looked at my local Education store and they are so expensive I could not justify the cost.
However, now that I started to homeschool I went to my favorite consignment sale to find educational materials. Imagine how excited I was to find a Storyboard Felt set.
Nothing fancy, in fact it looks like it could be from when I was little, but it is in excellent shape. I bet they came from a former teacher. I practically let out a squeel like a 13 year old who sees Justin Bieber.
This has to be one of my best finds ever!
I let the 4 and 2 year old play with them and they loved it. The two year went through all the animals and tried to make their “sounds”. It was fun, now I need to come up with a story!
This year I was invited to a Valentine’s Card making get-together and had so much fun that I had one for the women in my family, that was also a blast.
When it came time to think about the kids Valentine’s cards this year, it was a no brainer that they would make homemade ones as well, I had all the supplies ready to go. In previous years, especially since they were in school, it was easy to just go pick up some pre-made ones. Now that we homeschool we do more homemade things then ever, we have the time and resources so why not? The boys made some for friends, some for family and some for their Sunday School teachers.
We used heart stickers, flowers stickers, scripture stickers, glittery stickers, puffy stickers, crayons, markers and stamps. We used card stock folded in half.
All done! I got them all in the mail to Loveland to go through their “Valentine Re-mailing Program“. If you send them your pre-addressed, stamped envelope (I sent all in 1 big manila envelope), they stamp them with the Loveland PO postmark that includes a cute graphic and saying. This will be the programs 65th year.
Details on the Re-Mailing Program:
Postmaster – Attention Valentines
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80538-9998
I have always loved tie-dyed shirts, loved them. Bright bursts of color splashed on a sparkling white tee. Pretty! I have wanted to make one for ever but just felt like it would be hard. Until recently.
I came across a spray bottled tie dye kit, it looked easy enough so I had to try it.
We bought 3 white tee’s for only $3 a piece! The kit was 7.99.
We twisted and rubber-banded the shirts then sprayed the tie dye all over, set to dry…
we let dry 24 hours…
When we took the bands off there was still alot of white so we re-banded it and sprayed some more tie dye on, dried some more… then to the dryer for 15 minutes…
When they got outside in their new tie dye shirts it was all fun n games! The boys would NOT cooperate for pictures, but I can’t really blame them – 60 degrees in January! Hope you can see the shirts…
Some more…
Overall cost – $20, not bad for 3 Super-Cool shirts!
I guess one thing about blessings in disguise, you don’t always see them right away.
Last summer and fall my husband was unemployed, looking for work. I had the opportunity to increase my hours at work and my husband became the primary caregiver during the day.
At the time I never truly stopped to think about what an awesome situation God presented us with, a time for a Dad to bond with his boys. I was steeped in work and admittedly, worried.
I am thinking about it now and thanking God for that time. I found pictures on the computer of their adventures together. What a time they had!
Museums, parks, mountains, rivers, library, downtown, you name it, they did it! I want to share some pictures and remind you that when you are going thru tough times God is always providing a ray of sunshine. Blessings in disguise. :O)
Also so very thankful for a camera and a husband who wanted to make sure I didn’t miss a thing.
My boys are crazy for Star Wars, they love it! I just picked up the box set of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi for them for Christmas. It was one of their lightning deals for only $22!
Recently, I came across a crafts section of the Star Wars website. They had a fun R2D2 craft made from felt. I had tons of foam squares so we pulled them out and the boys went to work…
They used construction paper for his top part and colored it silver. They also used construction paper for his body. The rest was made from foam and they glued them onto a foam base. Elmers glue worked well.
They enjoyed it and I think they turned out really cute. Thanks Star Wars!
Preston enjoying Latkes –
Last weekend we were invited to a Jewish Festival to celebrate Hannakah. It was a fun opportunity to engage another culture. The music, food, people were all great!
They had plenty of activities for the children, all of them were fun but one in particular had me very excited. It was an activity similiar to SandArt but it was edible sand, colored sugar. All the kids swarmed the table and had a blast creating tubes of edible art.
You can purchase directly from Sandy Candy or I just found a 10 person kit on Amazon. I will be ordering soon, look out for another post.