Easter Excitements

First off, we wish all of you a wonderful Easter! Our Easter Sunday was a bit more dramatic than we had anticipated. Elise gave her first talk in Primary, on the topic of 'Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer'. We used the sunbeam manual Easter lesson for most of the ideas. She practiced a lot, and did a great job! Then the drama began. The sister who taught sharing time decided to show the entire video of 'The Lamb of God', which was an interesting choice....and was VERY concerning for our little sunbeams (3 and 4 years old). Elise sat on my lap, put her hands over her ears, turned away from the screen, and closed her eyes. She knew the basics of the video, since she'd spoken about them in her talk, but the intense-ness of the film was too much for her and the rest of our class. One little girl gasped and put her hands over her mouth in concern and anxiety....needless to say, we could have had a less intense video or explanation, and not just hope that the intense stuff would go over the heads of the young ones.... When we got to class time and the kids were coloring a picture of Jesus and the tomb, one little boy used his red crayon to color 'blood' inside the tomb and wounds on Jesus.... And as I explained what resurrection means, and tried to help them understand that it is a good thing, my girl began to cry and express that she wanted to remain just her, which I assured her she would. After that explanation, we took a lovely walk outside to enjoy the spring sunshine and birds singing, and then played with bubbles.....All in all, I am very grateful that Logan and I are the teachers for Elise's class, so we know and get to control (to an extent) what she is learning about and can shelter her a bit. And I decided that some more trivial, light hearted celebrations were going to be ok to take my girl's mind off things. This morning we made Easter bonnets from paper plates, paper bowls, construction paper flowers, and tissue paper. She had a blast! We had Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in Easter Parade playing in the background while we worked. Elise had a great time finishing her spring bonnet, dancing with Fred, and then doing a marching band parade down the hallway.

And we made a special spring time flower snack:
(Both those activities were ones I found in online blogs.)

I think for the next several family home evening topics we are going to stick more to events that took place during the Savior's life from the New Testament, and learn those great 'Stories of Jesus'. My girl is also learning the song "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" for the Primary Program, so we'll keep practicing that.
In the meantime, we wish you all a wonderful and Happy Easter, and hope your day was filled with love and fun! Here is her Easter/Spring dress I made for her:

And here is her talk (it was a practice run):

'School Time' and Some Art

My girl and I have been doing lots of 'school time' at home for the last several months. It isn't really homeschooling or formal preschool stuff, but we figured that our shy girl will handle the change to real school in another year and a bit if she is familiar with some of the types of learning activities, and skills she'll need when we get to that point. She tends to go slowly in new situations with new people, and to stick close to mom when there are lots of people. When it comes to starting school for real, she'll (hopefully) be more comfortable at dealing with the new people and places if there are some familiar things, like letters, and numbers, and such. And hopefully the little things we've been doing like going to church, and an occasional outing will help her be more comfortable with the human element, since it is just her and I at home, and Logan when he isn't out working hard. So, we've been doing lots of activities lately. I went through the house and made a spreadsheet of all the things I would consider learning activities. I divided them into different categories, and then assigned each category a color. I wrote each activity on a popsicle stick, and put them in tin cans. Each tin can has a color and label, and each stick has colors on the ends to tell which type of activity it is. These are our activity choosing sticks. Elise loves them. She likes to be independent and to be the one making the decisions (we are struggling with the balance of mom/daughter and best friends). So, these sticks allow us both the freedom to do some 'school time' activities together, without repeating the same activity over and over again, and with her getting to 'choose' which activity we do. Well, I found the activities from various places, games we have, workbooks from the dollar store, homeschooling blogs, fun activity books for kids, and all sorts of books from our local used book store. We have also gotten lots of help from family members who have shared their resources and files with us. Some days we do lots of activities, and some days we just get one or two done. Whatever activity we accomplish, Elise earns a bead of that color for her necklace (where she earns beads for obeying our family rules, every time she obeys). The sticks have been a good thing in a time crunch, because most of the activities are already put together, or easily assembled, so we pick one when we have some time, and do it. I like the feel of having it a bit more organized, so if I want to do some activities and stories around a certain theme, I can go to the cans and pull something together quickly. It has really helped me be a bit more on top of things, although it has been a lot of work (and fun) to put together, and to maintain as we get new resources, or learn about new activities to add to our cans.
This last week, we received in the mail a couple books with art activities. Since they aren't on the activity sticks yet, I didn't think we'd do them this week, but save them for next week. My girl had other plans. She went through the book about making animals using paper plates, and decided we should do all of them. After some discussion, we agreed that we can wait until we get the right sizes of plates. So she turned to the second book. It is making various things like animals or cars or other things using different shapes in varying colors and sizes. This seemed more doable at such short notice. The first page she picked was the ice cream cone, which just needed some triangles for cones and some circles for the ice cream scoops. I cut out a bunch of different color and size circles and several triangles, thinking that it would be ok to have left overs, and we could save them and use them for another activity at a later date. I gave my girl a page, and some glue, and she got to work gluing and being creative. The first result....SEVERAL ice cream cones:


Then, as there were still some circles, she requested another page to keep working and being creative. She made a beautiful caterpillar:


Then she decided to use the last of the circles to make trees. I thought it was cool how she drew some lovely trunks on them in white crayon, which she loves to use when it shows up on the colored paper:


At that point, she had used up all the shapes I'd cut out for her, but thought it was a good time to use the stickers that had come in the box. On her new page she put some hearts, and for each one she said, "This is because I love my family." Then she put some stars and said, "This is because I love my family in the night." So her page with hearts and stars is completed:


I love having her be so creative and have fun together. She's been doing lots of painting and cutting lately as well. Some days it is hard for her to decide which color activity she would like to do....she has her favorites, but we are trying to mix things up and include the ones that are not so flashy as well. The categories include: letter/alphabet/reading, numbers/math, colors, shapes, art, movement, music, science, free play, history/languages, and combined activities. Lots of these activities overlap (like painting letters, or counting while we blow bubbles and pop them), but she gets the bead for the main skill being practiced. When we finish the activity, I color a place on one end of the stick red, and the other end green, and we put it back with the red part up.


So far, its been really great, and fits well with our family. And the beads on the necklace help her remember what she accomplished during the day, so she can tell her Daddy all about it. And she loves imagining that she is big enough to go to real school on the school bus....she can hardly wait.....and it is feeling like a challenge to keep her engaged for another two summers before she'll get her turn. So for now, my curious girl and I are having learning adventures everyday....even though some days it is just walking around a store, writing down the first letter of the objects we see in her notebook, while I try to do the grocery shopping! But it IS an adventure!

Elise's Projects

We have been busy making things at our house, and here are a couple that are for our girl. We painted a scripture bag for her with her name, and her handprint made into a sunbeam:

And we did an iron on t-shirt with Buddy the dinosaur.



She decided she needed to wear all blue, since the t-shirt with Buddy was blue. She has also decided that we need to make more shirts, with Tiny, Shiny, Don, and the other Pteranodons on them. We have a coloring book and some iron on crayons that get the basic shape, which we outline with a black fabric pen. I am glad they came out the way she wanted....and am sure we'll be trying this technique with many more projects soon!

And of course, here is her Valentine's Day skirt and shirt which I made for her. I appliqued the heart on the shirt, and experimented with the skirt to make it patch work looking. She loves them, and I am amazed at how tall she looks in the long skirt!


And I wanted to share some of the fun things my girl has said lately.
Elise and I were running errands the other day, and we went by Logan's job site for a quick look and to say hello. We pulled up as they were pouring concrete with a pump truck. I explained to Elise that this was Daddy's work. She exclaimed, "It is just like on Bob the builder!! And Daddy's friends are just like the trucks on the movie!" I was a bit surprised by this, since she has only seen one Bob the Builder movie, and it was several months ago, but she has the memory of an elephant, it seems! And it was kind of cute!
The other funny thing she said was a couple weeks ago on a Friday. Every Friday, at the State Office Building, there is an organ recital during lunch time. Logan and I decided it would be fun to take Elise. As we were getting ready to go, I told her we were going downtown to hear the organ. She got really excited and said, "Where Grandma Sue and Papa live!!!" I had to explain that they live in OREGON, which is farther away than a drive downtown, and that instead we'd be hearing a musical instrument that was similar to a piano. She was a bit bummed out, but agreed that an organ might be cool too. She ended up really enjoying it, especially because they had some Disney tunes included in their repertoire.
All in all, fun is in the air with my girl! She's been doing lots of art projects all by herself too, and I'll try to put the pictures of these creations up tomorrow!
In the meantime, we hope you all have a wonderful day today!

Oh, and the last funny. As I was making her PB&J for lunch today, she went to the shelf, picked a movie, came over to me in the kitchen, and said, "One of our passengers will have a hard time eating lunch without this," and gave me the dvd. It was Dinosaur Train of course! Hooray for learning about Archeopteryx today!

My Other Little Smarty Pants

Can I just tell you how amazing Logan is? It is wonderful to have him around! I mean, compared with us living in different states, it is heavenly to be together as a family! While pretty much everything else in our lives is up in the air and uncertain, it is a humongous blessing to say that we are together as a family, every single day!!!!!

And, I am truly amazed at Logan's skills. I knew he was a smart cookie, but I think it is so fun to see him try new projects, and use new skills, and to see how good he is at looking at things and figuring out how to build them.
For example, I have long wished for a stand of some sort to allow Elise to help at the kitchen counter while being more stable than a chair. I found some examples online, and Logan took the information we'd found and made her this incredibly awesome 'Kitchen Helper'. She LOVES it! I LOVE it! It has made a huge difference in how she is able to be a helper in our kitchen.


And we were recently re-organizing our home into less of a storage facility (things in boxes, waiting to be found), into a more livable working space (things on shelves, ready to be used). I have been blessed with a room for crafty purposes. My sweetheart went along with the idea of putting fabric on some shelves, with the idea that if you can see it instead of having to dig through boxes for it, it will get used more. So he built me some shelves for fabric, and even a cute little shelf for ribbon. He had already built a shelf for paper crafty stuff, and pattern boxes. So here is the newer shelves, all built and filled up (it amazes me how fast they get full!).


And he has built us a fabulous book nook space with lovely book shelves which we have filled with fantastic books, and I've been able to organize to my heart's content.


And then, he decided to get daring and move into the area of picture framing. He has been making picture frames for some of our projects, and cutting mats, and they are fantastic!!! He framed this print for me from Mother's Day last year:


He made frames for the chore chart, family rules, and hair accessories:


He did this Thomas Kincade Cinderella print:


Then he did something else really cool. He made a stand for the keyboard, including a music holder. He even made a piano bench with a raisable lid for storing sheet music, which he covered in a beautiful piece of blue fabric (it was a remnant we saw at the store and liked, but didn't get it because I couldn't think of anything to make with it.....he went back and got it for this project as a surprise!). It is just my size, and Elise and I can sit together and enjoy practicing our songs!


And of course, there is that fabulous porch swing!


And the deck out back for a grill to sit on....


And our headboard/shelf, and Elise's bed, and a chair and foot rest so my sewing machine and foot pedal are at the right height, and the desk/shelf for the computer, and the Elise sized table and chairs, and night stand tables for the other bedrooms, and Elise's felt house frame......I'm telling you, Logan is amazing! I think it is so neat to see Logan use all his skills to fix it up this house here and there, to make things the way they will work best for our family....Hooray for Logan!

My Little Smarty Pants

Hey there all! We've been busy living everyday life, with not a whole lot new going on, but trying to keep up with my little friend sure takes a lot of time and energy....especially now that she is 4!!!!

We weighed and measured her, and it always surprises me how fast and how much she is growing. She is now 35 pounds and a humongous 40 inches tall!!! My sweet husband was quick to point out when we measured her that I am only 24 inches taller than her......yikes! It is almost hard to find shirts and dresses that are long enough, while not being hugely baggy on her. I'm working on an Easter dress for her and while in circumference she is a size 4, in height, to get the right length, I had to do a size 7 length!!! Crazy!
Well, I wanted to put a couple quick stories on here, and then get going with our fun time for today. This morning my girl brought in her box of bean bags and told me she would play with them while I got dressed, and then I could help her get dressed. I thought that was an intriguing plan. She dumped out her box and tossed the bean bags around for a bit, and then set herself up in front of the door. She told me she had made up a game called 'toss and BOOM'. When I asked her what this game was she replied, "I'll teach it to you. First you take the bean bag in your hand. Then you toss it at the door and it goes BOOM, like this", then she moved the bean bag in slow motion as though it she was going to toss it, while making the sound effect, "Swish!". She said, "See, I'll show you, and then you can play with me." She proceeded to throw her bean bags at the door, where they forcefully struck, and indeed made a BOOM sound. Quite inventive....

And she has shown her brilliance off in others ways recently as well. Logan made her a jungle gym out of PVC pipe. She has really enjoyed getting to play on it and climb on it, and it makes for a really great piece of equipment to hang things on. She decided it would be a great place to pretend hanging laundry (she's seen people hang laundry on a line in books). She got her bag of dancing scarves and hung one on each part of her jungle gym. She has done this several times, and the other day while I was making dinner, she decided she needed to do a job too, and the pretend laundry was a perfect fit. I could see her working at the top of the structure while I was working, but wasn't paying 100% attention to what she was doing. I was confused though when I saw her climbing up the structure without a scarf in hand, but then she had one with her once she reached the top. I decided I needed to watch a bit more closely. This is what I found her doing:


Pick one up


climb to top

Utilize your toe skills
I have found her using her toes for many things like this lately, including playing Kerplunk, picking up things she has dropped on the floor, and even attempting to play the piano with them.....it is all very interesting.

She has also been working hard on learning the songs for the Primary program. She picks up on them so fast, as we practice at home, and she loves to go to the piano (her Daddy just built a stand and piano bench for the keyboard), open her song book, and play the piano while singing the songs she is practicing. It is so fun to hear her. The other day she went in her room and had her Little People friends line up and take turns singing the primary songs. It was so cute! Anyways, I had to get a video because she is so awesome!

What kind of pie is that?

I know it has been a while since I posted on here, and I feel like we'll never catch up now, and everyday I am missing out on recording the fun and funny things happening for us. Today I just wanted to share a funny story about my girl, and see if I can jump start my posting and get us back on track of communicating with family and friends who are not able to be here for the adventures in person. So, Elise has been doing lots of 'school time' activities lately. We've been working on getting our home a bit more organized and usable lately. That takes going through boxes left packed up from our move here, taking everything out of some rooms, and figuring out what should go back in, and what should be gotten rid of. Logan has made some great shelves for us, and I am feeling more inspired in the new spaces. I have been organizing the books and school type supplies for us to use in such a way that I can offer some variety and quickly pull together fun learning things to do. In the midst of all this, my helper is ever ready to help. We have found a couple of fun skills work books that she really enjoys doing, and is able to complete a lot of the activities on her own with just a little guidance about instructions. She has one that is scissor skills and one that is a sticker workbook. Both work on skills like letters, numbers, colors, shapes, addition, writing, and other important skills. She LOVES these workbooks. Occasionally during our organizing activities, she would become 'tired' and want a break from moving boxes and things. So we would set her up at the table, in the room I was working on, with her workbook. She loved having something she could be working on by herself, and having me right there to help with the instructions for each page. And I was grateful she was still doing learning activities while I was able to get our spaces more conducive to 'homeschool preschool'. She has grown up so much, and I guess I am realizing it a bit more lately. Well, a couple days ago, she was working on the last page in her sticker book. It had pictures of pennies in differing amounts, and the activity was to match the stickers of different objects with a price tag on them to the picture with the right number of pennies. She did a great job matching them all up, and then proceeded to describe each object to me. They were normal things, including a ball, a strawberry, a stuffed bear, and a piece of pie with purple filling. She described the first three items, but when she came to the last piece, she said, "Mama, why is this pumpkin pie purple?" I replied that I didn't think it was pumpkin pie, but maybe some kind of fruit pie. She declared her certainty that it was pumpkin pie and that it was strange for it to be purple. I said, "Maybe it is something like blueberry pie or blackberry pie. Remember the blackberry shake we had? It was purple, even though the berries are named blackberries. Maybe this pie has blackberries inside and they look purple." She looked at me with a face that plainly said I just wasn't understanding her words no matter how simply she explained things to me. (No doubt I've used the same facial expression a time or two...) She let me know blueberries and blackberries cannot make a purple pie since they are not purple themselves. Finally a light sparked behind her eyes, and she excitedly exclaimed, "Mama! It's an eggplant pie! Eggplant is purple, so it must be an eggplant pie!" Well, of course I had to agree, and confess that she is such a smart cookie to have found a food that IS purple that could make the pie that color! She is such a fun girl, and we are so blessed to have her! And we are rapidly getting to the conclusion of our organizing efforts, and getting to the point of being able to better use our space. Elise and I are doing lots of crafty activities, playing lots of games, and doing lots of pretending as well. Logan is hard at work, at the work there is to have, and we're hoping more comes along soon. So, here we are in March, and I haven't posted our adventures, really since last August. There are tons of fun things I'd love to share, and pictures of exciting things like a visit from Grandma Parker and Aunt Beth, Halloween excitement, our Thanksgiving gratitude tree, Christmas fun and travels, my girl's fourth birthday, her HUGE Valentine's celebration for her Daddy, all the fun little things my girl has said and done, the great projects we've been able to complete, and the transformation of our home from a storage facility of things that might be needed to a living space we enjoy being in together with room to have great adventures and get on with the joy/challenge of raising our girl.......maybe I'll get to it sometime soon, and maybe I won't, but in the meantime, I can say that we're having lots of adventures, and will try to share them as they happen, even if I don't go back and fill in all the blanks of the last few months. We hope all is going well for you, and if you need some excitement, you might want to think up a recipe for some eggplant pie, it could be an adventure!

We are BACK!

We made it back from a super long, but very great trip! We are trying to get back to our normal lives now, and will try to get some pictures of the trip up here quick, since the next big event is coming up quick....the BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!! My girl is so excited, and is having a hard time waiting for the big day. She is planning balloons, and wrapped presents, and maybe even some treats. It should be fun! But for now I am still trying to get us all unpacked, laundered, and re-acclimatized! It is good to be home, but seems a bit cut off, far away, and very quiet (at least when my girl is not barking, roaring, or dancing around singing!)