A Beautiful Day to Clean

What a beautiful day we had yesterday! My windows have been very sad lately with many, many dirty spots. Once I realized what the weather was going to be, I decided it was time to get those windows cheered up a bit. And of course I had some little helpers.

Josiah insisted on being the dryer. He did a geat job until he got side tracked and thought it was more fun to run off with his sister's drying towel, giggling and teasing the whole time. BOYS!

Diella didn't think it was as nice as the rest of us. I think she is really anticipating winter. :) She was my photographer and did a great job. Usually that is Alegra's job and Diella takes care of Benaiah. This day the roles were reversed. And when the boy heard me say I wanted to get a picture of the photographer, yep, he jumped in the way, of course giggling and teasing the whole time.

Alegra and Benaiah enjoyed some sunshine too while sitting and watching the cleaning going on. She wanted to come out, and I told her that he wasn't dressed warm enough to come out. She slipped back in the house, and next thing I know they were coming back out and Benaiah was dressed with a sweater on. She said he fussed a little bit, but they got it done, and I think she was quite pleased with herself. :) And he was very glad to be outside with the rest of us!

I have slacked a little on my "Winter Blues Washed Away Activities", but there will be something posted at the end of this week for everyone following that. Also, feel free to comment and let me know what ideas you try or if you are following along. I'd love to hear from you!

Enjoy family and fellowship this week as we all gather to remember all the things that we are thankful for in our lives. There is truly so much! Last night before we had supper, our prayer was going around the table thanking God for different things from our hearts. Alegra thanked HIM for a good Papa (I think she was even teary eyed when she said it), Diella thanked HIM for her Dad and Mom, Josiah thanked HIM for the food to eat, Jonathon thanked HIM for our health, and I thanked HIM for a hard working husband who isn't lazy.

I could, of course, go on and on of all the things we are thankful for, but maybe I can save that for another day...like Thursday. And having said that, I hope you all have a blessed day of thankfulness with your families and be sure you thank the right ONE who deserves all the credit for all things.

Our activity for this week-Activity #2

The Davis Mercantile and Author Jan Brett Activities

We have a couple things fun for you to do this week. On Friday we are going to head to Shipshewana, IN in the morning to visit the Davis Mercantile. They are having a special Kid's Day Friday and Saturday. I'm not sure what it will be exactly, but I do know the children will get to go from store to store for activities, doing crafts, answering questions, and even getting some free tokens for a pretzel or carousel ride. That's the part we love the most! It's open during business hours, so take some time out of your day to check it out and give your children some Shipshewana fun.


Also, I wanted to share something with you that my girls really enjoy! Have you heard of the author Jan Brett? We love her stories and her website. She has some great activities you can do that go along with her books. When the girls were really little, we made felt mittens, printed off the animals from her book, The Mitten, laminated them, and then as I read the story they put the animals in the mitten just as it does in the book. You can follow the directions on the page or to make felt mittens, simply cut out your felt with the template on the page, then put hole punches around each edge and take some yarn and have your child sew them together. This is a perfect activity for when winter really sets in and the ground is covered in snow. Until then, lets keep enjoying these beautiful sunny days God has given us to enjoy.

But they really enjoy her section on her website that has drawing lessons. She is a great teacher and makes drawing easy for children. Check out her list of videos here. Last night the girls worked on drawing the baby chick. They did a couple and I must say, they turned out great. Today we will be watching the video on drawing a train. That will go perfectly with our transportation unit theme.

Well, let me know if your children do any drawings from her website or if you are planning to visit the Mercantile this weekend. Gonna be a fun time!

Topsy Turvey Cake- Activity #1

We did our first project today, but wasn't very kid friendly. My children are younger, but if you have older ones, then this could definitely be fun for them as they could be creative with how to decorate it.
We started by covering a piece of sturdy cardboard to hold the cake. We covered it with wrapping paper that would go with the colors we wanted to use.

First, we stacked the cakes and cut them to be topsy turvey. A little tricky. We did put frosting between each layer to help hold it together.

The top should have also been a circle, but we made it a square and made it work. I wasn't completely happy with the end result, but it turned out okay. We did put a dowel rod down the middle just to keep it a little more stable.

Next we frosted the whole thing, making sure it was all smooth.

Then we decorated it. We went with polka dots on the bottom, ribbon around the middle, and pretty squigglies on the top layer with fake flowers as the topper. We went with pink and purple for the colors. There are a myriad of ideas when doing these kinds of cakes. Your children can use different kinds of candies like suckers or peppermints or M&Ms to decorate. They can put shapes all over it with frosting or write words in frosting all over it. Let children be creative and have fun with a topsy turvey cake. We may have another cake idea when Diella's birthday comes the end of this month.

Well, the birthday girl liked it anyways, and it was fun to surprise her at school and sit and watch school lessons for a little bit. We made it to their house to hold babies too. They are growing and are now over 10lbs and are identical. What little blessings! They are doing so well. That completes our first activity. More to come in the following weeks. Remember, drop us a comment if you are joining us.