Growing up

It seems like just yesterday that Savannah was reading this

But now she's reading this:

I'm excited to be able to share with her some of my favorite books, but I do wish she wouldn't grow up so fast {sigh}.

G is for gold

In finishing up our G week, we did our pot of gold activity today for Mommy Preschool.  I took 2 paper plates and a black pipe cleaner and we made pots.  They are supposed to be painted, but that was too scary with 2 2 year olds, so we just colored them with black crayon.  Here's the instructions for it. 

Then I hid some "gold" in another room (the foil from gold chocolate coins, leftover from St. Patty's day), and Rolos.  The kids took their "pots" and looked for gold to fill it with.  We did the activity 3 times before they lost interest. 

Easter mantle

With the end of St. Patty's day, I am on to the next holiday!  Next up: Easter.  Unfortunately, I packed all my holiday decorations from Easter on, so I have to get creative.  My mother-in-law will probably recognize several of her items here from around her house.  Thanks for the use of them, JoAnne!  I LOVE your spring pillow, by the way!  It's still not complete; I need some spring blooms, but as there are none as of yet, I will be making my own.  I'm going to attempt Japanese cherry blossoms.  But I love having a low mantel to decorate!  It's so fun!  I may have to pack some holiday decorations in my emergency supply stuff, or life just won't be worth living!

Samuel the Lamanite

Our ward did a primary activity last weekend.  It was so cute!  They had different scripture heroes come and tell the kids about their lives.  The kids were allowed to dress up too as their own hero.  Irelynd dressed up as Mary, but I didn't get a picture of her before she stripped it off.  Brighton insisted on dressing up before he'd stay at the church.  We threw together a very quick, 5-minute costume for Samuel the Lamanite, who Brighton named as his favorite character.  We were surprised; we haven't talked about him since Christmas time.  He originally chose Nephi, but changed to this.  I think he made a cute Samuel.  That expression is so Rambo-ish, dontcha think?

G is for green grass and golf

We studied G this week, which made me happy, since "green day" fell this week.  We didn't make it through all the intended activities, as Brighton was happier outside helping his dad build a swing set than inside learning letters with Mom.  We did manage to do 2 activities though.  The first day we talked about grass, and made a grass guy, planting grass seed for his hair, when it comes up.  Waverly made a girl.  Keaton dumped them both out when he woke up from his nap before defacing Brighton's guy.

The next day I set up an outside golf course for him.  He putted 3 holes and wasn't a pro, so he got frusterated with it and gave up.  Too bad, cause I thought it was fun!  Savannah came home just in time and played with me instead.  Here's just a few of our "holes".

We used plastic baseballs and bats.

I had a fun activity planned for "garden" and "gold", but didn't get to them.  Maybe I'll squish them in next week before we move on to "h".

Round-up of St. Patty's day

Here's what we did for St. Patrick's day this year:

I found this idea for handprint leprechauns on Tip Junkie's site, though they looked a lot better than ours; I think the heads are too small.  Here's Keaton's 

Waverly's 

And Brighton's.

We also made leprechaun traps.  This time Brighton participated, though I may have done a little more than him.  I copied this hat idea from Family Fun, just miniaturizing it to fit around a hot chocolate can.  It turned out cute!  Unfortunately the little green men found a way out again, drat!  But they did leave behind some gold chocolate coins for Brighton, and a gold dollar each for the girls. 

Savannah's trap was copied from one we saw on the web. 

The bait was 2 shiny pennies, glued to a diving board kind of thing.  Too bad for us, though, Brighton left his "fishing pole" close by and the little guy pulled himself out with the rope. 

And this was Irelynd's.  She used our pot of gold to lure him in.  Like the antennae?  I'm not sure what function these were used for.  I'm sure she would though.

I packed the girls each a green lunch.  Savannah got a ham and cheese wrap on a spinach tortilla, and Irelynd a PB&J in the shape of a shamrock.

I went the easy route this year and did cold cereal instead of the green-tinted hot breakfast.  My kids have a hard time with green eggs:) 

Ok, I earned mega Mom brownie points for this one.  I bought a green shirt for Savannah and Waverly last year at Target when they went on clearance (expecting to find one for Ireynd, too, later).  Well, the older girls grew more over the past year than I expected, so Irelynd got the green shirt.  I hate to pay full price for a holiday tee, so I took a plain white shirt of Savannah's and embellished it.  I found this perfect green ribbon in my supply box and made roses from it, which I attached to her shirt.  I was so happy that it worked!  Thanks Sallie, for the ribbon, and the inspiration!

Here's the close up.  It was fast and relatively easy, once I got the technique down, but kept me up til 2am regardless.  If I'd had time, I would have liked to embellish the centers with white beads.

Those pesky leprechauns stacked cups, chairs, and created a train with Winnie, Minnie, and the Easter Bunny.

As per tradition, we had a green dinner.  This year we all wore hats, or green leis.

I almost had everyone smiling.  Brighton was in a royally bad mood before dinner, so I was doing well just to get him to sit for the photo.  The girls chose to wear their leis like crowns.

Keaton was lucky and got the silly headband. 

We had Thai cilantro chicken, broccoli, beans, green grapes, green lime punch, and green jello.  I made Irish soda bread, but it didn't cook in time.

I even got Scott to wear a hat for a short time. 

After dinner, we played the shamrock game.  I was very inspired by the Super Mommy blog this year, and she had this as an idea.  Check her blog out; it's full of amazing ideas.  I took 25 green plastic coins, and numbered them 1-5 (so there was 5 of each number, one per child).  Then I got 5 paper bags and numbered them 1-5.  In each I put 5 of something.  The categories were fruit, gum, mints, candy, and juice boxes.  I found all green items to go in the bags.  I hid the coins in the living room, and then called the kids in to find them.  They each found 5, and could choose a prize out of the bag that corresponded with the number on the coins.  The Super Mommy explains it better.  It was a fun activity that even the twins could do.

For dessert we had grasshopper pie: oreo crumb crust, hot fudge layer, mint ice cream, drizzled hot fudge on top.  Mmmmmmm!  No wonder I'm getting so fat lately!

Another fun idea that we stole from the Super Mommy and did today was a green bubble bath.  I turned the water green for the little one's morning bath.  {It did not turn the kids green, if you're wondering!}  The girls also found gold coins hidden in the drawers and cupboards this morning when they went to put away the dishes.  And the tricky leprechaun turned our toilet water and milk green, too!  I made a treat bag for Scott, too, filled with cheesy lines and green candy.  Can't forget the hubby!

I love this holiday, maybe because there aren't any heavy expectations like there is for Christmas.  And how easy it is to celebrate, armed with little more than a bottle of green food coloring!  Erin go braugh!

St Patrick's day FHE

For FHE last week, I made these cute lime jello clover cookies, recipe here, and we talked about how it symbolizes the Godhead, with each person being a separate being, but being one in purpose, like these cookies are made from separate balls of dough, but, added together, make a clover.  We talked about how that vital truth was lost in 300AD with the Nicean Creed, and how it was again restored by Joseph Smith when he saw the Father and Son in the Sacred Grove.  The cookies were actually better than I expected, moist and yummy, and hopefully the kids learned something from the lesson.  I'm trying to work on simple truths alongside the more complex.  How do you plan meaningful FHE's with toddlers and pre-teens???  I'm finding it quite tricky.

No nut stealing!

OK, please excuse my lack of class in this post, but listening to Brighton's comments while playing with dry beans made us laugh to tears.  It's PG-13, so pass by if you are sensitive to tackiness.

My friend Janessa inspired me to give the kids some dry beans and bowls and scoops.  They played with it for the better part of an hour.  That is a huge amount of time devoted to one activity in our house.  Thank you for the idea, Janessa!  I gave them kidney beans and garbanzo beans to play with.  Brighton decided to separate his by type, putting the garbanzos in a cup.  When he came back from going potty, Keaton had dumped them back into the bowl.  He freaked out yelling, "Keaton stole my nuts!"

Later, Waverly had to leave to potty, so Brighton assured her, "don't worry--nobody's going to take your nuts.  We'll all just play with our own nuts."  Nothing's worse than having someone steal your nuts!

She's hiding her nuts under the bowl.

You have to admit they look like little leprechaun-sized nuts.  Maybe an old leprechaun.

A Sunday walk

I totally love 9am church!  It leaves lots of time for family activities, like this long walk along the new bike trail last Sunday.  We passed by this tractor along the way, and Brighton begged to be able to climb inside.  I, of course, had to snap some shots.

A birthday tea party

Irelynd went to a birthday tea party last weekend.  She was so excited to dress up and go.  It was so cute!  She came home with her own cup and saucer

and this adorable bracelet.  Lynette made all these pieces herself out of polymer clay.  I gave her the online tutorial for the cupcakes (remember those?), but she found and made the rest.  The photo doesn't do it justice, especially the rose.  WOW!