apples and potatoes

Thursday afternoon was sort of rainy and we couldn't play outside so I suggested that we pull out the playdough. That idea was met with great enthusiasm...until we pulled out the box of playdough toys and realized we were completely out of playdough! Oops. So I started looking around to see if we had the ingredients to make playdough...and we didn't. Rats. So then I grabbed the only things I could think of...another idea my mom used to do with me when I was little...

an apple and a potato.

Cut the apple in half sideways and it makes a star. Cut the potato in half and carve a face in one half...and a heart in the other.

This little guy has had a bad cough all week. He was coughing so much this day that he hardly ate any lunch in between coughs. So after his nap as we started this activity, he was coughing less and was VERY hungry...so I let him have part of the apple. :)

Add some paint on a paper plate and you have your own homeade stamps!

My kids decided to try painting on the paint with a brush but you can also just dip the stamps in the paint.

After making stars with one half of the apple, I trimmed the other half to make a bigger, funky star (the red paint in this pic). This was a very quick, easy project to set up and occupied my girls for a good while! My baby doesn't have quite as long of an attention span and was soon ready to move on to other toys, which was fine. :)

sweet.

I love both old hymns and new hymns. We sing both at my church. But tonight, as I was writing an email to a friend, this old, sweet song came to mind. Do you remember the tune? Can you sing it in your head?

'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,

and to take Him at His word;

just to rest upon His promise,

and to know, "Thus saith the Lord."

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!

How I've proved Him o'er and o'er!

Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!

O for grace to trust Him more!

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,

just to trust His cleansing blood;

and in simple faith to plunge me

neath the healing, cleansing flood!

(refrain)

Yes, 'tis sweet to trust in Jesus,

just from sin and self to cease;

just from Jesus simply taking

life and rest, and joy and peace.

(refrain)

I'm so glad I learned to trust thee,

precious Jesus, Savior, friend;

and I know that thou art with me,

wilt be with me to the end.

Praying for you, friend. :)

root'n'est toot'n'est cowboy in the wild, wild west!

Yeah. Not at all sure if that's how those words should be spelled...! Oh well. :-p

Today was my baby's birthday. I suppose I should come up with better names for my kids since he really isn't a baby anymore. But he's my baby. So I'll call him that for a while longer while I can get away with it!

He is in to Toy Story right now...well, he's in to lots of things...but Toy Story tends to come up at some point during the day most days right now. :) One day last week is became a necessity all of a sudden to be a cowboy. Right then. He had little gun holsters but we couldn't find the belt...so I tied them on with string. He could only find one of his little guns...so he put his play cell phone in the other holster. At first he said, "But Kiki, cowboys don't have cell phones!" I told him that cowboys these days do! Then he needed a hat...which we happened to have upstairs. Anyways, all that gave me an idea of what to get for his "birthday outfit"...so I found pj's for the shirt...and cool boots...and so today we had...

Our very own Woody! :) I know this one is a bit fuzzy. I don't care. :) He took his cowboy-ing very seriously.

(And Woody actually does have his jeans inside his boots...)

**Lauren and Rebekah...for some reason his face in this picture reminds me of Meg's little girl, Annie. :)

But we decided jeans outside was easier. Here is he pretending to shoot a gun. Funny, we never bothered to find his holsters today...there was a picture of one on his shirt and that was enough. :)

Practicing a good, solid, "YeeeeHaaaww!!!"

Then it was time to make cupcakes!

And icing. They thought the beater was fabulous.

Big sis helping little bro. :)

When I asked him earlier this week what kind of cupcakes he wanted to make, he thought for just a minute and said he wanted pigs! Ha! Then, so all his birthday cupcakes wouldn't be just completely pink, I used Toy Story as inspiration and we had...

Pigs and Aliens! The pigs looked more "piggish" in person...in this pic they kind of look like bears... oh well. I should have taken a pic of the inside of the alien. In the movie, their clothes are blue...and so is the actual cake part of these cupcakes. :)

I hope you had a great third birthday, buddy! I love you so much and miss you when I'm not with you. You are so much fun and are learning so many things all the time! I wish I had been there to tuck you in bed and give you a goodnight kiss tonight.

YYYHAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!YYY

crazy noodles and "peanut butter-dillas"

We've had some interesting lunches this week. I found these crazy noodles at World Market the other day and we HAD to try them! :)

First, we of course had to explore each and every one. (Yes, all noodles guaranteed to have been touched by a child's hand! But they were boiled...so it's ok, right??) They loved discussing the textures, colors, and shapes of each one. My baby said they smelled funny. Have you ever smelled a dry noodle? They kinda do smell funny! :)

My favorite is the little flowery one. Notice how the bowties are yellow and pink...

When we cooked them, the bowties turned to yellow and orange! We just tossed these with a tiny bit of butter and added some diced tomatoes on top...one of my kids favorite ways to eat pasta. :)

Yesterday, we had another hands-on lunch.

I did this at K.Kamp this past summer and all my kiddos loved it. I decided to try it with my kids. Here are the ingredients that I had at each person's spot:

~ one organic whole wheat tortilla

~ almond butter

(have you ever tried that?? SO. GOOD. similar to peanut butter, of course.)

~ strawberry jelly

~ pretzel pieces

~apple chunks

~ craizins

~ mini marshmallows...just for fun :)

Then I called my little chefs to the table to put whatever they wanted on their tortilla.

She's such a goofball! :D

Next, we folded over the tortilla, cut it with a pizza cutter (easiest way to cut tortillas!)...

And I got three thumbs up from my kiddos! :)

yes, dad...

We did make snow angels. :) The girls already knew how to make them and their little brother quickly joined in.

Then they ran.

Wrote in the snow.

Ate some snow.

Then plowed it like sand or dirt. :)

While making train sounds.

"Choo-choo!"

Then it was inside for some warm hot chocolate! Mmmm! :)

We hope it will snow again soon this winter! :)

pondering snow

My baby is so different from his sisters. (I know...duh...) :) But specifically, ever since he was tiny, he has liked to think things through. You could see it on his face when he would be in his swing, staring up at the little yellow ducks on the mobile above his head...

...or the day he was a little over a year and stood at the window for minutes just watching the rain...

This particular day, I finally couldn't stand it anymore and stripped him down to his diaper and let him out on the porch to explore for just a couple minutes. He loved getting the hands-on experience and kept "telling" me all about it. :)

He will be three very soon (sniff, sniff!!) and he still tends to ponder on things sometimes.

Like today and the snow.

He's only been in the snow once or twice and I'm sure he doesn't remember it at all. He stood still just taking it all in for a minute or two and then said,

"Kiki, the snow is veery cooold!!"

Then he pondered some more.

I encouraged him to try picking some snow up.

Aren't his mittens Too Cute?? :)

Then he just stood and watched his sisters for a minute or two.

Here, I am sure he is thinking his sisters are crazy...running around throwing snow at eachother! :)

She is so much like me in so many ways...for one thing, she LOOOVES the snow! So do I. She could have stayed out for MUCH longer...and I could have too if I'd been dressed more warmly.

This would have been my pic of the day...but then I wouldn't have had a pic of just her on this post.

This was just after getting hit in the face with a spray of snow from his oldest sister. He wasn't upset and did laugh a little bit... I guess he was planning his next move because...

He then asked, "Kiki, will you help me make a snowball?? I can't do it!" It's true. It's hard to make a snowball when you're wearing mittens...and you haven't ever had any practice. :)

Pleased with his success of hitting his sister back with a snowball! :)

Yup, the whole throwing snowballs is pretty great!

"YEAAA!!! SNOOOWWW!!!!"

Conclusion: snow is "snow" much fun!

Oh come on, you know I had to! Lol :)