Lily's Birthday at the Farm

Since our baby girl is turning two years old, we took the kids to a nearby farm on Saturday as part of the birthday celebration. Well, everyone but the birthday girl enjoyed the day.

Around the House

We had a nice spring week here....

We didn't get pictured, the rain water experiment we did, the hawks we studied in our back yard, the planted pots the girls did at our Church's kids craft time, Aaron & Lily's first Barbie Jeep ride, Aaron going down the slide the first time all by himself and several other things but here are a few pictures of what we did have the camera for.



~ A girl can always use a foot massage ~


~ "I am the Queen" dress up. But really a queen lady bug? How funny! ~


~ A box train that was too weak to hold humans, so it had to house stuff animals instead. ~


~ And the babies are almost 2, so they are learning to use bowls and spoons all by themselves. No real big mess either, yeah! ~


~ The highlight of the week...music time with dad in the basement. ~

Jesus' Tomb

We found this great project on The Learning Parent.

You just mix up some flour, salt and water.
Knead it, roll it out and form it over a bowl.




We used small sauce bowls so we only needed half the recipe for our tombs. You can use the entire recipe and make a large tomb if you'd like.
We really had a lot of fun.

Happy Easter

We had Easter in The Park and it was just so much fun. After the Church Service we had Pony Rides, Face Painting, Cotton Candy and several games. It was so very cold though. So when we got home, we all put on our pajamas and snuggled up for the rest of the day.

Technology Encouraged

I gotta say, (first I have a lot of work to do myself in this area) but all in all I am not a big fan of spending my money willy nilly on techy things. God's Kingdom has so much work that needs to be done and those little gadgets take up so much of our money that can otherwise be used to help the sick, save the lost and further the Lord's Kingdom. But, I have one gadget that I LOVE. I cannot afford it but one day I will. The reason I love it is, it helps save the planet God himself created, that I as a human, am helping to destroy. Every paper towel I use, every napkin comes from a tree. Every book I read, comes from a tree and now, they don't have to.... This gadget is worth the cost.....

Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device

Sorry My Dear Friends & Family

...but it's FINALLY reached 70 degrees in Maryland and my dear sweet Kya announced "It's a very hot day here in Maryland." My poor baby, she just cannot take the heat. We may never be able to move back to Florida if she thinks 70 is hot.

Good Friday

Thanks to The Learning Parent's Blog, we made Resurrection Rolls today. They were so yummy, for anytime of year.

The marshmallow represents Jesus.


Melted butter represents the oils of embalming.


Dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar representing the spices used to anoint the body.



Wrap up the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll which represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after death.






The oven represents the tomb and the door of the oven represents the stone that covered the tomb - pretend like it was three days!


Let the rolls cool slightly. The children can open their rolls (cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there, HE IS RISEN!!!! (The marshmallow melts and the crescent roll is puffed up, but empty.) (Note, we didn't do ours tight enough but indeed the inside was empty, the marshmallow had disappeared on the inside.)





Here are some other highlights of our week.

Aaron is quite the lover boy, always kissing.


It snowed (slightly) this week. The girls quickly threw on the warmest clothes they could find and went outside to wait for more snow.


Here in Maryland it was a beautiful 54 degrees on this spring day. Autumn thought that was just wonderful. She was running around outside in shorts and bare feet digging in the dirt.

Rewind to February

Since March sort of went by in a super-high-speed flash, I missed posting some February moments. I picked my few faves below to share.

In February Lily & Aaron had their first lolipops and as you can tell, loved them.





For school, we studied butterflies. This particular day we wrapped the girls up in toilet paper, acting out the pupa stage of the butterfly and illastrating how when we come to Christ we are "putting off our old self" and that God can make us new (and beautiful).





2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Meet Lucy

Our Foster Dog......

Today we went to the county rescue and met this sweet little girl. She, and a few other poodles, were taken to the rescue last week by a breeder whom was no longer going to breed them. Lucy is 5 years old and is in need of being socialized and needs lots of sweet love, hugs and kisses.

Since we were not ready to commit to a dog on a permanent basis, the rescue allowed us to foster her. She was called by a different name but they said she didn't know her name. We chose Lucy and she will be with us for about 2 weeks (or forever if all goes well).

The kids are so happy to be doggy-babysitters.

She is oh, so very sweet so far....along with a little dirty and a little smelly.






UPDATE
I am leaving this post as a WARNING to anyone else that might like to adopt a rescue dog. If you have children DO NOT rescue/adopt/foster a dog that was previously a breeding dog. Lucy was very sweet to the adults in the house but after 2 1/2 days bit 3 of my 4 children. We later found out this was a repeated pattern in dogs that had been used for breeding. These dogs do need to be rescued. They had a horrible life but they need adult only homes. They cannot adjust to the affection of kids and become aggressive with them. Little Lucy had to go back to the rescue 3 days later for the safety of my children whom she continued to growl and snap at.

All in A Week

I always wonder what keeps me so busy that I don't get all my task list completed in a day or even a week. Here's a little photo journal off all that has happened in our house, in just a week.

Our week started out with our prized finding of the week. Haven't you always wanted to know how the Chinese eat Cheerios? Kya, a brilliant child figured it out. She got her genes from me I guess or maybe it was that she was born in China...hmmmmm...I'm still trying to figure that out....oh, well, at least we know how the Chinese eat Cheerios now and so do you! Give it a try. You just might drop a jean size without Special K.


Digging holes in the yard with kitchen spoons has become a favorite pasttime of our now (and temporarily) "unschooled" children.


Ganging up on dad is always lots of fun for any little one.


Roasting marshmallows in the new fireplace...ahhhhhh, what fun!!!



Somebody (is that a boy in there?) needed a few hairs cut.


But that somebody wasn't all too happy when the event actually occured. Poor baby. But oh what a cute face to see again after all these months of hiding behind long hair.


And, then he stole my heart even more. He cleaned! Yes, at 20 months old, he likes to clean!
Did I tell you I'm in love?!


And what little girl doesn't steel daddy's heart when she wants to learn how to use power tools?!


Snuggle time in the morning watching our new Christian cartoons on TBN, is another new favorite around here. Something about learning the Fruits of the Spirit doesn't make me cringe when they watch TV now.



And finally to top off the week,
just before Friday hits,
you gotta have Thankful Thursday S'mores!


BE BLESSED
and may your week be so full of such sweet moments that your to-do list also goes unfinished...for a very long time.