A Crafty Valentine's Day

The theme for our family this Valentine's season seemed to be crafts. First, we spent most of the day on Thursday creating some cute Valentine's using punches. This is a sample of some the girls made, Jared actually wrote a little poem, typed it up and put that on heart shaped paper that he cut out (all his own idea).

The first part of the Valentine's party on Friday was some ice breaker games. This was a cute game where each person is given one side of a heart and they have to find the person who has the other side of their heart. Amber's heart matched with one of the other Moms. Next it was time to eat all the yummy food.

After the kids were done eating they passed out their Valentine's. Krystal watches as Amber gives her friend a Valentine.

Another craft were these cute boxes that we made for Krystal and Amber for collecting their Valentine's (Jared and Clarissa used theirs from several years ago).

I also made this Conversation Heart Bingo game, it was a hit.

Unfortunately, the party was at Amber's naptime so she crashed while I was running the Bingo game.

The last crafty thing I made was this collage on Picasa of all the kids sorting through their Valentine spoils when we got home. Check out those sugar-laced smiles!

One Day in the Desert

After 5 degree temps yesterday and more snow today, I decided to rebel. We spent the afternoon reading this book by Jean Craighead George called One Day in the Desert. We also acted out the book as we were reading it, drew pictures of characters we didn't have props for, and turned our living room into a Sonoran desert.

This was our paloverde (a type of tree) area where the peccaries (pigs), tortoise, cactus wren, and ringtailed cat hung out by the saguaro, teddy-bear, and prickly pear cacti.

These are the other characters to our story. The rattlesnake (or old bike tire), the Papago Indian hut, Clarissa as Bird Wing, the mountain lion, Diesel the coyote, Jared the sound effects man, the red Scorpion Mountain and Krystal's drawing of a kangaroo rat (but she refused to be in the picture). It was fun and we even did some math, science, and writing along with the art and acting. But, the best part was that whether it was just in my mind or not, I was actually warm the whole 2 hours. Also, it brought back fond memories of the three (Mojave, Great Basin, and Chihuahuan) different deserts that I've lived in.

Swimming in the Snow?

On Saturday, in spite of some pretty icy weather and one weather induced cancellation already, we went with some friends to an indoor swimming center for some family fun. A bunch of us got together and rented the whole place for two hours. This is what it looked like outside.

Inside, we had a blast. Amber is loving the kiddy pool with several water features like the mushroom, mist spraying arch, and streams of water.

Krystal was actually brave enough to go under the mushroom and eventually down the waterslide. Although after her first time down the slide we asked if it was fun and she said, "No!" She did go down it several more times.

I barely saw Jared and Clarissa as they were swimming all over the place, going down the slide as often as possible and hanging with their friends.

I for one, enjoyed the "therapy pool" which was warm and the hot tub, which was HOT! About the only time I went in the cold water was to race Chris. Thank goodness no one got a picture of me when I about drowned myself by breathing in water during the race and Chris was nice enough not to rub in that he won.

This may have been one of the best water experiences ever. It had everything necessary for a sucessful family pool time: clean, close bathrooms, water at every depth, water at every temperature, good friends, soothing quiet pools, fun exciting pools, no hoards of people for your child to drown in and never be noticed, and finally...a definate ending time which meant that I didn't have to be the meany by saying it was time to go. Awesome!

Snowed In!

After getting a foot a snow last weekend, the kids spent every afternoon this week sledding and playing outside in the snow. So, when the forecast called for another 6-12 inches this weekend, we decided we needed a project to keep us busy while mother nature laid her white blanket. This is the view into our backyard while it was snowing. I didn't measure this time, but it looked like it was another 8-10 inches when all was said and done. Now, on to our project - Moving Amber into a big-girl bed (and out of her brother's room). I realize that Amber is the only 3-year old in the world who has ever slept in a crip for this long (Ha Ha), but the truth is that with no baby to push her out of it and a set of seasoned parents who have learned that big-kid beds only mean having a child who can get out of their bed and come into yours in the middle of the night, we felt no urgent need to rush her into this stage of childhood. However, a friend had a set of bunk beds that she was getting rid of, so we took this opportunity to rearrange.

Before: The "toy" side of the room

Before: Chris made this loft bed for Clarissa and this twin bed for Krystal that we put under the loft bed.

After: The dressing side of the room

After: With the bunk bed in place, we put what was Krystal's bed next to the bunk bed. Krystal is now sleeping on top of the bunk bed, Clarissa chose the bottom because it is actually a double size bed and Amber is in Krystal's old bed. With three beds, even this large room is a little cramped, but we still had room for the Barbie house and a bookcase along with the two dressers. Now to decide what to do with all the extra space in Jared's room. And no, Amber did not stay in her bed all night, but she does love it!

Go Legoman! Go!

Jared's Cub Scout Pack had their Pinewood Derby last Saturday. Previous to the event, Jared spend hours researching and designing his car. He and Chris looked on-line for ideas, but ultimately Jared settled on making a rule-compliant car made out of Legos. The wheels and axles are from the kit and fit into a thin slice of the wood from the kit. Then, he made a Lego shell to go around the thin peice of wood. Chris helped one of the boys make his car, it's on the left and Jared's is on the right.

Here are all scouts getting ready to race their cars.

And patiently waiting for their awards. Jared won the best engineered award for his ingenuity and design.

Good job Legoman!

MLK Day

What did we do to celebrate the birthday of the great Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? We had a party! of sorts. We had already spent Friday reading books and doing activities pages about Martin Luther King Jr. so on Monday we invited some friends over. Amber and Clara enjoy mauling Diesel. Don't let him fool ya', he loves it.

Clarissa, Sadie, and Maggie put on a little production on the stage.

Then, after a long meeting for church and a short Family Night lesson about scripture study, we had cake. Marbled cake with marbled frosting of course, to celebrate Martin Luther King's dream that all people will someday live together in peace regardless of the color of their skin.

What a beautiful (and tasty) dream!

Looking into the mind of a three-year old...

Amber: (at the dinner table before we eat) I pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ. Amen.

Apparently confusing two family "rituals" of The Pledge of Allegiance and prayer. So funny.