Kindness.....

Ok, so I was going to post about this awhile ago, but obviously I didn't.  One afternoon there was a knock on the door.  By the time I got to the door, the knocker was gone, but a bag was on the porch with the above note.  The bag contained several shirts (both long sleeve and short sleeve), two dresses, and two skirts.  For those of you who don't know, Savannah started kindergarten this year and, here in Dallas, TX the schools require uniforms.  Not knowing exactly how much clothing to get, and not having a lot of money. I was brought to tears by this wonderful surprise. 

Then I noticed the second half of this sweet note.   Leila and Colette were told that they would get something later.  They were so excited about not being left out of the excitement that found our home that afternoon.

A couple weeks later, 4 more bags appeared on our porch.  These contained new matching skirts for the girls, along with a shirt, socks, a hair barette, and a new movie for each kid. And this time, there was a very touching gift for me.  Savannah also got some uniform pants for school.  My emotions overcame me and I weeped.  My girls were wondering what was wrong with their mom.  I have no idea why someone chose to do this for my family, but it was truly an answer to prayer -- and much more!  Thank you so much to whoever did this.  I wish there was something I could do for your family in return.  Please know my heart is full of gratitude and love for you!

The girls wore their new matching skirts to church the next Sunday. Savannah's primary teacher asked her if I had sewn the skirts, and Savannah excitedly told her that someone had left them in a bag on our porch.  My girls absolutely loved being thought of and enjoy all their new treasures throughout each week!

F is for Fairy Tale

So several weeks ago the girls and I did a fairy tale theme for preschool.  It was so much fun.  In the following three photos you can see the Three Little Pigs' houses, Cinderella's glass slipper (which was a shoe cut out, painted blue, and sprinkled with glitter and sprinkles), and two pictures which shows the difference between a frog and a toad (just in case you wanted to give one a kiss). 

 

As you can see in the first photo below, Savannah drew her own houses and then applied the straw and sticks.  The red one is the brick house and was painted with a rectangle sponge.  She was going to fill in the whole paper but remembered that the wolf goes down the chimney, so she added one in the

top right corner of the page.

 Leila's artwork is pictured below. Leila drew her house of straw similar to Savannah's and applied straw, but then decided to draw her stick house like I drew Colette's houses.  She also used toothpicks to put in a window.  The brick house is the red one.  The outer layer is the bricks, and the pink middle is the inside of the house.  The small gap in the bricks at the bottom is the door, and if you look closely, you can tell that she remembered the chimmey at the last minute.

 I drew all three of Colette's houses but, as you can see below, she had her own style when it came to placing the sticks on the middle home.  It's amazing how different three kids can make the same project.

 In the next picture on the right-hand side, you can see Colette's frog and toad better.  We glued oatmeal and rice on one and painted it browns and grays to make it look like a toad. The frog was a shiny paint of any color since frogs vary in color.  We based this project on The Princess and the Frog story.  The other artwork is painting with apples, which we did after we read Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. 

 The photo below is Leila's Apple Art.

 Below is Savannah's Art.  She is very much into her artwork having some kind of order.

We also read The little Red Hen and made home-made brownies afterwards.  We made princess hats, a dragon mask, and then a castle out of card board boxes, which the girls painted. Then we acted out Sleeping Beauty.  Savannah was Sleeping Beauty, Colette was the wicked fairy Maleficent, and Leila was Prince Phillip.  We had all the important characters at any rate.  Below, the girls are sporting their princess hats.

 We also made miniature apple pies when we read Snow White.  Leila is showing hers off in the photo below.  We also played games like finding Cinderella's lost slipper, or picking which shoe would make a good glass slipper.  We had races and ran away when the wicked fairy tried to get us.  It was so much fun and so much fun to watch the girls express their different ways of looking at life.  It was also fun to hear what they took away from each story, after all a fairy tale is supposed to teach us something.