Pioneer Day Dresses

Last year I decided that I wanted to make my girls some pioneer dresses.  With my Mom's help, I was able to get the material but that is as far as I got.  So this year I was determined to make them.  I was so proud of myself.  I was able to crank these out pretty quickly and I only had one kind-of-late night.  As I finished each one I would say, "I really like this one, it's my favorite."  They all are my favorite and the girls look great in them if I do say so

myself!

    

 Colette

 Leila

 Savannah

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patricks Day has arrived.  We had a lot of fun this year learning about rainbows in relation to leprechauns and such things.  The girls each made one of these mobiles.  We stuffed paper clouds with shredded paper.  Then we learned what order the colors of the rainbow are and made 6 circles.  We glued them and then cut it in half making two rainbows.  We turned it in a mobile.  We still have them hanging.We ofcourse made a trap to see if we could catch a leprechaun.  I suggested an etable trap and they loved the idea thinking we could catch one and then eat the trap.  Its a win win situation.  We decided to do a rainbow cake.  My colors aren't as good as I've seen, but it was fun.  We used a bunbt pan so there would be a hole in the middle.

We make ladder out of pretzels and molding candy that I had leftover from Savannah's party.  Leprechauns like nature things so we thought pretzels were best for that look. 

We placed pretzels across the top so we could cover the top with something to lure the leprechaun.  The girls got to use my cake decorating stuff with my new grass tip I got for christmas. 

This is the finished product.  Wooden ladder made of preztels, signs that represent things that leprechauns like (a hat, clover, etc), green in coloring, gold, and the rainbow coloring of the cake. 

This is what we found St. Patricks day morning.  If you look closely inside the cake you can see a little green shoe that got stuck in the frosting.  Unfortunetly we didn't think about the leprechaun being able to eat his way out of the cake.  Below is the hole he got out of.  Oh well, we got to enjoy eating it anyway.

The above is what the cake looked like when we cut into it.  Not to bad for a first time.  Below is the girls checking things out.

We also had some activities through out the day.  We made rain sticks because you need rain to make a rainbow.  They were made out of pom poms and rice.  Then we danced to some scotish music and made rain sounds with the sticks. 

We graphed out a bag of skittles.  I asked them different questions like which has the most, the least, what order do they go in and what did they notice.

These are the clues the leprechaun made to lead us to our treasure.  We had until midnight to find it and then the leprechauns would get it back.  Besides gold they left us squirt guns, bubbles, necklaces, and these green sticky hands.  The girls loved those the most, but they continue to enjoy the guns and bubbles.

This is a game we played.  Its called don't eat pete but we called it don't eat lucky.  It had a board of lucky pictures with a piece of candy on each one.  Someone leaves the room and the group picks which picture will be lucky.  Then the person comes back.  They pick a picture.  If its not the one that was picked they get to eat the candy and pick again.  When they pick the right one the group says Don't eat Lucky.  Then its someone elses turn.  The girls loved this as they got to eat lots of candy.  We also played a memory game.

Here are the girls at the park with their squirt guns and bubbles.

These are some of the crafts we made during the week.  The Ireland flag.  The gold is suppose to be orange but I didn't have any so we used yellow.  The clover Savannah did in Preschool.  The leprechaun face was fun.  The girls colored, cut, glued together, and curled the paper and glued it on too.  They wanted to make sure their was enough curls for him to have bangs.  Savannah glue her curls on differently then Leila. Can you tell?   I love it when they want to do it the way they want and not exactly the same as each other.   Leila also thought the clovers would make a good mouth.  Colette's is the last picture. 

Valentines Day

Since Valentines Day was during Colette's stay in the hospital, we celebrated a week later.  Only some of our traditions were kept this time, but the girls were still excited.  It ended up being some special family time eating cookies and reading our new stories and we remembered the great blessing of having all of us home and together.  I make them their favorite cookies and we give them a new book.  Dale fell asleep on the couch during the night, so Savannah is trying to entice him awake with his stash of cookies.  The bottom picture is the girls' books and cookies.

Savannah's Rapunzel Party

I realize this is way late and old news but I just wanted to share some of it on the blog.  Kind of a catch up if you will.  So Savannah turned 5 this year.  That is unbelievable.  She is getting so big too fast.  I am still trying to get used to the fact that she is in preschool and next year she will be going to kindergarten.  Crazy.  Anyway, since she is turning an odd number she got to have a party.  She is really into Rapunzel so that is the theme she chose.  In this first picture you can see the sun banner and lanterns that I made to better decorate the place.  She is also into pandas and had a hard time picking a theme, so the other wall has some store-bought pictures of pandas along with one picture from each of her years.  I also made like a 15ish-foot yellow braid that went from the window outside, up the stairs, over our front door and hung down the inside.   

I wanted to make some kind of treat but I didn't really want too much left over either.  I found that a lady made a tower out of donuts.  I loved the idea.  So I got one white glazed donut with colored sprinkles for each girl invited to the party.  Dale made me a stand and I slid the donuts on.  Then, on the top, I put one muffin and a waffle cone dipped in purple candy coating.  The rest is just green frosting that I piped on.  I got some new cake decorating tips for Christmas so I practiced with them to make vines, leaves, and grass.  I think it turned out well and the only things left were the muffin, cone, and one donut.  I also made blue jello for water and an orange slice as a boat.  I also made a sail to complete the boats.  The girls loved them.

We also played pin the frying pan on Flynn Rider.  I put the intial on the pan so we could tell who got it where. 

We also made Pascals out of party blowers and sticky green craft foam.  The girls had fun creating a face and sticking the head on the blowers and then blowing each other with them.

Colette got particularly good at it.  She tried to get Pascal's tongue on the camera as Dale was taking the picture.

Then we played music chairs to the songs from the soundtrack of the movie "Tangled."  When you got out, you got to head to the table to start decorating the lanterns.  Once the girls knew that's what they were doing next, there was no fight for the chairs.  Everyone wanted to go decorate.  We also put glow sticks in the corners and made the room dark so the girls could dance to the "Tangled" theme music with glowing lanterns.

Then Savannah opened her presents. She got lots of fun stuff.  This backpack I made for her.  She uses it for preschool and loves it.

Lastly, we painted on the tower walls.  Since the weather was cool we just taped the sheet on the floor.  The fitted sheet had recently gone bye bye so I thought the top sheet would work well and if I wanted to use it again, I would just have to wash it.  The girls loved the painting and after it was dry we hung it on the wall of the girls' room.

So that was the party.  It was a lot of fun.  The above girl is Emma, one of Savannah's good friends from preschool.  Now if any of my other girls want a Rapunzel-themed party, I will be set to go.  I altered some of these ideas, but I got inspirations from super mom website and also a web site she links to.

The lost Wedding Ring

A couple days ago, I set my wedding ring on the kitchen counter so it wouldn't get dirty while I made dinner. Leila accidentally knocked it off the counter, and I asked her to put it back up there. I didn't think much of it, and turned back to what I was doing. After dinner, I went to put it back on, but it was gone. I asked Leila where she put it, and she insisted that she put it back on the counter. Savannah and Dale started helping me look for it. We looked and looked and looked. But in vain.

During the search, Savannah found a pink sparkly ring that she had previously lost. She said if we couldn't find my ring, I could have hers. Leila insisted that we first make sure that it fit my ring finger, which it did.

Eventually, we gave up the search, and I resigned myself to that fact that we couldn't find it, but hoped it would eventually turn up somewhere. The kids did not fully understand why I was so distraught by the loss of my ring, after all, they lose rings all the time. Dale explained to them that my wedding ring was a very special one. Savannah then said that her ring was also very special to her (she had gotten it on a daddy-daughter date), but she wanted me to have it. So I wore it in place of my wedding ring.

Later, we went upstairs to read bedtime stories. While I read a story to the older girls, Colette played on the floor nearby. She got real excited all of a sudden and came running to me saying, "Mommy, find your ring!" I thought she had some random small toy or something in her hand, but when she opened up her tiny fist, there was my wedding ring. I asked her where she found it and she said, "Found it Leila's bed." I gave her a great big hug, then hugged my other girls as well.

A short time later, as I tucked Savannah in bed, she told me again that her pink shiny ring was extra special to her, but that she wanted me to keep it, despite the fact that I had found mine. She admitted that it was really hard for her to give up her ring, but insisted I keep it. So I've been wearing it along with my wedding ring.

Colette and her babies

Colette loves her babies!  And she takes good care of them too.  She holds them, hugs them when they are sad, puts them on time out when they are bad, and put them to bed when they are tired.  Here she not only tucked in the baby but she tucked in herself and read the baby a story.  She also goes around and tells everyone to be quiet if there are being to loud during babies nap time. 

Savannah Turns 5

 Its Savannah's Birthday today!!  She is turning 5.  Crazy how time just flies by.  She wanted a panda cake, but a Tangled party theme.  So here is her cake.  It turned out pretty good and she was telling how great of a cake maker I am.  Little does she know that I am very amatuer.  She should see her Aunt Jenna or Grandma Topham.  We put up some pictures of her with her Panda decor and then in a week she will have some friends over and we will do more Tangled themed stuff.