Painting Party Success

We celebrated A's 7th birthday over the weekend (even though she is not officially 7 till the 22nd).  She wanted a painting party and we had so much fun letting everyone paint.

 A posing for me!

 

The set up - what fun!

 

Some of the artists...

Concentrating...

 

Smile :)

 

More artists... 

 

Even more artists...we had a lot of talent! 

Even D got in on the fun.

 

And of course, David's amazing cake!!

 

 Happy Birthday A!!

I Lost A Few Pounds Last Night

Or at least it feels like it, in hair that is!  Yes, I donated my hair to the Locks of Love program again.  Yeah, my 5th time in my 9.5 years of marriage.

 

 B and I right before I cut my hair

(if you look closely you will see C!)

The first time I took the plunge was on my honeymoon in England!!  So, I donated 15 inches and a few more were cut off to make my style so I am ~ 16-17 inches shorter and my head feels much lighter.  So my grand total of donated hair to date is (13+14+16+15+15) a whopping 73 inches!!

 D and I right afterwards!

Book Review #1: God Gave Us So Much

I am so excited to do my first book review for the blogging for books program!!!  Woohoo, I received a free copy of God Gave Us So Much: A Limited-edition three-book treasury by Lisa Tawn Bergren and the art was by Laura J. Bryant.

The three stories within this book are God Gave Us The World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven.

Each of these are written as a conversation with the child polar bear, Little Cub.  I really like that Bergren includes scripture into the text; she is clearly building on a strong Biblical foundation.  The conversational format is sometimes choppy, especially in God Gave Us Heaven where the question-and-answer dialog doesn't always have a natural continuity.  In several places in these stories, the response, or answer is so conclusive that my kids thought the story was over.
 
In God Gave Us the World, Little Cub is interacting with her mama.  It is basically one conversation discussing  topics like God's creativity and taking care of the world.  Little cub learns about the different bears in the world and that she is unique and special.  It is doctrinally sound.  I love that it has scripture embedded into it - God made the world and everything in it!

In God Gave Us Love, Little Cub is interacting with her grandpa.  This story discusses the different ways we can love one another: the love between mamas and papas, friends, family, and others.  We may not always want to show love to others but God always gives us love to show.  It is great illustration for kids in being nice.

In God Gave Us Heaven, Little Cub is interacting with her papa.  It is set up as question and answer format and dicusses the possibilities of heaven.
 
I think the artwork is great and these books are engaging to children!  I would recommend this book!!

What is a Hypothesis Anyway?

We had a fun little science experiment yesterday.  B got some grow bug capsules for Christmas.  So, I decided that we should hypothesize and guess what each one was going to turn into.  After explaining what a hypothesis was (note: this is not the first time we have talked about it but it has been awhile) I asked the kids, "What is a hypothesis?"  All three were convinced it was some sort of bug!  After the second and third explanations they got it!

 The present.  They loved watching these turn into insects.

 

The set up.

 

 B helping it along.  These capsules were pretty fast as it only took them a few minutes to reveal what was inside.  I think the trick is to have pretty warm/hot water.

C enjoying guessing!

The girls getting ready.

 Some of the results.

 C's first round.

More results.

Catching Up and Getting Ready for 2011

Ready or not here it comes, 2011 that is!  Wow, time seems to fly by faster and faster as I age. 

We had a superb time celebrating Jesus's birthday.  One of our family traditions has been to make Jesus a birthday cake.

 

 Jesus's 2010 Birthday Cake

Another fun Christmas tradition has been to fill up "real" socks instead of stockings, real socks being defined as a pair that has actually been worn by you sometime during the year.

 

 The before picture.

 And the after.  A and B ended up loving the pink and blue hair (I found it at the dollar store :)

David and I had a lot of fun preparing and setting up Christmas Eve.  My husband has a gift for presentation, which is nice b/c I don't think I have that gift.  We decided to tag the kids presents with balloons this year and that was pretty fun.  David has memories of his parents doing this one year and we thought our kiddos would love it too.  We also had a cool train set up around the tree that was pretty fun!

Our tree Christmas morning

The present tunnel...

A and B with their extra hair.

 C got a bike for Christmas - yeah!  Along with a helmet and the monkey boots that you see in this picture.  I love his side smile!

The girls have been busy today making New Year's Eve cupcakes.  Here they are baking in their new aprons and accessories (thanks Sharon!).

Apron girls!

Little of this, little of that...

Mixin'

Preparin'

Frostin'

 The finished cupcake tree!

Happy 2011 Everyone!

Meet Emily Hugs Pinky

B turned 5 today, officially!  And we now have a new addition to our family.  So, where did I take B for her birthday outing??

If you guessed Build a Bear then you are right!

Choosing two hearts for Emily.

 Getting her stuffed just right.  They asked B is she wanted Emily hard, soft or in the middle and B picked in the middle.

 So happy!

Made especially for B.

 Bathtime!

Dressed and ready to go home.  You cannot really see it but Emily is wearing a shirt that says Happy Birthday and has a little cupcake on it.

So much fun, where to go next?  We are in the mall...hint, hint...

 That's right.  Time for a little birthday treat.

Yum!

Delicious!

And just to round things out, how about your own personal merry-go-round ride!

 I think she is enjoying every minute of this, do you?

And then we went to dance lessons and came home to find out that big sister, A, had baked B a fabulous cake!

 Check it out.

 One last birthday wish...

 

Clapping...

And I am done.  Love you B!

The Big Bash

Well, we successfully finished our first ever joint birthday party.  Yeah!!

 

B's Bumblebee cake

 Beautiful B as everyone is singing

 

D's Ladybug cake

 On your mark, get set, go....

 And for the record, it didn't take long to finish!

Thanks to everyone who was able to come and celebrate my birthday girls.  It means a lot and we had such a good time.  There was a lot of love here!