Tea Parties and Nerf Guns

Today the girls dressed up and had a tea party.

Fancy shmancy or not, its only a matter of time before they ditch all table manners and get goofy.

A while ago our friends, Kacy and Dave invited us to a movie and tea party at their home. Saydee and Elli call them Nomi and Poppy. Their grandkids live far away in Utah and our grandparents live far away, in Utah. So I guess we're all trying to fill a void here. It was nearing their bedtime and therefore became a pajama party.

I think I've mentioned before that we put our nerf guns to good use around here.

Rather than having to shoot and then recock which the girls can't manage without help, they would much rather run around like crazy dodging bullets. We do aim for below the waist ;) They really love this, I promise.

They even like to retrieve the bullets for reload. Talk about lazy, we never have to leave the couch.

I swear this girl has a new injury every week. Fell off her chair backwards and bit her lip. I'd like to wrap her up in bubble wrap for the next year or so.

Trip to the Temple

Friday we took the girls to the St Louis Temple. It was a nice morning and we were the only ones on the grounds. It's beautiful and quiet in the dead of winter. I think they felt how different and special this place is. Before we left the girls got their first Book Of Mormon. Special day.

15 min of Pretty School

There are times when I really miss living close to family so much it hurts. Like when my kids occasionally call pre-school, "pretty school" taught to them by their adorably funny cousins. Renae's kids are still convinced it's "pretty school". All of my nieces and nephews are adorable and sometimes I get so sad our kids aren't growing up together.

Anyway this post wasn't going to be all about my current homesickness. Two weeks ago we started our own little condensed version of school. I heard of this idea from a friend. You do something educational for 15 min on the hour, 4 times a day. And I noticed over the holiday break the kids were just getting so restless and so much whinier. We needed a little bit more structure back into our lives. Plus I haven't done a whole lot in preparing them for school beyond the very basics.

Around here I am constantly asked why I haven't put both our girls in school yet. I'm definitely not worried about their abilities to cope socially or mentally when the time comes. I'm in no hurry. But I have thought I definitely could take advantage of this precious time I do have with them here. To maybe shape their thinking early on about learning and school in general. I want them to have fun and enjoy it.

The first 15 minutes we go over recognizing their names. Spell it, write it and usually put it in some kind of fun game. Like finding their letters taped up around the room and then putting them in order. Stuff like that, but always we set the timer and when 15 min are up we're done. And to introduce more structure for a school like setting I usually have them sit on a blue blanket they affectionately call the "school blanket". After we conquer their name we'll probably move on to the letters of the alphabet.

Then I set the buzzer for 45 min and tell them they can go play while I get something done on my list. I am much more productive with my time this way. And they are eager to play and eager to run back when the buzzer rings.

During the next 15 min i read them books on the blanket. One book always remains the same until they memorize it. A simple one of coarse. The rest are always different. Saydee loves reading books. Elli doesn't like to sit still for this too long. If she can't I ask her to go play until we're done with school. But of coarse she doesn't want to miss out on "school with Saydee" So she really tries to stay and read.

The next two 15 min sessions constantly change from learning shapes, numbers (very simple math), mixing colors, using scissors, or a simple science experiment. For these we usually play a little game or an activity with it.

I can't say everyday I get a whole hour's worth in. What can I say, some of my days are off. Some days we can't find 4 consecutive free hours in a day, so its here and there. And I wing it alot and some days we only get in 1 or 2 sessions, but hey better than none eh. They love it and I don't put too much pressure on myself to plan something elaborate and time intensive. So, it makes me love it too.

Kids are easy to please and pretty much anything can be adapted to a game. The important thing is they still love doing it and they are easier to live with. Who doesn't function better on a schedule. I love watching them develope into these amazing little people with so much personality and with preferences and opinions and just ways of being. People are fascinating in general and all very special but when they are yours its even more exciting to watch them grow.

Lately I've fallen out of the habit of taking pictures. Here are the girls practicing their letters in jello and elli just mostly making lines and curves. We don't get too picky. I braved the possibility of stains but they were surprisingly careful.

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I don't know how long we'll keep this up or maybe try something else. I'm not usually locked into a particular style or method. Just what easiest for me to do and what flows best with our life at the moment. For now it works and as always consistency is the challenge.

A White Christmas!

We had a good Christmas. And just like one of my favorite Christmas movies there was an unexpected heavy snowfall Christmas eve. We woke up to about 6 inches of beautiful white snow that stuck for more than a day. Perfect timing.
The girls slept in our room so we could put together theirs. They had a terrific Christmas. We got to talk with Tyson on the webcam which was nice, but of coarse not the same. He did get to spend Christmas eve with our family back home. He had a great Christmas too. We sure missed being with him.
Unfortunately, but not surprising, we forgot to charge our camera. These are the only pics of the girls that Christmas morn taken from our phone. Heath did an amazing job on this table and chair set. They get used everyday. Later that day we shared a Christmas dinner with our friends the Anderson family. Christmas was quiet and relaxing.

Later that morning we went out to enjoy the snow.

Here are some pics of their room taken a few days later. I ran short on time and we left a few things unfinished. I didn't get the throw pillows for their bed finished and the pink ruffle on the board of pegs below the mirror. We have two more chairs built but unpainted. I must admit I'm totally motivated by the pressure of deadlines. So no progress has been made there.
Also the chinese lanterns can serve as nitelites.

I love oversized pics. I blew these up to poster size and modpodged them to some foamboard

Next time I'll be much more generous with the modpodge. See how that left pic bubbled up.

The trundle has worked wonderfully. We had our doubts but the girls actually really like this sleeping arrangement. Maybe I'll break down what we did later. They are happy with their purple and pink room.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with our friends the Critchlows. We were so spoiled to enjoy the fun traditional activities of Christmas Eve without near the work. We made enough yummy food to feed 10 families. Amy put together these adorable graham cracker ginger bread houses for the kids to decorate. They loved it.
Mark read the Christmas story which he had the kids reenact by paying us taxes and the rest using their nativity. They thought that was pretty fun. Then the kids colored nativity pictures. We ended the night with opening their Christmas pjs. I of coarse forgot my camera but managed to capture a few on my phone. So even though we missed our family we had a great night with good friends.