Magic Beans...

Never undersestimate the multiple uses of food storage. Kaitlyn and one of the kids I babysit had the greatest time playing with dry beans and muffin tins the other day. Who needs expensive toys when you've got a few muffin tins and fun stuff in your pantry?

Homemade chalk

We made some side-walk chalk today. I found this recipe on everythingpreschool.com, and I had the ingredients so we tried it. It made really thick bold chalk. Fun!

Side walk Chalk:
1 cup plaster of paris
1 cup water
1 TBSPN tempera paint (liquid or powdered)
Toilet paper tubes
Duct Tape

Tape up one end of the toilet paper tubes. Mix all other ingredients and pour into the tubes. Wait for 2 hours until the chalk dries. Peel off the tube. Voila! You have side walk chalk! (I put the tubes in a mini muffin pan to stand them up while they dry.)

Enchanted

Kaitlyn insisted on playing one of the last scenes from the movie "Enchanted" this afternoon. Over and over and over she wanted to play it. She'd demand that I'd be the "scary grammy" (in her words) that gives Giselle the poison apple and then she would fall asleep just like in the movie. Here they are posing as Giselle (Kaitlyn asleep on the floor), the people watching (Sarah sitting by in shock and awe), and Prince Edward (Alan) who is waiting to give her "true love's kiss" Of course Alan didn't actually do that. And Kaitlyn wanted Alan to act like the litte boy from primary whom she has a crush on. I can't belive my 3-yr-old is so into stuff like that....

Home made Tortillas

We had the missionaries over for dinner yesterday and we wanted to have tacos. I didn't have any tortillas, and I didn't feel like going to the store with my four little monkeys, so I looked up a recipe on line for tortillas. Did you know that tortillas are just flour, shortening, baking soda and a little salt and water? Wow they taste different than store bought. I think I put too much salt in them. Luckily I had Tom buy some from the store on the way home from work.. I also cut some of them up and fried them to make chips... still too salty. I still want to try again and make some better tasting ones. Any of my spanish speaking brothers know of any good recipes?

Painting the Birdhouse

Alan built a birdhouse at cubscouts last week. He was so proud of it. I let him use my sand paper and paints to finish it at home since he didn't get to paint it at scouts. He loves going to cubscouts. He's the only boy in our ward that goes, but he still enjoys it. He goes with Tom each week when Tom goes to do Bishopric stuff, and he runs around and plays with the young men when his scouting activity is done.

"When we're helping we're happy..."

My kids are still young enough to think that doing chores and helping me is cool. I've been having them do alot around the house, and they actually enjoy it. Here's a picture of 3-yr-old Kaitlyn doing her laundry. Yesterday I taught Alan and Sarah how to do their laundry themselves. From start to finish they collect their laundry from the baskets in their room, turn on the washer, put the soap in and then put the clothes in. When it's done washing, they put the wet clothes in the dryer. They then help me fold it and put away. It was funny to see them try to fold their socks. I also noticed that most of their clothes go from being folded by me, to being a ball of clothes shoved in their drawers by them, but nevertheless, they are helping. They liked learning, and I thought Kaitlyn would like it too. So, I had her help me do her clothes. We also started taking turns making the salad for dinner every night. I make the main dish, while Alan, Sarah and Tom take turns making the salad, and Kaitlyn sets the table. So far they all really like it when I have jobs for them. Hopefully that will continue. :)

Aunt Mary and Uncle Ben are having a boy!

I hope Mary doesn't mind me stealing this picture of her off of her family website. It's just that they are so far away, and we probably won't get to see her while she's pregnant. Mary is my brother Ben's wife. We're very excited for them to be having a baby boy. Another boy to carry on the McGiffin name. I just realized that my kids have only 2 girl cousins of all the cousins we have between the Roses and McGiffins. ... Anyway, congratulations Ben and Mary!!!

6 Months old and crawling!!

William turned 6 months old yesterday. He is just starting to crawl. He likes to get up on all fours and rock back and forth. Today he started actually moving his knees forward to push himself forward. Once he moves himself forward though, he plops down on his little chest and throws his arms out at the sides. Then he gets up again and pushes himself forward with his legs again. It's not quite crawling, but almost, and very cute.

Bugs and Butterfly Party

We had a party for Sarah's birthday on Saturday. She wanted a "Bugs and Butterfly Birthday". We made the invitations last week and gave them to everyone in the class. Since it was memorial Day weekend, only 4 could come from the class, but we also invited a family from church that has 6 kids plus one on the way. So it was a nice sized party.

The first activity I had planned was to let the kids decorate cupcakes however they wanted.

Then, we pretended that some of the kids were caterpillars and we wrapped them up in toilet paper like a cacoon.

Then we had a "bug hunt" on the trampoline where I had put toy bugs in balloons and blew them up . I filled the trampoline with balloons (We have an enclosed trampoline, so the balloons didn't blow away). The kids had to bounce around on the trampoline and find the balloons with bugs in them, then pop them. They loved that, but it was soooo hot that the balloons were popping on their own every few minutes.

Lastly, we had a pinata with tons of candy.

Marshmallow spiders made out of toasted coconut marshmallows and crunchy chowmein noodles.

Gummy worms in apples.

Girls Night

Sarah's 7th Birthday was on Friday. It was also the last day of school, and the day of the Stake Father and son campout. So, Tom and Alan went to the Father and son campout while Sarah and Kaitlyn and I had a girls night. We did our nails, put on play make-up and watched "The Princess Diaries". (William stayed with the girls, but slept most of the time) It's the first time we ever had a girls night, and they loved it!! We even had popcorn and ice cream sundaes. It was alot of fun.

Pancakes by Alan

Alan was trying to create his own pancake mix the other day. His mix however, was just flower and water mixed up in his little sister's play dishes. So, last night I let him make some real pancakes with me for dinner. He had a lot of fun. If he likes to cook other things like he does pancakes, I think I'm going to like having my kids get older. I'll let them do all the cooking!

Couch Slide!!

I thought this was so cute. Kaitlyn really enjoys making a giant slide out of our couch cushions. She even lines up the pillows from the couch on the edges of it.

Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon

I just bought the new version of the "Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon". At the risk of sounding like a commercial, I just have to say how much I love these books. They illustrate the entire book of mormon, not just the stories, and they don't skip anything. It really helps when we're reading them!! We read the scriptures every night before bed, and we use the pictures from these books for the kids to look at as I read the actual scriptures. My parents had the original set back when I was growing up, and I have memories of reading them to myself before I went to bed. It is the entire Book of Mormon Illustrated in 8 Giant volumes. They have beautiful full color pictures on each page and scripture references that go with them. In the books, they summarize the scriptures so that it's easier for us to understand, but we read the actual scriptures to help our kids get used to the language. My kids really enjoy them, and they actually look forward to scripture reading every night!! I found them used on ebay for $53 plus shipping. (They were barely used, they still smelled new and there was nothing wrong with them.) You can also still find them at LDS bookstores new for around $200.

Happy Mother's Day!!

I love flowers. Tom knows I love flowers and that I'm just as happy with a beautiful boquet of flowers as with a present. He ordered the "Delux Hugs and Kisses" boquet from Proflowers.com, and it came on friday. It was so beautiful. This picture doesn't do it justice, but I love it.

Candy Roses and Daisies

Tom was conducting in church yesterday, and so he was trying to think of something to give to all the moms. I had been making some Hershey Kiss Roses as presents for the ladies I visit teach, and I suggested that I just make a few more for the ward. I also thought of another idea for peanut butter cup daises. I bought some mini PB cups, and some mini Hershey kisses, and I wrapped the mini kisses in foil so that hey looked like normal Kisses. Then I poked a wooden skewer through the PB cups and the kisses, and wrapped them in plastic wrap. Finally I wrapped them up in florist tape and put a plastic leaf around then with the florist tape. They turned out really nice. We had more than enough. Our ward is tiny, and we only had about 20 ladies there yesterday. But I had fun making the flowers anyway. And my kids and I didn't mind eating the extra ones.

Dreaming of Sharing Time...

I was in charge of sharing time yesterday, and the monthly theme is "Heavenly Father planned for me to come to a family, I can strengthen my family now". A few days before I dreamt about doing a sharing time based on the story of the Liahona and the journey to the promised land. I dreamt that I had made a game called "Journey to a happy home" and that I made a little spinner chart for them kind of like the Liahona. It's the first time I've ever had that happen before. As I was preparing sharing time, I decided to go ahead and use the idea I dreamt about, and it worked. I talked about how the Liahona was the compass that told them how to get to the promised land, and it only worked when everyone in the family was being good. It stopped working when Laman and Lemuel tied up Nephi, and so when some of the family were being wicked, the whole family couldn't progress on their journey. Our families are the same. We are all working to have a happy home, and progressing to return to our Heavenly Home together. The Holy Ghost is our guide and will direct us home as long as we have the spirit in our home. The spirit cannot be there if some of us are not living the way we should.

In the game, the kids spun our little "Liahona" and it landed on a particular color with a particular picture on it. The color matched a spot on the game board that I had up on the chalk board. We talked about the picture on the spinner, and then moved a game marker on the board. As we progressed along the colored squares, we talked about how to strengthen our family. It was really good. (The music notes were for singing songs that went with it)

Mother's Day Picture Frames

After our lesson/game of "Journey to a happy home", I got out some little wooden frames that I had ordered from my wholesale wood supplier, and let the kids decorate them for a mother's day present. At first, I had thought about having them paint on them, but I kept having the feeling that wasn't the right thing to have them do. The thought came to me that the primary closet would have some things do decorate the frames with, and it did! There were magnets in the closet that we stuck to the back of the frames so that they could stick to the refridgerator. There were also foam stickers from a prior primary activity that the kids could decorate their frames with. Crayon's worked really well on the frames too. It all worked out perfectly!!

Butterfly Ball

Kaitlyn and William and I just went to Sarah's class for her "Butterfly ball" I was asked to read a story to the class to start out the ball. It was called, "Hurry and the Monarch". It was a cute little story about a tortoise named Hurry, and a Monarch butterfly. The kids were very attentive, and I asked them questions throughout the story and let them share a little bit about what they had learned in their butterfly unit as we talked about the story. It was really fun.

After the story, another mom had the class make a butterfly snack. They spread peanut butter on two slices of apple for the wings, then put a pretzel stick in between the apple slices for the body. Then they decorated the "wings" by putting m&m's on the peanutbutter. It was very cute. The picture is another snack that a mom gave them.

We got to look at the work that they had done for their butterfly unit. One of the things I thought was neat was the "butterfly in the cacoon" project they made. They colored a paper butterfly and put it on a popsicle stick, and then decorated a toilet paper tube as the cacoon. They rolled the butterfly up and slid it inside it's cacoon. Very cute.