Water Boy

One of William's favorite things to do is push a chair up to the sink, reach waaaaay over, and turn on the water. He then proceeds to play with any dirty dishes I have around the sink. He usually fills the cups with water and tries to dump them out on the counter nearby. He gets so mad when I take him down from there, that sometimes, I'll just put a towel around the sink and let him play.

Cake Project 4

So we colored the fondant this time, and I let the kids help decorate a cake that Kaitlyn wanted in the shape of a four. Fun!

Hold to the Rod

Our PVC pipes came in handy again for FHE tonight. We made them into "the iron rod" and had a lesson on how important it is to read the scriptures and follow them. We blindfolded one person and spun them around. Then they had to listen to the "spirit" which was a CD of church music playing at the end of the rod. At first they didn't know where to go, they just had to follow the music, and as they did they would find our little "rod". They then would hold onto the rod until they got to the music. We also had everyone else making lots of noise so that it was hard for the blindfolded person to hear the music. It was fun activity. After the activity, since the lesson was about reading the scriptures, we made scripture cookies. The kind where you look up the scripture and it gives you the ingredients. (You can google "scripture cookie recipe" and it will come up in multiple places.)

New look for nativity puzzle

I've now been making my nativity puzzles for 5 years. So, in honor of my 5 year anniversary, I decided to make a special handcarved edition of the puzzle. This is somewhat inspired by the "willow tree" figurines, although they won't be as detailed. I'll still do the flat front painted edition because it's not as time consuming, but I'm really loving the carved look of these. We'll see how well they sell. I'm thinking of leaving it natural because I love to see the natural wood.

Don't look too closely. It's not completely sanded yet. :)

What do you think? Should I paint them or just leave them natural?

Wooden it be lovely

We've been having fun with wood lately. I made giant circle puzzle out of an old table top and let the kids paint it.

I've been wanting to make a rose puzzle and sand it to make it look 3D.

I've also always wanted to make a dinasaur puzzle. Alan designed the little dinasaur.

So, as you can see we've been having some fun.

First time Fondant

I've always wanted to try fondant on cakes. I finally made some marshmallow fondant yesterday. As far as recipes go, it's super easy to make.

I didn't bother to make it different colors because I just wanted to see how easy it was to work with. So I made a mini four tiered cake and tried different designs on the cake. It's pretty time consuming to decorate with, but looks neat. Tastes yummy too.

Marshmallow Fondant

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided

DIRECTIONS
1.Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2.Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3.Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4.Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Team Work for FHE

Alan really wanted to be in charge of Family Home Evening last night. He said he had a game he wanted us to play. I told him he could be in charge as long as there was a lesson attached to the game. He said there would be. He prepared for FHE by turning some of our PVC pipes and joints into hockey sticks, and rolling some old socks together to form a ball. Then he gathered us all together and had us all sing, "I am a child of God", and asked Kaitlyn to say the opening prayer. After the prayer, he divided us up into two teams. We moved the couches so that we would have room, and used blankets curved in a "C" as the goals. It was alot of fun!! At the end of the game he explained how we need to work together in our family to accomplish goals. We talked about what goals we might want to have as a family. It actually turned out really well. Tom and I were really suprised at how well he did. I guess he's growing up.

Food, Family, Fireworks and Fountains on the FOURTH

The morning started with getting the food prepared. This was a fruit salad I decided to make into a flag. I put it into a bread pan to get it the shape of the flag. I didn't want to make the traditional flag cake since I was already making apple pie and berry cobbler.
While I was making the goodies, the kids went outside to play with "pop-its". William didn't quite get the hang of throwing them, but he liked stepping on them.

When the evening came, we went to watch the fireworks. There was a water fountain near where we were sitting, so the kids played in it while we waited for it to get dark.

Tom's brother David came from Savannah for the day. He's getting ready to go to Iraq for a year. We all had lot's of fun with him and the kid's loved playing with him. Here's Kaitlyn snuggling up to him on the blanket as we wait for the fireworks to begin.

We were as close as you could get to watch the fireworks. The police barricades were right in front of us. We were so close that we had debris raining down on us during the display. The kids

were picking up peices of it to save as souvenirs. Sarah even found a peice of one of the fuses. It was so fun!!

Here's a little video of William trying pop-its for the first time.

Making a Primary song into a quiet book...

The Family is of God - Quiet Book
I was looking for visuals to the song we're teaching the primary children in July, and I found this "quiet book" form of the song. Very neat.

Flannel Board FHE

I found this cool wooden box in the shape of a book at Michael's about a month ago. I decided to paint it gold and fill it with flannel board story figures.

Many years ago (I'm thinking like before I was born) the church published flannel board stories. They don't have them anymore, but you can still find them on sugar doodle. They're extremely helpful for active little children on FHE night. They're also good to look at during scarament meeting. Click on the top to take you to the flannel board stories on sugardoodle . Click on the bottom picture to take you the flannel board stories from the "Friend" magazine.

Created for my parents by my talented sister-in-law Jenette

This was made into a book for my parents who are celebrating their 35th anniversary this year. The pictures are of my parents and my brothers and their wives and children. So awesome. I love it.

20 mini giraffe puzzles

I just finished making an order of puzzles for a birthday party. I received the order through Etsy, which I'm beginning to like better than ebay. They wanted 20 small giraffe puzzles as a party favor for their baby's 1st birthday. It only took me about 2 hours to cut them all and another 45 minutes to sand them. I love wood.

Daddy's Day

This morning, Alan and Sarah had their own creative presents for their Dad. Alan made a sign out of marbles on the rug in the hall that said, "Daddy's # 1" Sarah and Alan both got dressed up in blankets and said they were going to be Tom's "servants" for the day. (We told them to take the blankets off eventually because it was a very hot day.)

Here's Alan ready to fight any battle for his Dad. After church, we all played "Monopoly" at Tom's request. And he won.

Here we are all enjoying the "Baskin Robbins Ice cream cake" I bought for him yesterday. It was chocolate chip mint and devils food. I have made these in the past, but I was a little busy yesterday babysitting two other kids besides my own.

"That was good cake"

Crazy in the Car

Posing for a pic in the van after an afternoon at the Psalmond Road Pool.

Music Lessons

Today I started giving Alan piano lessons and Sarah guitar lessons. No, I don't know how to play a guitar, but I can read the lesson book and figure it out pretty easily. So, after their lessons, each went off on their own to practice.