Back to School Cake

Tonight we're going to a ward social. The theme is "Back to school" because school just started yesterday. The RS. is providing the dinner, but everyone else is asked to bring a dessert. So, I decided to make a simple cake.

First day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school for Alan and Sarah. I'm so sad I forgot to take first day of school pictures. They had a great day though, and I think this will be a happy year for them.

As for Kaitlyn, Georgia has this ridiculous 6 1/2 hour long, 5 day a week program for 4 year olds, that I refuse to subject my little children to. Can you say "Developmentally inappropriate"? Anyway, Kaitlyn is with me. While the big kids were at school, we did some good 4-yr-old math and science today. I let her and William sort some m&m's in mini muffin tins. Then we colored some dry macaroni. We hypothesized about what would happen if we put both red and blue on it, and during the experiment, we saw that it turned the macaroni purple! Kaitlyn had the idea to see what it would look like if we cooked it. I had never tried this before, and I thought it was great for her to think of this herself, so we did it. After it was cooked, the macaroni was still purple, and we decided to make it into macaroni and cheese for lunch.

Giant Paper Fun

This afternoon, to beat some boredom, I suggested that Alan Sarah make something out of the giant roll of paper. Sarah made one of those origami cubes you blow up, and Alan made a giant airplanes.

Storm watching

Here the kids are with their Daddy watching a storm in the distance. The storm never actually got to us, but we could see so much lightening in the distance that we sat out front and watched it. There were lightening strikes literally every few seconds. Unfortunately I couldn't get any shots of it. We were glad the storm never got to us.

"HI"

It's been a long summer. Tom has been gone on short trips every week in the month of July. So it's been a little hard for us. And of course it's so hot outside that we can't really go out for very long. That stinks.

Anyway, our kids are so active they like to move. Constantly. Last night we turned off the TV, turned off the video games, and just played games-without boards or cards. We played charades for a little while, but what they really liked was the game where you make letters or numbers with your body.

Climb every mountain....jump every stream...

Here we are at our favorite park. We wanted to take Johnny and Jenette here while they were visiting, but we didn't get a chance. Maybe next time.

Which looks better?

Click on this picture to see the details.
Ok, I really want your opinion on this. I have a natural carved nativity, and a painted carved nativity. I like the look of both of them. I really enjoyed working on the painted one, and I love the way it turned out.What do you think?

Slip and Slide and knock out some teeth...

Painters plastic is longer than a real "slip n slide" and it's cheaper too. We got it out today and had some fun. Sarah however, knocked two teeth out while sliding. That was not so fun for her. Luckily they were baby teeth. She said they were loose... well one of them was. Anyway, here's some splippin and slidin for your viewing pleasure...

Flying through Tunnels and other adventures...

I took Kaitlyn and William to Flat Rock Park today while Alan and Sarah were at a friend's house. It was a beautiful day and not too hot. William went straight to the toys climbed up and all over everything, and went down the slides several times. He didn't wait for me help him, he just seemed to know right what to do. Here's Kaitlyn demonstrating why this is called "Flat Rock" Park. There are lots of beautiful rock formations all over the park. Here's William when he first saw the toys. He just started climbing. Here he is going down the tunnel slide head first. He did this several times on his own. He didn't even want me to help him climb up to it. You can't tell by the picture, but he's going down the slide really fast. He loved it. Yikes. He's only 19 months old!

Sour Cream anyone?

We went out to eat on Friday evening and our appetizers came with sour cream. William loved the sour cream. He stood on his chair dipping his finger in the sour cream over and over and eating it. It was pretty funny.

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.