Eye of the Tiger

Caleb was  invited to a birthday party on Valentine's Day at Imagine Studios for one of his classmates.  We have been there on our own a few times to paint pottery but had never been there for a party. Caleb was pretty pumped!  We learned that the birthday girl really likes tigers so she had all her guests paint a tiger on canvas.

 

They first were asked to paint the canvas blue and then dry it.

 

The instructor then game around and drew the outline of a tiger on their canvas using sidewalk chalk. How smart is that!  I'd always wondered how the kids that I had seen in pics from this place were all able to paint out the exact same picture.  She also came around and helped smooth out some of their edges and added a little bit of white accent on their tigers.

After they dried their pictures they drew out the outline of the face and stripes following a picture she had drawn on a white board.  They first drew it out using chalk and then went over it with a sharpie and last filled it in with paint.

 

 Last they added some green leaves and vines to give a little jungle look to their picture.

When they were finished the instructor came around and outlined some of the edges and added whiskers if their tiger didn't have any.  She did however make sure to stay true to what each kid had painted she just helped clean them up a little bit.

 

I LOVE how it turned out and think that all of the kids had a lot of fun!

Valentine's Day Throwback

One of the things that I really enjoy about being a stay at home mom is the opportunity to get to go to Caleb's class parties.  His home room mom has done such a great job with the parties they have had this year and between her and Caleb's teacher they have really been a lot of fun for the kids and super organized.

At the beginning of the party the class got to hear and participate in various science experiments dealing with energy and heat.  The kids thought it was a lot of fun and even Joshua and I really enjoyed it.

 

 Here the kids are participating in an experiment with an energy stick.  They learned if they were all touching they created a circuit which would cause the energy stick to light up.  A few of them got to take turns letting go of their classmate's hand and see that the light would go off when the circuit was broken.

The kids were able to rotate around to different stations during the party and complete a some crafts, play games and have their picture taken in a homemade photo booth.  I was in charge of manning the card station.  We put one of the pictures the kids had taken on their card.

I loved the Valentine sack that Caleb made in class earlier in the week.  He said he made his heart wearing glasses (the larger pink hearts) and reading a book.

 On Valentine's Day we woke up and opened cards we had received and the boys got to open a small treat from David and I that was mini oreo cookies.

 For dinner that night we enjoyed a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and I made Cupid Floats that consisted of Cherry 7Up and vanilla ice cream.

Snow Days!

Last week we finally had some long awaited for snow days!  I love a good snow day where everything is completely covered, school is closed, roads are yucky, David has to stay home and where everything just seems to come to a stand still for a little while.  I love how snow days just make you want to be under a big blanket all cozy and warm, how they make you snuggle with your loved ones a little more, how they cause you to do things as a family, how they make you want to bake and make soup and how they just cause you to rest.  I love them even more now that I'm a stay at home mom and don't have to worry about whether or not I can get to work and I don't have feel guilty if I choose to not go into work.

When we were going through the One Year Chronological Bible study by Iva May I loved what she pointed out in Job about how God speaks through inclement weather.  Iva writes in this study that God offers two main points: 

1.  "God uses inclement weather conditions to command man's attention by revealing man's helplessness"  "Inclement weather reveals man's helplessness as it halts work efforts; man can do nothing to change the weather."

"For He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth': likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.  He seals the hand of every man, that all men may know His work: (Job 37:6-7)".

2.  "God uses weather conditions to command man's attention by revealing the greatness of God."

"He comes from the north as golden splendor; with God is awesome majesty.  As for the Almighty, we cannot find Him; He is excellent in power, in judgment and abundant justice; He does not oppress.  Therefore men fear Him; He shows no partiality to any who are wise of heart"  (Job 37:22-23)

Iva had us read Job 35:1-37:24, 38 and asked "What does the Lord communicate about Himself to Job through re-directing Job's attention to His creation?"

Definitely makes me think about his now every time we have a snow day.


So how did we spend our snow days.........

The boys and David played in the snow and went sledding (I'll admit I didn't get out this time)

 

The boys and I made homemade bird feeders.  We had a lot of fun watching the birds over the next week eat off our bird feeders and even had a pretty, red cardinal visit us.

 

David and Caleb attempted to make homemade Doritos. I don't think this is a recipe we will be repeating any time soon but it was still fun.

 

David and Caleb built a snowman and an igloo/fort. 

Lazed around and watched TV

And of course spent some time on the Ipad and computer

The best thing was even though we were out of school for three days only two days counted against us as we were already scheduled to be out on Monday due to a teachers' professional development day.

Hope you got some snow and enjoyed your snow days!

Halloween Crafts

When I started being a stay at home mom I envisioned hot cooked meals every night, a well organized house, finally working on the boys scrapbooks, keeping up with blogging and lots of craft time with the boys.  Somehow two years have passed and well let's face it all of these things are still just things I'm "envisioning".

One of the things that I hate I haven't done as much of with Joshua as I did Caleb is little craft projects.  I have some fun memories and pictures of Caleb and I working on various projects.  I recently found a couple of Halloween craft kits at the Associate Store for $1.00 each and since I can't seem to pass up a "deal" at the Associate Store I bought two of them and the boys and I put them together yesterday.

Caleb has always enjoyed a good craft project so it was fun to see him in his element.  I was neat  getting to see Joshua experiment with making something on his own.  I helped Joshua with a couple of pieces but I definitely tried to give him the opportunity to put a few pieces on himself and relinquished control of where he glued them.  Caleb asked me when we first started "well what if he (Joshua) doesn't do it right".....oh son, you are so your Momma's child.  I reassured Caleb it would be ok and off we went to having fun and hopefully making a few memories.

Joshua's finished project

Caleb's finished project
(Ha! I just noticed his Frankenstein is missing his pants.  I found them and glued them on but didn't take a new picture.)