Thank You

We had such a nice Christmas, from cards, to visits and gifts.  Part of our holiday season is to show our gratefulness by our thank you notes. I try to make this is a fun event. The kids pick out the note cards, we sit at the table together and share a snack and decide how best to express our thanks. 
One child will often write a thank you for a family gift for all of us to sign. Then they write their individual cards too. Its great practice on so many levels: the basic writing skills, the expression of gratitude and appreciation.  Clinically writing a thank you note has been shown to:  give people energy, improve student grades and makes both the giver and receiver happier.
Seriously, have you ever been unhappy when you receive a thank you note? 

Thank you :) 
 

Holidays are full swing! I hope you are having fun and enjoying them.  Our computer died, hence the lack of post, but we are all plugged in :)

Last night we had a fun night with our Tiara club the topic was being grateful, the venue was a PJ party.  After our brief lesson and game on being grateful, the night was filled with minute to Win-It games but in lieu of prizes the girls were able to choose a cause to give their winnings to!

The grateful discussion was followed by a laughter filled gift exchange of random objects: tp, potato, toothbrush, can of green beans....in which the recipient had to look at their gift giver and thank them and finding one nice thing to say about the gift they received.  They couldn't wait to then go pick random gifts and do it again. 

The games:

1.  Stringing cranberries

2.  Trimming the tree

3.  Snowball fight

4.  Cranberry cup toss

5.  Snowball toss into the wreath

6.  Putting in order the tins filled with different number of bells.

7.  Jingle bells rumpus, we put bells into paper plates with holes cut out, taped to their rumps and

     they giggled and jiggled trying to get them out.

8.  Ornament sorting.

 



1st place goes to team Penguins and they chose to give their winnings to help families in need.
2nd place goes to the Reindeer who chose to give their winnings to help feed orphans in Africa.
 

Family Field Trips

Corn mazes, pumpkins, flashlights whats not to love about fall! We do a lot of things with just the family. Partly because of the size of my family, what I've found is the girls become each others BFF's when they are each others playmates.

Corn maze at night

Most museums have free days, so we try to take advantage of the free days, this month we went to the Mesa Art Museum for Youth, and enjoyed their Show Me The Money exhibit.

Friends come and go, but family is always there.

Tiara's Learn about Respect

We've had a couple of great play dates with all the girls who are learning how to be real life princesses. I love seeing the fellowship and friendships forming, my girls are so happy.  If you are interested in setting up your own Real Life Princess group, follow along as we learn, stumble and grow together.

Our brief guideline to set this up:
  We meet 2x a month, one fun event and another with a "Real Life Lesson".   Each mom commits to creating and hosting one lesson and then we rotate thru.   Ideally we want mom's to stay to help with Princess activities and give lesson input.
Todays Lessons was on Respect.
Our memory verse for discussion was "Show proper respect to everyone." 1 Peter 2:17. NIV
Our Bible Story was Taming of the Tongue James 3:9-12 followed by a discussion. Part of this discussion flowed into the magic of the words we choose to use.

To make it fun, I wrote out in invisible ink manner words and the girls guessed what word the blank paper held and we discussed how, when and why we would use these words.
The invisible ink was equal parts of water and baking soda.  Then heated up with an iron when ready to turn the invisible into visible.  The stumble: don't put the iron on a low heat, it takes to long for the words to show up, higher heat worked best.

To help the girls remember our discussion and the magic of using kind words they created:

Now it was time for a treat and practice some basic manners. We played a game, inspired by a friend of mine, Ginamarie Cornielius, in which the girls were given a menu of eight choices. Here is a sample:

1.   Cinderella Ballroom Dance
2.    Pippi Longstocking Smiles
3.   Prayer Changes Things

Their goal was to end up with a tea cup and plate to eat the finger foods on the table. Each menu item corresponded with different foods, or actions. If the girls didn't want was ordered they then had to politely ask the waitress to take the item back and ordered another item

1.  Cinderella Ballroom Dance =  a radish
2.  Pippli Longstocking Smiles =  a tea cup
3.  Prayer Changes Things = changing items with the person sitting across from them.

Tons of fun, when plastic bugs were given and tea cups swapped.  They got real good with their manner words at the table and how to properly send food back.

Since we are growing real life princesses,they all had a laugh adding the bugs to their "tea".  Lovely!



 

Happy Birthday Chloe

Introducing 4 yr old Chloe! 

Celebrating Chloe's Birthday at Build A Bear

Chloe specifically asked to have her picture taken
with her best friend and big brother Brendan

Chloe's birthday fell on a busy week! Hence energy and time were running low, but not desire to celebrate our littlest jellybean.  A trip to Build A Bear, Dairy Queen and opening gifts with siblings made for a nice celebration.  Cake with Grandparents this weekend as we celebrate both our love for Chloe and Grandma!

Happy Birthday Chloe, we love you!

 

Sugar Baby

Introducing Teagan's Sugar Baby, Liam!  She waited so many years to do this 6th grade project. I can't believe it is now just a memory and a pending plate of sugar cookies.  Savor the moments, life goes by so fast.  That is the lesson I learned from Liam today.

Childhood is the most beautiful of all life's seasons.  ~Author Unknown

Remembering,Honoring and Reflecting 9/11

My daughter,Teagan, is the most patriotic person I know.  She reminded me we needed to go to the healing garden in remembering 9/11.  I don't know if our walks through the garden will ever heal the overwhelming emotion that stirs when reflecting on the lives of each of the individuals.  It could have been any of us.  These are the images that touched me on our walk of reflection: 

Take moment longer to hug our loved ones, and be a little kinder then we need to be. 

Peace be with you, 

Princess Charm School..AKA..The Tiara Club

What little girl doesn't want to be a Princess?  A real life princess, what does that mean? To me it means:

•   A girl who loves others like Jesus loved us.
•   Use of manners, not just knowledge of them.
•    Beauty on the inside.
•    Respect for self and others
•    Confidence
•    Contentment
•    Homemaking skills
•    Knowledge

 A girl who grows to be a women and throughout this journey chooses to be a living testimony to being a Christian, making the world a brighter place.

A group of energetic and passionate moms and I got together to form a fellowship/charm school group for our girls. I am so excited!   We had our first Tiara outing together at the Phoenix Children's Art Museum.

  Create the life you want!

Princess Diana was quoted as saying " I will fight for my children on any level so they can reach their potential as human beings and in their public duties."    I Agree :)




 
   

One little Painting

I  LOVE crafting, and I needed a project. I saw this idea on Pinterest of painting and scrapbook paper to make cute whimsical pictures.  Here is my little picture:

This little picture, started a whole new bathroom theme a trip to the store, to pick out: new towels, shower curtain, etc.  Love our spontaneously new bathroom!  Warning, Pinterest can take you places you never intended to go :)  

Hungry Caterpillars

Its been a while since we've done this at home, it has always been a hit with the kids.   Watching caterpillars grown, into butterflies.  Another one that was fun to do was the prey mantis egg/pod, we could actually here them gnawing their way out of the pod. We've tried tadpoles, but ours do a mass suicide :(   

Each day we are all amazed at how quickly the caterpillars grow.  

Interestingly, the day I surprised the girls with the catepillars, Trinity brought home a library book on butterflies.  They thought they where just having fun. 

“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” ~ Albert Einstein

 

My Lawn Expert is Cuter Then Yours ;)

Our lawn has never looked so good!  It just took finding the right individual for the job.

 "If you want children to keep their feet on the ground put some responsibility on their shoulders"
                                                                         -Abigail Van Buren

Love you Teagan! xoxo, Mom

School Begins

Its been a crazy few weeks, and summer feels like a distant memory...I miss summer's lazy days but I also am enjoying the mandatory structure, friendships and excitement of a new school year for both me and the kids.

Lexi helped load up and modeled for our press release for a back to school supply drive, sponsored by a local business. I had so much fun giving them away and the smiles that followed.  A perfect way to start off the school year.

The first day of school!  Came fast and the girls started their new school in our neighborhood.  So far so good..and not even a complaint about having to walk to and from when its been 116!  I can seriously hear it when they are older the old tale of walking up hill both ways in the snow will be replaced with walking up hill both ways in 116 degrees. 

Its so hot, heat advisory...some states have snow days we have heat advisory :) Even the mornings are hot. While we were getting the pool area straightend up, Lexi thought it would be fun to swim in our pj's. She was shocked when I jumped in! It was a great laugh as we swam in our pj's.   Summer fun lives on!!

Have a great weekend!

Bordem Busters II

It's 105 give or take so what do we do when we are not in the pool?  Stay in the air conditioning but there is only so much Netflix, computer and ds games a mom can take.  Here is what we've been up too on these lazy days of summer:

The girls learned how to make friendship bracletts, necklaces & ankletts

Painted and stamped wood to make signs for their room and my office

Not sure what to do with them but they had fun and it is
great hand eye coordination and creativity

Tea Party snack time

wire rings 

 turning washers into art

I took on a furniture make over :)
Sorry no before pics

The girls made rainbow cupcakes and delivered
some for our neighbors

Tee Pee Camping

Have you ever slept in a tee pee?  I rented a replica Sioux Indian tee pee as an alternative to just camping in a tent.  A little apprehensive to what this experience might be like, I booked our tee pee and packed for our camping adventure.  Upon arrival Teagan says "This couldn't be more perfect."  She was absolutely right.

We spent our days playing on the beach and  the late afternoon and into the evening the girls played with new friends on the jumping pillow, playground and oversized games. We read ghost stories and played games by campfire or flashlight great memories and family time. In the morning we were surprised to see all the peacocks wandering the campsite as well as up in the trees above our tee pee.

 Take a look at our Tee pee adventure:

At the beach we spotted 4 dolphins not far off shore.  Though we were thrilled, another mom spotted them too and freaked out, thinking they were sharks! I just had to giggle inside. She probably thought I was crazy, to allow my kids to swim with the sharks. I could go on about that being a life lesson...but this time they were swimming near dolphins.  

A great week!  I hope you had one too!  

Sputnik with some Colossal Cuties

What I love about summer is the freedom, so today it just felt like a day to get out of the house and hit the road.  We made a day trip down to Tucson and enjoyed a day at Colossal Cave.  It is the perfect first cave experience for the younger set and still enjoyable for us grown up kids.

Waiting our turn and enjoying the view

Here we go!!!!

Love all the history, beauty and mystery

After enjoying the 71 degrees in the cave we headed out to continue our adventure:

Panning for gold, Sadie was disappointed to learn she had
been fooled by the fools gold!

1930's Fun House Mirror
Hilarious

Our damsel in distress.
Where is Dudley Do Right?

Until Next Time..........Have Fun!