For next to nothing…

Last week, while at Walmart, I picked up a bag of pinto beans.  Today we pulled those beans out of the cupboard.  I gave each of the kids a cookie sheet, bowl, spoon, plastic cup and a pile of beans.  The only instructions were to keep them on the cookie sheet.  They had a great time scooping, pouring and dumping the beans.  In fact, two of them played off and on with them for 4 HOURS!  They took a break for lunch and would walk away here and there, but for the most part they stayed at the table. 

I’m still shocked.  Even more unbelievable…the fact that this bag of beans only cost me 68 cents!  That’s it, talk about frugal fun.

All four of the kids have runny noses and aren’t feeling that great today.  I think Hosanna would have played longer then she did, but she wasn’t feeling like doing much at all.  Even Shiloh, who is currently 14 1/2 months old, thought it was fun to dump and pick up the beans.  She was, of course, very closely supervised when she was playing with them and was not happy when I took her to do something else.

The best part, they can be stored away to use again soon for the same activity or something else.  I’m lovin’ it!

An Interview with an Almost 4 Year Old

The above picture is a tell tale sign of cabin fever.  He dressed himself, he said he was ready for the beach.  I can definitely relate, I’m glad that it’s nearly the end of January!

These are his answers to the same questions Hosanna answered last week.

What is your name? Judah

How old are you?  3, I mean 2, I mean 3 (holding up his fingers)

When is your birthday?  February

What’s your address? He told me the house number and street name

Who is your mom? Becca

What does your mom do during the day?  Makes hot dogs, goes to the store and gets toys for kids, tickles bellies.

What does Dad do during the day?  He works in the garage with tools.

What is your favorite song?  Uh, Dad’s song (the kids hear songs that we like and call them Mom or Dad’s song)

What do you want to do when you grow up?  Be a bitar (guitar) singer with a bitar.*

Where do you want to live when you grow up?  Here.

What is your favorite food?  Salami and mustard.

What is your least favorite food?  Vegetables.

What is your favorite animal?  A horse to ride. 

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?  Chocolate.

What is your favorite book?  Bernard books (We have a couple of them - Nap and Bath.  The kids love them!)

What is your favorite toy?  Ken and Hercules (Ken the barbie doll and I’ll introduce you to Hercules another day).

How do you like to spend your time?  Playing with Ken.

*The other day I asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up – he said “I wanna be grown up here, with you and dad.”

Cookie Cutters Aren’t Just For Making Cookies

They are also for using with homemade vanilla-scented Play Dough on a cold winter’s day.  The dough is super easy to make and they can’t get enough ‘play time’ with this stuff.

 

It is endless fun!

He used a candy cane cookie cutter, which also looks like a J.  And yes, one of these days I will get around to cutting this kid’s hair!

Zoe used her dough for various things, like dividing it into many small pieces and smooshing these princesses into it.

They were all very proud of the different things they were making and would have let me take a picture of everything they made.

But I had to stop and make supper.  This was the last picture I took, a ‘cookie’ Hosanna had made with a little face.

{Project 52} Week 3

In this week’s picture, these shoes tell a story. 

The story of a 2 year old who saw her brother wearing Daddy’s shoes and decided to put on her mama’s shoes.  Later, after the kids were in bed I saw these shoes near the front door.  Just like this, with her little slippers still inside.

So sweet and such a reminder that children always want to be in your shoes, following your example, learning from each and everything that you, their parents, do.

An Interview with a Five Year Old

I’ve decided to do a little interview of the kids, just to see what they say and to be able to look back on when I ask the same questions next year.

So here it is, the questions I asked with her response in italics.

What is your name? Hosanna

How old are you?  5

When is your birthday?  In July.

What’s your address? She told me word for word, including city and state.

Who is your mom? Becca.

What does your mom do during the day?  Teaches school, cooks, helps her kids.

What does Dad do during the day?  Dad goes to work. And what does he do at work?  He looks up on his computer.

What is your favorite color?  I like all of the colors!

What is your favorite song?  Hail, Hail Lion of Judah

What do you want to do when you grow up?  Be a vet worker.

Where do you want to live when you grow up?  In a farm.

What is your favorite food?  Hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.

What is your least favorite food?  Cheeseburgers.

What is your favorite animal?  Puppy.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?  Chocolate.

What is your favorite book?  Bernard books (We have a couple of them - Nap and Bath.  The kids love them!)

What is your favorite toy?  The princess-es.

How do you like to spend your time?  (She twirled in a circle.) I like to spend my time playing.

It will be interesting to see how her answers change over the years.  Stay tuned next week…I’ve got Judah’s interview for you then.

Thumbs Up!

It all started last fall…Judah was attending a tumbling class and he had done a somersault, jumped up from the mat, looked at his dad on the sidelines and gave him a huge thumbs up.  So, ever since then, it has been a means of encouragement around our house.  When the kids are trying to show me something that they’re doing, I can show my approval by giving a thumbs up.

About a month ago, during our homeschool lessons, I gave Hosanna a thumbs up regarding what she was working on.  She gave me one in return and took it a step further.

She gave me what she called ‘a high five thumb’.  A smaller version of a high five…so cute.

And another time, it was this: ‘A hug thumb’ – an even sweeter way to give a thumbs up.

These are just a few ways we demonstrate encouragement at our house.  We all need it and it’s especially important to give kids a thumbs up to reinforce their positive behavior.

Give someone a thumbs up today…add a high five thumb or a hug thumb if you’re so inclined!

Why didn’t I think of that?

Don’t touch that!  Put that back!  Leave that alone!

These are words that are common to my weekly sayings.  Without a doubt, kids love touching things!  So it’s important to be able to bring one of their favorite past times to the learning table.  Tactile learning has always been a great way to enlighten children.  It’s especially helpful when teaching children to write their letters.

The kids have always loved to play in the flour after I’ve made homemade bread or cinnamon rolls, but it made quite a mess.  So yesterday when I was reading about another homeschooling family and their tactile learning, I saw them using a great resource.  Their cookie sheets!  They put the flour in those and then were practicing their letters, etc.  Brilliant!

They had loved it and the mess is kept to a minimum!  The very first picture in this post was of Judah burying his beloved toy, Hercules.  The options of things that they can (will) do are endless!  Now they are using spoons to scoop and move the flour around their trays.  And I’m feelin’ like heading to the kitchen to try out a new cinnamon roll recipe!

Dancing to the beat of their own drum

Last week, we made our own drums and this is a picture of my little musicians singing and playing their drums to some music in the kitchen.  The idea came from a kid’s craft book and the moment Hosanna saw it, she wouldn’t leave me alone about making them until we did.  They were simple and the kids loved them!
To make them you will need:

• Empty Oatmeal Containers (or any other kind you have on hand, Zoe’s was a feta cheese container)
• Construction Paper
• Crayons
• Yarn
• Scotch Tape
• Unsharpened Pencils
• Cotton Balls
• Saran Wrap
• Rubber Bands

1. Begin by having the kids color the cover for their drum.  Attach it with tape to the outside of the container.  I cut circles that we taped on the lid and wrote the first letter of their name on it.
2. Poke hole in the side of the container and put the yarn through tying to secure.  Put the lid on.
3. Cut a small square of plastic wrap, place 3 cotton balls in the middle.  Center the pencil on the cotton balls and gather around the pencil, secure with a rubber band.  Repeat with second pencil.

They really enjoyed singing and dancing with these drums.  The only thing I would probably change is to use hot glue to glue on the lid as they came to me a few times to have me put the lid back on for them.
But it was a great thing to do on a cold winter’s day!

Goodnight Stuff

 It's Harvest Time and we are keeping pretty busy around here.  Hosanna made this sign to put on the door to the basement.  We are planning to have a Harvest Party tomorrow night, the kind where we carve pumpkins and eat all things pumpkin.  I'm excited and so are the kids.

For homeschool, this past week we were learning about the letter M and moon.  We read the children's book "Goodnight Moon" then the assignment was to find pictures from magazines and create your own book saying goodnight to things.  Here's what she came up with:

Goodnight Stuff

Goodnight crayons.  Goodnight stuffed animal penguin and ducks.

Goodnight hot dogs.  Goodnight heart.  Goodnight clock.

Goodnight shoes.  Goodnight daughter, goodnight books.  Goodnight cousin.  Goodnight ice cream.

Goodnight swimming glasses.  Goodnight puzzle.  Goodnight cupcake.

Goodnight food.

The end.

I wrote the story as she told it to me.  Quite the writer.  She just now came up to me and showed me a picture she drew of her family (we were all astronauts) on the back was our farm with a rain storm and a cow named Jessica America Elizabeth Felicity.  Wow.

Well, now I'm off to make chili for the party tomorrow.  Next week I plan to post pics of harvest time things that we've been doing 'round here.  Have a great weekend!

At the Park

Yesterday we spent some time at the park.  It was a beautiful day.  I had to camera, so I took a few pictures while we were there.

These kids LOVE it outdoors, it's just getting them to stand still long enough to get a good picture.

Look at those CHUBBY fingers!  So cute!

My person favorite from the day!
Zoe (25 months) and Shiloh (10 months)

Toothy grin!

He honestly said, "Here Hosanna, CATCH!" as he pushed Shiloh towards her.

The Peanut Butter Bandit

On a Sunday morning a couple of weeks back, the baby had woken up particularly early - I went to get her and met Hosanna in the hallway. She was going into her room. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: What are you doing?

Her: Going back to bed.

(I smelled peanut butter.)

Me: Have you been eating peanut butter?

(She hastily wiped her mouth with her fingers, as if I could see her lips in the near darkness.)

Her: Well, I didn't eat much dinner last night, so yeah, I was eating peanut butter.

Me: Go back to bed and be quiet.

I was laughing so hard. I had to remind myself to be quiet.

Awhile later, when we were all awake, I looked in the kitchen sink to see what she may have used to eat the peanut butter. I didn't see anything.

Me: Where's the spoon you used for the peanut butter?

Her: I put it back.

Me: Well, did you clean it off?

Her: Yeah...with my tongue.

(Of course, the obvious answer - why hadn't I thought of that?)

Still later, I was getting someone dressed and Hosanna came up to me.

Her: Mom, I gotta tell you something else, I think you're going to be mad. But I hope not.

Me: Ok, what is it?

(She brought her stuffed dog, Sally, over to me.)

Her: I got some peanut butter on Sally, it got on my arm and I wiped it on her. I hope you're not mad.

Me: Well, you'll have to clean her off.

Hours later, I was sitting in the dining room and Hosanna came and sat beside me.

Her: I need to tell you something. I didn't tell you what really happened to Sally.

Me: Ok. What happened?

Her: Well, I actually used her to wipe the spoon on. That's how she really got peanut butter on her.

And the truth came out.

All in all, it was quite the morning. At breakfast, Judah decided that he wanted Shiloh to sit closer to him and he pulled her high chair as close as he could. He was eating his Fruity Cheerios and she reached over, grabbed the bowl and dumped it all over him and the floor. Great.

Soon after, I was making oatmeal for Zoe, went to put in my usual cinnamon and the lid came off and I ended up with a whole pile in the bowl instead of the sprinklin' I was going for.

Thankfully, we pulled it together and got to church.

Sunday is by far the craziest day of the week for this family!

Judah's 2nd Birthday PAR-TAY!

As you know, our sweet little Judah, turned two years old last week. We had a party for him on Saturday, Valentine's Day. Just a small family get-together, where we could kick back and relax.

We had walking tacos and guacamole. I made a cake with the theme of one of Judah's favorite books - Big Red Barn. It turned out pretty cute. He really liked it when he saw it and Hosanna says that's the kind of cake that she wants for her birthday.

The pig playing in the mud. The hay (frosted mini-wheats) in the barn for the horses.

Judah all spiffed up at the beginning of the party.

Hosanna, Makylah and Judah checking out the cake.

Judah got cowboy boots from Grandma and Grandpa Hemann.

He had plenty of help opening his presents from his sister and cousin.

A tee ball set. I'm sure that he can't wait to go outside and play with that!

Time for cake! I lit the candles. He looked at them and put his hand really close to his side and said "hot!" He was pretty cautious about it.

But he wasn't cautious about diving into the cake. Eventually, he handed over his fork and just picked up the cake with his hands. Watch the video clip below...

We had a wonderful time and Judah is enjoying all of his presents!

Pictures and the Pacifier Plan

"Mama, can you take a picture of me doing this?"

That was her question. I willingly agreed and grabbed my camera. She was using the doodle, nothing out of the ordinary. But I was reminded how many more times I should be taking pictures of my children...these days are going by much too fast.

Then I turned to look for Judah, so that I could take his picture too.

This is what I got:


He did have a little bed head, it wasn't that long after naptime. He was about to put his pacifier back in his mouth, he's had a hard time leaving it in his bed since he was sick last week.

This morning he came in the kitchen with me. He had his pacifier, I grabbed it from him and cut the tip off. This is a recommended way to slowly wean a child off of their pacifier. You slowly trim it down until nothing is left to suck on.

I gave it back to him and he put it in his mouth. After a few minutes, he took it out and said "Broken, broken." I couldn't fool him with the change, but it didn't bother him - he put it right back in his mouth.

So begins 'The Pacifier Plan' - the plan to slowly reduce his dependence on the silly thing. I'll keep you up to date on his progress.


I took these pictures of Zoe a couple of days ago. She is irresistible in her heart jammies. The angle of this picture makes her look like a BIG girl.


One of her siblings was making commotion on the other side of the room. Zoe is constantly busy watching whatever is going on around her.


I want to take at least ONE picture every day this next week. At the end of next week, I will post a photo journal of our week.

Tomorrow...Valentine's Day and Judah's 2nd birthday party!