On My Mind...

As the days cool down...

With our days beginning to cool down, it means more time inside for things like...

matching bears that play football...

pictures...

 

painting after rest time...

 

evenings of making cool stuff with a daughter who is at school all day...

*Halloween garland found here!

 

making cookies first thing in the morning...

 

dreaming about the rag rug...

found these at a junk store after I had just fell in love with the idea of making a rag rug from Amanda Soule's book!  Seriously how lucky am I??? 

 

dreaming up ideas for our bedroom...it's the one room that almost has almost nothing on the walls...

A morning plan...

I had all planned out that after the kiddos and I did our morning circle time, we would make pumpkins covered with orange tissue paper - doesn't that sound fun?  Glue, paper, tearing tissue paper...

I love to watch the difference in how a little girl will do an activity versus a little boy doing an activity - girl -

 

each piece carefully torn and glued onto the paper - so sweet!

boy -

 

put as much glue as you can possibly put on a piece of paper, grab a handful of torn tissue paper and smack it down on the paper!!

And then of course there is my child who thought that making pumpkins didn't sound like a good idea, but making a costume out of tissue paper sounded like lots of fun -

Mornings like these are good reminders that just because I think something might be a good idea, doesn't mean the children will think it is a good idea.  We got cleaned up from our activity, and while the kids went in to play cars I sat down to make Halloween candle holders from an idea I found.  With my modge podge, baby food jar, and tissue paper all out, the kids came running in and wanted to paint.  I put my stuff to the side to make room for paints for them.  When everyone kept painting, and kept painting, I realized how silly that the activity I thought up lasted maybe 10 minutes because they weren't that into it.  The activity that the kids thought up on their own lasted about 30 minutes - because they thought of it. 

This is not to stay that I will stop planning activities that I find, so much good comes out of offering activities.  With me bringing the kids in and getting everyone involved in an activity, letting them work at it as they wanted, and then letting them be done, they were satisfied - no struggles.  In getting supplies out, I was able to work on something I wanted to, which in turn brought the kids back in with renewed interest in another project.  Everyone enjoyed their rainy morning!

Best way to give your dog a bath...

 

Start with the hair while your getting yourself clean!

how patient a family pet has to be in...to have a 3 year old mess with your hair and still come back for more...that's love!

What's going on at the kitchen table...

Our table sees alot, it is rarely lonely or empty!  We eat all of our meals as a family at our table, it's a great place to sit and watch the birds out back, many times throughout the day it is a meeting place for a game, crayons, markers, play dough, or small things that want to be played with but can't be on the floor so that a baby doesn't eat them :)  This school year it seems that Emily has had more projects that require poster board and the space of the table to work on.  Tanner loves to hang out at the table with his sister and find some projects to work on near her.

*project for Emily's french class

*Tanner working on miscellaneous projects over the last couple weeks - he has discovered that oil pastels are "really cool"

I "heart" fall...

Fall is my most favorite season, the colors, the smells, the feeling...

I am a month and half behind on getting out my fall decorations.  There has been so much going on, that getting down fall decorations fell to the bottom of the list.  This past weekend my family and I went to the pumpkin patch, carved our pumpkins, decorated the house for the season, roasted pumpkin seeds...now fall is here!

 

 

*if you want to see us bigger, just click on the collage :)

Rainy day fun...

We have had some dreary weather so we have had alot of fun inside.

One of my families brought some wood masks for painting yesterday, then today we read about mixing colors and then mixed our own colors with shaving cream and food coloring.  After the kids were covered in the shaving cream, then I took a piece of paper and lightly pressed it on their color mixed to create a marbled look on their paper.  They loved it...they had shaving cream up to their elbows, and one even went so far as to start putting it on their cheeks!  Fun rainy day!

Thankful...

Thank you for showing us a beautiful morning to wander the Branson landing...

Thank you for the music along the landing for my little boys to dance to...

Thank you for a daughter that looks deep in thought even when not meaning to...

Thank you for the blessings of children...

Thank you for the beauty of a changing season...

An evening of fun....

In August Emily and I were able to go see Wicked!  I have never seen the Wizard of Oz, so I have never thought to have my kids watch it...I know, I know...

I had no idea of what to expect from Wicked...I can tell you it was absolutely wonderful!  I loved every minute of it!  I don't know what is the best part about seeing the performances, the dinner Emily and I normally have before the performances, or the actual performance!  We will be going to see The Wizard of Oz when it comes next year!

 

*imagine the picture in focus  :)

He was not an invited guest...

I was looking out my front door one afternoon and this guy was coming up the walk way - in the picture he is coming up the front step to the door!  I didn't know whether to open the glass door to try to scare him away, but that would risk him slipping into the house in my mind.  I opted for calling my husband to let him know that we live in animal kingdom!  Our snake did decide to leave the front door alone and slip into my flower bed!  If you notice 10 foot weeds in my flower bed you'll understand why right? I no longer just reach in quickly to grab a weed, I make some noise and step very lightly.

Rainy day...

It's been a rainy morning, which makes it a busy morning inside...

 

We have had a morning of painting, gluing, cutting, singing along with the Imagination Movers from iTunes, and making homemade flour tortillas with a recipe from an old Highlights magazine.  Sometimes I don't know which days are better, the ones where we are out for most of the day, or days like today when we are creating the whole morning!

*best way to remove a glue stick lid...with your mouth of course