it's starting to feel like Christmas!

Today Aurora did some finger painting. I've seen a ton of those hand print pictures on Pinterest so I thought we should try doing a Christmas tree one. I am sure someone has probably done this before but oh well.  Nothing new under the sun right?

So here is her hand print Christmas tree picture. The dots below it are presents.

 Yesterday we woke up to snow, so we played in it for a while.

 then Aurora and Gideon snuggled a bit.

Yes, he has a pink bumbo seat, that is what happens when you have a big sister... LOL :) He looks pretty funny sitting in it, he's still so little but he really like it.

 We found a new game at the Bible book store. We haven't played it yet, We are going to wait and play it when Caleb is off work and can play with us. We did have a look and it looks pretty cute!!

 Here is Aurora with it, It's called Bible Snap. It looks like you could use it for Bible lessons as well. and flash cards. Very useful game! :)

 Saturday m mother-in-law is doing a small party to celebrate Caleb's promotion. Aurora and I made a present for him today using an idea I found on Pinterest from I am momma hear me roar one of my favorite blogs.  Aurora drew a picture of him on parchment paper (It's supposed to be freezer paper shiny side down but I didn't have any, i think it would work better with freezer paper the parchment paper doesn't stick when you iron it) then I cut out her drawing and used it as a stencil

 Turned out pretty funny I think. I love the crazy little drawings toddlers do!

 And she made him a card while I was doing that.

 While we were doing that Gideon was chilling in his sassy seat...

 Then this afternoon Aurora worked on her puzzle. This is a pretty big deal, she's never been interested in puzzles before and has done this one completely by herself, probably because it's princesses...

 and here he is sleeping again, he likes to hold his hair while he sleeps. :)

Tuesday Lesson

We are making rock candy. We decided to make it green. This is only day 1 so we'll have to wait 3-7 days for it to be done, I am pretty excited to see how it turns out!!! (the recipe was from Science Bob)

 We made these today for learning to count money.

 And these for counting to 5 still. (This idea was from Pinterest.)

 Aurora learned about watercolors today. She was pretty into it. She really seems to like arty type stuff.

We also worked on the letter F, sewing and her verses. She's still working on Romans 6:23, I think that she has actually already memorize it but she sometimes like to be goofy and doesn't say it so we are not moving on yet. 

making chapstick

First here is a picture of the little man

This was our take on the traditional vasaline and cool aid lip balm. A little more natural. (well as natural as kool aid can be... I think I'm going to make up another recipe of it with essential oil and a little beeswax and see how that goes.)

This is before it cooled and hardened...

It hardened just a little bit lighter pink than this.

Romans 3:23

She's learned another one...

pray like a child

I've been thinking a lot about prayer lately. Aurora is learning to pray (by herself) for more than just her meals now. Every night we ask her what she is thankful for from that day and what she wants to pray for, her first answer is always "Jesus on the cross" (I am fairly certain she has no idea what that really means, we've explained it to her of course but she is not 3 yet so I think she just knows that it's something we always say thank you to God "for sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins") then she'll go on to list a bunch of very simple things from the day, her friends, specifically whatever ones she saw that day or week, mommy, daddy and baby Gideon, whatever treat she may have gotten that day, most days she'll list off all her aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents.
For about 4 days she thanked Jesus for a happy meal she had gotten on the weekend.

Talking with her and prayer with her makes me think about my prayer life, Do I remember to thank God for the simple things? for the little treats and blessings he gave me last week (not the big ones, the tiny ones) do I remember to thank him for all of my friends, or for each family member by name? As adults I think we take many of those things for granted? Maybe we should try to be a bit more like children sometimes.

Art Journals

I just quickly made a couple journals for the kids last night since they were starting their art classes today. Nothing too fancy, just some scrapbook paper and a cutout of their initials (they both happen to have A names) and some modge podge. They liked them and wanted to color on every page already. 

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Leaf Crafts

Today we did some art and nature study with the kids. I am doing some of A's classes together with her cousin. My mom watches my sister's two boys a few days a week while my sister works. Her older son is a year older than my daughter and they get really well (most days :) )

My nephew is VERY smart and can read already (he just turned 4) very well so obviously they can't do all their classes together but art and science we can.

 Gathering some pretty leaves

 Dipping the leaves in the melted wax

 Here is our collection (before dipping them)...

 after dipping them in the melted wax we hung them on a little "clothes line" to dry. They looked pretty cool hanging there

 My mom decided to try out some flowers too...

 Then we did some rubbings in the kids new art journals

 And A practiced drawing circles