capturing december: a christmas craft

The kids and I are doing a Christmas Activity Advent. It isn't anything much. Just an envelope a day with an activity to do that day. I like to keep it simple, and most of the activities are things we would have done anyway.

This morning Ana's school had a 2-hour delay, so we did our Christmas activity before school. Today's was a Christmas craft. We made paper wreaths. I love my creative kids.

this morning...

(unrelated picture of Ana at dance, taken by my phone)

This morning I made recycled cryaons with the kids.

Correction: this morning I made recycled crayons for the kids.

I thought Ana would LOVE taking the wrappers off of the old, broken crayons because I usually have to tell her to keep the wrappers on. But she wasn't that into it.

Mostly it was her sitting there watching me do it (and asking a million why questions like "why do you have to take the wrappers off?") and Jack throwing all the other crayons around.

After they were all done and cooled, we colored with them for about 10 minutes and moved on to something else.

And I thought to myself, "wow, that was pointless." Especially because half of them cracked while they cooled in the freezer. (I should have let them cool longer on the counter, I guess.)

But then I remembered that while we waited for them to cool Ana snuggled on my lap and we watched youtube videos on how crayons are made and she got to ask another million "why" questions.

And that at least she wasn't watching TV or playing on pbskids.org like she has all day the last two days.

So I guess it wasn't pointless.

In fact, I think it was worth it.

techie in the making

Today we made a quick trip down to Provo for Dave to shadow a radiologist we have connections to. I went along and visited a childhood friend that I haven't seen in about 17 years. (That makes me feel old somehow...)

Anyway, while at Annie's we were discussing the inherent technological know-how of this new generation we are raising.

I think Ana somehow knew she needed to prove the point.

After we got home, Dave sat down at the computer to check emails and whatnot. Ana came over to him with her red crayon in hand.

"Daddy, will you print a picture of Wonder Red for me to color?"

"What?" Dave said.

{For those of you not down with the PBSkids lingo, Wonder Red is a character on a show.}

Ana continued, "Go to pbskids.org..." [Dave clicked the button, which is easily accessed because it is on our favorites menu] "Now go to Super Why..." [I had to show him which picture "Super Why" was.] " ... Now go to Wonder Red ..." [Again, we had to show him which character that was.] "Now press the print button."

Sure enough, following Ana steps took us right to the printable coloring pages, where she picked out what picture she wanted and the took it off to the table to color.

(Although she did have to keep checking back to find out what color Wonder Red's skin was... and her hair... and her roller skate wheels.)

She must get it from her Dad.

what march was good for

two things:

one weekend of decent weather

one perfect kite flying day.






April is here and it is cold! I'm hoping its an April Fool's joke.

little girls

Things I love about having a little girl:

*pink and purple toy cups of water "saved" in the fridge
*princess panties
*bottles of glitter nail polish on the bathroom windowsill
*dancing dresses
*glittery shoes and poofy dresses

Ana loves playing with her cousins. She and Jamie were having fun the other day playing on the couch in their dancing dresses.


oh, and I really want to win Candace's giveaway, (though my chances are slim) so I'm dropping her a line. She has beautiful crafts and photography and great stuff.

Dave and I are trying to get our kids on an earlier schedule, so we've been waking Ana up at 7:30 this week. (She usually wakes up at 9:30, which means she doesn't go to bed until 10.) So, now I have 2 extra hours to fill with just me and Ana. Not much keeps her attention for very long, accept the Little Einsteins, so its been a challenge. Yesterday, she ate breakfast, played with playdough, colored with markers, made a mess, cleaned up a mess, took a bath, fixed hair, and ate a snack - all before lunchtime! She fell asleep on the floor at 3:00, but I didn't want her to nap so she'd go to bed early, so I woke her up. But then the rest of the evening she was wild! And she still didn't go to sleep until 9. whew! But I did make her this little instrument, which we turned into a guitar this morning. Dave was home until noon this morning, so they were playing and dancing around. It was so cute!


Any more ideas of how to keep a 2 year old happy would be great!

Ana's artwork

Ana drew this today:I asked her what it was and she said, "a guy" which is what I figured. I thought it was pretty darn good for a 2 year old. It makes up for the fact that I spent 20 minutes scrubbing liquid foundation out of the carpet this morning. (It did all come out, thank goodness.)

this morning

Ana was up at 6:30 this morning and did not want to go back to sleep. Luckily, I had gone to bed about 10:30 because of a headache, so I felt pretty refreshed. Ana is a little grumpy so I made playdough for her. We spent a little bit playing together. What a cutie.