Purim

Today we celebrated Purim, for Christian friends this is celebrating the time that God saved the Israelites through Esther. Most of you know her story. If not, read it! It's a great time...and also lends itself well to my word for the year- contentment. One of the most famous quotes is said by Mordecai who tells Esther (and I may slightly misquote) "Maybe, you were called to this position for such a time as this". I'll talk more about this in the next post, but for now here are a couple of shots from todays celebration at Vivi's school. They have a big festival and all the kids dress up. Vivi had fun but Isaac is cutting teeth so he was a little clingy to mom. Still, I'm very glad we got to take part in it today.

Jillian's Penguin Party

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Every February we look forward to two parties-our cousins and our dear friend Jillian. This year, Jilli picked penguins and she and her mommy did such a great job with the details. Here is a small slideshow. It was an intimate party, and that was GREAT for Vivi as she got to get into the projects like she really enjoys and had the girls to play with in a big way. Thank you for our sweet igloo treat (I still catch Vivi trying to snack on!), and our lovely giveaway bag full of goodies. What fun we had!

There's a Fairy Party brewing

So...in the true style of fun surprises I can only show you a couple of pics of these particular crafts we are working on...but let's just say we are having a BLAST putting together the giveaways/crafts for Vivi's party as well as many other special treats. Look for future posts a coming! We will open the door for you soon!

Happy Valentine's Day

This year, I've been on a MAJOR crafting kick and the weather has been very condusive. On the fun snow days (previously blogged about), we got to make some fun valentine's. I had a ball making a monster (for my sweet little monster Isaac) and a flower for my little petal Vivi. Here's a pick of their display. There's also a couple of shots of the kids in their annual holiday t-shirts. Vivi picked out Hello Kitty and I couldn't resist this one "Chicks Dig Me" for Isaac. Also, all of Nick's siblings showered Gigi in fun and unique Valentine's treats. Here is Vivi's picasso painting and Nick's fun creation we sent her. Vivi got in to it too. She designed a cool owl valentine for Nana and Papa, and stickered a handful of heart shaped doilies for her friends at church. Nick and I decided not to exchange gifts but thank you to Nana and Papa we got to go on a special date. We had a lovely lunch and then Nick took me ice skating. All I can say, is I have a new appreciation for these winter olympians on ice- it's tough! I could barely make it for 30 minutes! Hope everyone had as splendid of a day.

Daddy Daughter Dance

It's that sweet time of year again where our church celebrates Daddies and daughters and has this sweet dance that they can take the girls to. Nick and Vivi didn't get to go last year as Vivi was sick, and almost didn't make it this year because Nick not feeling the best. Still, he decided to live in the moment and enjoy her and took her out for a fun night. I promised her an extra treat of getting to wear some sparkly pink eye shadow and get painted toe nails, which she really enjoyed! Loved the hat thanks to Gigi! The theme this year was Paris and they decked the place out in eiffel towers and fleur de lis. Vivi and daddy enjoyed the candy bar table and "Move it Move it!" song.

Snow Day!

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Happy Snow Day everyone! We woke up to a thin blanket of snow covering our yard, the trees, and roofs. It's breathtaking! In fact, I was so excited I couldn't go back to sleep so I had a fruitful time with the Lord this morning. I discovered my word for the year, but more of that to come later. Now, I want to write about this beautiful treasure God gave us of a snow day. We even got daddy to stay home with us and teach us how to build a "real" snowman. (He grew up in Virginia and made these waiting for the school bus.) I had all these great ideas for crafts and fun things, but just getting to make a snowman, and snow balls in the snow was such a treat for our kids we didn't have to do much more than that, except enjoy a cup of hot cocoa of course. It's been snowing all day and honestly this may be the most snow I've ever seen in Texas. Well, I hope you enjoy these pics half as much as we did making these sweet memories.

Continued...it's a second day of snow! WOW! What a treat that we got to play for 2 days in the snow! There was enough today for Nick to build a snow fort with the kids and for Vivi and I to get to our snow painting. What a special memory.

Pajama Party

We had a great time with a dear friend Clara at her pajama party. Vivi loved sporting her ballet jammies, making a pillow case (which I have a hard time pulling her head off of!), and eating pink icing. Always a hit! Enjoy the pics of some decorating and yummy treats of Vivian, Clara, and Josie. Thanks again for having us. Oh by the way, the butterfly nightlight is the best giveaway ever! It is the only acceptable form of light in our room at night.

Trains

As mentioned before we have been somewhat working on themes. Mom gave a suggestion that I lined up with Vivi's school themes. They were talking about trains for a few weeks so we decided to line up with that. We made some jello trains and then went to town on our crafts. I even tried to come up with something Isaac could "work" on. So we made these trains out of diaper boxes and torn tissue paper. The kids had LOADS of fun tearing up tissue, adding stickers and numbers, and then having "train rides". We also had the stomach bug everyone's being so blessed with so we went through lots of danactiv yogurt and kept the containers. We decided to make these into a train as well. Finally, we received a belated birthday gift for Isaac which was this precious wooden block train (which we've played with EVERY day!) Vivi also received a tag reader for Christmas and I had a coupon so got her "The Little Engine That Could" which has been read over and over-such a good one! Here are a couple of shots from our fun train times!

Fairy World Crafts

As mentioned in the last post, we are in fairy world and working on some crafts for a little one's fairy party coming up. Okay, so I spilled those beans, we are having a garden fairy party in March (weather permitting!) These pics are a few weeks old, as you know if you've been in Texas for the last two weeks, this was prior to our cold spells and when we had sunshine. We started working on these balls for our party. You'll see more progress in the pictures to come. Vivi's been helping me pick colors and drip paint into these as well as paint the rods. We're making gazing balls which we found on this REALLY cool blog of an ex-art teacher/gone stay at home mom. I think they're turning out really great! I'm so excited to see them at the party! Vivi's had a great time making them and will be proud to show them off too.

Fairy houses

Our world these days seems very made up of pretend creatures one of which is fairies. We are fully emersed in fairy world. I know! My mom found this great book on making fairies houses in nature, so we went to have fun with this concept. We went to the park and gathered sticks, acorns, and all kinds of little things we could find and started leaving behind fairy homes. Here's a couple of shots of our adventures.

Stockshow with Papa

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Well before the semi-warmer weather was totally gone we ventured over to the stockshow with our Papa- the "true" cowboy. We had a nice day seeing all the animals (although a little tip most of the animals are not out on Monday-Wednesday as they are recovering from the weekend they told us. WHAT? Seemed weird to us!) Anyway, they didn't have the baby zoo section with all the baby animals alive and hopping and we did enjoy a piece of the petting zoo. Papa also got to get a pic of Isaac on the little horse. It was a fun day with our paps. Thanks!

Rusty's Cowboy Party

Here's a shot from the cowboy party for "Rusty the wrench" from Handy Manny. I told Vivi we would talk about cowboys a little bit as we prepared for the stockshow and she asked if we could throw this party for her tool. Sure, you know me, and if you don't I don't need much excuse for a party! I saw some "Toy Story" stuff in the $1 bins at Target and we had a party with a color notepad and some stickers. Vivi and I made cards and some cookies together and we enjoyed cowboy breakfast. It's true that our kids really do emulate what they see. (Mommy's party world gone mad!)

Some Cowboy moments

It's that time again...cold cold, box yourselves up for the winter, and try to keep busy with crafts/movies/whatever! So, I've been trying to be somewhat creative. Some days we do really well and others we don't. In other words, the kids have gotten to rent and watch "Ice Age" way too many times. We have thrown a birthday party for one of our toys! (Talk about insanity!) We've also been digging around for creative projects while we desperately await the peaks of springs. To top it, our naps are all off. Vivi's decided she's done with napping. Isaac wants to nap all the time but not sleep at night. It's a world of fun! Can you detect the sarcasm here? No really, we have had some fun moments and before you know it it will be spring or summer when we'll be begging for cooler temperatures! So...the idea...is to learn to be content with where God has you. I'm a work in progress!