Catching Up: September 2012

I can hardly believe that I haven't updated this blog since the kids went back to school in September! It doesn't seem like it's been almost 5 months since I last blogged, but I guess it has been!! We've been so busy! I would love to blog about everything we've been up to, but that would just be impossible. So I guess I'll start with the short version for September:

The month started with a great Labor Day Picnic hosted by our friends Mike and Karen. It's always great to spend time with adults and to see all of the kids playing together. Unfortunately Tate was having a rough day, so since we had brought two cars (and accidentally showed up an hour early!) TJ took him and Jackson home while I stayed a little longer with Nathan and Lana. Despite that, we really did have an enjoyable afternoon!

I celebrated my birthday with some great friends in Ocean City in September! We had some nice time on the beach, did some shopping, enjoyed massages, ate yummy seafood and had a couple of nice nights out. Love those girls!

















Lana and Jackson switched from toddler beds to twin beds. I am just amazed at how big they are getting!! They LOVE their bigger beds and really feel like big kids! Lana picked out princess bedding and Jackson chose CARS. Jackson's bed and dresser are handy-downs from Nathan and Tate, while Lana's bed and dresser are from my Great Aunt Cassie. Lana having Aunt Cassie's bed and dresser is so special to us because her middle name, Catherine, comes from her. They were only able to meet once, but they will always share something special. The toy box at the end of Lana's bed was mine when I was little. I refinished it for her and my dad fixed the bottom. I plan on eventually refinishing her bed and dresser to match.

September also brings our county fair! We love going to the fair each year! The kids love the rides and the animals! It's always nice getting to spend an evening with our friends while the kids enjoy riding together. This is the first year we didn't bring a stroller!! The kids spent most of the night together alternating holding hands with their friends! The kids always enjoy a dinner of corn dogs and Lemonade!

We ended September with a fun Spahr Family trip to Lake Anna, but I'll save that for another post!

First Day of School 2012

It's the most wonderful time of the year again!!! Back to School!!! This was the first year that I sent two children off to school on the bus! The first day of school was Monday, August 27th and it was quite the adventurous first day!

Nathan started Second Grade at Deer Crossing and has Mrs. Law this year. We all walked him up to the bus stop and watched him get on the bus. He was excited to see his friends again, but not so thrilled about going back to school!

Nathan filled out a paper titled "How I Feel About the First Day of School." The object was to complete smiley faces in sentences to show if you feel "Awesome,"
"Okay" or "Bad" about them. Nathan's paper read like this: "My new classroom looked OKAY when I first walked in this morning. My new teacher is AWESOME. The cafeteria food was OKAY today. I felt AWESOME about the new friends I met today. Reading is going to be BAD. Math is going to be AWESOME. The best part abuot today was RECESS. The worst part about today was SOCIAL (Social Studies.) I feel BAD about my first day of school."

Tate is attending Pre-Kindgeraten 5 days a week at Deer Crossing this year and is in Mrs. Garabedian's AM class. He has the privilege of being able to ride the bus to and from school, although he rides a different bus than Nathan. Tate's bus is scheduled to come 20 minutes after Nathan's, but on the first day of school it was over 20 minutes late!!! We had given up on the bus and had started putting the kids in the car to drive him to school when it finally showed up! But Tate ran for the bus like a pro and made it on with no real issues! He made it home on the mid-day bus and had a big grin on his face when he got off! I know he really liked having his Speech Therapist, Mrs. Milstead with him for the first day of school. That helped him to feel a lot more comfortable in his classroom full of unfamiliar people and unfamiliar things. He won't talk about school, but I think from the reports I get from his teachers that he's having a great time!

Adventures in Fingerpaints

We've been having alot of fun making our own art supplies lately. One of our favorites was fingerpaints. They were really easy to make and a lot of fun to paint with once they cooled. They had a really smooth texture and the colors were so vibrant! It was another great way to work on our colors. The only thing I would do differently is store them in the refrigerator becasue they got moldy after a couple of days sitting out at room temperature.

Tate had a great time with this activity. He really enjoyed combining the colors and squishing them through his fingers. He quickly created the color brown! It took Jackson awhile to get used to the messiness of the paints, but once he did he seemed to enjoy making a small picture. Lana is my resident artist. She took her time trying each color, creating a picture of swirls, smudges and lines that she was pleased with.

Here's the recipe we used:
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup corn starch
2 cups water

*Combine ingredients in small saucepan.
*Warm until mixture starts to thicken.
*Cool and pour into containers, adding food coloring to create desired colors.

Nathan's 7th Birthday

Nathan turned 7 on May 4th. It's so hard to believe that's it's been seven years since he was born! It just doesn't seem possible!!! The years are just going by way too fast. He's not a little boy anymore, he's growing in so many ways. He's becoming more responsible around the house, helping out with chores and the smaller kids. He finished First Grade with flying colors and is heading to Second Grade in less than a month! He struggles with his temper sometimes, he's indecisive and easily distracted not always putting as much effort into things as he should, but he loves to laugh, talk and tell goofy jokes. He may not be perfect, but we are very proud of everything that he has accomplished. We are grateful everyday that we have him in our lives. He's Tate's partner-in-crime, Jackson's buddy and Lana seems to have a special unspoken connection with him.

Nathan's birthday started out rough. He came home from school that day with pink eye and stomach bug. He was supposed to leave for a camping trip with his Scout troop the next morning but wasn't well enough to go. Becasue he was supposed to be camping that weekend, we had planned to have his birthday party the following weekend.
For his party this year Nathan choose a camping theme. Camping is Nathan's favorite activity. He is always excited to leave on the next trip. He spends his days fishing and swimming and his nights sitting around the campfire.

The weather that day was abosolutely gorgeous. He loved his cake and the smore's inspired mini-marshmallows on a stick that were dipped in melted chocolate and covered with crushed graham crackers. He received a lot of nice gifts. In addition to his new blue bike that we had already given him, he received Transformers, Lego Hero Factory sets, a new fishing rod and gear, new clothes and some money.

If You Give A Mouse a Cookie

We've been doing some great activities with books lately! One of our favorites was "If You Give A Mouse a Cookie." We read the book and then we decorated cookies, drew pictures of our family and then ate our cookies while drinking milk through straws. After we were done with our pictures we hung them on the refrigerator just like in the story!

Spring Is For The Birds!

We did two crafts for Spring this year that the kids loved because they were for the birds! The kids and I absolutely love one of the trees in our backyard. It's a nice big shade tree right outside our kitchen and dining room windows. The birds and squirrels seem to love it too! There are always lots of critters hanging around it. We have a large birdfeeder hanging from the tree, but we thought it would be fun to add some other things that the birds might enjoy.

The first thing we did was paint small birdhouses to hang in the tree. I had been shopping at our local craft store the week before and found these neat little wooden birdhouses on sale for a dollar each. We had been given paint and brushes as a favor at one of the birthday parties we had attended recently so it was great being able to use them on the birdhouses! We only had one real incident when Jackson decided that it would be funny to paint Lana instead of his birdhouse, which of course made her cry because her new Dora shirt was now "dirty!!"

Our second project was to make bird seed ornaments. We did this a few days after we painted the birdhouses and it was a lot of fun. It took a little more skill to do this so Tate, Lana and Jackson mostly watched as Nathan and I did the majority of the work.

Here are the directions:

3/4 cup birdseed (we got the seed for small birds at wal-mart)

1/4 cup water
1 small envelope of knox gelatine
twine or string
cookie cutters, molds or mason jar lids
wax paper

*Mix together the envelope of gelatine with 1/4 cup of water and bring to a simmer while stirring. continue stirring until the gelatine is dissolved.

*Remove from heat and let cool for a minute.
*Stir in the 3/4 cup birdseed. Adding a little more if there is liquid still in the bottom of the pan.
*Lay your cookie cutters out on wax paper and fill half way with the birdseed mixture.
*Cut your twine, knot the end and push the knot down into your birdseed.
*Continue filling with birdseed, covering the end of your twine and knot.
*Push the birdseed evenly into the cookie cutter until it's full.
*Allow them to dry overnight, turning them over every now and then.
 *Remove from the cookie cutters and hang them in your trees.
 *Then wait by the window to watch for your first guest.