D is for...

...DADDY

Lately, I have been trying to be a better mom.  So to do that, I have started doing some activities with the girls centered around a letter of the week.  It has been really fun, for both the girls and I.  This week was, of course, "D".  Monday we combined FHE with Abby's "school time" and to do this activity.  The lesson was on Father's and their roles to provide, preside and protect. Then we traced "daddy" on a piece of paper and wrote down some reasons why we love him.  The girls had a blast.  Now whenever daddy is gone and we miss him, we have a body double to subsitute.

Our paper daddy looks sadly disporportioned and a little silly, but the girls still love him.

...DANCE

We put Abby in dance this year.  It was a little rough in the beginning, but she has come to LOVE dance!  It has been fun to watch her grow more confident and to see some skills develop.  She has just recently mastered the art of skipping, thanks to dance.  Anyway, she has had a couple of preformances lately, mostly at half time shows for basketball games.  She LOVES to perform.  We had one this Wednesday where the girls were filler numbers for the Madison drill team recital.  It was alot of fun to see different groups dance. 

Getting her hair done before the performance.  It is quite the ordeal!

Our beautiful little dancer!

Cheesin' it up for the camera, waiting for the song to begin

Abby and her dance group.  They are all so adorable!

...DONUTS

Today we learned D is for donuts.  So we made pretend donuts, sprinkles and all.  I found this recipe for homemade puffy paint using shaving cream and glue.  We added a little paint for the frosting.  Finished off with some sprinkles, and Ta Da, some yummy looking paper plate donuts.  The girls had fun squishing the paint with their hands.

After all that, we had worked up such an appetite for donuts, well we went and got some.  YUMMY!!Apparently Abby was very excited about the donuts.

We were hoping for some sunny weather this week, so we could walk to the nature park and feed the "ducks" again.  But unfortunately we have been stuck inside due to cold and rainy weather. (What's new...really?)  Maybe one of the next couple of days will be nice.  Here's to hoping!

St Paddy's Day

Hope you all had a great GREEN day.  We had to celebrate ours a day early (at least the dinner part) because Abby had a dance thing on thursday. (future post...stay tuned!)  After searching the web for a while, I found so many fun St Paddy's day crafts, activities, and foods, it was hard to narrow them down.  So I had planned a whole week of things for the girls and I to do, but unfortunately most of them will have to be put away until next year, we just ran out of time, energy,  patience. 

We started out the week with, of course, the rainbow made of fruit loops craft.  The girls had so much fun with the cereal.  Here is Abby's rainbow.  Hannah's is non-existent due to the edibleness of the supplies. 

Then throughout the week we made some fun treats,  Shamrock cookies and rice krispy treats, mint brownies, all in celebration of this great holiday.  We had even more treats planned but again ran out of time, energy, and patience, mostly patience.  We did, however, prepare a meal with the St Paddy's theme in mind.  We invited some friends over and it was a great evening.  Here is what we did.

Instead of just serving green food, like last year (deja vu anyone?), I focused on the holiday as a whole.

I made Cheesy Broccoli Soup.  (Going for the yellow/green effect here.)

Shamrock and gold coin jigglers

A rainbow fruit tray (minus the blue and purple fruits...way too expensive!)

Lastly a "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow

After dinner we ended up visiting with our friends for awhile (we don't get non-family company very often).  The girls had so much fun playing with their little boy.  They brought out almost every toy we own for him to play with. 

This is what we found in the middle of one of our converstations. 

Hannah ALWAYS gets herself in some strange predicaments. 

Silly Hannah!

Sunny... but Snowy Saturday Stroll!!

We had our first glimpse of sunny, NON-FREEZING (mind you it was still cold, but we just HAD to get OUT!!!) weather on Saturday.  My sis-in-law had called to go on a walk with her, so the girls and I set out.  We ended up walking all over town and to the Nature Park on the other side of town.  We tried to play on the playground, but as you can see the amount of snow on the ground caused some difficulty.  

(Does this picture look familar to anyone else?  How funny!)

(How about this one?  I promise these were taken this year! And at a totally different park!)

We then tried to teach the girls the art of climbing trees.  Haha!  We were actually attempting a great photo op.  But this stubborn little girl would NOT look at the camera. 

Both the girls in the trees.  They thought it was so much fun!

The girls eventually got too cold, and I was tired of tromping through the snow to save them, so we decided to continue our walk.  There is a pathway going from the park to the nature ponds, where in the summer there are TONS of ducks and geese.  We thought we would venture that way to see if there were any brave birds there. Totally doubtful! But to my surprise there were actually quite of few.  (True Idahoan birds we have here!)  We fed them some crackers, which they greatly enjoyed and wanted more of.  They must of been starving, because they came right up to us, begging for more.  The girls didn't like that very much, and it was too close for my comfort, so we high-tailed it outta there. 

Before the birds knew we had food! (*Notice the birds)

Sensing that we had something to offer.

After the birds found out we had food! 

They were ready to attack.  You would have ran too if you would have seen the size of the geese!  They were HUGE!!!

We had a great morning, but the girls and I were chilled to the bones by the time we got back. 

Warmer weather PLEASE COME SOON!!! So we can do this again!