TreasuresInTerraCotta

Why is all the junk from the yard piled up in the corner? We're making a fort! Whittling bars of soap.  I need to start buying Ivory by the case.  Moving dirt from here to there.  Have I mentioned that landscaping is highly overrated? Bread making courtesy of Grandpa.  Sitting in the yard with the not-so-baby on my lap... Taking pictures of flowers up close. 

The book selections in our house seem to run the gamete.  We are now a household of board books, picture books, "readers," chapter books and comic books; arts and crafts books, historical fiction, non-fiction in many genera, devotionals and Bible studies.  It's no surprise that we've been getting a lot of inspiration from our books. I've had this post half-written for months, so it's about time to push Publish.  I suspect many more posts in the future will fall into the category of Books are Inspiration.  Of course, the craft books have been giving me lots of inspiration.  One of my new favorite authors and bloggers is Amanda Blake Soule.  She provided the inspiration and instructions for the Mama's bag  sewing project a few months ago.      She has a son named Calvin so we had to make "Calvin's Paper-Mache Bowls" We used up some of our junk mail.   And I ...

We've become big fans of using birthday money and Christmas money and fun money for outings.  Sometimes it's just to get ice cream, but sometimes we go mini golfing or bowling or something fun like that.   The boys got some fun money for Christmas from their aunt and uncle in Oregon.  And then I found a Groupon for a local put-put golf place!  It was like getting twice as much fun for the same price.  Now that's a good Christmas present! We took advantage of a cool and cloudy day and hit the greens. I always love the fun buildings. Boys looking not too happy...probably just because I made them hold still for the camera. (x3) Boys with golf clubs! (x3)  Good thing there was nobody else on the course that day! Thanks Uncle Todd and Aunt Christa (and Tori, too)!  We had a great day! And because we got two Groupons we get to do it all again before the end of the month!

Tyler and Calvin spent the week working on a Boy Scout Pinewood Derby car!! Math....with M&Ms! Truman showing off his two (almost 4) new upper teeth, and the drool to go with it! I love playing cards with my kids. Dairy Queen Candy Cane Blizzards!  Shared with Grandma and Grandpa on the coldest day of the week. So they had a fire!  And we made paper snowflakes. More of those big teeth.  They really change Truman's looks.  It kinda makes me sad. I think the teeth (combined with the warm fire) were making his cheeks so rosy.   I made this beautiful Carrot Soup with a Tomato relish.  So yummy and festive looking.  The recipe calls for Tomatillos to make the relish, but I didn't have any so I just used grape tomatoes.  It provides a crunchy, tart and spicy kick to the sweet and creamy soup.  yummy!  Today I took the boys bowling.  Because, you know, bowling is an especially Christmas-y activity!  I LOVE bowl...

We didn't intentionally plan anything for March 4th...or March Forth!  As it turns out, we ended up opening bank accounts for each boy on that day. Maybe that's an appropriate accomplishment for a March Forth!  My kids seem to get a lot of money. Sometimes we spend it on something  big  like an outing.  Sometimes we take "treat" money (like $3 on Valentine's day or St. Patrick's day) and go have ice cream.  But usually I put money into our regular savings account.  I keep track of it all and know how much is saved for each of them.  But they recently received some checks written directly to each of them, so I thought it was time to open indivudual accounts.  In exchange for their business, our credit union gave them a card to track deposits/withdrawals, a coin-card to save quarters, a book about javalinas and a stuffed javalina.   Dispite the fact that it took over an hour to open two ...

As a mother, I admit that I am somewhat deficient in fostering "pretend play."  I rarely give voices to Little People or personify trucks and trains. And until recently my kids have shown no interest in dress-up play, even though we have a trunk full of hats, necklaces, masks and other dress up clothes. Sure, our kids like to dress up on Halloween.  And they even dress up at the Children's Museum and for birthday parties . A few weeks ago Calvin and Andrew got masks in a Kid's Meal and they have been wearing them non-stop. One thing lead to another and I decided we should have a costume party in February!  Uncle Ted had a birthday last weekend and if there are two things that I associate with Ted it's costume parties and chocolate cake.  So a thirty-something was given a dress-up party! Calvin and Andrew as Knights.  I made those costumes years ago for our favorite neighbor boy who did, in fact, love dress-up. " Super Hero E" and a princess/dan...