the letter "H"

Today we did a lesson on the letter "H".  We gathered around the kitchen table and started to talk about the letter "H".

We talked about...

Horses

Hungry

Helicopters

Hippopotamus'

Hair

I gave the boys magazines and they cut out pictures of foods that they were "hungry" for. Ethan's collage was made up mostly of sausages (which he thought were hotdogs) and it made me laugh!!! Owen was having a great time cutting his magazine into confetti :)

I have a giant sticker book that Ethan LOVES! There was a page in the book with horses so he put the stickers in their spots. We talked about horse hair, feet, and their size. Ethan thought it would be funny if horses had feet like ours and we had feet like a horse :)

Ethan's workbook activity today told him to color all the items starting with H. I was so proud when I looked over and he was telling me that he was done and that a mouse starts with a "M", not a "H". Good job Ethan!

Our last activity was to make a helicopter. E helped me cut out some of the pieces and then he glued them on the paper...

And now we are snuggled onto the sofa (with all their blankets) watching Misty Island, Thomas the Train.
We had a great morning :)

ruffled scarf

I just finished a ruffled scarf today that was super fun to make!
 

It can be worn with a random ruffle...

 Or a twisted ruffle...

So fun, right!?! Anyways, happy Tuesday to you all!!

Oh, a happy blessing to report...
I won a give-away on my friend Rachel's blog I Heart Crafty Things.
I am being sent the Ultimate Box of Projects from http://www.craftprojectideas.com/.
 

We are so super excited to open up the box of projects and start making things!! Thank you for randomly picking me!!!!!!!!!!

our thanksgiving

We had an amazing Thanksgiving!
Here is a photo journal of our day....

Ava & Great Grandma Cecile...

Craft time with Daddy...

Ava and her Great Grandma...

Yahtzee time!!!!...

Grandma Fitz wrote what she was thankful for on the leaves...

Grandma Cecile writing what she was thankful for...

Grandma Sandy (or Great Grandma from the Desert as Ethan likes to call her) loved what Ethan wanted to put on his leaf...

A few of the leaves...

I love this new tradition...

Give Thanks!

Ava and Grandma giggles...

 My Dad and Stepmom even came by! So fun!

I had energy so we even got our tree up and decorated!

Love this...helping Daddy...

wow!

Ava got into the action...

I tried to get one but this was the best I got...

o-man....

Ethan and I made the star for the top of the tree...

The base for the star...

ta-da!

end of the night...tired and snuggling with Papa Ken...

holiday hosting, done!

I hope you had a WONDERFUL holiday too!

chain scarf

I love my chain scarf, so I thought I would recreate it!

My wonderful neighbor from the last place we lived at made me a tan chain scarf and I wanted to recreate it.

So, here is what it looks like...

If there are any expert crocheters out there, please forgive me for hacking the language used for crochet patterns...

How I made this:

Each piece had 30 chain stitches,
then 2 rows of double stitch,
then I tied off the end.

I made 16 of these pieces.

Then, just like the paper chains you used to make in grade school, I chained the pieces together. I sewed the ends together with a yarn needle. 

I made a tassel for the last link on both ends of the scarf. The tassels are just a long string of chain stitches, 125 chain stitches each to be exact.

I folded the long chain in fourths and then looped it over the last chain on the scarf and tied it together. 

Sorry for not taking detailed, step-by-step, photos.

I love this scarf!

If you end up making this, let me know! I'd love to see what you come up with :)

give thanks

 Psalm 107

"Oh that men would thank the LORD for his goodness,
and for his wonderful works to the children of men!"

We are starting a new tradition with our kids this year...a visual way to give thanks to the Lord for His numerous blessings.

I drew some leaves...

Ethan cut...

Look at his perfect little leaf...

 Our "Give Thanks" craft hung over the fireplace...

On Thanksgiving we will write out the things we are thankful for on the leaves...guests included!  I am excited to start this tradition with my family and our guests!

I loved another version of a "give thanks" craft that I found on Better Homes and Gardens.  Here is what it looks like...

Gobble Gobble

Ethan and I made Thanksgiving cards today.  I love Thanksgiving.  If you want to be a happy Christian, start thanking God for EVERYTHING!!  Thanking is the best way to acknowledge His presence and His provision!

It is amazing what we don't really notice or give thanks for, but if we look closely we can give thanks to God!

...salvation...

...a godly wonderful husband...

...three healthy beautiful kids...

...my family & friends...

...my wonderful church body...

...a roof over my head that doesn't leak when it rains...
...carpet under my feet...

...electricity...

...warm meals...

...my computer...

...dentists and orthodontists...

...washing machines and dryers...

...bunny (Ethan told me to put this)...

...all my friends (Ethan told me this too)...

...mattresses...

...car...

...coffee...

...a Bible, journal and pen...

Make your own list! 
You will be overwhelmed with all God has blessed you with!!

Now, onto the adorable cards we made
thanks to my favorite crafting blog I Heart Crafty Things.

Brown painted hand...

Waddle...

 

Gotta love googly eyes!!! 
Ta-da...

Happy Thanksgiving Cards, done!

:)

Twine & Pearls

Tonight, while watching TV, I made a couple simple twine and pearl bracelets.  I think I may give them to my nieces at Christmas :)

I love pearls!

I got the idea for this bracelet from Pinterest (bracelet).

Blog Hopping

The blogging community is pretty amazing! I am getting connected, learning so much, and getting inspired to be a better me (which makes me a better MOM, WIFE, FRIEND, CRAFTER, TEACHER, etc!!).

I follow a blog (I Heart Crafty Things) and they have this fun thing called a Blog Hop.

I joined the Blog Hop and I thought it would be fun to introduce it to you!
So here is the button you click to join...

Happy Hopping :)

What Is Yet To Be Checked Off...

Oh Fall, How I love thee. How I welcome the cool days and cold nights. I love wearing scarves and snuggling in blankets. I adore warm fruit breads and hot coffee in the mornings. Fall, I am just so glad to have you here with me...it's like visiting an old friend!

OK, enough of me trying to be a writer! English, grammar and creative writing have NEVER been a strength of mine. 

But, I am a woman who loves to communicate and I like to share my many words with whoever pops in to read my blog.
(I often wonder how many people are reading because it shows I have lots of visits to my blog but I only have 8 followers...so, follow me so I can virtual high-5 you! And to my 8 followers, thanks for the love!) 

Anyways, I opened up my Fall To-Do list to see what we had yet to check-off. 

I still need to check off a few things. My unit on Thanksgiving next week will help me check off a couple!

To see all our adventures to date, look in my blog archive and join us on our outings and activities!

So, what are your plans for the rest of the Fall season?  I will pick a comment at random and send you your own Fall Bucket List!  Just list 6-9 activities in your comment and it will be yours! :)

Lesson on Eating

On Thursday we continued our unit on the letter "E".
So, I thought it would be fun to talk about eating, since eating starts with "e".
 
We talked about eating healthy and eating lots of fruit, veggies and complex carbs. So, we started our morning with a bowl of oatmeal, blueberries and blackstrap molasses (I drew an "E" with the molasses).
YUM!

For lunch I served them apples, bananas and plain yogurt sweetened with blackstrap molasses.
I added a few sprinkles on top of the yogurt for fun. I talked to Ethan about how we can still eat fun things like sprinkles when we eat healthy...but we would be sick and unhealthy if we ate
only sprinkles for our lunch :)

For our afternoon snack we talked about vitamins. We talked about how God made vitamins to help keep us strong and healthy. I cut up oranges and we learned to juice oranges to get vitamin c.
Ethan loved this lesson the most, probably because it was so hands on :)
Owen loved drinking the fresh juice!
Thank you Grandma Sharon for the yummy oranges!

To end the day we took the pictures that we had painted the day before and we made a letter "E" mobile. The boys love their mobile and it is still hanging in the kitchen!

We had fun with the letter E! :)