F.H.E.

F.H.E. started out with a puppet show and ended with a dance-off.

For those of you who missed the live performance....

See Anna Read

We have a new reader in the house! Anna has recognized small words for a while but it is all coming together now and she loves to read. For most of us it is hard to imagine a time in our lives when we couldn't read. Anna is our firstborn so it is so fun to see her discover reading and make sense of it all. To think, all those alphabet letters make words that actually describe a person, or a place, or an experience. It is a whole new world and she feels so good about it! (Thanks for the book Carrie.)

On the merry-go-round

The girls and I enjoyed a visit from my Mom last week. She came on the train Sunday night and stayed until Wednesday morning. I picked her up after the girls had gone to bed so we enjoyed seeing their surprised faces when she came upstairs for breakfast the next morning. By chance, Gordon had to go out of town for a two day trip so I was really grateful for the extra help and the girls enjoyed having an in-house playmate. Monday was full of fun stuff. We went to the mall to ride the carousel and to do a little shopping. Anna wanted to ride on the top level of the carousel, so we did and the adults left feeling a little dizzy. We enjoyed a dinner of pizza at Costco and rounded it out with ice cream for dessert. Thanks for a fun time, Mom!

Unsuccessful

Okay, so this blog post may just turn into my rambling thoughts put in print. This seemed to be a day full a way too many unsuccessful attempts (more than one is way too much for me).

First, the girls were anxious to get Valentine's Day started so this morning they gave us their Valentines that they made last night with the babysitter. Cute, creative, and of course lots of glitter. At the same time I gave Gordon his "sweets for the sweet". I had managed to shape licorice into hearts for my love, tied with embroidery floss. (He doesn't like chocolate as much as I do so I try to go the sugar route.) When I pulled them out of their hiding place today, they had broken into several pieces. Of course he will still eat them, but the symbolism was lost. Unsuccessfully creative.

Secondly, as a family we decided to go feed the ducks at a local water spot. The girls were excited and willing to put all of their winter gear on so we could spend 10-15 minutes outside without freezing. We arrived safely, with bag of bread in tow. Unfortunately, no hungry ducks to feed. A few floating decoy ducks to attract wildlife, but they didn't want our bread. Unsuccessful decoy ducks.

Lastly or Thirdly(the day is not over yet), thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Shaw, the girls each had a dollar to spend. Anna has been begging to spend it as soon as she got it in the mail yesterday (she gets that from me, not a saver like her Daddy). So a trip to the Dollar Store was in order. We get there and let the girls look for the perfect thing to spend with their money. 20 minutes later, after much deliberation and one tired mommy, we are checking out. Anna decided on an outfit for her stuffed dog, Lucy, and Megan was happy with her wind-up car. The cashier scanned the outfit, put it in a bag for Anna, Anna paid with her precious dollar. Next up, Megan with her car. She was very excited about it. The cashier scanned it, it beeped several times back at her. Apparently, Megan's new toy has been recalled and could not be sold. Okay, explain recalled to a 2 1/2 year old. Unsuccessful purchase.

I am just glad Gordon is making dinner.

Cute things for baby

Every Wed-nesday morning for a couple hours, the girls and I go to our friend Carrie's house for craft group. The girls enjoy her cable TV while I enjoy a few hours of chatting and working on a craft. Marissa, Carrie, and I are the regulars in this group even though anyone is invited to join us. We have attempted many projects so far and today was one of my favorite ones. We used iron-on transfers to make cute onesies for the little ones in our lives or future little ones, as the case may be. Given the fact that none of us had ever done iron-on transfers, I think we had great results. Next week, we are going to attempt potato stamping with fabric paint and then on to tie-dying. Fun!

Taffy Pull

Our last Family Home Evening night, we decided to pull taffy the old-fashioned way. After a lot of cooking (45 minutes) and then adding just the right amount of food coloring (Anna chose pink, of course), we let it cool to where we could start the actually pulling process. I understand now why someone invented a machine to do this part. After pulling, pulling, trading with the girls, and pulling much more, we ended up with something resembling one of our favorite treats. The resulting taffy could have been a little firmer, but that would have meant more time at the stove, or more time pulling the taffy and the girls were done waiting! Fun times for fun treats!