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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

some March happenings

A tiny wooden basketball hoop? Sounds weird, but the kids loved this Lowe's project on March 13th. Christian even figured out all the directions himself by looking at the pictures!

Faith continues to love drawing temporary tatoos on herself. How can I be mad when she does such an amazing job?


On the 17th Faith got her top braces on and a soft pallette expander (the metal bar across the roof of her mouth). Every morning and night I had to twist the screw in the middle to slowly break apart her soft pallette and expand the room she has for teeth in her mouth (giant eeek!). Luckily, Faith didn't find it too painful, but hated the twisting tool because it pressed down on the back of her tongue and made her gag. My brave little baby! After two weeks of expanding, the orthodontist is going to lock it in place and it will act as a cast as her pallette grows back and heals.


We were fortunate that my mom brought us corned beef and cabbage on that Monday night, so I made green crepes for dinner. Happy St. Patrick's day!

On the 18th Buddy was extra wild and crazy while I tried to help in Faith's classroom.

The next day we went with them on a field trip to Apple Village where they sang and played ukeleles after reading to the grandparents. Here's "Skip to my Lou"



and "The Doughnut Song".



Next we went to Kaysville Theater. Here we are upstairs in the projection room learning all about film.

We even got to watch some cartoons on the big screen!
After that, we walked a few doors down to a shoe repair shop. We got to see the owner use his giant industrial sewing machine to fix Mrs. Bertram's purse.
Just a few doors down from that is the Clytie Adams Ballet Studio. Faith's classmate's mom is a teacher there and we got to check it out inside.

Later that day I had Faith open a gift my mom had left for when her braces were hurting her. My mom's so cute, she drew braces on some smilie face stickers to decorate the box! It was a mama and baby horse charm for her charm bracelet.

On the 20th the kids helped me make a special breakfast of pop up pancakes. They were so easy, fun and delicious!! I got the recipe here.
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Pop Up Pancakes makes 24
.
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
6 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
dash salt
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Preheat oven at 400° and grease muffin tins. Put all ingredients in a blender and blend well. Pour batter into muffin tins evenly (only fill each one a centimeter or so full). Bake for 15 minutes, or until puffy and golden on top. Let cool for a few minutes and they will shrink down in the middle. Use a knife to pry them out and enjoy with fruit or syrup.
.
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I also made mushroom cheese omelets to go with them.
The pancakes make perfect little cups for fruit. Faith put syrup on her second one and said that was the best because it could hold a lot more than regular pancakes (ick)!

Monday, March 15, 2010

I forgot to add the video of Faith's class singing "Feather Bed" at Apple Village on the 5th to my last post. Enjoy!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Just before we got sick, I bought the makings for several different Valentine's craft projects. Because of the illness we didn't accomplish them all, but this one turned out great and Faith did most of it! It's just a styrofoam heart and a zillion 3" red felt circles folded and pinned on. They were all over the internets, but I first saw them here. Lots of ladies had a hard time finding the foam hearts in stock so I wasn't planning on making one, but I found one while shopping for other things at Hobby Lobby and just couldn't resist. It did take several hours (while watching tv with my hubby) to cut out all the circles, but Faith had a lot of fun pinning them on. I just filled in a couple of bare spots and it was complete.

When the kids get a h0ld of my phone, I never know what pictures will be on it when I get it back. Here are four of the forty+ they took in the back seat of the car on March 2nd. Crazy kids!




On March 3rd Faith went to the orthodontist (Sheldon Peck Orthodontics in Syracuse) to get her braces! I took a "before" shot in the waiting room.

Here she is with the bands around her back molars.

Love the attractive lip spreaders!

They decided to only do the bottom ones and wait two weeks to put on the top so that she could deal with the pain of each seperately and not have her whole mouth killing her. She got light green and dark green elastics for St. Patty's Day!

Buddy and I brought some lunch back for her that day so she could have really soft food. We brought yogurt, applesauce, string cheese, bread, and a banana. According to Buddy, we had to play on the playground after lunch! Faith's teeth didn't really start hurting until the next day, were definately sore the second day, but then felt pretty good by the third day. She was pretty lucky!

Here is the visual aid Faith made with her animal report on hamsters that she did at school.

Her teacher said to me, "You know, Faith is really talented in art." I said, "Yep, I know." She then said, "No, I mean really talented!" to which I replied, "Thanks, I really know!" :)

On the 5th we went with Faith's class to Apple Village and then Kaysville Fire Station. The firemen did such a great job with the tour. Here they are showing us the "jaws of life".

We got to see brush trucks, fire trucks, fire engines (which the kids got to get into) and the ambulance.

This firefighter even got all suited up for us and then let all the kids feel how heavy the helmets are. The kids loved it all, but Christian was absolutely enthralled. He couldn't stop talking about the "firemans and them trucks" afterward!

They even pulled an engine out of the bay so we could get a great group picture.

Later that day we had Ann, Natalie and kids over for a little get together. The kids played and then I had them do a craft--rainbows in a pot of gold! We just stuffed crumpled newspaper in the bottom of the cup and then used leftover homemade playdough (that I used for preschool) in the top to hold the pipe cleaners. I was going to get Rolos for the gold, but Faith can't have chewy candy with her braces! Instead, I found some Hershey's Treasures that had a gold wrapper.


We just found out Natalie is expecting this summer--a boy!



Christian has been obsessed with this game lately. For some reason, he calles it "hone-a jone-ez" and if he could, he would play it all day. When Tony got it for a family gift for us, I thought it would be too difficult for Buddy since he hasn't really done any video games other than Nick Jr. ones on the computer and some Wii sports. But the minute he started playing, he was hooked and learned really quickly. Is this just something that's in boys' DNA? It is good that he has something he loves so much because I totally use it as leverage to get good behavior out of him. Threatening his hona jonez usually gets him to straighten up pretty quick! I think it's also helping with potty training.

Of course, he still loves reading books and playing board games. I took these on the 11th after playing several rounds of Candy Land and Pretty, Pretty Princess. He calls it "Membery", I guess because you have to 'member where the cards are :D He always kicks my butt!

A match!
Whoa, hold on to your hats--I'm finally caught up!!!

Friday, March 12, 2010

End of January and all of February

On January 28th I helped out in Faith's class when they did market day. Different stations were set up around the classroom where the students had to figure out different money related problems to "buy" things like they were out shopping. My station was a flower shop where the kids had to figure out what different arrangements cost by looking at the key to see how much each type of flower was and then adding it up.

There was a video store

and a supermarket along with two or three others where there were different activities. It was a fun time and the kids learned a lot about money that they will use in the real world. I love Faith's teacher, she is the best!

Later that day I cleaned our fish bowl. I have an easier time scooping him with my hand rather than the net and Christian became jealous that I got to "pet Grape Juice." Against my better judgement, I let Buddy have a go at it. He was very gentle and thought our fish "felt weird."

On February 4th Faith's class painted designs in sqares of what would later become the tail of their Chinese dragon.

There was one square left which Faith's teacher started to add stripes to, but then turned the paintbrush over to Buddy. He made some great dots! Unfortunately, we missed out on the Chinese Dragon parade due to our getting the flu of some sort that had us down in bed for over a week :( I'm sure it was awesome!

Here is the grandparent Faith read to at Apple Village Assisted Living on the 5th. She got to partner with Spencer! (Does it seem to you that Christian and I are always at the school or on a field trip with Faith? It does to us, too!)

They sang the cutest olden day love songs and invited the residents to sing along. Here's "Daisy".



The kids made these cute toy car shelves at Home Depot on the 6th. I think they're pretty cool!

After that, we went to Joy's house for Sierra and Lily's joint birthday party. The kids loved playing "Under the Sea" with balloon "bubbles"!


Joy held a freind party for them the day before and had made mermaid tails and seashell bras for the girls,

and shark fins for the boys! We had fun with the leftovers, even if Christian doesn't look like it in this picture.

Some might say it was a little too much fun :D

Faith squeezed into a tail even though they were made for three-year-olds, but got uncomfortable with the fit and took it off not long after. But she was certainly a beautiful mermaid!

Lunch consisted of shell pasta salad with tuna, hot dog octopusses (had to look that one up--not octopi like I thought), hot dog/spaghetti noodle squid, and goldfish crackers.

Buddy doesn't know what to think of his squid!

For the games, we started with Under the Sea Limbo.
See it in action:



Then, Flounder toss with three different sized fish toys.

Lastly, pass the sea anemone. Isn't Eric a fun uncle to always play the kids' games? We love him!!

Then it was on to the presents.

Faith was finally better by the 12th (Christian and I weren't so lucky) and she got to go to the Kaysville City Daddy Daughter Dance. Her dad even brought her roses! They said it was fun and had great treats, but the only activity was dancing (there was even a dj). Tony does not dance, but apparently he made a bit of an exception for his little girl.

This is the picture she had drawn of her dad several weeks before, in anticipation of the event. She was sooooo excited! I love the Steeler shirt detail and our kitchen cabinets in the background!

On the 15th Christian said he was making breakfast for him and Faith and brought his finished masterpiece to show me. I don't think he'd ever had cottage cheese with fruit before, but he figured it would be good! He even washed the berries first. What a sweet brother!

On the 19th we were back at Apple Village. Christian loves the bird they have there as well as the turtles that have their own pond near the front door.

This time, instead of reading, the kids sang a few songs and then played Wii Bowling with the grandparents! Faith did great on her turn,

and everyone had a ton of fun!!

For the second part of the field trip, we visited Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I wonder what Faith's friend Elaina was shaking her finger at, too funny! They even sang the Donut Song to the employees.

On February 22nd Faith got spacers between her back molars in preparation for her braces. She was getting excited and very nervous about them!