Bliss

The last three days we've had really nice weather. We've also been busy! Tuesday and Thursday the girls go to school. I stopped putting on the TV before school. They are looking at books and basically dragging out every toy we own out to play. It does sometimes annoy me as I'm tripping over a baby, pretend broom, or a cup but the kids are having fun. I like that they aren't watching TV. I've stayed off the computer and focused on what I should be doing as well. Its amazing how our much smoother our mornings go.

Then after naps we play or we go outside. The girls literally drag everything outside. It looks like white trash by the end of the day. I honestly don't care though. Today, Reese put a kitchen spoon in her pants so it would be a tail and sang a song like Ming Ming (wonder pets). I laughed so hard as she shook her "tail" aka hips and sang a song. We even ate outside. We have no table out there but happily ate pizza on paper plates on the cement floor.

It was one of those moments where even though we weren't clean, doing things properly or neatly but we were having a blast. The girls haven't even asked to watch TV in TWO days. That's unheard of around here.

I went to take a hot bath by myself this evening and not 10 minutes later I had two silly girls in there with me. Splashing, playing and having a blast. I didn't have the heart to tell them I didn't want them in. Aaron looked at me like "is this ok" and I just smiled.

We sat on the couch tonight after Aaron got home and he read a bible story. Then somehow we ended it with singing Christmas Carol??? and the girls danced with musical instruments. It was a riot!!!

I'm not sure if this blog makes any sense but the last few days at home, playing with my sweet girls has been so nice. Its not normally like this. Normally there's fighting and I'm just making it until bedtime. But the last few days has made me so thankful to be home with them living this life. My imperfect, messy, simple life.

Love these days and want to hold them in my heart for forever.

Our bible verse

I try to do a letter of the week. I slacked off a little but got back to it this week. It was "P" We are doing a lot of pumpkin crafts, a pumpkin poem, practicing making P's etc. But my favorite part is teaching the girls bible verses. They only know about 3 but its a great start. This weeks was

Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him! Psalms 147

I love it. I think so often we hit our knees and pray to God when something bad has happened. We forget to sing Him praises. I want the girls to always remember to sing praises to our Father and not just ask Him for help when we are in trouble. Bring it all to Him.

Their praises this week have been for the beautiful sky and the trees. I can't wait to see what they want to praise Him for tomorrow.

Dewberry Farms

Today we went to Dewberry Farms with our church. It was so much fun! We had some sweet friends with us too, which of course makes the day always better. Aimee was so sweet to take lots of pictures of my girls with her super nice camera.





First we rode on a big wagon to pick our pumpkin. This was pure torture for me and my allergies. I thought I was going to rub my eyes raw. The girls got a tiny pumpkin that we will do something fun with later.







Then we went into a very dark room with carved pumpkins. They were awesome! There were Disney ones (mickey, Ariel etc), presidents, animals and lots of others. Saige was very brave and didn't need to hold my hand but Reese (my four year old) needed to be held the entire time. She was pretty scared and talked about it for a bit after.



We had a quick lunch and went on to play in a giant hay pile...





and fun on some slides, jumping and a small train ride (note the puffy eyes and wind blown hair!)








And lastly we tried so hard to get a cute picture of our little ones in the pumpkins in front of the picture perfect barn. We said this was their arranged marriage picture :)

More crafts and learning...

We have been busy!! I promise not to post every craft we ever do :) BUT I'm really trying hard to focus more on learning and fun with the girls at home (Um, can anyone tell I miss teaching!) and by blogging these things it keeps me focused! Besides how fun is it going to be to look back at these sweet girls and their creations years later.

Here's a bat craft we made last week which was a lot of fun. I got to trace their precious little hands and then we made a face and glued some other things on. Here's my sweet girls.



This week we had some of our good friends over to make pumpkin pie play dough. BUT When I went to the store for pumpkin spice they were all out. So strange that they were sold out in early October. Anyway, we decided to make "Fall play dough instead" with nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. We colored the play dough orange. The kids were all were really good about waiting their turn to pour something in the pan or stir. We cooked in and then waited for it to cool while we ate lunch. The kids were excited to play with it and I got some Halloween cookie cutters to use as well. The play dough smelled SO good! We love hanging out with the Bowles clan! They love doing crafts as much as we do!!
Here's a few pictures of our play dough.






here are a few more...
pumpkin prints. (The girls thought cutting the tiny pumpkin and then digging the seeds out was so neat! We smelled it, talked about the pulp and then got messy!)





Then we painted pumpkins and made a little P is for pumpkin craft. Reese practiced making her P's on this one.

Oh the drama!

This is just plain mean. Saige was so mad that she was having to get ready for bed. She was so tired from her big weekend. My mom (AKA Momo) took the girls from 10am on Saturday until after lunch on Sunday. Aaron and I had a game night and it was easier for her to keep the girls. They had fun but Saige was very tired come Sunday evening. Poor baby! Not long after this I rocked her fast asleep! But this is the typical "Saige throwing a fit face" that I see a lot. Shes a drama mama!!

Crafts this week...

I have been trying very hard to not be distracted from what I should be doing as a mom. I often have a "plan" and then I get on facebook, make a "quick" phone call etc. I keep thinking that I want to remember playing, doing crafts and being ever so present in their lives as small children. I can hardly believe that my "baby" is potty trained and almost 2 1/2. Time goes by so so fast. I don't want to waste another precious minute of their time.

I'm probably being a little hard on myself but this week I have really focused on doing some more learning activities with the girls and some fun crafts with Halloween books. I love the fall!! We've also played outside a lot more this week. Its funny how something as small as a little painting and swinging at the park will lift your spirits and make you feel like a better mom. Almost none of them are my original ideas but basically all came from blogs! Gotta love that!!

Rock O Lanterns...from www.notimeforflashcards.com



I was bored the other day and decided we could paint leaves. Then I got an idea to punch a hole IN in the leaves and make fall garland with it. Love kid decorations!





This was super fun! We made puffy paint ghost. We used a thick bag (pappasitos to go bag LOL), glue, shaving cream (suppose to be white but blue looks nice too), googly eyes and a mouth from black construction paper. www.notimeforflashcards.com





We also made scarecrows out of shapes that we got from Erica's blog (not sure how to link blogs??) to help Saige learn her shapes and colors. She knows her colors but we still need a little work on some of those shapes. Good to know!! LOL
We have a craft or cooking activity planned for every day until Halloween! Its going to be a fun (and messy) month!

Happy Fall

We decided to let go of the housework and just play today! First we went outside and played in the backyard for an hour this morning. It felt so good out there how could I tell them no when they asked. Then we collected leaves and I got some paint, glue, and paper out.

We made fall trees and then painted leaves. The girls had a ball.





The phone rang and I got into a conversation with my dad that had me take my eyes off of Saige for a little bit too long. This is the result of that.


Its not even 11 and we've played, painted and taken a bath already! I sure do love days of staying home and just having fun! Nothing beats it.


And heres a few pictures of Saige playing outside in her halloween stuff the other day. I made the bow and was just itching to have her wear it.