"In Summer... and Winter" at Big Sky

Click here to view this photo book larger

I made this book to celebrate some fantastic seasons up in Big Sky.
We get to go back for a few days again this Summer!

Advent Week 1

Advent means waiting
and this year I decided to put my teacher-y juices in gear
and do more for Advent with the kiddos!

We got this GREAT children's Bible
called Jesus Storybook Bible
which I highly HIGHLY recommend!

And I figured out how to make 24 days worth of readings
to lead from December first to Christmas.

And then I painted an ornament to go with each day,
and the kids get to put it on the tree.

So far I think they really like it,
and I'm loving seeing especially Taylor
hear how God had this planned from the beginning
and how much we can look forward to Jesus!

Advent Day #1: God had this all Mapped Out from the Beginning!

Advent Day #2: He created light, sea, land, plants, sun, moon

Advent Day #3: He created birds, fish, animals and then people in His own image!

Advent Day #4: Adam and Eve chose sin, separating them from God.
But He promises He has a plan to come back to rescue them!

Advent Day #5: People chose sin and forgot about God. 

So God had a plan to destroy the earth through a flood- 

except for his obedient follower Noah and his family. 

God knew everything would go wrong again, 

and that people would forget about Him. 

But instead of destruction His next plan would be to rescue His people. 

Advent Day #6: People again forgot about God. 

They tried to become like Him by building a tower to Heaven. 

To thwart this plan God made it so they all spoke different languages, 

and then scattered around the globe.

Advent Day #7: God showed Abraham the sky full of stars 

and promised him that He'd build a nation more numerous than the stars! 

And then He'd use his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren 

to eventually send a Rescuer for His people.

Advent Day #8: God asked Abraham to trust Him, 

and give Him a gift to show Him how much he loved Him. 

He asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. 

Abraham obediently set up to do it, 

and then God acknowledged Abraham's trust, 

and provided a ram instead. God's perfect plan continues...

We expectantly await the coming of Jesus!!

Two Point Five

Do you realize

that Taylor now turning two and a half

makes her THIRTY months old?!?

We decided to throw her a slumber party

with her 2nd cousins

and the theme was GLOW IN THE DARK!

We had a blast.

Here's a little tour through pictures

I got over half of these ideas through Pinterest.

So fun!

The dollar store had SLIME to play with!
It looks glow-in-the-dark doesn't it?

One of the ideas I saw on Pinterest

from this site here

was to play "keep-it-up" in the dark

with glow sticks inserted into balloons.

That same site also gave us the idea to do bathtime

and use glowsticks in the water!

So I got them big glow stick necklaces,

a big glow in the dark wand,

and several mini glow sticks to toss around in the water.

Kathy has a big "hot tub" spa in her bathroom

so we let the girls put bathing suits on and...

a few squirts of bubble bath + air jets = LOTS of bubbles!

So much fun!

We also did a photo shoot with glow sticks

(an idea from this site here)

and jars I had painted with glow in the dark paint.

Only trouble was that you had to keep COMPLETELY still

while the shutter of the camera was open...

something the older girls did quite well

but Tay struggled to do =)

I still love her lil' photo though!

I also took glow in the dark puff paint
and stained-glass paint
and made a plate for each girl to take home.
This is Addie's plate!
They won't last forever, I'm sure,
but while they do last they'll be fun to use now and then.

This idea came from a post in a foreign language
on a blog that no longer exists, so I can't give you a link for it...
but I adapted it, so we'll just call it "Hot Dots".
I cut each hotdog into four even pieces.
I took Bucatoni pasta (like spaghetti but hollow in the middle)
and pushed three pasta pieces into each piece of hotdog,
sliding the hotdog down to the middle of the pasta.
I cooked them in a LARGE pot of boiling water
(as the noodles were so stiff they needed to fit almost straight up and down in the pot)
and followed the pasta packaging directions for doneness.
Then I opened a box of Kraft Mac'n'Cheese
and took out the cheese packet, emptying it into a microwavable dish,
adding 1/3 c. milk, and 2 Tbsp melted butter.
I cooked that for 30 sec on medium.
(I saved the Macaroni noodles to use another day.)
When the Bucatoni/Hotdogs were done I drained the water
and used a soft spatula to stir in the cheese sauce.

The girls loved it

and were "Mmming" and commenting the whole meal!

There weren't any left!

And then I made finger jello
and put the green and yellow gummi bears into it
to represent "glow in the dark" for the meal!
Quite a treat!!

Then we had "pudding" cheesecakes instead of cake
because we had just celebrated two other family birthdays
and had eaten plenty of cake!
I took Oreo cookies, "twisted" them apart, and used the side withOUT cream,
and then put that cookie in a cupcake paper as the crust.

Then I mixed together an instant pudding "Cheesecake" flavor,
and put it over top the "crust" and topped it with crumbled Oreo with Cream cookies,
and put four together to make a "cake" I could put candles in.

Taylor was STOKED to sing Happy Birthday
and she even pointed to herself and sang " Happy Birthday to me..."

and she sang "...dear Tay-Yore..."

and she LOVED getting to blow the candles out too!

After dessert we headed downstairs

and munched on "snack necklaces" made of neon colored fruit loops and apple jacks

strung on curling ribbon and made into necklaces

and listened while Auntie Anna did story time

and read a few books about the new Disney Pixar movie "Brave"

which will be coming out soon!

She even found one book that GLOWED IN THE DARK!

And then we set up the beds

on the downstairs living room floor.

Believe it or not,

Taylor actually stayed in her "bed" until 4am!

(She awoke crying and joined us in our bed for a few hours.)

Then all but Tay slept in well after 9am!

We had to turn lights on, play music, and then start talking to them

in order to get them to wake.

Then we had breakfast popsicles
while Daddy made waffles and bacon.
I was inspired to make the breakfast popsicles
by a Pinterest at this site
so I made two variations!
First, in Taylor's hand you can see a Blueberry-Vanilla Popsicle.
I used vanilla flavored greek yogurt, and then I made a blueberry mixture.
For four pops I microwaved about 1/2 c. of blueberries,
about 1 Tbsp grapejuice,
1 Tbsp Splenda
and a drip of almond extract.
I alternated yogurt and blueberry mixture in the popsicle mold, then froze!

Second, in Grace's hand you can see a Lemon Popsicle.
I used lemon flavored green yogurt, and made a lemon "goo".
For four pops I juiced about 1/2 c. of lemon juice
2 Tbsp Splenda & 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
and microwaved for 30 seconds on med (power 5).
I added 3 drops yellow and 1 drop green food coloring.
Then I whisked in 2 Tbsp cornstarch
and microwaved for another 30 seconds on med (power 5).
(as an aside- I tried these again and used all Splenda 
and no powdered sugar- and the texture was really weird
so don't substitute the powdered sugar...)
I alternated yogurt and lemon goo in the popsicle mold,
making sure the lemon goo was not very thick each time,
then froze and we enjoyed
bedhead and all!

                         

Before it was time to go home

we made HOMEMADE LAVA LAMPS

which I learned to do from this site here

and it worked SO well!

We poured oil into a clear glass bottle until 3/4 full

(we had leftover IBC cream soda bottles)

and then we put water in until there was TWO inches of free space at the top.

Then I let Taylor choose her color for her water, 

and put 4 drops of foodcoloring into the bottle.

So, below you can see the blue food color, 

and then watch as it slowly dyes the water!

Once the water is dyed,

drop about 1/3 of an Alkaseltzer tablet into the bottle

and watch the "lava lamp" begins to fizzle

and then creates the bubbles!

When the bubbles subside, add the next piece of Alkaselter tablet!

Seriously... HOURS of fun!

It was a fantastic time had by all.
Taylor had so much fun
and felt very special with her friends!
Thanks, girls, for coming!

The happiest 2 and a half year old I know!!

At her lastest WIC appointment we weighed and measured Taylor.
She was 31lbs 12 oz and 37 inches tall.
That puts her in the 66th Percentile!

Oatmeal Art

I recently joined the Pinterest community
and have been enjoying all the inspiring ideas
of STUFF to do with Taylor Lee!

I will try to post at least a lil' pic of a few of them
especially those that are great successes.

But this is not that kind of post!
This is a post where I'm posting MY idea
and then I'll pin it and let others see it!
Yippee!

Taylor loved this activity.
In fact, she sort of "inspired" it herself
by saying she wanted to play with glue...
and all we had in the pantry that would be easy to glue
was a boxful of Instant Oatmeal - Natural Flavor
(so I adapted a long-adored craft of salt coloring to oatmeal!)

Materials:
craft glue (Elmer's would also work)
Oatmeal
chalk
dixie cups
paper plate
spoon (not pictured)

Step-by-Step:
Pour about 1/4 of a packet onto a paper plate

Using one color of chalk,
jam the chalk down onto the oatmeal,
slightly grinding the big flakes
and leaving behind lots of chalk dust

Pour the lightly colored oats into one dixie cup.

Repeat with different colors

Taylor chose green, pink and blue.

For a toddler activity
the adult can draw an item using the glue
(be careful not to do "too much"
as if it dries even just a little
the oats won't stick to it)

Then put spoonfuls of one color onto the wet glue.

Then the adult can fold the paper a little,
letting the colored oats
roll around a little over the sides of the glue.

Then I poured the oats of that color back into the dixie cup
and let Taylor choose the next color.

Sometimes Taylor found it more fun to put the spoon down
and then pour it from the cup onto the remaining glue.

When the flower was done
she asked for a piggy.

We repeated the process

She was VERY proud of her piggy!

When we had completed the other two glue activities
Taylor asked if she could add oats
to a watercolor painting she did yesterday.
It was still sitting on the porch where it had dried,
so she got excited to put oats on the lion's "hair"...

The texture looked VERY cool and added a lot to her painting!

And clean-up?
A total breeze!

No wonder my folks had a dust-buster when I was a kid!

Taylor always looks forward to cleaning time
because she gets to use this!