An apple for the teacher

Miss E gave me this darling little apple.  I thought it was so cute and well made, but....

...it's what is on the inside that counts!

Tea party

Growing up tea was a part of my life.  We regularly had tea at Grandma's house and tea parties became something that were very special, but not at all out of the ordinary.  I've enjoyed passing that tradition on to my children.

I recently saw a post about some tea cups that were on sale that just happen to be my favorite style.  I bought them.  Then I bought the mini version for my little girls. They were almost speechless as I showed them the picture on Amazon. Yes, we started planning for tea parties right away.

**Don't mind the bedhead, she had just gotten up from her nap and was so excited to see the new teacups!

Never before has the UPS guy's arrival been so eagerly anticipated by a four year old.  Miss J knew her new tea cups were showing up and met him at the door.  Within minutes of getting the box open both Miss J and Miss C had decided which cups were their favorites.

I looked at more tea sets, just for the fun of it....






This one is absolutely darling.  Too bad they don't need it.

After seeing the short film The forgotten Martyr Lady Jane Grey Miss J has decided that Lady Grey tea is her favorite.  Now I need to track down the de-caf version.  **No, Lady Grey tea is not named for Lady JANE Grey, but it is close enough.


Miss E has plans for making some special cookies.  She has a great cookie cookbook she likes to use.  Maybe some day we will add this one to our collection?




Or it may be too hot for baking around here, so we may just have to purchase some to have with our lemon aide "tea."

Butterfly lapbooks!

Last week we were learning about butterflies.   I made a lapbook for the little kids to enjoy and went through it with them during the week.  The big kids had the assignment of making their own lapbooks during the week and then presenting them to us on Friday.

I loved watching them work.  I had checked out books from the library for them.  They used our encyclopedias and our computer to look up more information and images.  I was impressed with what I saw them pulling out and doing and I was looking forward to seeing the finished products on Friday.

They did a great job on their lap books, and it was a great week as we got back into the swing of things.

A bounce house in the house!

   Daddy is working today (Saturday).  It is raining outside.  The kids have been wanting to pull out the bounce house.  Our back yard (and front) is full of cactus.

I don't think I need to say anything else. :)

I won The Beast (Saddleback leather)

My awesome husband, Rob, introduced me to Saddleback leather a couple of years ago.  He was drooling and thought I may be interested in knowing why. ;)  I bought him a couple of pieces when he got his PhD which encouraged more drooling; from both of us.

Saddleback recently ran a contest to see who could come up with the best uses for their utility straps, the winner would receive a Beast in the color of their choice.  Rob had a great idea and made a great video showing off that idea.  I thought for sure he would win.

Mr. M was inspired by his daddy and made his own video.  Daddy was very proud of his boys being so excited about Saddleback leather and entered the video for Mr. M.

I could easily think of some funny ways a mom could use the Saddleback utility straps so I made my own video (well actually Rob helped with most of it, but the ideas were all mine!).  I thought the guys at Saddleback would get a good laugh out of the video.  I didn't really think I'd win....but I did!

I'm so excited that I get to bring yet another piece of Saddleback leather into our home for my husband.  Maybe I should get myself a piece too one of these days?  I'm looking at their small totes, one of those would be a nice treat.  Then I'd neet to get a wallet, of course the clutch purse would be handy to throw in there, and then there's...oh I better just stop now. ;)

Oh, and of course I wanted the Chestnut Beast to go with all of Rob's other Saddleback.  It will be his after all.  Thank you Saddleback!

Cinderella mopping

Miss J likes princesses.  She really likes Cinderella.  A few days ago she asked if she could do some "Cinderella mopping" which was great since the dinning room needed a once over.

It was so cute so see her, and Miss C, working so hard.  They did a great job, and were a blessing to their family!

Happy Easter! He is risen!

Today feels like an odd Easter.  When my little girls got up yesterday they were obviously sick, we would not be attending Easter services as a family this year.  Last night I spent much of the night up with a crying baby; I thought he was just teething.  He slept a bit and when he got up I could tell that not only was the poor baby teething, but he was also getting sick.

Despite having to stay home Miss J was determined to wear her Easter dress, she had been looking forward to getting to wear it for weeks.  Miss C figured it would be a good idea to pull out a "Sunday" dress too.  They were so cute resting together in their Sunday best.

While this was not how I had planned to spend Easter, it was the very best way I could have spent the day.  We enjoyed some time cuddling and reading Easter books.  This brought some very tender teaching moments of Jesus' love for us, his life, death, and Resurrection; of our sin and need of a savior.

When the rest of the family arrived home we enjoyed a nice lunch and some family time.

Nearly 8 months, table food, and crawling?

Mr. K has been doing a lot of growing up the past couple of weeks.  He figured out that the food on our table is great, so while I do still give him some "baby food" I try to find something from our meal that he can have.  He seems to love food, and has been happy to try everything I give him.

I could not keep enough spaghetti and veggies on his tray the other night, as I tried to scoop it off of a plate and onto his tray he helped himself by the fist full.

He thinks he wants to crawl and is making steady (but slow) progress towards that goal.  Every couple of days or so I can see that he has some new part of this skill down and is working on something new.  He can now get himself moved around a foot or two meaning I must consider him mobile.  This skill along with feeding himself means we have to be extra vigilant again for little bitty things he may want to put in his mouth.

MOMYS houseguests

I'm part of an e-mail loop for large families called MOMYS (Moms Of Many Young Siblings).  We "talk" about all sorts of things, ask questions, and give advice, and help one another out as we can.  When a MOMYS family is traveling sometimes they will will ask if anyone lives in an area they are traveling through.  Finding a hotel room for a large family can be rough.  Why bother when you can meet another family and share some fellowship?

We had the pleasure of hosting the Ramspot family this week (with 8 of their kids).  Mr. Ramspot runs Guys for Life ministry. We enjoyed hearing of their travels, and their ministry.  The kids all had a good time together in the morning and then they were off on their way to their next stop.  What a blessing for us to meet another sweet family and be able to bless them with a home to stay in and a homemade breakfast!

Happy Birthday Mr. R!

We celebrated Mr. R's birthday this week-end.  Mr. R is our junk food junkie, and he goes all out on his birthday when he gets to choose the menu.  Breakfast was blueberry eggo waffles (and he figured out that if he asked for them at Costco we would end up with enough for a second breakfast, he is a smart one.).   Daddy let him go to Circle K and purchase any three items he wanted, but they had to be consumed ON that day.

He had plans for his birthday lunch, but they were changed when Daddy asked him if he was interested in going to the picnic on base.  There would be games, bounce houses, candy, hot dogs, sodas, chips....

 

We slathered on the sun screen.  Donned our hats and had a great time (yea, it was nearly 90 that day.  Welcome to spring in Arizona!).

 

Mr. R's plans for dinner?  Kraft Mac and Cheese.  His cake?  The Dugger icecream sandwich cake.  He helped me make it.

Spaghetti and Meatballs cupcakes- April Fools!

How fun that our monthly cupcakes were "due" on April fools.  The kids were all sure that I should make the spaghetti and Meatballs ones from the Hello, Cupcake! book and I was all for it.  These are some of the easiest cupcakes to make, and they really pull off the look well.

We were heading up to visit a very special church in Phoenix (a sister church to our very dear church in California) so I made up two sets.  One for our local church (I just could not disappoint all the sweet children that were looking forward to "Mrs. Harder's cupcakes") and a batch for the church we were visiting (my own kids could not be disappointed either!).