. i said it last week .

. and i'll say it again . it's so much fun being a girl .

. paper chains .

. they are so easy to make and yet look so festive . alannah and i used some fun scrapbook paper and came up with this cute chain .

. i told her i wanted to take her picture with the chain and she said 'yea, and we can put it on facebook', cracked me up, didn't know she knew what facebok was .

. fun day ahead . a fun little photoshoot scheduled and a fun get together with friends is on the agenda as well . i'm feeling very much 'in the spirit of the season' lately . it seems peaceful at this point .

. it's so much fun .

. being a girl .

. sand art spice tea .

. a favorite wintertime drink at our house is spice tea (or tang tea) . ryan has come to love it and i told him we'd make some to send home with him .

. i've always had the idea to make this as gifts and mix it like sand art so we gave it a try . we worked with what we had, which was old fruit and olive jars .

. separated out the ingredients and tried to evenly distribute into jars .

. kind of cool looking, huh .

. well, except for the tops, so we decorated them .

. added a tag and...

. there you have it, sand art spice tea .

. it's a start .

. i've been dying to decorate for christmas since i went shopping last friday morning . things have just been so busy though, i've yet to get to it . i did squeeze a little bit in with reed on monday by making this snowflake garland . it was easy and fun, kids love to use scissors . a little tip i learned is that when making snowflakes with kids to use coffee filters, they are much easier to cut .

. i've also cleaned up all my pumpkins (outside and in) and fall decor so i'm feeling ready to take on the decorations, soon . photos to come once it's all done .

. fun thanksgiving activity .

. i'm so thankful to have kiddos at my house every now and then just so we can do fun projects together :) . monday reed and i did a little window painting . we took a leaf template printed off the interent onto card stock, cut it out, put rolled up masking tape on the back and stuck it to a window .

. using tempra paint, sponge paint over the stencil . after it's dry remove the stencil and you've got a really cool leaf pattern on your window pane . the best part is that you can do this with any shape, for any holiday or just for fun . oh and this just washes right off with window cleaner .

. got this idea from our 'great idea book' . this book is great for keeping little ones busy with fun activities that use very basic project supplies .

. happy thanksgiving to you all .

. i'm thankful for blog readers .

:)

. favorite story books .

. i've had kiddos at my house a lot lately and we always read a lot . their excitement over a few of the stories we've read made me think i should share a few of our favorite books . i have a ton of books but they always gravitate to these certain ones . i'm kind of picky what we read as i like for the story to have great meaning, make the kids think, or else it just has to be a funny read that they enjoy . i'd also love to hear what books your kids love that we don't have . most of these books i've stumbled upon at stuffs (local consignment store) or goodwill .

. bare bear's new clothes .

. this one is fun because with every turn of the page bear bare gets a different outfit .

. what makes a rainbow .

. they love this one because it has vibrant colors and with each page adds another color to the rainbow . this helps them learn the colors of the rainbow, and in order .

. max lucado is a great author and writes a lot of stories about little wooden people who live in 'wimickville', their maker, eli, lives on the hill and is always a big part of the story . he represents Jesus . i don't tell the kids this before reading the story, but it never fails, when reading it to a child for the first time they ask if eli is Jesus . i've been so surprised how quick they catch on .

:)

. nel's elf . this is a great one for the imagination .

. a few stories i have i leave out things i don't necessarily like about them, in this book it's the word 'dumb' .

. corduroy, a classic . it's such a sweet story .

. skeletons! skeletons! .

. the first time i read this book i love to watch the kids faces . bones apparently are a bit of a mystery and this reveals so much about them that they didn't know . they start feeling their faces, they rib cage, their elbows .

. and when you hold it up to the light you can see the bones in a persons body and in amilmals bodies . very cool .

. clap your hands .

. this book is just down right fun . it has all kinds of actions to do together . i love doing this one with a group of kids .

. responsible . honest .

. cute little poemish stories of george washington and abe lincoln .

. we can count .

. i have a few counting books but we always read this one . now they read it to me .

. how to be a nature detective .

. a great book for the kid who is always trying to figure stuff out, who is a naturally a bit of a detective .

. happy day books are great for teaching faith based values . i love these little stories, we have a ton of them .

. babies .

. and for some reason even the older kids like this story book that's mostly for babies .

. growing vegetable soup .

. just a fun story that starts with planting seeds all the way to eating what you've planted .

. so, that's our favorites, what's yours ?

. investigating the farm .

. spent yesterday with seth and andrew and we did a little investigating around the old farm . and what better than to find a frog to tote around with us the whole time . poor little frog .

. andrew is quite the climber . when he was not yet walking i remember walking into my dining room table and finding him standing in the middle of my table . he's always been a climber . i didn't let him go very high on the ladders, once again, how much fun am i ? i'm having a hard time finding that balance of letting them be boys and still being cautious . i think i said 'careful' more times during our little jaunt around the farm than i have in my entire life .

. perfect case of 'monkey see monkey do' .

. doggie doors, not just for dogs .

. it's been a while since i've kept these little boys . i forgot how ready for nap time i am by the time it rolls around .

. good day .

:0)

. if you haven't had a chance to pick a favorite photo for the contest i'll be entering, scroll on down and do so ! and thanks to those who already have !