A few "pets"

We are a pet-less family. At least for now.
So when my kids find animals, they like to "adopt" them. (Meaning: research, watch and follow them to death and act like they actually now own the rights to that species). Our summer has not been without animal adventures!
Here is our first  to showcase: a little baby pine siskin.

This little guy (or girl or one of its friends) decided to spend some time sitting on little A's head to our surprise a few days ago, and then E found another one here in the tree (below). He could actually reach out and touch it--I'm not sure it was old enough to know it should be afraid of humans. Luckily, this one found my kids, who LOVE animals!

And we have our owl from the creek. We think it is a barred owl (we have seen two together, but there might even be three of them), but E is a little on the fence on this one. His screech seems to mimic a barn owl, but a barred or spotted owl is our best guess from all we have researched. We've taken some extra walks in the creek to visit our friend, and to see the things it likes to eat! (Ew!) We've had some pretty close encounters with it.
Below is a picture from my camera--your plain old point and shoot kind.

And another one from a different day--yah, I'm pathetic. I go out each time we see or hear it to see if I can do any better for a photo. We've had it sit on our back fence before, but then there is no camera around!

These two pictures are sent from our neighbours down the road. He has the cool camera with the specialized settings and the extra lens and all. . .Maybe I can convince my hubby that I NEED one of those cameras!!! Can't I hope for my Canon Rebel for Christmas? :)

And a few from E's bug box. He has been busy collecting caterpillars of all sorts and enlisting the help of others. Here was Opa's contribution one day--he caught it and put it in E's bug box while we were out to surprise him! (This one was taken on my boring old camera--I was kinda impressed with how well it turned out!)

And as you can see (or this explanation will help you see) that beside our butterfly friend (who was released the next day) a cocoon or chrysalis of some sort. You can correct me if I am wrong, but I think this one is a cocoon because it is silky and cotton-like and a chrysalis is more of an opaque hard shell. It came from a black caterpillar with orange spots.

Well that cocoon  (and one other darker coloured one) sat there in its pupa stage for FOREVER! I was ready to scrape them out. This particular white one is actually still sitting there and getting thinner, but the darker one is broken open, because. . .

out came this moth! We haven't quite pinned down what kind it is except that the wings are brown with white spots (and we have a few pictures to go back to and compare for our searching for the exact name!)

In this above photo you can see the cocoons and the moth. We had a big releasing at Grandma's house and by her pond. After it was all done, E decided to announce that he had learned that usually moths and butterflies go back to the place of their emergence to lay eggs. (Glad it wasn't released at our place if that was true!)

And another is on the way--a fuzzy brown caterpillar in a new bug box brought over by Opa. We will see what comes of that!

a little garden fixing. . .

I selvaged this little garden sign from my MIL yard garbage pile, probably about 5+ years ago. It has been in my garage that long, waiting to be fixed up and painted as the thing was almost wood again, no colour. Last week, I finally gave it a try.

Added some wire. . .I was going to hang it on my tree or fence and take the stake off.

But it didn't look too bad like this, so here it stays for now.

And here is my previous ivy patch, all dug out (well mostly in this photo). Why is it that every spring/summer I want to change around all my gardens? I'm not a great gardener--just learning as I go, listening to others, and looking at what they have done (and of course using the good ole computer!). Hopefully I will fill this spot with a variety of hostas instead. But for now, I am busy weeding and cutting down overgrown gardens!

Happy gardening!

a few more baby gifties

With summer here, I've had a few extra minutes to sew again!

Aside from just fixing the broken clothing, I've made a few baby blankets for gifts. I missed a few babies being born, and had no extra "boy" ones in reserve, so that was my job for the last few days. I was a little hesitant at first to use this fabric because the matching ribbon was. . . black! It was a risk for me--I'm usually more into the colourful, but I just could not find any matching ribbon! I also tried a "hooded blanket" this time, just to try something new.

 Here is my dinosaur set--hood blanket, bandanna drool bib and a tag blanket.

 See all the black ribbon on this one? But I think it turned out OK!

 And here is my bandanna drool bib. My daughter had one and it worked wonderful, so I thought I would sew a few to match.

 And here is my race car set--hooded blanket, tag blanket, and bandanna drool bib.

This one I was able to find a blue that went pretty well with it, without going to bright and bold with red or yellow. Maybe on the next one. . .

Now it is off to the fabric store in order to make more--I ran out of blanket material!



felt flowers for her hair

It was my daughter's birthday a bit ago and she knows all about parties because of her older brother.

So whenever her birthday comes along, she had a long LIST of things to do!

But we keep it small--and crafty! Here is what we did:

felt flowers on headbands or barrettes.

My sister and I had made some cute rosettes out of felt to put on headbands or barrettes once, and I thought they were cute, so I kinda went off of that idea and made these layered felt flowers.

(supplies above)

First I found all the different colours of felt I had in the house.

Then I found some flower patterns on google. These ones were great! I also found more "daisy" type ones with pointed petals as well. I sided them differently and then started tracing and cutting!

 Then I chose a few to try--pink and grey for now. I layered them up. Now, you can just layer them and glue them--some of my daughter's friends did that. These flowers were bigger, so I put one tiny "x" stitch in the middle (see the yellow?) to gather them just a bit.

 Next went the rhinestone. . .

Oh the girls were in heaven with those things!!!

 And then finally the little circle patch to help glue it onto the headband.

I gave the girls a choice--so here is how it is if they wanted to use a barrette instead.

I wish I had taken pictures of the ones they had finished/made. Some of them were so cute! I had also cut out some tulle flowers and circles to add in and little leaves if they wanted to add those as well. They just stacked flowers and started gluing! (and then I used the glue gun to finish them all off!)

It was a cute and easy party idea!



A Few Firsts. . .

It has been forever since I have blogged last!

I guess too much else has been going on.

Here are a few "first" from yesterday. . .

E's first tooth means a first visit from the tooth fairy in this house!

 He was so nervous to pull it out and we tried encouraging him to do it while he was still in school, but he was not budging! So, on Saturday, the day after school was let out, it was hanging on by a thread and I just yanked it out!

 The tooth fairy made a first appearance at our house. . .

(not sure where this came from. . .I googled a lost tooth certificate and this was one of them!)

And being his first tooth and all . . .I forgot to remind him to put his tooth my his pillow! So, to make ti all better, he ALSO got a letter from the tooth fairy.

"Dear E:

Written: Very late on June 23

As your loving tooth fairy, I had to look EVERYWHERE for your tooth! It was not under your pillow or on your night stand. That is where most kids usually put their teeth for me to collect. However, I flew into your mom while searching and she showed me where to find your tooth. (It was on the kitchen counter!) Next time, please have it nearby! After all that searching I had to do, I am exhausted! {insert smiley face stickers here}

Love, the Tooth Fairy

p.s. I already talked to your mom about how she is supposed to remind you to put it in the right spot. You might want to have a little talk with her too!"

He loved it. . . and it sure worked to save me--I mean, the tooth fairy--from an "oops!" I had dance recital on my mind, sick little brother, nightmares from watching Batman and Robin to ward off, FF hubby off to save the town from the thunderstorm. . .

~*~

And the other first we had on Saturday, was A's first dance recital!

Oh my! I am so not a "dance mom!"

 The make-up! The curls (which you can't even see in these pictures)! The hairspray! The eyelashes!

(Okay, I attempted the eyelashes, but then just sent them along with her so someone there could do it! Sorry, no pictures with her long wavy black lashes--and I am kind of okay with that!)

 There was no pictures allowed during the recital, so here are a few from afterwards. According to her, the vest was too itchy and it would have been better to do the performance without it. And, according to her, lipstick tastes gross and eyelashes feel funny!

 My dancing queen! She was a line leader in her little number and got to pull some of the other girls in the right direction during the dance! I told her that I thought she did a great job leading all the girls in her sidesteps around the circle. She informed me that maybe I need to take some lessons too, because they did the sidesteps in a square. My BAD!!!

She loves dancing!

Superheroes and Sidekicks. . .against bullying

Our school recently celebrated a "theme week," with this year's theme being "Superheroes and Sidekicks." This was a theme that was centred around our Greatest Superhero, Jesus Christ, whose greatest gift to us was His saving love. We focused on the following verses:

Matthew 22:36-40

New International Version (NIV)

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In this theme, we tried to foster positive character building and friendship traits by taking a villain--something that stops love from being spread--and to fight that with a superpower, which turned out to be the fruit of the spirit. The theme week overlapped "Pink Shirt Day," a day in which people wear a pink shirt to show their desire to take a stand against bullying.

The school's PAC so willingly decorated the display case in a "comic book"style. Our week included Captain Bucket-filler--a superhero we created in connection to the book about filling people's buckets--and our school's theme from last year about how God desires us to fill the buckets of others by doing kind and loving things.

One of the grade five classes created these banners for the "Pink Shirt Day."

Our staff room had a HUGE table filled with resources about friendship and bullying for teachers to use throughout the week.

Here is Captain Bucket-filler himself (our principal!) in a visit to each classroom to encourage the students to keep filling others buckets!

Pink Shirt Day was accompanied by pink lemonade for all the kids and treats to celebrate friendship!

Friday was a superhero dress-up day, closing chapel, and grade-level presentations.

Each class was responsible for creating a project of some kind to present to their grade level on Friday to show what they learned about friendship. My group of grade ones picked the villain, "The Meany Monster. We created "Wanted" posters with pictures of crazy monsters and wrote descriptions about what a mean monster might do. Then we talked a bunch about the Fruit of the Spirit.

With a little searching on google, I found colours that represented the fruit of the Spirit, so we made beaded bracelets for our grade one friends in the other classes, and also made a card that went along with it explaining how we wanted to practice "loving our neighbors" by letting the fruit of the spirit flow out of us instead of those mean traits.

Here are some of the kids working so hard on their cards. (We each had to make 2-3 bracelets/cards so that we could have one for ourselves and also share them with the other classes!)

It was a great week of watching the presentations of the other classes and spending a lot of time talking about how we can show love to God and our neighbor in the way we treat our friends.

The week started out with an opening chapel, featuring a teacher skit of a Sloth who saved his sleepy friends, even though they at first found him annoying.

The week ended with a worship chapel, where we also acted out the Good Samaritan story and sang our favourite song of the week, "Jesus, You're My Superhero!"

Teacher Appreciation Week

This year, the Staff Appreciation Week that is put on by the school's PAC, had the theme "Life's a Picnic." The PAC did a beautiful job of decorating an entryway bulletin board in a spring-like picnic theme. I love the flags!

Our Staff Room continued the theme with flags out of "picnic" themed colours.
Below are some of the gifts that were given out during the week. It's kinda too bad--I don't know who received any of them! I have no idea when they drew the names, but by the end of the week, all the gifts had disappeared! :) It was a very generous gesture, nonetheless!

The PAC also sent home some pages for the kids to decorate, draw pictures on, and to use for writing little notes to the staff. At least one parent brought in a treat for our breaks each day. It was wonderful! We were well-fed and spoiled all week!

My birthday fell on one of these days and here is a little gift from one of the parents for the class to enjoy together!

The PAC did special things each day for the staff: (I hope I remembered each day accurately--my blogging is a little late~this happened almost 2 months ago!)

Monday--a classroom visit by a cheerful (and cheering) ant to hand out the note paper to the kids and gear them up for the week. Smoothies and invites to the Staff Luncheon were handed out.

A card included the verses from 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3: "² We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. ³ We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."

Tuesday-- we received a gorgeous rose, along with the verse from Jeremiah 17:8:
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

Wednesday-- we received a cute little bookmark with is verse and quote:
"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. " ~1 Corinthians 15:8

Our bookmarks read: "So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is useless. 1 Cor. 15:58
Every calling is great when greatly pursued.-O.W. Holmes"

Along with this was a Bath and Body works hand sanitizer! :)

Thursday-- I believe this day's verse was Ephesians 2:10 (NLT): "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." And a few chocolates to go along!

Friday-- We were given delicious gourmet cupcakes (chocolate or strawberry cheesecake!) with the verse found in Galatians 6:9-10

Galatians 6:9-10

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Friday also was our staff luncheon. It was overwhelmingly too much food, served by many wonderful parents, and so delicious! For me it was an extra treat, as I had outdoor duty and it was covered for me so I could sit and enjoy this yummy lunch time!

Many thanks goes to the PAC and the parents of the ACS school community! It was a wonderful week, and it was nice to feel so appreciated!



Heart Garland

So. . . just to prove to you that Pinterest is not just a time-wasting activity, but results in some creativity (as simple as it may be!), here was a "craft" I did for Valentines Day as a decoration for the classroom.

First I took a whole bunch of paint chips (thank you very much local Behr supplier!) and my Super heart punch (by Recollections) and started punching away.

Next, I took a needle and embroidery floss and strung them all together (I made two garlands of 17 each), leaving about an inch between hearts. And yes, I did a pattern of light pink, dark link, medium pink as I strung them.

Then I took your regular cheap pink ribbon (again--light, dark and medium), cut it into strips, and made ties between the paint chip hearts.

And here it is!

Easy little project.

A nice bit of decoration for the classroom. . .or home. We don't really decorate for Valentine's Day at our house (although my daughter really wanted me to after making this!) Maybe next year. . .

I also made some strands of stars in this same way, only they hung down.

I used blues and yellows for that one--made 6 strands, so that there were 100 stars all together (That is a lot of punching and stringing!). I hung them in the doorway of my classroom on 100 Day. I made 5 different patters in these strands. If over the course of the day, my students could guess which one broke the pattern, they would get to pick one of my 100 treats of that day.

My frugal nature: these star strands are going to be great to decorate alongside of our "Starry Night" art projects (when studying VanGogh)

Lent at our House

Lent at our House this Year

Lent . . . I’ve recently found that it springs up on me in such a way that I am not prepared for it—like this year. All of a sudden I am reading a devotional to a classroom of students about Ash Wednesday, and I realize, It’s Lent! Or like last year, I find out two days into the season that people have started to “give up” something and I missed the boat. How can I really celebrate Lent if I’m two days late? is my justification to my absent-mindedness. What kind of excuse is not being ready, not being on time, when God spent since the creation of the earth on a plan to save me and is still working it out? In recent years, those are the big thoughts that go through my head and bog me down at the beginning of Lent.

I’ve had years of omitting something. Chocolate one year, coffee another. I could re-do one of those. . .but really, I have enough to be crabby about. Why add to it? And will my lack of coffee turn into prayer and remembrance or just a few more extra minutes to accomplish a few more things? Will not eating a morsel cause me to reflect on His grace or cause me to think up some great weight-loss excuse for it all? I don’t mean to sound crass: I realize the harsh reality of lent for me still. I have a lot to learn. Still. A LOT!

But thanks to social media, and a status of someone I call my friend, God roped me into this season of lent anyway. A friend declared her intent for lent was 40 days of gratitude. She would post something each day that she was thankful for. Easy enough. And I sit back and think, Man, why hadn’t I thought of that? And then another friend says she is coping that idea and starts posting her 40 days of gratitude. And then my pig-headed, stubborn, sinful nature steps in and says, There’s no way I am doing that now.

But that night, when I am praying with my two oldest kids, I ask them to pray for one extra thing they are thankful for. I’m not really copying the idea, right?  And I am not posting it as a status every day. It is totally different, I justify. Easy enough, my kids come up with an extra prayer request. An extra sentence of praise. One more thought of gratitude. 

And here is what God does without my input. On the first night, I sit back and as a proud mom, I thank God for kids who are thankful. But on all the nights to come, He beckons me to talk to Him. I don’t even realize the invitation—I talk to God only because of the “cute” one-liners that my kids are saying and praying.

Like this:

Princess A: Thank you that you made me a princess.
Dear God, Thank you for showing my daughter so much love and may she continue to know that she is and always will be a daughter of the true King.

E: Thank you for African food.
Dear God, Thank you for a small taste of what all of Your creation is like. Thank you for Your variety and spice, and help us to understand You are a big God to this big world.

Princess A: Thank you that I can dance.
Dear God, Thank you for bodies that move and create. Thank you that You made us creative creatures. Thank you that our creativity brings glory to You.

E: Thank you for the birds and bugs.
Dear God, Thank you for your creation. Thank you for the small critters we barely get to meet. Thank you for all that is soaring above us, and that You care so much to take care of them all.

Each night I find myself talking to God just a little bit more. I am thanking God for the items they are thankful for—praising God for the resources to allow them to go to swimming lessons or out to a fast-food restaurant, acknowledging God for his forgiveness so we could get through that lying stage without washing any mouths with soap, appreciating the fact that we can make a “home” for the snails that plague our gardens, being grateful that we sang all of the favourite songs in church again.

Lent is a time to reflect on our need for a Saviour, as we look forward to celebrating our Lord’s death and resurrection. My Saviour asked me to spend a little more time with him this year. And because of the everyday prayers of thanks from my children, I’ve been spending a few more minutes in gratitude for all my Saviour has done for them. . .and me.

A little teacher giftie

Last week was a Teacher Appreciation Week at my son's school. This was our clever idea. Although, I have to admit, there was nothing clever I can take credit for, except for making it with my son! The idea came from this blog. It links to the printable and everything. All you do is print out the printable (small hint: leave the extra white space that goes to the edge of the paper--these labels are a hair too short!), wrap it around the water bottle, attach a crystal light-type of tea packet with a fancy ribbon, and add a tag. So-o-o simple!

Here is how they turned out for us:

And a close up. . .

It was very inexpensive, but very cute. Enough to say thanks, and useful enough, too.

Here is another way of doing it. . .although, I kinda like the first way better.