Absorbing Artwork

Here's a fun and simple craft project I did with the boys this morning to help pass the time unil Daddy got home from work. Hyrum and William thought it was "magic" how the colors moved along the glue.



Absorbing Artwork (familyfun.go.com)

Materials:

• card stock
• white glue
• salt
• cookie sheet
• eye dropper
• colored water (We mixed 5 drops of food coloring into 1 Tbsp of water. We also used only primary colors so that the kids could learn about mixing colors.)

Instructions:

1. Set card stock on cookie sheet and have child draw picture/designs with glue.
2. Sprinkle wet glue with salt until it is completely covered (don't skimp on the salt, if you don't have enough the colored water won't travel along the glue), then tap off excess.
3. Have child use dropper to drip colored water, one drop at a time, onto the salt. As the salt absorbs the liquid, the water will move along the glue lines. Be sure to watch what happens when the color reaches intersecting lines.

Daddy Date

Tonight Dave took William out on his first "Daddy date". This is something Dave and I have wanted to do for awhile now, but just haven't made it a priority until now. Before Dave got home from work I told William that he would get to ride in daddy's truck. He immediately lit up and ws so happy he almost started crying. It was probably one of the sweetest moments I have had as a mother, to see him so genuinely excited. A little bit later as we were putting his shoes on he got really calm and said, "I'm really going to miss you." Moments like these make all the hard times SO worth it!

Dave let William decide what they'd do on their date and William chose to eat dinner at McDonald's (the one with a play area, of course). Afterwards Dave took him to Ace Hardware for a little more "man-to-boy" bonding. When they got home William walked in the door carrying his happy meal box while grinning from ear to ear. It was so cute. Here's a picture of one happy boy and one proud daddy.

Happy Valentine's Day

Since the boys weren't too excited about making valentine's to mail out this year, this is our attempt to tell you all that we love you. Have a great day!

Sun Catcher

With freezing (and below) temperatures last week, the boys and I thought it would be fun to do a little winter craft project. We found this idea on familyfun.go.com. The boys are facinated with ice lately so it was fun for them to make the colored water and watch it freeze into ice cubes. Seeing the sun catcher hanging in our tree helped brighten up the cold and dreary days.

Angel Woman

Today I encountered an angel woman. While at the library self-checking out our endless pile of books I was feeling increasingly flustered by my children. Thomas was screaming to get out of the stroller. William had taken from the librarian's desk the bathroom key which had a frisbee attached and was throwing it across the room. Hyrum, bless his heart, was trying to help check out books, though only making the process longer. In an attempt to quite Thomas I undid his buckle and let him stand up in the stroller, in hind sight a very bad idea, yet it did the trick. I returned to checking out our things only to hear Thomas crying a few minutes later. I looked over and found Thomas on the ground and William trapped underneath the stroller which had tipped over when he tried to push Thomas around. I was very flustered at this point and quickly picked Thomas up, buckled him back into the stroller and placed William sitting on the floor next to the desk to wait until Iwas done. William immediately burst into a high pitched scream, very unhappy to be forced to sit. At that moment I was about to pack up and leave without our books when a very sweet lady came up to me and asked if my children could chew gum. I said yes and thanked her as she handed me three pieces. She said, "I have children too" and then walked away. She said nothing more. The gum quickly quieted William's screams and kept Hyrum occupied long enough for me to finish our checkout and leave the library. As we hurried to the van Hyrum kept talking about how the "nice lady" gave us gum. I don't know her name and I know nothing about her, yet she was my angel today. She was nonjudgmental of me, a young, very flustered mother, with three loud children. She merely saw someone in need and came to help. Today I am grateful for women like her.

"Grow Old Along With Me"

Life was busy and hectic last month when Dave and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary and I never got around to posting about how much I love and admire Dave. I'll spare you all the mushy stuff, but I do want to share something sweet he said the other day. As I was looking in the mirror commenting on how wrinkled I would be as an old lady Dave replied, "Do you know what's good about getting old and wrinkly? You'll have someone next to you getting just as old and wrinkly." I feel so blessed to have a man like Dave to grow old an wrinkly with. So, here's to six years gone by and an eternity to come!

First Day of Preschool