Firefighters to the Rescue!!!

No, not real firefighters this time!  I now use oven cleaner instead of the self-clean function, so hopefully we won't have any visits from our friendly, neighborhood heroes ever again.  Our kids were the firefighters in a super fun game Jeremy made up.

They had to start at the cones, grab the hose and use water to knock over the targets (various items from our recycling bin).

This then inspired a re-creation of the water fights that our hometown does for one of their festivals.  My brother is a volunteer firefighter, so the kids love to watch Uncle Joe's team compete in the water fights.  The real water fights involve an empty keg on a wire strung between two firetrucks.  Now while you might think it doesn't get any more redneck than some beer drinking firemen aiming their hoses at an empty keg at a small town festival...think again.  I give to you a halloween pumpkin, strung on some rope we had around the house between a basketball hoop and our street lamp.  Impressive, eh?  Maybe not so much, but Micah's strategy to beat Daddy was very impressive and resourceful!

A great way to spend a hot day!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I've got a wee bit of Irish in me...it's where I get my red hair and my temper from.  ;-)  Which gives me permission to live it up at St. Patrick's Day, right?!?!

Some naughty little leprechauns visited our house while we were sleeping Friday night!  They left their green footprints all over!

Yeah...the date is wrong on our clock.  Whoops!

I had this great idea to make it look like they went potty...but someone must have gone potty in the middle of the night and flushed it before the kids could see it in the morning!

They even left marks on the children!

When Micah first woke up, he was watching TV in the dark and hadn't seen the footprints yet.  I asked him what was on his hand and he blew it off, saying "Probably marker."  Then when we turned the lights on and he made the connection, he was totally blown away that the leprechauns had climbed on him!

Of course, this means Mom gets to spend most of the day washing green paint off of everything (It was half dish soap/half washable paint, so it should be easy peasy).  Totally worth it to see their excitement!

Liliana went on and on about how they shouldn't have done that!!  It was pretty cute!  She'll be talking about this for months.

Micah had set some leprechaun traps out, and they climbed up it...but unfortunately they didn't get caught.

Typically, I serve green food all day for St. Patrick's Day, but I'm anti-food coloring right now.  So, we're having the traditional corned beef and cabbage with Irish soda bread instead!  And since there is no way the kids will eat that....a fresh fruit rainbow that they will gladly devour! 

AND Jeremy and I get to head out to an Irish pub for drinks and music tonight!  Can't imagine a better St. Patrick's Day!

Whether you're actually Irish or just an honorary Irishman/woman for the day...hope you and yours have a fantastic day celebrating and joining in the fun!!!

Fishing for the ABCs

Awhile back I picked up some bulletin board letters at a rummage sale.  We've used them for a TON of things (here's one)...but not bulletin boards.  :-)

Today, they became fish.  Got a magnet wand?  Tie it to a pole, add a paperclip to anything and you've got yourself a fishing game!

Liliana was so excited to climb up on the coffee table "boat" and get started.  The rule was that if she could name the letter, she got to keep the fish.  If not, the fish got tossed back into the pond.

This is what happens when you tell a 3 year old who skipped her nap that she needs to throw her fish back.

Yes.  I took a picture of her crying rather than immediately running to comfort her.  Best. Mom. Ever. 

Micah provided some good distraction by pretending to be a shark and got the game back on track.

And this photo has nothing to do with anything, other than my daughter being adorable!

I think she was asking us what letter it was but she couldn't stop laughing because Micah was shouting something about butts.

This game could be expanded by using numbers, colors, shapes, etc. for the fish.  For Micah, I was planning on saying a word and having him fish for the letter it started with, but they got distracted and moved on.  You could also have older kids fish for sight words or the answers to math problems.

Lenten Family Ritual

Kids love rituals and traditions.  I do too...in theory.  In actuality, I'm consistent at very few things in life (have you noticed I blog in spurts?), so having to remember a ritual and find the time to fit it in rarely happens. 

In the Christian church, the 40 days leading up to Easter (not including Sundays) are considered the season of Lent.  A lot of Christians use this time to either give something up as a sacrifice (like not eating chocolate) or to engage in a new spiritual discipline (like reading the Bible daily).  While I may not be consistent year round, I can manage to do something for 40 days.  Thus our Lenten Family Ritual...

1.  We light a candle.  (Candles make everything special, right?  We've actually started lighting two candles so we don't have to deal with tantrums over who gets to blow it out.)

2.  We cuddle on the couch, read a story from the Spark Bible and talk about it.  (We like this one because it has pictures, easy text, and covers a lot of ground.)

3.  We gather around our prayer cross (butcher paper) and share our prayers.  (We use 3 types of prayers:  Please God..., Thank you God..., and I'm sorry God...)  After they say a prayer we all say "Amen" and then write it on the cross in a simple form.  (They like to chose the spot where we write it.)

4.  We sit in a circle, hold hands, and say the Lord's Prayer.  (Liliana didn't know it when we started, but she's caught on!  We end it by shouting "And the whole Johnson family says AMEN!!!!" and throw our hands up in the air.)

5.  We blow out the candle.

Simple, requires no prep, takes about 15 minutes of our night and the kids LOVE it!  And I love that we're spending intentional, quality family time together and creating lasting memories, while helping our children grow in faith.

You can still do family rituals without it having to be a Christian thing too...just adapt.  For instance, you could light a candle, read a storybook together, and share your best and worst parts of your day.  Consistent, quality family time is the goal!

Liliana's Travel Agency

Yesterday, Liliana and I had an awful day.  We were both moody, neither of us wanted to compromise, and we spent most of the day angry with each other.  I was determined that today would be better.  So last night, I set out new markers and paper upstairs at the table and at the table downstairs I set out this, an invitation to play Travel Agency.

She was stoked!  She sat right down and started asking us where we wanted to go.

Apparently she specializes in "pink vacations."  She'd say, "Do you want to go to Minnesota?  How about pink Minnesota?  Would you like to stay in a pink hotel?  It has pink beds and a pink pool.  You can take a pink car to get there."  My kind of a trip!

She played nicely all morning!  If you haven't had a conversation with her lately...you should.  She's hilarious!  She makes all of these facial expressions when she's talking.  These photos were all taken right in a row while she was telling me about my vacation options:

She's so expressive!  Must get it from Jeremy.  ;-) 

If you have an old keyboard, phone, cash register, and notepad/pen, you've got the basics for a TON of different dramatic play opportunities. 

• Post Office- Add a mailbox, envelopes and stickers.
• Shoe store- Add shoes/shoe boxes.
• Toy store- Add toys and a shopping cart.
• Book store or library- Add books and fake credit cards for library cards.
• Grocery store- Add either empty or full food containers, grocery bags, a shopping cart or basket, and old coupons.
• Construction company- Add blocks.
• Restaurant- Add plastic food, table cloth, drawn menus, maybe a tray to carry food, etc.

You get the idea!  Grocery store was one of our favorite daycare games to play.  It's amazing how they pick up on the little details of social interactions that they can then repeat through dramatic play.  For instance, saying "Have a nice day." when you hand the bag of food to the customer.  That's nothing I've ever taught my kids, but they picked it up from observing.  Such sponges!!!

And in the meantime, if you're interested in taking a pink vacation, call Liliana!  Operators are standing by.

Our Wedding...Take Two!

8 years ago, I married my best friend and the love of my life!  

Although it was a VERY stressful day, it was wonderful and we were absolutely giddy.

This year, we decided it would be fun to reenact some of the day!  Jeremy put on a suit, stood at the front of the church, played the song we walked in to, and my dad walked me down the aisle.  We had even gotten ready at separate houses so it was a surprise. 

We tried to recreate some of the photos...

THEN

NOW

THEN

NOW

THEN

NOW

But the best ones we were just being silly and having fun with.  

(Amazing how less stressful it is when it's just pretend!)

It was seriously one of the most fun things we've ever done!  

Before we left, we said our vows and danced to our wedding song.

When we went to my in-laws to pick up the kids, they had some cake sitting on the counter, so we even got to reenact the cake smooshing!  What an amazing anniversary!!! (And best of all, it was fun, romantic, AND didn't cost a dime!)

Happy 8 years of marriage pookie bear!  I am the luckiest woman alive!!!

Pouring Practice

Not every project I do with the kids is a success and some are disasters!  I was going to post today about making gingerbread houses from scratch, but that project failed.  Miserably.  The gingerbread itself turned out fine, but the icing was way runny and I realized that I had tossed out all the candy laying around our house, so we were going to have to decorate with dried fruit.  We gave up.

But we did have fun doing the part we did!

So instead, we worked on our pouring skills today.  Liliana loves to help herself to milk and juice, but she could use a little practice with it.  Our kitchen has carpet in it and she once poured an entire gallon of orange juice on the floor and then sweetly said "Oops!  I missed." 

We had the kiddy pool in our house already from the rainbow rice, but you could easily do this in the bathtub.  I grabbed a bunch of stuff from our kitchen and recycling bin.

I put water in the pitcher, and she set right to work. 

She did GREAT!!!  So well that I was thinking to myself maybe we should let her pour her own drinks more often!

Then she did not so great.

A good half of that missed.  And then....well....I saw this coming, which is why she was in her swimsuit.

She ended up splashing around for awhile until she got cold, and then her barbies took a turn going for a swim.  I will definitely be doing this again with her though because it kept her thoroughly entertained, was really great practice, and actually wasn't too difficult to clean up. 

Success!

Easy Sorting/Matching Game

When my mom was visiting, she picked up this container of beads for the kids from Hobby Lobby.  It has beads of all shapes, colors, sizes, etc. including a bunch of animals!

We have had more fun with these beads than I ever imagined we would!!!  Stringing them, sorting them, gluing them, picking them up with tweezers, etc.  We're always coming up with new uses for them!  One day, they were busy painting and I was cleaning stuff up and saw this huge stack of ice cube trays sitting on top of the fridge and voila...

Instant matching game!

I thought I'd help make it easier on the kids and put one of each pair of beads in the ice cube tray and then give them a container with just the other ones in...so all they had to do was put it in the right spot.

Liliana LOVED this and did great at it!  
Micah disgustedly retorted, "Come on mom, this isn't even challenging for me!"  Well okay then.

So then I went with the whole, just put a handful of beads out and they can find their own matches.  That kept Micah entertained for a lot longer.  Until.......

Of course she did!  What the heck was I thinking leaving the entire container open and within reach?!?!  Picking everything up pretty much killed the rest of our activity time.  But the lesson learned (other than putting the beads up high) is that ice cube trays make GREAT matching/sorting containers.  You could use them with all kinds of materials...a nature theme (match the rocks, sticks, shells, etc.), food (make pairs of raspberries, blueberries, etc.), fun foam shapes, legos, coins......lots of possibilities.  Another idea would be to put numbers in the top row and then have them count the matching number of beads into the spot below it.  Ice cube trays...who knew???

DIY Scarecrow

As previously mentioned, I LOVE fall.  Especially fall decorations.  There are sooooo many cute ideas on Pinterest for fall that I could easily spend a fortune at Hobby Lobby getting our house all festive!  But, could I just as easily decorate without spending a dime???

Yep!

Meet Max!  Max is our new scarecrow buddy that we made out of stuff around the house.  We stuffed some old clothes with some thin old blankets (because we didn't have any straw or newspaper on hand), sewed a face and a hat out of some fabric scraps and set him up on a chair.  $0.  The kids LOVED helping with it!  And every time we go out to get the mail or drive away from our house, they say "Hi Max!!!"  The pumpkins and gourds are courtesy of our parents' gardens.  $0.  Corn stalks were given to us by a church member who farms.  $0. 

Inside our house, Micah has been decorating up a storm.  He's been coloring pictures of pumpkins, ghosts, and bats and hanging them on the wall.  He also decided to make some "streamers" to decorate the door leading up to their bedrooms.  He worked so darn hard on those streamers, and kept setting off to make more and more and finally I just said, "Honey, why don't we just buy some streamers for you to decorate with."  And he said, "Well, you could.  But why buy something when you can make it for free?"  Love that boy!!!  While saving money AND having a cute home is great, teaching your children the joy of being thrifty is priceless!

Micah's "streamers."  He's so proud!  And those little dots on the wall behind are the tiny pumpkins he made leading up the staircase.

I LOVE my husband!

I love my husband for many reasons.  Including the fact that I came outside one day to find him doing this with our kids...

We have a bunch of random PVC pipe from one of those ladder golf games, and so Jeremy had the kids connect the pieces, place a marble inside and put the hose in one hand.  They covered up different pipes to change the pressure and try to get the marble to come out of different tubes.

It was an awesome physics lesson, and a lot of fun!  And he came up with it all on his own!  He's amazing.  It's official.