Monday, August 30, 2010

Church Picnic

Every year our church takes advantage of our amazing surroundings through an all-church picnic. Instead of having four services, we have one outdoor service, a believer's baptism, and picnic. It's always a wonderful time, and yesterday was no exception. I brought the girls with Grandma.

Some of the kids near us were climbing the trees, but Gracie was just a little too small to join in, so Grandma helped her sit in a tree. Then, of course, Bee needed a turn.



Dancing to the wonderful worship music.

Playing with a friend of ours. Gracie was chasing her with her hands on her mouth like big teeth and growling. They had lots of fun!

Gracie spent some time chasing a little butterfly around. Luckily, it did get away at the end!

Grandma brought a stroller umbrella that Gracie danced around with for a while.

Sitting back, relaxing, enjoying her hot dog.

Saturday Fun






























Sunday, August 29, 2010

Saints

Last week we went to a St. Paul Saints game. We've been going through a bit of baseball withdrawl since moving to Hudson, so it was nice to be at a ballgame. The kids seemed to like it too. It was nice to get to be there with Jon, Carrie, Jolynn, Nana, and Grandpa too!

She wanted to go on the field and pet the pig.




Meeting Mudonna was very fun for Gracie!


Jolynn's first baseball game!

The guy behind us liked Gracie so much her gave her his cotton candy.


One Last Visit to Dora

Last week we visited Dora one last time for the year. This time we were able to bring some friends with! An old friend of mine now works there and left us 100 points for the rides! We had a great day together riding and visiting with each other.



Playgrounds

Gracie would live at the playground if I let her.

Bee stole Gracie's sippy cup.

Love Bee's expression in this one! So Bee.



Gracie loves motorcycles.

She's so big! She loves to climb, and usually doesn't need a lot of help.

Made it! All by myself!


Ready!

I was meeting my sister-in-law and her daughters at a friends house to get photos taken of our girls. I had them both ready, everything packed and in the car. All I had to do was get the kids in the car. I turned around just in time to see Gracie jam her fingers into one of my lipsticks and wipe it across Brianna's face.


Ugg.

Big Girl Food

I decided to let Bee try big girl food a couple weeks ago. I chopped up a hot dog expecting her to eat a few pieces~but she ate the whole thing! Since then, she has been eating whatever Gracie eats, and usually more of whatever it is than Gracie!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Silhouette

There's another Silhouette giveaway! Check it out here.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Marbeling with Shaving Cream

As an art teacher, I follow a lot of art education blogs. Some of the ideas that I find I use with my students, some with my kids, and some with both! This idea I used with Gracie last night, and intend to use with my Autistic students this school year. It will be my first year working with small groups of special needs kids, so I have been on the lookout for great projects that will help with the skills we are trying to cultivate in them. I looked for the original post for this idea, but couldn't find it. So I guess I'll tell you the steps that we took to create these awesome marbeled papers.
UPDATE: I found the original post! Check here for Miss Rachel's post.
First, spray some shaving cream into a tray.
Add a few drops of food coloring or liquid watercolors. The original blog suggested using only two colors, but I really like the ones we did with all three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue). You will get a rainbow effect with the primary colors mixing into secondary colors (orange, green, and purple).


Use whatever you want to create swirls and other patterns in the shaving cream. I tried using a comb, and it got a bit jumbled. If you have a lower edge to your tray that would probably work great. For Gracie, I just had her use her finger. She's a pretty hands-on girl, she'd probably just throw the comb and dive in with her fingers anyway!
Lay your paper on the shaving cream and smooth it onto the cream. I used regular computer printing paper and it worked fine. Peal the paper off of the shaving cream, and scrape the shaving cream off of the paper right away. I started trying to scrape it off with cardstock but quickly learned it is much easier to just use my hand! Here are our four completed masterpieces:


Pegasus


Is it just me, or does this painting Gracie made look like a pegasus? Use your imagination and work with me here...It's a side view, with the head on the left. The head is hard to see. The big glob of paint is the wing, and the dark line on the right is the tail. See it? When I pointed it out to Gracie she looked amazed and grinned. "Flying horsie?"

Colaborative Art Display

I framed the girls' artwork from last week!

I'm not exactly happy with the framing of this one, but my goal was to use materials that I had on hand. I can always change it up later. I'd like to change the red paper to a turquoise.

Daddy tends to laugh at me when I do this, but I love that most of my decorating is created by my kids. The look Gracie gets when she sees a new painting is one of complete pride as she exclaims "My painting! My painting!"