Went up to tuck in the little girls and saw Rebecca in her room reading her scriptures...
I ran back down the stairs and grabbed my camera. Ran back up and snapped this picture of her. She immediately looked up with a grin, "Mom, why are you taking a picture of me?" To which I replied, "I just don't want to forget seeing you in here reading your scriptures"
Oh how I hope that I won't forget these sweet moments, but I know I will....
During one of the snow days we made these wax hearts for the girls' windows.
First we made crayon shavings....
Then we put them in the middle of a sheet of wax paper, which we folded over. Next we put the newprint paper over and ironed...
Yes I let Ash iron. It's during these little projects that my kids can learn how to use an iron and other things with me supervising. Then we lifted off the paper to see our creations....
I do enjoy doing projects with the kids. There really is a plethora of kids crafts that can be found on the internet. They usually take less than a half hour to do. What I LOVE about projects is being stuck together visiting with the kids as we create, seeing their creativity expand and grow, seeing how excited they get about their creations, AND how hard they work to get their jobs done so they CAN do these projects, AND then sending these projects to grandparents brightening their day,.... AND that is why I do so many projects with them!!!!
I need to do a week wrap up before I start the fun things for this week.
Jerrica had her very first Primary talk. She practiced with her prophet puppet, and was sooo excited, to only find out that Primary was canceled due to snow.
The below zero temperatures kept the kids out of school for two days. We had a few play dates, and broke out our new Ticket to Ride game.
The kids are LOVING their swimming lessons and swim team. I enjoy sitting there pool side with Stephen watching each of our kids. It's a perfect time to talk about each of them and what we need to be doing for them. They are each soooo different and have such different needs.
Kaylee and Nathan have also been busy with indoor soccer games. AND, we are still in the middle of the kids' basketball season....
Kaylee is so fun to watch because she is quick and aggressive. I feel bad for her team because they moved up to the 5th/6th grade division, even though they are only 4th graders. They were killing their opponents in the 4th grade division, BUT moving up means REALLY big girls to go up against. Check out this height difference....
This next picture is way blurry, BUT you can see that Kaylee still doesn't hesitate with the size of the girls OR being outnumbered ... she is still going to drive and shoot...
The boys also had basketball games AND lost as well. I think the Thompson's are all on losing teams this session of basketball :(
I have heard many a time, that you learn more from losing than winning. I personally don't believe it, but I keep telling my kids that!
I'm always trying to think of gifts that I don't have to spend that much money on for Stephen because I know it's his hard earned money that I'm spending, AND he appreciates it when I try to be frugal.
SO I came up with the seven "dates" idea. It is actually seven dates from the calendar. The first date is January 25th of 1995 and the last date is February 14th of 2011. I took my journal and copied six entries that highlighted the first time that I met Stephen, one of our first dates, the day we got married....
They were so fun to go back and read and see all my feelings that I had for Stephen and what I thought about him. I'm hoping he enjoys going down memory lane and seeing MY side of the story. I then made a February 14, 2011 entry. I know the date isn't here yet, and technically I can't journal what hasn't happened, BUT I can write all that I want to happen on that day. I mentioned the place I will take him for lunch, all that I want to do on Valentines Day, and also how I feel about him now.
I rolled all seven entries up, and tied them with red raffia. Then I numbered them in chronological order and will have him open one a day until Valentines Day when he will open the last one that will highlight our day.
Stuck them in this cute pencil holder that Nathan made in art, and voila there is a very cheap and easy present for Valentines Day, YET I really do think Stephen will enjoy it!
So here at the Thompson's when the kids aren't in school, I ALWAYS get the question, "Mom is there a project we can do?" AND I know that a project can keep kids busy for a spell, SO we usually do some type of project. I also LOVE handprint art because it captures little chubby hands, SO I couldn't resist this one that I saw HERE on Jill's cute blog. I think they would be cute to make for Valentines and write on them, "WHO do we love?.....YOU" or "I love you THIS much!"
The boys were having a playdate, SO us girls got busy cutting, gluing and then the fun part of painting. I was proud at how well Ash cut all her pieces. I smiled at the direction and placement of the owl's pieces. Rebecca wanted eyelashes on hers to make it a girl owl, so Ash had to follow suit. Jerrica insisted on having her owl body upside down and said that it wasn't upside down. Of course I had to take pictures of all the finished products. They each tried to look like their owl....
They really did turn out cute. The pictures don't do them justice because of the bright light from the window. I told the girls that one of them needs an owl themed room so that we can frame and hang them up. Of course all of them volunteered to have their rooms redecorated in owls. I sure love visiting with my girls as we work on projects.
As soon as Jerrica finished hers she ran and got a coloring book with markers, and started working on another masterpiece. I swear these girls would make and do projects all day long if I let them...
.....and I would probably take pictures all day long if they would let me!
I had snapped a picture of Ashley when she was doing Valentines with Jerrica. Later I had found a free template and stuck the photo in, to try it out...
LOVED how it turned out and thought that it would go cute with the little thing we are making for her classmates.
SOOOO today when we did a little heart craft, I grabbed the girls and snapped a couple of pictures of them with one of their hearts. I really liked this one of Kaylee. I love how the shadows highlight her cheekbones and little dimple by her mouth.
She looked like this a second later with her nose wrinkles...
And then putting it into the valentine...
I'm grateful for those that have shared their cute Valentine templates. Now to get them all printed and off in the mail to grandparents...
I miraculously signed up ALL SIX kids in either swim lessons or a swim team at the SAME time twice a week at the SAME place. This is big since they have such varied swimming abilities and ages. I am so stoked about this!
I try and do a winter swim class because numbers are so much lower and the kids get more one on one time with their teachers.
Ashley was quite upset that she has a man teacher. She was in a tizzy the minute she came and sat by me after her class.
"Mom, he is a BOY!"
"Ash, he seems like a really fun teacher. I bet he is one of their BEST teachers"
"He is a boy and boys don't like butterflies and so he won't do the butterfly with me"
"What do you mean by butterfly?"
"You know mom, the butterfly SPLASH. He is not going to do it because he is a BOY"
I couldn't help but smile to myself. First that she had heard of the butterfly stroke before, tucking it into her memory as something she wanted to learn, and second the connection of boys not liking butterflies. Ash just makes me laugh.
Also I had forgotten what a good swimmer Jacob is. I was proud watching him swim laps. I can't believe that he is my son, since I look like I'm drowning when I try to swim. Maybe it could be due to the fact that his dad is such an incredible swimmer!
It is FREEZING here in Colorado. We are talking -5 degrees outside. SO I decided we needed a hot chocolate FHE tonight. I had Rebecca grab eight very different hot chocolate mugs, and let me tell you we have quite the variety. We filled them with hot chocolate and then sat around our table sipping and discussing the following poem.
I made this little reminder to hang on our fridge. Below the reminder I kind of outlined our discussion for anyone interested.
And that was our FHE for the night!
CSN stores ROCK! We ended up choosing the Ticket to Ride game....
It was here on my doorstep in no time at all. The kids are dying to play, but I told them we are saving it for our next snow day so that they have something fun to look forward to, .
CSN Stores carry SOOOO many products. You really should check out their site.
Thanks again CSN! You are so kind to think us!
Wanted to post some of Rebecca's latest projects and activities. She had to do a puppet and report on an animal. She chose the elephant. I couldn't find any gray felt so we ended up cutting up an old gray turtle neck shirt to cover her cardboard cut out. We used the sleeve of the shirt to be the trunk. It was stapled and glued, but seemed to hold up for the presentation.
Then Rebecca's class was able to dissect buffalo eyes. I love this dissection because they are so big and you are able to see all the parts of the eye, from the optic nerve to the retina. BTW I think the retina is such a beautiful aqua color.
ALSO, Mrs. White had all of the kids in class write one positive sentence about everyone in the classroom. She then made a sheet for each student that had all of these positive comments about themselves. Rebecca came home grinning ear to ear with her paper. She said, "Mom, you aren't the only one that thinks I'm pretty and smart." Sure love that Mrs. White and all she does!
I love Becky Higgins blog filled with inspiration. She just released another Project Life Kit for 2011, and has been sharing comments on Facebook for photo ideas. She talks about how the everyday things will bring back so many memories years from now. She has shared photo ideas like- shoes, favorite games, books, decorations, school projects, food....
That's when the light bulb went on today as the girls ate their Ramen Noodles for lunch. They LOVE Ramen Noodles and squeal with delight when they get it for lunch. I on the other hand, have NEVER liked Ramen Noodles. I can't even stand the smell of it, BUT I know that someday I'm going to miss the smell of it because that will mean my little girls are now big girls.
ANYWAY, captured what my little girls LOVE to eat for lunch!
"Mom, are you taking pictures of me?"
"Yes I am"
"Well, there's noodles in my smile!"
That last picture makes me want to barf!
It all started with a doctor kit for Christmas. The little girls can't stop playing with it and dragging other family members in to be patients.
The little cardboard badge broke the first day, SO I made little badges for the kids....
Jacob drew some cute cartoon patients for me. We have a Pregnant Polly, Coughing Cathy, Stan Stitches, Heart Attack Henry....They are hung on a little ring so that we as patients have different "ideas" of characters we can be. I also made a simple sheet for them to do their documentation. I just laminated it and attached it to a clip board so they can use it over and over. In the medical profession there is A LOT of documenting so they better learn that now....
Then we use a couple white karate jackets. You could take a men's white t-shirt and cut it up the middle to make an oversize doctor jacket. I grabbed a few masks the last time I was at the doctor's office.
I also added some real wrap bandages for them to fix each other up. I had a bottle of M&M pills, but for some reason the doctors feel like they need them more than the patient. The pills NEVER last.
Oh pretend play is fun.... 
I was talking with my sister Kristy and she was telling me how her girls made badges to play office with typing, filing and all that being busy little secretary stuff. I think my next badges will be a set for office pretend play. I even have "The Office" font.....
A few weeks ago I set a can of Pringles on Jacob's desk with a note that I wrote on the can with a Sharpie. Well, all the other kids kept asking why Jacob got something special and they didn't. I told them that he needed a little something because he was having a hard week. We talked about how life doesn't always give EVERYONE something special at the same time. AND how we need to be aware of those that do need a little something special to help them when life gets hard. It was amazing then how the attitudes changed and sweet notes were given to Jacob that night.
I did realize that I needed to do sweet treats or notes more often than I do. SOOO, today I grabbed Kaylee's favorite candy bar and stuck it in her PJ drawer to find tonight. I'm excited to see her smile after she finds it.
She sooo deserves it. She is always so good to everyone. She practices soccer with Nathan. Lugs Jerrica around playing with her. I don't think a night goes by without her setting a glass of ice water by my nightstand for me. Rebecca shares a room with Kaylee and usually falls asleep reading. Kaylee then marks and closes her book, and turns off the light. Well, I guess the other night Kaylee stayed awake making a fancy bookmark for Becca and slipped it into her book to surprise her.
She sooo deserves a special treat, and I'm soooo excited for her to find it!
On New Year's Eve Day I had printed up five different pictures of activities that we had done as a family. I numbered them and passed them around having each family member write their memory of the event. Here is one of the pictures that I used for this-
And here are some of their comments from this picture:
Kaylee: "Ashley and Jerrica kept throwing an armrest cover out of the stroller and dad kept making Nathan pick it up"
Jacob: "It was one of our best bike rides"
Nathan: "A bird pooped on me and it pooped a ton! And the poop was green."
Rebecca: "We stopped halfway and walked up the back of Costco and got pizza for lunch and I didn't know we were going to do that but I was very hungry and so I was glad that we did that"
Jerrica: "Dad pulling me on his bike under the trees"
Ashley: "I wanted to ride my own bike and not have dad pull me"
I LOVE how different everyone's thoughts on the same memory are. I could never capture all the little details from each one. In fact I had forgotten a lot of the details that the kids brought out as we were doing these pictures. I am definitely going to keep doing this at the end of the year to include in the back of my blog book.
Story time at the library on Thursday mornings is part of our schedule. Jerrica LOVES books and the library. Last week during story time, the librarian was very interactive with the kids. She started a story about a penguin called, "Straight to the Pole". She asked the kids if they thought the penguin was going to the North Pole or the South Pole. Ashley blurted out, "I don't think he wants to go to either, I think he wants to go to the SWIMMING POLE". Of course all the adults laughed and the librarian went on to explain where the North Pole and South Pole were and what they were like.
I sat there analyzing how she was teaching and how many questions she was asking the children. I know that lecturing is less effective when teaching. You must ask questions to find out if your students are understanding you, and to have them reinforce to themselves what you are teaching by answering questions. Actually, YOU, yourself can learn FROM your student as you discuss, because you are giving them an opportunity to teach. Hands on is even more effective because they are actually doing rather than "hopefully" listening to your lecture. There have been a lot of studies done on this concept. The conclusions are that there is a "deeper understanding" when a discussion or hands on activity is done versus a lecture.
Well, Ash LOVED story time and kept talking about the theme the librarian taught. She enjoyed it because she was allowed to participate both by answering questions and then by doing a simple flannel story.
As I drove home I started thinking about my parenting/teaching to my children. I have a tendency to lecture sometimes, whereas I could step back and discuss, which would be more effective. I need to learn from this librarian - ask more questions when I am teaching AND I need to make it a hands on learning experience when I can. Lecturing can be "blah blah blah" as they start to daydream, it is discussing that enlightens understanding.
