Happy first day of spring.  Ha ha ha, spring, that is funny.  It is -10*C outside with a windchill factor of -20*C.  There are snow drifts taller than me out there, and it is blowing so hard I can't see across the yard.  Happy spring indeed.  Oh well spring will come when it is ready, I guess.

Anyways I thought I would share a little about my afternoon yesterday.  I was in the bedroom folding laundry and when I poked my head out to check on the kiddos I discovered LK trying to cut LT's hair. After a stern lecture (which I'm sure did absolutely no good) I encouraged him to cut some paper instead.  But as he had cut a bunch of paper that morning he wasn't interested.  So I gave him some of my scraps of yarn to cut.  He did try that a bit but they were a little hard to cut.  Then I printed some pictures of sheep and decided we would decorate them by gluing the yarn on the them. I let him paint the glue on the sheep and then add the yarn.  He was more interested in the painting then and so moved on to painting a bunch of pictures.  LT, of course, was right in the middle of it all and joined in as well.  Needless to say I still have laundry to fold.

PS.  This morning as we were cuddling in bed LK was playing with my hair and said "cut hair mom?".  I don't think he has gotten this idea out of his system yet so I will have to keep a close eye on the scissors.

Weekly Goals Update

Just a quick update of my weekly goals.

Goal #1: Exercise every morning (Mon - Fri) this week.

Progress:  Well, I made it out of bed early again this morning.  As I slowly ease my way back into exercising I did another yoga video this morning.  It started out easy enough but I was sweating and out of breath by the time I got halfway through.

Goal #2: Take both kids outside every day and spent some time playing with them.

Progress:  We spent probably 45 min outside this morning.  It wasn't too cold but it was a bit windy.  We looked at our shadows and LK even played a bit of shadow tag with me.  Then I took them for a short walk in the wagon.  It turned out quite nice this afternoon so when the older girls went out to do their chores LK tagged along and they played outside for a while.

 

 

All that fresh air tuckered someone out.  She didn't quite make it through lunch (and yes she is a messy eater).

 

 

Weekly Goals

Well, this space has been a bit quiet lately.  Things have been busy and keeping up with a two year old and a one year old is always a challenge.  However, I do feel like I could be doing more or doing things better.  So I've set a couple of goals for this week and plan to post how I am doing here to keep myself accountable.

Goal #1: Exercise every morning (Mon - Fri) this week.  I have not been exercising much at all lately and this is something I would really like to add to my routine as I feel much better and have more energy when I exercise regularly.

Progress:  Well, I got up this morning but did not feel like exercising (who really feels like exercising at 6AM).  I took a couple of minutes to wake up and then popped in a yoga strength training DVD.  I felt great when I was done.

Goal #2: Take both kids outside every day and spent some time playing with them.  I must admit since the weather has turned colder we haven't been spending much time outside.  I've taken to just rushing out with LK for few minutes to feed the chickens and cats while Lil naps.  However, she loves to be outside as well and we could all stand to spend some more time outside.  This is Saskatchewan and the weather is only going to get colder so we might as well get used to it.  I am bringing  my camera along and will share some photos of our outside fun.

Progress:  Here are some pictures from today's outside time.  It was really nice when we first went out but then it started to rain.

 

 

 

 

Do you set weekly goals?  How do you keep yourself accountable? 

Have a great week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skating Carnival

This past weekend Star and Sky had their skating carnival.  This year the theme of the carnival was Rock 'n Roll.  Star and Sky skated to It Is A Long Way To The Top If You Want To Rock 'n Roll by AC DC.  It was just the two of them skating together for their number.  They did very well and had a lot of fun with it.  This is the final of event of the skating season so I no longer have to spend two afternoons a week at the rink.  However when I asked them if they wanted to be in skating next year I received two resounded yeses.  So I guess next fall will find me at the rink once more.

Papier-Mache Bowls

Last week was the girls Winter break from school.  We did some travelling and visiting and the week went by way too fast but we did find some time for some crafting.  We decided to make some papier-mache bowls.  I got the idea from the book Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule which I had out from the library.  First we found some bowls to use as molds and cut some newspaper into strips.  We made our own papier-mache paste by cooking together 1/2 cup of flour, 2 1/2 cups water, and 1  tablespoon of salt together until it formed a glue like paste.  Then we painted one side of the newspaper strips with the paste and placed them on the bowls. (Oh yes, cover the bowl you are using as a mold with plastic wrap or tinfoil so that your papier-mache does not stick to the bowl.)

Star painting a paper strip with paste.

Sky applying a a paper strip to her bowl.

We continued applying paper strips to the bowls throughout the day until we had about 4 layers on.  We finished with a layer of scrap white computer paper.  Then we let the bowls dry thoroughly.  (This can take a few days so luckily we had to go to MJ for eye appointments one day.  So far neither girl needs glasses, yeah!)  Once dry you can decorate them to your heart's content.  We painted them.

Star and Sky painting their bowls.

Our finished bowls.

And since Lent started last week we made these easy one decade rosaries (from Catholic Icing).  They are kept in one of the bowls we made. During lent we are trying to say one decade of the rosary each night.

A Toolbox

Star made this toolbox for LK for his 2nd birthday to go along with the crocheted tools I am making.  She and her dad came up with the design just using some scrap wood they had.  Dad did all the cutting and  Star drilled all the holes and pounded all the nails in.  Then both Sky and Star sanded and painted it.  It turned out pretty cute and it could be used to store anything.  Star was quite pleased with herself.  She loves to make things.

Star and Sky painting.

Of course LK wanted to paint as well when he saw the older girls painting. So I gave him a paintbrush and some water and let him "paint" on a piece of construction paper. He was quite content with that until he finally wore a hole in the wet paper and got upset.

LK "painting".

Playing inside on cold days!

Star and Sky missed two days of school this week.  The buses didn't run because of severe wind chill
(-41 to -49*C).  I had some big plans to do some baking and sewing with them.  However, that didn't happen but they happily played for hours.  With school and other activities they don't have much time to just play and while they are getting older they still love to dress up and play pretend.  LK was excited to have his big sisters home to play with too and they happily included him.  It was a couple of wonderful days.  Today it is back to school for them and I have to try to get myself going this morning as well.

LK wanted to feed this bottle to LT (I am not sure why as she has never had a bottle) so Sky showed him how to feed her doll instead.

Star is making some turtle egg soup.

Mmmm looks good!

Of course dressing up is required.

One of the hazards of having older sisters is that they want to dress you up too.  I am not too sure what he thinks of the dress.

But I do know that he loves playing with his older sisters.

LT's favorite plaything right now is her toes but soon she will be joining in with the others.

Summer Activities

It is here.  Today is the girls last day of school.  The other day we made a list of the activities that we want to do this summer.  Here it is in no particular order:

-swimming lessons
-swim at the pool
-reading club at the library
-family camping trip
-the girls are going to a 3 day sleep over camp
-keep a summer journal
-read lot's of books
-Star wants to work on her rug hooking craft and sewing
-leaf collecting, press flowers
-Sky wants to do bubble art
-rock painting
-gardening (we only have a little garden because of the flooding this spring)
-pick raspberries
-go for lot's of walks/bike rides
-horseback riding
-visit our cousins (3.5 hr drive away)
-go to the beach
-and start to think about getting stuff ready for our new arrival in September

Also my parents are coming to visit this weekend and they volunteered to help us paint our kitchen.  So that is our big project to kick off the summer.

What activities do you have planned this summer?

A Weekly Update : New Chicks, Dandylions, and Doll Houses

Well it's been awhile again since I posted anything here on this blog.  Time seems to fly by these days.  I am going to try and do a weekly update so as to record some of the activities that happen each week.  Hopefully it will motivate me to spend some time with the kiddos and take some pictures.

This week we got some chicks that my father-in-law and his wife hatched for us.  New chicks are always so cute and fun.  The girls as always enjoyed holding them.  LK was very excited to see them but it was a challenge to keep him from too rough with them.

Sky holding a chick. 

Star with a chick.

Chicks

It has been really rainy here is Sask. My garden is just a huge puddle.  We did have one nice day this week though so we bought some flowers and were able to plant them in our flower bed by the house.

The girls planting flowers.

Of course LK has to help too!

We also did some dandelion picking on that nice day.  As you can see we have no shortage of them.

And what did we do on all the rainy days?  Well, I will admit that some TV watching did happen.  But then Star asked Dad to bring home some boxes from work so that they could make doll houses in the basement.

Sky with her dolls and doll house.



Star going into her doll house.

So that is a few things that we did this past week.  We also managed to brand the calves this weekend as it was too wet for seeding.  It was a little mucky in the corrals but luckily we didn't get rained on too much.  How was your week?

Washing the Floor

My floor was in desperate need of a washing the other day.  Since the girls were home from school (it was a snow day) I decided to enlist their help.  I had them change into their old swimsuits.  Then I gave them a pail of water and some rags and let them go to town.  They think that this is a lot of fun.  They get to wear their swimsuits in the winter, play with water, and help mom.  When they are done washing I give them an old towel to dry the floor.  Voila, a clean floor and fun activity for kids. 

Star and Sky hard at work scrubbing the floor.

A Little Update

So I thought I would update you all on a few things that happened during my blogging break.  First of all LK turned 1 in February.  I cannot believe my little  boy is one.  He is walking all over the place now and is quite a climber.  I have found him standing on the kitchen table numerous times and he also climbs right up on top of the back of the couch.  He is not saying and words yet but he does make a few sounds (mmmm for cow, vrmm for vehicles, grrrrr for lions and other animals).  He loves books with real pictures of animals and can make the signs for most farm animals.  For his 1st birthday we didn't have much of a party as the girls had a skating competition that same weekend but we did have Grandpa over for supper and I made an apple crisp for his birthday cake. 

LK in his highchair

LK awaiting his birthday cake.

In other news the girls were keeping busy with skating and school.  They went to one skating competition in a neighbouring town and the year ended with the clubs own skating carnival.  The girls both enjoyed a good year in skating and improved a lot.

                Sky at the skating carnival.                                                 

Star at the skating carnival.

So currently the girls are not in any activities which makes our schedule a little less busy.  I was hoping that we would be spending a lot of time outside by now biking, horseback riding, and what not.  However we are still covered by a blanket of snow here in Sask.  In fact the girls are home from school today on a snow day as we were hit with a big snow storm over the weekend.  Hopefully we will have some warmer weather soon.