A Little Quality Time

Look at those beautiful faces!  I just can't get enough of these two smiles.  

Since my big kids have been  back in school I've had so much more time to spend with my little ones.  It's been a blast trying to come up with new ideas of fun things we can do...mostly creative things at home.  My girls love to make things!  In fact, I have a couple of boxes filled with "things" or "treasures", as they like to call them.  The treasures include: glitter glue, stickers, popsicle sticks, pom poms, squiggly eyes, glue sticks, foam pieces, stickers, colored pencils and...you get the idea!  Basically it's a wonderland for them.  I try and only get them out once a week, as not to give them a chance to get bored with it.  I've found, that by allowing certain items to only be played with on occasion keeps the newness around!  Let's face it, who has the money to just go out and buy new toys every time a child gets bored?  Not this gal!

On this particular day, I decided to introduce the girls to sand painting!  I happen to have about 20 jars of colored sand from various projects I have done with my children over the years, so I put it to good use.  I mixed some colored sand, glue and then diluted it with a little water...just to give it the right consistency.  Addeline and Kaitlyn were so excited!  They absolutely love to paint.  What I love about sand painting is that:

 1. It's very easy to clean up. 2. The kiddos get a new texture to experiment with. 3. It's something different!

We were getting ready to start our day...it was cloudy and rainy outside.  It definitely wasn't a day to go outside and play; my coffee wasn't doing it's job yet, so I surely didn't feel like doing anything exciting.  Since my girls like to dress up and be silly, I decided to introduce them to crazy hair.  No, it's really not that big of a deal, it's just something Victoria and I used to do when she was small.  It was sort of a silly little thing that would always get us tickled.  Let's face it, as a Mom, all you really want is to see those little smiling faces and the sound of those sweet giggles!  So here is their crazy hair!  They just couldn't believe how many "ponies" they could wear at the same time. 

I absolutely despise the days where I have 102 errands to run and they're all quickies.  In and out.  In and out.  The poor girls.  I know it can't possibly be fun for them because it is absolutely no fun for me.  Well, this particular day just happened to be one of those days. Blah.  It was smoldering outside and they were being so good.  Kaitlyn was just carrying around her little purse of princesses and Addeline had her 2 little pets.  As I dropped our package off to be mailed I looked around trying to find some way to reward them.  No, I do not reward them for good behavior all the time.  However, on this particular day, I wanted to.  I turned around and there was a cute little nail salon.  Knowing that my gals love for me to give them "pretty toes"  I just knew they would love this!  Sure enough, the experience was all I'd hoped it would be!  They picked their own nail polish and couldn't wait to get started.  The ladies were so nice.  They did their fingers and toes and even painted pretty little flowers on their thumbs and big toes.  Unfortunately, since it was a last minute decision, I didn't have my camera.  You'll just have to trust me, they loved it!

 

My little ones love to help me cook, but sometimes...just sometimes I'll let them make food all. by. themselves.  This is an example of Miss Addie Pie making lunch for her and her sister.  She has it all...grapes, cheese, turkey pepperoni and of course, "bessert!"  Looks pretty balanced to me ; )

This week is fall break for everyone so I'm going to have to be creative when I'm coming up with things for us all to do.  I highly doubt the boys would get excited about arts and crafts...or nail art.  

I'm thinking field trips.