Gingerbread Village

I always feel like my mind is at war with itself...keep garbage or throw it away? That's the big question! haha.  But really, before I throw something away I am always thinking of a 2nd use for it. I'm so Ukrainian that way. I have such a desire to create new things with it with my kids. But alas, I also hate clutter with a passion so most things get tossed. 

But these boxes. These I had a plan for.  I knew I wanted to make a gingerbread village with the kids. 

We painted them all brown (like gingerbread), but in hindsight I wished we painted them several different colors. Oh well. Next year.  

The kids worked hard on painting. I spent the evening, after they were in bed, decorating them with some of the random art supplies M(5) and I rounded up earlier that day. 

I left some houses for my 2 oldest to decorate the next morning.  They loved it!

One house featured a pinecone tree, white bean roof, window (from lasagna box), bell door knob and toilet paper roll chimney. Another featured a snowman made of cotton balls with a fruit loop hat, lentil eyes, wild rice nose, and ribbon scarf.  It also had a bell to ring.  Another was surrounded by snow and a picket fence. My daughter added stars, mini-pinecone trim, and tongue depressor window sills.

Their little people had quite a nice time playing in their new homes

Creations at Home

Just a few of the girls' creations from this past month, made at home

A Mask

My youngest learned how to sew

My oldest has already learned how to sew a little bit so she of course had to step it up...she drew and cut out an M and then sewed the "M" onto her hoop. Creative little girl thought the idea up on her own.

 The kids are obsessed with brave knights, kings, queens, etc. The kids really wanted to make crowns so I taught them how. M then made several for everyone!

 M is a little entrepreneur. She's always wanting to go sell things to the neighbors (sage from our garden, bike wash, etc. etc.) She really wanted to go sell these tickets she made. I told her she could not go sell them and so being the MAJOR negotiator that she is, asked if she could pretend to be walking down the street and stop by our house to sell tickets. I said sure. So she went outside, down the street to walk to our house to pretend she was a salesman. She happily sold me her tickets. 

 I have made the girls dozens of these sewn-bound books. I just fold white paper and put a sheet of construction paper as the cover. Open it up, sew, and voila, little books. They use them for their art work a lot and create stories too. This day in particular C was watercolor painting. This picture doesn't do her artwork justice. The colors were vibrant and beautiful. 

JOSH & MONIQUE | NORTHERN UTAH FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

The Perfect Day

There are a few days with my family that stand out above the rest. I'm adding this day to that list. I was beaming the whole day. For me it was the perfect Saturday at home with my family.

 

Breadie The Snowman

Meet Breadie the snowman (kids thought up the name from ginger"bread"). 

 Breadie the snowman was jolly and so good,

With a scarf so bright, a carrot nose

And two eyes made out of wood.

Breadie the snowman is a fairy tale, they say,

He was made of snow but the children

Know how he came to life one day.

There must have been some magic in that

Old striped hat they found.

For when they placed it on his head

He began to dance around.

O, Breadie the snowman

Was alive as he could be,

And the children say he could laugh

And play just the same as you and me.

Thumpetty thump thump,

Thumpety thump thump,

Look at Breadie go.

Thumpetty thump thump,

Thumpety thump thump,

Over the hills of snow.

 Breadie the snowman knew

The sun was hot that day,

So he said, "Let's run and

We'll have some fun

Now before I melt away."

Down to the village,

With some antlers as his hands,

Running here and there all

Around the square saying,

Catch me if you can.

He led the Ellsworths down the streets of town

Right to the sidewalk

And he only paused a moment when

He heard their mom holler "Stop!"

Oh Breadie the snow man

Had to hurry on his way,

But he waved goodbye saying,

"Don't you cry,

 I'll be back again someday.

Thumpety thump thump,

Thumpetty thump thump,

Thumpety thump thump,

Look at Breadie go.

Thumpetty thump thump,

Over the hills of snow.

Breadie Ellsworth: Born Saturday

Fell over and died on Monday

Siblings

My Oldest

The first picture I ever took with my new camera.  I love you sweet girl!

Baby Books

The kids each have a baby book. I don't do scrapbooking anymore because it's too messy and with kids that would be way too hard. So I've kept baby books and our family blog. I absolutely love their baby books. They are simple ones from Target but I keep everything in there: pictures of mommy's growing belly, baby shower invites, ultra sound pictures, letters from mommy and daddy to our baby, growth charts, foot prints, etc. 

I want my children to be able to look back to the start of their lives and know they were loved so much even before they were born. And now that they are getting a little older, they love looking at their baby books! 

One of my "nesting" projects I did before my last baby was born was to update all of their baby books. I printed lots of pictures, updating each of the prompt pages in their books. Typically I throw papers/pictures, etc. in the front of their books so they don't get lost. There was quite the accumulation of things in the front of their books. It was nice to give everything a place.  

Apples For Sale!

I had images in my head of this beautiful photoshoot with my kids and apple picking at Grandpa's house. We did have lots of fun picking the apples but by the time I wanted to take some pictures of the kids with apples...well they were done! They didn't want to take pictures. Oh well. It was a lot of fun to pick apples, climb trees, climb ladders, etc. 

Halloween Fun

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. I love trying to make each holiday special and my kids eat it up. They get so excited for every holiday now. 

 We carved pumpkins at Grandma's house. Claire looks so sad...I think I did something wrong on her pumpkin or something. Sensitive little girl!

 Halloween drawings Mia did at home

 We made shaving cream ghosts (glue + shaving cream)

 Dressed up

 Made some delicious haunted houses :)

 Painted the kids faces in our hotel room

 Made some very spooky drinks for our cousins

 The girls and I made some hanging spider nests 

 Halloween sensory tub out of a costco vegetable tray

Our annual talking jack-o-lantern: put the baby monitor in the jack-o-lantern and daddy's "spooky" voice talks to the kids. They love it!