at the park

I wanted to post a few lot of pictures we took a few weeks back, in fact, before E's birthday party. These are actually when I took her 1 year pictures at the local nature center here in north houston. The weather was fair, there was a playground nearby for the boys, and little girl got her first taste of mulch and a slide. It was the perfect time to take pictures of all three of my babies.

 she was the best dressed baby in all the land---even with mulch up her skirt. 

 with no clue as to what would happen next, she braved her first slide with a little help from big bro, Jo.

poor baby girl was a trooper with that hard-to-walk-on mulch...and that concrete boulder never stopped her! 

"see mom? I can do it!"

awww mom, i just wanna swing! whined andrew...but he's such a ham, he couldn't help but smile at my camera. 

then came taking pictures with big brothers, and that was just silly. 

 

with jonah, being the silliest of them all...

hope you enjoyed! 

{kids} art project

It all started with a creative mommy blog...the idea of going to search for leaves and displaying them on the window...hmmm, I didn't even bother to check out the post. My mind started working like a hamster wheel of how I could do it, in my own little way. So, I have no witty name for this project....but I like to call it leaves on contact paper.
step 1. gather your kids, get a basket, and push them out the door to gather nature's daily gifts

 Step 2., 3., and 4., cut out your contact paper double the size you want your display to be. tell your kids to lay out nature's gifts. fold over your contact paper and press. 

Now display however you want! I chose to put up the kids work on the window so we could examine them further. 

Been getting inspired by different artists online that sketch from live flowers they have or have picked up so i thought i would do the same in our handmade sketchbooks from our shop: ShopWitty

ink and prismacolors

Meanwhile, my calla lilies are now closing up, so I thought I would enjoy them more if I put them inside. I can't let them go to waste, so I captured them beautifully one cloudy afternoon. 

It's been sorta boring around here...I have lots of projects I wanna do, but the day seems to just slip by. 

I have allergies and am not feeling 100% lately so I've taken care of myself and rested up. 

Homeschooling Andrew has kinda taken a backseat because the 'school's-out' feeling has kicked in. BUT, we are not quitting! One of my goals is to have Andrew begin to read by himself by the end of the summer, and we will work on that on a daily basis whether it be with bath crayons, foam letters, iPad, or just plain pencil & paper. And lots of library time. 

Anyway, we will be traveling around like the circus for the next week so pray that we all make it to our destination{s} safely and that we don't run out of clean underwear.  

Pre-Thanksgiving week

Hey!  If you're visiting for the Pinecone DIY, check out the new updated post here. Thanks for all your support! 

You guys, I love Pinterest. I have a Holiday board filled with lots of goody crafts for the boys.

These are so simple! We made them with hand-prints and construction paper. Came out cute, didn't they?

Well, it's here. The end of 2012. Well, almost.

It's only the week of Thanksgiving, guys. 

I think it's crazy this year is almost over. 40 days and it's gone.

The saying "Days are long, but years are short" rings SO true to me.

And honestly I don't want it to end.

I just want time to stop so I can spend eternity with my munchkins and my handsome man.

It would be so sweet. 

But HELLO. That's not gonna happen, so in the meantime, I have to keep them busy and make sure they learn to tie their shoes, wipe their own butts, pick their socks up, and be polite little-beings.

I've been teaching Andrew about how Thanksgiving came to be in school.

We made Indians and Pilgrims and told the tale of the early settlers. I tried explaining what it is to be thankful but I don't think he's truly caught on to what it actually means.

The library has provided something for us every week and I truly am grateful for them. The kids love it.

They love love love the handicapped button at the library doors. They run to see who's first to push it.

My little builder keeps busy everyday. Building robots and taller robots with swords and weapons.

And if one collapses, another one transforms magically from the same exact blocks.

We were building animals and he built an alligator--by himself. 

We don't craft everyday. Just once or twice a week.

I think it takes me longer to decide what to do with them actually.

A couple of days we went out for 'nature walks' and picked sticks up, got bit by fire ants, chased by dogs, and got pricked by our prickly pinecones. 

The boys don't like pinecones, by the way.

Our neighborhood is not walk-friendly I suppose. We don't live by the forest walk ways that the town next to us has. But we make the best of it and learn from each trip.

Well, I had to do something with the pinecones, didn't I? :)  

 Neatly painted by hand with acrylics, then tied around some ribbon and found a hoop!

They were prickly, but oh so pretty! Now, they're my favorite!

Check out the new pinecone diy here 

Our cats seem to be adjusting well together. I love that they're both waiting for us when we come through our door. However, when night falls, their nocturnal instincts kick in and hardly let us sleep. 

So we've begun to cage one of them a night. If they don't have each other, they don't run across our sleeping bodies at night and knock things down downstairs in the living room. Seriously, they're LOUD. 

This whole week has been full of sleepy heads. Not sure if it's the dropped temperatures that makes all of us keep snuggled under our blankets or if we've just been staying up too late. 

I have several blog posts in mind, just no time to actually produce them. 

I've been snapping away with my camera, thinking of holiday cards, list of family members, locations to snap a family pic at, Christmas shopping with budgeting involved, along with doing my daily wifey duties, school and giving into my creativeness {which is totally temperamental and I can hardly stand it}.

Can't wait to see my family finally!