FHE: Cookies and Coloring

Sunday night, James suggested coloring a big picture for Family Home Evening this week. So, right after dinner, I ran out to the corner store and bought a big roll of craft paper and some store brand thin mints. We taped the paper to the table, grabbed every coloring utensil we own, and let the girls go nuts. So much fun. It entertained the girls for the better part of an hour, especially with James and I sitting right there with them coloring as well.
Megan cracked us up. I opened one of the rolls of thin mints and dumped them on the table and both girls immediately began collecting a pile. Megan determinedly picked up 9 cookies, stacking them and reminding me of Gus from Disney's Cinderella with how she attempted to hold the stack with a single hand and found her hand just a tad too small but still stubbornly trying to find a way.
Despite the bored look on Megan's face, she was as into the activity as Cadence. Notice how she took a bite out of each cookie and lined them up?

The paper is still on the table, too. So guess what the girls started doing once they finished breakfast? :-)

On another thought, been seriously tempted by this offer for the past few days...

New Swing Set

One of James's co-workers bought his daughter a new swing set for Christmas because she'd outgrown the one she already had. He mentioned it to James a couple months ago, and then last week brought it up again. We'd been talking about getting one anyway, so this was too great of an opportunity to pass up. So last night, the set was delivered and set up and this morning the girls were ecstatic to discover the mini park now just outside their door.

Obviously, it's used, but it doesn't need to be brightly colored and new to be fun, as the girls are quickly proving to any who might watch them! It's the perfect size for the girls (though Megan's about an inch too short to get on the swing by herself). We are loving having a yard for the girls to play in, even more so now that there's a swing set for them to play on. Now, if only we had a dog to nip at their heels as they're racing around...

Another Sunbeam Update

We finally had success.

For the first time, Cadence went into the primary room without myself or James anywhere in view. In fact, apparently, her teacher spotted James and Cadence dropping Megan off at nursery and took Cadence off of James's hands right then and there. AND, Cadence went willingly.

When we did peek through the window into the primary room she wasn't ecstatic, but she wasn't crying either. She did spend a little time in her teacher's lap (when James peeked), but for awhile she was happy sitting in her own chair (when I peeked).

After primary, we were informed she did wonderfully and even got up to do the motions with some of the songs. Her favorite primary song is currently "Once There Was a Snowman". Whenever we ask about songs in primary, that's the one she mentions and I heard them singing it while we were sitting in the foyer. So, I think we've finally broken through this problem and she's going to enjoy primary again. And, hopefully, in a few weeks, they'll have me successfully moved to senior primary so I don't feel like a complete slacker missing sharing time.

So, yay, Cadence!

Playroom and stuff

When we first moved into this house, I knew I wanted to set aside one of the rooms for the girls' playroom. It just so happened it was the biggest room in the house. For the first few weeks, it was pretty sparse. A few buckets of toys on one wall and their play kitchen in the corner and the spare TV in another.

The girls, of course, didn't mind, but it was pretty pathetic looking. So, over the past few months, I've been organizing, buying furniture, and reorganizing their room to be more of what I'd envisioned. At least, as much as I can do without being able to paint the walls and such (Unfortunately, the texture on the walls makes it nearly impossible to put up the vinyl dots I loved so much on the apartment walls). Anyway, finally, it's a nice place to play and hang out. At least in my opinion. With the addition of the futon (which worked out great for our guests this past month!) and some new shelves, I am loving the end results.

First, my Ikea "hack". I was so bummed when the spice rack was not in stock at my local Ikea and probably never would be, since I loved the hack others did for that. But I stumbled upon another "hack" and ended up with these! I am in love. Though the girls have so many books, we probably need another shelf. Not sure where I'd put that. The top shelf is already almost too tall for Megan to reach. The wire shelf under it is mostly empty, but you can never have too much storage, so I wasn't ready to throw this one out yet.
Along the opposite wall is most of the play area. We bought the shelving unit from Ikea as well when I fell in love with it at someone else's house. I wanted baskets to match the white one we already had, but I couldn't find it in stock. Go figure, after checking all the big name stores and buying the ones I ended up with, I did find the bins at our corner store.
And here's the room from the other angle, with my two favorite shelves and the TV. The stand the TV is currently on was a $4 purchase from Goodwill. So happy with it (the TV was one our broken filing cabinet before that).
Really, all that's missing is a nice rug to go in the middle of the room. I just haven't found one I want yet. Plus, it wasn't high enough on my wants list to put any real money into. Now it's at the top of my list for this room, so I may be willing to spend a little more money on one (This is how my brain works. Unless the item is at the top of my priority list for purchases, I'm not willing to spend more than $2 on it. I'll spend more once it's moved up, though.). I'm also looking for some wall art ideas. Unfortunately, the letters I painted became toys and most of them are lost or broken.

And now some cute pictures of the girls doing what they love the most: coloring. Actually, I'm thinking of putting a string of clothespins on one of the walls to hang their art work. That'd be some decent wall-art for a playroom, right?

Oh, and for those that want an update on Cadence and Sunbeams:

This past Sunday it looked like this week in Sunbeams wouldn't be any better than last week. Luckily, my team teacher was in town this week, so when it became clear Cadence would NOT be calming down, I practically ran from the room and spent the rest of sharing time hovering in the hallway and peeking through the window into the primary room. My team teacher was, of course, extremely understanding, and the Sunbeam teacher immediately picked Cadence up, since she was the only child actually having a hard time with it. I stayed out of sight until primary was dismissed then rejoined my class and when I picked Cadence up at the end of the day, she was jumping and talking to her teachers.

Anyway, I'll be staying out of the primary room for the next month or so while she adjusts. My team teacher is again fully supportive. Hopefully, she doesn't need to miss church anytime soon! Once Cadence has adjusted, I'll try rejoining sharing time again.

Sunbeam Cadence

Technically, this past Sunday was Cadence's first Sunday as a Sunbeam!

However, we have decided not to count it. We were one of the first ones to arrive at the primary classroom and so she quickly ditched the empty Sunbeam row to come sit in my lap where I awaited the arrival of my CTR 4s. However, she never left my lap, frequently asked for snacks from my purse (I have since learned I do NOT share my classroom with a senior primary class so I can leave my bags there to avoid this problem in the future), and refused to participate. She even got upset when they did not sing the songs in the order she wanted, though she knew all but one song already. I tried coaxing her to at least sit in a chair at my side, but we had no luck.

Unfortunately, she took up so much of my attention primary presidency had to come help with my class, well, one specific child who just wanted to participate as much as possible during sharing time. Next week should be better. I'll have my team teacher. Of course, next week I should also expect all 10 of our CTR 4s...

Our other big problem: The Sunbeam teacher wasn't there, which meant I taught the Sunbeams as well. This went about as expected. After several minutes of attempting to teach with a fussy 3 year old in my lap, I left my class with the last minute sub/helper and one of the parents who was having similar problems with HIS new Sunbeam to hand Cadence off to James so I could at least get through my lesson. She came back for the last 15-20 minutes, but still insisted on my lap and I did have to leave the room again when she became inconsolable near the end.

We survived. If barely. I managed to play "Simon Says" while holding on to her to keep the class busy for the last few minutes.

Next week will be her first REAL Sunday as a Sunbeam. This past week was just our practice run (though if the practice run is any indication, we're in trouble). We also learned James has to have Cadence with him as he drops of Megan, since part of Cadence's problem was worrying about her missing sister. Megan, naturally, forgot all her "where's my sister" issues not long after the nursery teacher showed up and was perfectly content in nursery on her own.

Galveston Island Beach

(Don't forget to check below for another entry about our visit to the Houston Zoo)

Another day of too much time off and nothing to do had us loading the girls into the car for the hour-long drive to Galveston Island Beach. Obviously, late December is NOT the BEST time for visiting a beach, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

We walked along the shoreline for a bit pointing out seashells for the girls, but these held little interest. I feared the trip had been a complete waste of time as neither girl seemed too interested. But a suggestion of taking off socks and shoes changed everything. At first the girls were hesitant about the soft sand under their bare feet.
But it didn't take long for them to take off and thoroughly enjoy themselves.
I had to include this picture of Megan and the seagulls to tell a funny story.
By the way, I now hate sea gulls. Rather than just toss the remainder of our lunches away, I thought it'd be a good idea to toss the pieces to the birds. What commenced was something from a horror film. As soon as they realized I was tossing food, they all took to wing and came straight for me, hovering overhead. I tried to remain calm and continue tossing pieces, but that only brought greater, hungry numbers closer and closer as they all sought an edge to pluck the food I tossed right out of the sky. I panicked after a few tosses and threw the entire handful of food as far from me as possible and ran (well, to save what little dignity I had left I just walked at a near trot as quickly as possible). Several of them followed me for awhile before accepting I had nothing left. They still hovered nearby for far too long and I have vowed to never feed the gulls again.

Houston Zoo

What's a family to do when Daddy has a lot of time off? Go to the zoo, of course! Probably should have gone before they raised admissions prices and Megan was old enough to require a ticket, but that really didn't matter in the end. It was a nice weather day (high 60s and sunny!), practically perfect for a day of animal perusing.

The girls were a little restless in the stroller, wondering what all the hullabaloo was about around them with people everywhere and nothing of interest in sight, except for some ticket booths and trees. Once we pulled into the first exhibit, though, they were excited and no longer content to hang out in the stroller and just look around. The aquarium was our first stop.

We got close to a lot of animals throughout the day, but I think being this close to the elephants was amazing. You really got an idea of just how big they were. And how smart, as one of the zookeepers came out and offered them pieces of bread to do tricks (like wave their ears and pose)
We saw several other animals, of course. That's what the zoo's for. The girls sometimes just pressed their faces against the fence just because that's what they were supposed to do, though they couldn't see any animals of interest at the time.
Not far past the elephants was the African area. Complete with a mock tribal village, drums to play on, monkeys, and giraffes.
We strolled past the lions and tigers (no bears, oh my!), but the big sleeping cats held little interest to the girls and we eventually found ourselves in the children's zoo area where the girls zeroed in on their all time favorite thing: the slide.
Before we left, I made a point in dragging them away from the slide and going to the petting zoo where each kid could take a brush and brush the goats. Despite initial protest, the girls LOVED wandering around and brushing the goats. Cadence made a point of brushing every single one at least once.
And, of course, once the girls saw these statues that had to climb on and ride them like "horsies", their new favorite past time.
And when I saw this picture of Megan, I couldn't help but think of a similar one I took 4 1/2 years ago in San Diego. Like mother, like daughter, eh? (Now if only we had one of Nana sitting on a turtle!)