The Messiest Art Party Ever!

The twins had a great 9th Birthday. On their actual birthday we have always made it a tradition that Scott takes Collin for a "boys" birthday treat and I take Caileigh for a "girls" day. Whatever grandparents are here get to go as well. This year Scott, Vic and the boys went to Boondocks to play mini golf, lasar tag and bumper boats and Mo, Alex, and Caileigh and I went for tea and then a visit to the American Girl store. All of us had a great time at our respective events. This allows the twins to have a time focused on each of them, then they have a blow-out huge party with all their friends. This year we had a "Messy Art Party" which was so fun!

I made two kinds of cupcakes and then Caileigh and I made moldable chocolate clay and candy clay for each guest to decorate their cupcakes with and then eat and enjoy. We had spray paint art, sand art, chalk art, confetti balloons, face painting, painting inside the castle and hat decorating. It was amazingly fun!

I can't believe my babies are 9. They are more precious to me as each year passes. They are fantastic young people and I can't wait to see what God has for them. Happy Birthday Loves!

Categories: parenting

Just a quick note to say that summer is a great time to work on some of those character traits that we don't always have time for in the school year. I usually pick one or two traits and find a Proverbs for them to write and memorize and give extra marbles for the marble jar for when they show these traits. When they have 20 marbles, we may go to a movie (many AMC theatres have really cheap kid movies on Wed mornings), go swimming, pick out a new book or go have ice cream.

Some of the things we work on may be:

Obeying right away, not saying, "but Mom..." (I hate that), picking up after themselves, having a good attitude on chores, getting along with siblings etc.

Proverbs has verses to cover all of that! It's like the author of the book knew us so well that He gave us specific guidelines! : )

Summer is also a great time to work on things like cooking, doing laundry (from beginning to end), mowing lawns, putting toys away and those life skills that will be handy when school rolls around again.

Mine are working on keeping the kitchen clean (like Mom likes it) and laundry from beginning to end. Somehow Caileigh and Connor know how to do these but sneaky Collin has slid by without these skills. Not any longer, to his chagrin.

Categories: parenting