Happy Halloween

from Alice in Wonderland



and the Busy Buzzy Bee

Sisters in Orange

It really stood out to me in this picture how different Anna and Maddie look, even when you dress them alike :)

And more pumpkins

Anna also picked pumpkins as the "theme" for her fourth birthday. Some of the pumpkin yummies - pumpkin roll, pumpkin dip and pumpkin decorated cupcakes. (As a side note, one of my crafty friends helped me make this flower arrangement out of clippings from her yard and a bouquet from the grocery store!)



Pumpkin shirts



Painting pumpkins - we used washable paints as well as these cute face stickers from Oriental Trading


The kids also kept busy making a fall scene with these cute sticker scenes also from Oriental Trading.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

It is fall, nearing Halloween and so pumpkins are everywhere. We've been eating pumpkin muffins, pumpkin roll and of course been doing pumpkin crafts.
Here are a few of our favorite pumpkin things - -

Recipe:

Pumpkin Muffins
1 box spice cake
1 can pumpkin
1/4 cup water

Combine all ingredients and place in lined muffin pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes.

Book:

The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs is a great book that goes through a simple version of a farmer growing a pumpkin and then carving it. During each part of the process, the author has included a scripture verse. I love how the pumpkin all carved with a candle inside is a symbol of how we should let our light shine before others. There are several sites that have materials to go along with the book including 1+1+1=1 and Creative Bible Study.

Crafts:

Gospel pumpkins



Marble Painted pumpkins

Happy 4th Birthday Anna!

We had a wonderful weekend of celebration for my darling Anna Grace. It is hard to believe she is already 4. I have loved every minute of it!

Sing Yourself Silly

Tuesday night we went to the Veggie Tales Live, Sing Yourself Silly and the girls LOVED it. This was the first time we have taken the girls to anything like this, including a movie theater but they did great. We arrived at the church early to get seats (and parking) and were delighted that they were showing clips of Veggie Tale movies which entertained the girls while waiting for the show to begin. The music started with the Veggie Tale theme song and here came Bob...



Ok, so I am not sure what I expected but he was huge! I guess I was thinking more along the lines of a person in a costume with hands and legs sticking out which doesn't make any sense considering they don't even have hands and feet! So Bob starts singing "If you like to talk to tomatoes..." and the sounds goes out. After several tries to start the show we at last made it all the way through.

The show itself was cute and they did a silly song countdown and so the girls knew most of the songs. Maddie enjoyed dancing in the aisle with the other kids. It was a long night for us with it ending at 9:00 and Anna asking to go home and go to bed. Both girls fell asleep on the way home in the car.

A Weekend Refresher

This past weekend I had a wonderful opportunity to get away with some mom friends to Myrtle Beach. The weather was beautiful, we had nice dinners out and of course shopping at the outlets is always fun but what marked the weekend for me was not the surroundings, it was the conversations.

For 3 days we simply talked - we talked about our kids, our relationships with our husbands, our churches, our passions. We were real and open and I truly felt spurred on. Being surrounded by other moms who desire to grow their children up in the Lord was motivating and I gleaned many ideas that I too want to try with my girls.

I am so grateful to my wonderful husband who watched the girls for me to take such a weekend away. And I am thankful for wonderful mommy friends.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. - Hebrews 10:24

Back to the NC Zoo

Last Saturday was BEAUTIFUL and so we met another family at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro to spend the day. It was a day full of walking since we started around 10:30 and finally sat down in the car around 4:30 - our longest trip yet to the zoo. Here are a few of my favorite pics:

Moses

This week we are talking about Moses. We started out talking about Moses as a baby being put into a basket and then set in the river and did this cute craft using handprints for the reeds. I don't have a picture though because Anna decided that the handprints should go on the wall in her room rather than the paper :).

Then we colored pages about the plagues and the parting of the red sea that I found in the "Bible ABC's" section of Christian Preschool Printables (M for Moses and P for Plague).

This is the third fall that we have talked about Moses and there have been various times throughout the year that Anna and Maddie have been taught about Moses in Sunday School and Community Bible Study and so we have had LOTS of conversations about Moses. And you now what? I am learning too. As I read our bible story and prepare our crafts for the week, I am being spurred on in my relationship with Christ. I want to read the story we are talking about in my "mommy bible" too so that I can talk even more about what Anna is reading in her toddler bible. I want to hide God's word in my heart so that when the girls ask me a question I can give an answer or at least have an idea of where in the bible to find one. I desire for the girls to know God and to know what His Word says and it makes me want to know God better too.