Fun WIth Rice

I saw an idea on http://www.colorfool.net/2006/12/01/rice-rice-babyand-other-weird-toys/ to color rice for the girls to play with. So, last night after they went to sleep I decided to try it out. I have some neon food coloring and it turned out really pretty. Today I moved their table onto the tile and set them up with spoons, a funnel, and a few other things to play with. They seemed to really enjoy it. Their joy lasted about 20 minutes.

When I got them all set up I said, "Try to keep it in the pan, okay guys."

They replied in unison, "Okay, mama."

Well, some of it was left in the pan...

Let's see, 10 minutes of set up plus 10 minutes of clean up equals to 20 minutes which equals the amount of time they actual played with the rice. Is it worth it?... Sure it is!

* As usual, clothing optional around here.

Need a Ride?

The girls took turns pulling each other in the wagon tonight. Daddy got some really cute pictures! No, Story is not wearing panties. She really does own some, I promise!

We did not tell her to pose this way, Cadence doesn't know what she is doing either!

Yes Cadence can wave, but was this a coincidence? Probably.

Story wanted to pull her sisters, but she was having some trouble, "This is heavy! I'm not a very good puller!" We quickly assured her that she was a good "puller" her sisters were just too heavy.

Big Sister Lyric could handle the wagon!

They took a break from the wagon pushing to do a little rock climbing. Yes, Lyric did it in her panties, and yes, Story did it with no panties, and yes, their mommy and daddy knew about it... Cadence had a diaper on does that make us better parents?

Is it morning yet?

It's 11:10 pm. I have been in bed approximately one hour. There is a huge thunderstorm outside. I love the sights and sounds of a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. I'm laying in bed listening to the thunder and watching the lightening flash. When suddenly I hear, "Momma, I'm thirsty, get me some water." It is Story. My first thought is, "Get me some water...how about some manners." But my second thought is, "This is going to be a LONG night!"

I jump out of bed and get the water thinking maybe I can get it back to her quickly and she will get a quick drink and go back to sleep. Who am I kidding this is Story we are talking about. I get back with the water and guess what, Cadence is awake too. Joy! I start patting Cadence's back to get her back to sleep and I give Story the water. She gets a drink and then starts watching the storm. She says at the top of her lungs, "Those blinds are opening and closing and opening and closing." I was shocked she wasn't scared. By 12:00 Daddy is now awake asking what he can do to help. I tell him to take Cadence and I will try to draw piggies on Story's back to get her back to sleep. A couple of minutes go by and he says, "Cadence thinks it is morning." I don't know who I'm kidding, Story does too.

What do you do when it is 12:00 at night and you have two children wide awake? You get up. Story, Cadence and I get up. Lyric has a cooking playdate at 10:30 in the morning, so I head straight to the computer to cancel it. I am sitting at the computer typing that we aren't going to be able to make the playdate because Story and Cadence are up and I don't know how long we are going to be up. As I am typing I am thinking, 'If I know Story she will be asking for breakfast soon.' About ten seconds after this thought leaves my head Story says, "When were going to eat brakfast?" I simply respond, "In about seven hours."

I have two children awake at midnight things can't really get any worse, right? Here comes Daddy and Lyric walking down the hall, oh now the whole family is awake. Daddy asks the girls if they want a movie. They pick The Bearstein Bears.

I am still sitting in the office when I hear Story say, "Daddy, mama said we're gonna eat 'brakfast' in ten hours."

Daddy says, "Yea, mama's right. Do you need a snack?"

Of course she does this is Story you're talking about! "Daddy, I want some goldfish."

Daddy responds, "Isn't it a little late for goldfish?"

I'm still sitting in the office listening and I can almost hear his thoughts, 'You want goldfish? Who cares if you have goldfish? It's the middle of the night and I just want to be asleep!' Daddy is now sleeping and Story has her goldfish.

In the time it took me to write this the girls have gotten tired of The Bearnstein Bears and are now in the office cooking. It is 1:34 and I don't see bedtime anywhere in my future.

Guadalupe Peak

Devon and I have decided to go hiking. We have been talking about going on this hike forever, but we finally put it on the calendar. On May 26 we are going to hike up to Guadalupe Peak (the highest point in Texas). I am very excited about it! We are going to leave the girls in Midland, so it will be just the two of us. I don't know if any of you have seen me lately, but I am not really in mountain climbing kind of shape!

Those rolls will prevent me from getting up that mountain. Well, maybe not prevent it, but keep me from enjoying it!

So, I have started going to the gym. I have gone the last two days. I did twenty minutes on the elliptical and the circuit both days. I go to Ladies Workout Express and it is a women's gym where they have the machines set up in a circle and it is a 30 minute workout (Circuit Training, I think is what it is called?) I really like it because I am intimidated by real gyms where you have to set the weight and decide what exercises to do. This is resistance training, so you just sit down and exercise no thought required. Well, a little thought.

So to get my mountain climbing body I have a new mantra, "What would Ali do?" Any Biggest Loser fans out there? The Biggest Loser is my favorite show and Tuesday night was the finale. Ali won and is the first female Biggest Loser. She lost a total of 112 pounds.She looked so awesome. I don't necessarily want to get as small as she is (I do have three kids, you know!), but I figure I can use her as an inspiration to get where I want to be. Although, I do love her arms! That is one thing I have always wanted is cut arms.

I was making the kids lunch on Wednesday after watching the show Tuesday night. I was heating them up some frozen nuggets that are just horrible for them (I really should stop buying them). I really wanted one (they're horrible, but good). I just thought, "Would Ali eat this nugget? Is it worth it? " I stepped away from the nugget! I know I'm a dork for putting pictures of a chick on my blog, but it inspires me, so I'm going to do it... I've got a freaking mountain to climb!

Lyric's First Lapbook

The girls and I made our first lapbooks. Basically you make mini-books covering details that you've studied. After making a variety of mini-books about a larger topic, all the books are put together in a large folder. The finished product is called a lapbook because it's large and covers your lap.

I decided we were going to do our lapbooks on the colors and numbers. Lyric did hers in Spanish and Story's is in English. We haven't quite finished Story's, but here are pictures of Lyric's. We had a lot of fun doing this and I am sure we are going to be spending lots of time lapbooking in our future homeschooling days!

This is the front cover. It is on a plain folder because they didn't have colored folders when I bought these at Target. I think a colored folder would look better, but I was anxious to get a folder, so we had to go with the plain one this time.

This is the inside. On the left and right flaps are flip books that have the numbers 1-20 in Spanish. Lyric put stickers on each page to correspond to the number. Both girls really enjoyed this! We bought Story Dora stickers and Lyric princess stickers, so that made it all the more exciting!

In the middle is a counting book printed from Enchanted Learning http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html. I love that site! She also made a circle book for azul (blue). We picked blue pictures from the Internet (blueberry, a blue unicorn, blue sky and a blue fish) and Lyric cut them out and glued them on.

On the bottom right, is the color matching game we made. Lyric typed up the color names and decided what shade of the color she wanted to use. Story made cards just like these for her book. She also did the typing and picked the colors out she wanted to use...Yes, I am a very patient woman :)

When you raise the middle flap Lyric glued balloons here. You raise the balloon to reveal the color name in Spanish. She also typed all of the names herself and chose the shade of color she wanted. As I said before, I am a very patient woman.

On the top of the flap, Lyric practiced writing her numbers. She is a smart kiddo, but her handwriting is not the best. I think she takes after her mother. I am almost 34 and still write like a fifth grader.

On the back cover she colored a rainbow and practiced writing the color names. She made a circle book for rojo (red). Inside of it, she glued strawberries, a red ball, a heart, and a red arrow. In the pouch there is another matching game we made. You have to match the correct number of balloons to the number.

I have been a little addicted to lapbooking lately. Anytime I am on the Internet, it seems like I am looking at lapbooking websites, lapbooking pictures, or different lapbooks to try. I joined a lapbooking yahoo group (I know I'm a dork!) I always seem to need an addiction in my life. The last thing was cake decorating now it is lapbooking. This is much cheaper, better for my diet, and my girls will benefit from this addiction!

We have decided our next lapbook is going to be on If You Give a Moose a Muffin. Homeschool Share http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ has a free lapbook on their site that looks pretty fun. Lyric really likes this book, so it should be fun. I've been trying to decide if I want to do the same book with Story or try something else. She loves to be involved! She is so cute when she says, "I have to do my homeschool." The number and color lapbook worked our great because of it being the same, but different languages. I just don't know how much she would get out of doing a lapbook on If You Give a Moose a Muffin? We will probably start next week, so I have a few days to decide.

If you want to learn more about lapbooking check out these sites:

* The Simplest Lapbook Ever http://simplest.lapbook.ever.com/?skip_login=1

* Lapbooking on Squidoo http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking

* Lapbooking Ringsurf http://www.ringsurf.com/ring/jimmie/

I have many more if you need them, like I said it has been a little bit of an addition for me lately!

Sun Visor

The girls made some cool sun visors with Mimi J this week.

Cadence's was decorated with her name until the girls decided to decorate it with the extra letters. If you look closely you can still see her name in there.

Story kept breaking hers by pulling the cord off of the back and Cadence kept eating hers, but they looked pretty darn cute wearing them!

Friday Fun

We had a great evening with the family tonight! It started off with the two little ones napping this afternoon.

Daddy did this to Cadence, but Story did this to herself. Anyone who knows Story knows she would rather be without clothes whenever possible!

I bought a package of flowers that are supposed to make a "butterfly garden" Don't you just love the $1.00 section at Target? I thought it would be fun to try. Anyway, we decided to plant it today. Even if we don't grow any flowers; it was pretty educational just getting the spot ready.

We saw a colony of ants with their eggs. When Devon raised the rock they were under they started picking up the eggs and scrambling around. We also saw a few spiders. This one was pretty big and scary, but daddy assured us it wasn't dangerous. We saw a ton of rolly pollies. Of course, Lyric had to pick one up!

The girls ran around and played while daddy moved the rocks to get the spot ready for the flowers. Yes, Story is wearing her house shoes. Daddy suggested her tennis shoes, but she refused because, "These are more comfortable."

Cadence sat on Fred and watched. She really was having a good time despite the sour look on her face!

The girls would come and help periodically. They did spread the seeds.

Lyric was quite the expert waterer! She was very excited to have this job. I wonder how long it will take for the excitement of watering to wear off?

Daddy grilled us all a burger for supper. YUMMY!! Cadence had her first Cheeto. She liked it! I know she is only seven months old and probably shouldn't be eating Cheetos, but the kid won't eat anything... SO now we can add Cheetos to the short list of foods she will eat. They were baked... does that make it better?

For dessert we had Strawberry Short Cake. Well, that is except Story she had Banana Short Cake. I've never heard of it, but she really liked it. In fact, when she was done she said, "More cake!"

I tried to get the girls to pose for a picture after we ate, but that is next to impossible!

The night ended with the three girls taking a dip in the tub. This got crazy really quick, so Cadence was removed shortly after her entrance for her own safety! A picnic supper complete with dessert is enough to send big sisters over the edge with excitement!