This month for our Mini Monet Art Class, I taught the kiddos about Georgia O'Keeffe. We talked a little bit about her life and what inspired her. We looked at a lot of her paintings, especially her flowers and then we set to work creating our own floral masterpieces.

I had the girls work in watercolour paint, one of the earlier mediums used by Georgia O'Keeffe, as I am not quite ready to tackle oil on canvas with a group of 6 and 7 year olds. I think they got the general idea though. We talked about how we should image we are a bug, sitting on the flower and draw the flower from that point of view, and how our flowers should touch all the sides of our paper. This was a hard concept for them to grasp, and most of the girls ended up doing more of a landscape painting that included flowers amongst other things, rather than a single macro flower, but the results were amazing, just the same. We used Prang watercolour paints, and they are AWESOME. They are super affordable, and I think they beat out Crayola by a landslide. And that's saying a lot. I'm a total Crayola snob.

I am so enjoying my Mini Monet girls. I look forward to our class each month and already, the wheels in my head are turning and I'm thinking about a summer art camp and our itinerary for the fall semester. The girls have started to invite everyone they know to come to our end of the semester art show... they are loving it just as much as I am. I can't wait to watch this project grow!

Valentine's Day {As Told By My iPhone}

I upgraded my camera a few weeks ago, and the learning curve has been... a little bit steep, so bear with me as I present to you-

Valentine's Day 2014

as told by my iPhone

 

For Sunshine's February family project, she had to turn a Nesquik container into a Valentine holder for her class party. She decided she wanted "Lucy Minion" from Despicable Me 2, and I think we did a darn good job delivering. I could hardly believe it when I even found white fabric with pink polka dots in my fabric stash. Sunshine and I think our Lucy Minion turned out darn near perfect.

 

Our Valentine's celebration started on the night of the 13th, when Bruce picked up flowers and dinner on his way home from being in court all day. The girls and I each got flowers and a book (Peter Pan for me- Bruce is trying to rekindle my love of Peter Pan, which was dashed during the most recent season of Once Upon a Time, Winnie the Pooh for Beebs and Mary Poppins for Sunshine). Man Cub also gave us each a gift- heart shaped pizza and cheesy bread for the girls, orange juice for me, since I'm currently avoiding all refined sugar. Ü The girls are both so excited about their new books. I can't believe how still Beebs sits while I read Winnie the Pooh to her. She loves it. 

On Valentine's Day, Bruce cooked us all his amazing stuffed chicken for dinner and I gave out my gifts. The wee ones each got a mason jar tumbler, like the one I use every day, just smaller. The tumblers were filled with what we call "love note candy". Bruce and I each list things we love about each child on little stickers then attach them to the bottoms of small candy like Hugs and Kisses and Reese's. The kiddos love their candy and Sunshine has been carefully saving each of her wrappers so she can remember the love notes we wrote for her. I have them all saved in a Word file, but she doesn't care... it is apparent that she treasures those little notes.

I gave Bruce the same thing this year that I gave him last year- 12 monthly dates, planned and paid for. It is definitely a selfish gift. Bruce and I have never developed a habit of dating each other. We didn't date before we got married and we certainly didn't date afterwards, when we were poor, starving college students. Really, we've never made dating a priority and last Valentine's Day I decided to change that. I wrote little notes and purchased gift cards and tickets for 12 dates, one for each month of the year. Some were simple, like attending the temple together. Some were stay at home dates, like taking a "How Well Do You Know Your Spouse" quiz and watching one of our favourite movies, or making s'mores by the fire pit after the wee ones were asleep. Other dates were a little more elaborate, like a night at the shooting range (which was a  huge deal since at the time of that date, I still had severe anxiety about touching a gun, never mind shooting one). This year, I came up with 12 new date ideas, wrote new notes and restuffed the envelopes then presented it to Bruce as his gift from me. We are both really excited to work our way through the coming year with a new date for each month. 

Happy Valentine's Day | 2014

Our annual Valentine e-card... a tradition that I keep saying I don't have time for, yet always manage to do. I love looking back at past cards and seeing how much my wee ones have grown. We skipped setting up my studio this year, and instead snapped this photo in the backyard, but I'm so glad we made time to do it. I sure do love these little people, and I am so very blessed to call them mine.

We Love To See The {Gilbert} Temple

On Tuesday afternoon, Bruce and I had the amazing experience of taking our wee ones to a temple open house. The Gilbert temple is on the other side of the valley from us, but the open house was well worth the drive, even with Man Cub's less than stellar mood throughout the tour.

The Gilbert temple is absolutely breathtaking. Bruce and I have been blessed to visit many different temples in our marriage and I can easily say this was the most stunning of all temples we have been inside. (Though the Newport Beach temple is still my absolute favourite) The chandeliers inside the Gilbert temple are the most elaborate, sparkly things I have ever seen. 

We went to the open house with our recently baptized next door neighbours. It was fun to watch them take in the beauty of the temple and answer as many of their questions as we could. But my favourite part was definitely watching Sunshine as she experienced the peace and magnificence of the temple. She was so curious about everything we saw and I think she learned a lot about why temples are important and what a sacred place they are. I hope her experience wih seeing the inside of the temple will help her to understand even more about why Bruce and I enjoy going to the temple. At the end of the tour, she reported that her favourite part was the chandeliers in the Celestial Room and that being in side the temple made her feel "like Jesus was close by".  

Beebs was pretty silent through the tour, which is unusual for her. She just walked along with us, with no complaints of being tired or wanting to be carried as we treked up and down numerous flights of stairs. That alone was a huge indicator of how captivated she was by the beauty of her surroundings. Her favourite part was "the moose holding the baptism water". I about died trying to suppress my giggles when she told us that. Bruce was able to keep a straight face and explain that they were oxen, not moose. She told us that she felt Heavenly Father send the Spirit to be with us inside the temple. Oh how I love my girls!

Man Cub struggled throughout he tour. He was so exhausted but refused to nap on the drive over. By the time we got inside the temple, he was done. He fussed and fought being held through the whole thing, only settling down as we entered the Celestial Room. Even he recognized the strong spirit in that holy space. I couldn't help but wonder how thin the veil is for him, and if he realized that the Celestial Room was as close to heaven as he could get for the time being. He was so calm, just pointing at the beautiful lights and smiling. 

As we left the temple, the crowds outside did not allow for a good family snapshot in front of the temple, especially since by that point, Man Cub was about to lose his mind. I did manage to get one of him and Beebs playing in the water feature outside the temple, something I would never let them do myself. Thank goodness for Daddy! 

I am so grateful for the chance we had to show our children the inside of The House of The Lord. And now I'm more excited than ever for our new temple to be complete! I feel a renewed desire to be in the temple serving as often as I can. What a blessing to have several temples, so close by.

My Mini Monets

Last Saturday, Sunshine and I embarked on a new adventure together. It is an adventure that has been in the works for many months now. I've spent a lot of time thinking and planning and trying to figure out how to make it possible, and Saturday was the big day- our first Mini Monet art class.

I love that Beebs and I get to do preschool together. Preschool is "ours" and I love the time I spend with Beebs, helping her and my other students learn and grow. But as I've enjoyed this time with Beebs, I have realized that I wanted something similar for Sunshine and I. A way for us to bond and connect through learning. I started brainstorming ways I could do some at home learning with Sunshine and ultimately decided that expanding on her love of art would be a great way for us to learn together while doing something she enjoys. I decided to start an "art club" for other children Sunshine's age and the response has been  awesome.

Right now, our Mini Monet class has 5 students including Sunshine, but I have a list of additional people who are interested in joining, if (when!) I start a new session. We meet once a month for about two hours. We spend the first 20-30 minutes learning about one of the world's great artists, and then we do a work of art in the style of that artist. At the end of the semester (the class is running January through May) we will have a small art show where friends and family can come and see our masterpieces.

Saturday was a smashing success... in my opinion! We learned about Piet Mondrian, and touched a little bit on the De Stijl art movement. After we'd learned some facts about our artist of the month and discussed some new art terminology like primary colours, negative space, and horizontal and vertical lines, we headed to the back yard to create our own Mondrian inspired art work. We used foam core boards, acrylic craft paint and black electrical tape to mimic Mondrian's style. The girls did an awesome job on their paintings and I cannot get over how much fun we had together! I've seen several of my students when picking up Sunshine at school this past week, and each one of them has run up to me to say hi and tell me the facts they remember learning in our class.

I am so glad to have this fun new way to spend time with Sunshine. It is great for our relationship and I love that we are exploring something that truly interests her. We have some really fun artists and projects lined up for the rest of the school year and I just know we are going to have a blast. I only wish I had thought to do this sooner.

A Very Disney Weekend

To finish off Beebs's fourth birthday celebration, Bruce and I surprised the wee ones with a weekend at Disneyland, and we brought Bruce Wayne's dad along with us. We sent Sunshine off to school Friday morning, then hurried to pack up the car. Bruce's dad arrived at our house and we piled into the car telling Beebs that we were going out for hamburgers with Grandpa, at which point we drove over and signed Sunshine out of school. As soon as she got in the car and saw Grandpa and her road trip bucket, she caught on to what was happening. It took Beebs another 10 or 15 minutes to figure out that this was more than just a typical lunch date with Grandpa. Once she finally realized what was going on, both Beebs and Sunshine were beyond excited.

The highlights of our trip...

* Dinner at Slater's 50/50 on our way into Anaheim. They are known for their 50/50 burger which is 50% ground beef and 50% ground bacon. It was to-die-for.
* Riding Radiator Springs Racers over, and over, and over again. Thank you Fast Passes and Parent Swaps.
* Waiting in the shortest lines ever for Toy Story Midway Mania, because now when California Adventure opens, everyone books it to Cars Land.
* Cars Land. It's my most favourite place ever. I love the Cars movies, I love Radiator Springs. I could spend all my Disneyland time in Cars Land and come home a happy girl.
* Bruce bought me a pomegranate limeade from the Cozy Cone, served in a traffic cone cup.
* We ate lots of pineapple whips. We always come home from Disneyland sad that we didn't eat more pineapple whips, so this time we ate plenty.
* Breakfast with Minnie at the Plaza Inn restaurant. We met lots of characters and ate really yummy food.
* Dinner at the Blue Bayou (the restaurant inside Pirates). That place is amazing.
* Watching Man Cub light up as he rode the carousel and watched the Pixar Play Parade.
* Beebs's impression of what people do when they go down the waterfall on Splash Mountain... see photo collage below.
* Man Cub's love of watching the logs come down the Splash Mountain waterfall.
* Finally getting to ride on the canoes... if you don't row, they don't go. Good thing Bruce and I were willing to row, because several people in our canoe were there for a free ride! And Sunshine's paddle ended up overboard. It was really fun. A great way to see The Rivers of America.
* Watching the candy apple makers... we spend a lot of time plastered to the window of the candy shop. And this trip, we actually bought apples! Beebs chose a Mike Wazowski apple and Sunshine picked one that resembled Minnie Mouse. We brought them home and enjoyed them when the "home from vacation" blues hit. They were the perfect remedy.
* Bruce got "written up" by the California Adventure Police for "arresting expression of emancipated exuberance" and "infectious display of municipal optimism" and "proud policing".
* Watching the Aladdin show and taking Man Cub to Playhouse Disney Live. The shows at Disneyland just cannot be beat.
* Did I mention Cars Land being a highlight of this trip? Seriously! I love that place. And we collected several new Cars buttons to add to my collection. Ü

And now for my favourite pictures from the trip...

Pancakes & Pajamas | A Fourth Birthday Celebration

Beebs had a lot of ideas when it came to planning her fourth birthday party. Originally, she wanted a mermaid-princess-dolphin-jaguar party. I wasn't exactly sure how to pull that off, so we finally settled on a "Pancakes and Pajamas" theme. Beebs loves pancakes, and with the exception of a good fluffy tutu, pajamas are her favourite thing to wear. I thought it would be a simple theme that the kiddos would have fun with. And I was right!

The Invitations

Now that I've figured out how to "draw" in Photoshop, I go a little crazy designing things. But look at those bunny slippers! I love how the invite turned out, and we ended up using pieces of it for the invite to our Primary "Meet the Teacher" pajama party.

The Menu

We kept the menu simple... a pancake bar, Gogurts and Capri Suns. I had a variety of toppings for the pancake bar- butter, maple syrup, a strawberry fruit topping, sliced bananas, mini chocolate chips, sprinkles and whipped cream. I am pretty sure we could have offered just sprinkles and all the kiddos would have gone home happy! But the adults in attendance had fun turning their little silver dollar pancakes into works of art with the various toppings.

The Decorations

I didn't go very fancy with the decorations- just some streamers and balloons. None of it even fell in line with the theme. But it was colourful and fun and Beebs loved it.

The Cake

We actually decided to ditch cake for this party and went with donuts instead. Beebs LOVES donuts. In fact, one of our favourite traditions is a Friday morning "donut date" after we drop Sunshine off at school. The morning of Beebs' birthday, she and I got up early and went to our local grocery store that makes some killer donuts and picked up three dozen in all our favourite flavours. When it came time to blow out the candles, Beebs picked a strawberry iced long john as her piece of "cake".

Birthday Girl Attire

Beebs wore pjs! She picked some pink "feet jammies" from her pajama drawer and she looked so cute in them.

The Guests

This was the first year that Beebs had a definite opinion about who was invited to her party. She wanted all of her preschool friends to come as well as a handful of friends from church and a few of Sunshine's friends that she just adores. Almost everyone who was invited was able to attend, and we all wore pajamas.

The Activities

I had originally planned a few activities to keep the kiddos occupied, but when it came down to it, they were all perfectly content to eat, watch Beebs open her presents and run around outside. It was the most beautiful January day imaginable, so I just let them run and play. I did have a table with colouring supplies on it, and two options of "decorate your own pajamas" colouring pages. A few of the little ones coloured, but most were much happier running around and playing.

The Party Favours

For the party favours, Beebs helped me write a little thank you note for each person on the wrapper of a Rice Krispy treat, and we packaged that together with a sleep mask from the Target dollar spot. It made for a cute party favour, and several parents have reported to me that their children insist on sleeping in the masks almost every night. Ü

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After Beebs' birthday party, the girls and I got our hair trimmed and arrived back home just in time for Bruce Wayne to wake up. We then celebrated the birthday girl as a family with presents and Papa Murphy's pizza and cookie dough for dinner. Beebs requested a Nothing Bundt Cake as her birthday cake and by the time the day came to a close, we were all experiencing a bit of a sugar high.

It was a wonderful birthday for our sweet Beeba. She really did seem to enjoy every moment of her special day. And just 7 days later, we continued the celebration when we surprised the girls with a trip to Disneyland in honour of Beebs turning four. But that deserves it's own post.