Update on Andrew's Baby

Remember Andrew's Baby?  He did very well on his project.  But he was very tired.  His baby kept him up all night.  He was lucky to get 2 hours of sleep at a time.  And he was very frustrated.  He missed class because he had to feed his baby.


We kept reminding him that that is life with a baby.  But realistically, parent's have better accommodations than a HS student doing a project has.  And, as he so poignantly pointed out, we get the benefits of positive feedback from our baby.  Smiles, coos, playfulness, words, hugs, kisses, etc.  


After the project was over, he turned in his baby.  He told his teacher how tired he was.  He then learned this his baby was accidentally put on "hard."  There are three levels; easy, medium and hard.  All students are supposed to be on medium, but somehow his was on hard.


So ... mad props to Andrew for completing the project on the hard level.

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream

For years, we've had an ice cream maker in the garage.  Every now and then I wanted to make ice cream, but no ingredients on hand.  Finally I had the idea on grocery shopping day and put the necessary ingredients on the list.


Saturday afternoon, Audrey and I mixed it all together and made homemade cookies and cream ice cream.

Collect the ingredients ... milk, heavy cream, suger, vanilla, and of course Oreos.

Milk sugar and milk and cream.  Audrey got to pour the ingredients into the mixing bowl.

After the sugar is mixed in, add to ice cream maker and turn on.  Let mix for 25 minutes. 

Crush Oreos

Add Oreos the last 5 minutes of mixing

While we were waiting for the ice cream to finish, we played outside. Audrey was playing with rocks and was very adamant that Annie not touch them. 

So Annie decided to watch over her kingdom on the top of her tower.

We enjoyed the ice cream on Sunday night after dinner.  No photos of that.  But it was awesome.  It tasted just like store bought.

Sponge Painting

In keeping with my attempts to do crafts with Audrey, I came up with another one using most of the same materials I already had.  I just had to buy some sponges.


Using an exacto knife, I cut up the sponges into various shapes.  I glued said shapes to larger pieces to act as handles.  Then, using the back of wrapping paper as a "canvas," I let Audrey go to town with the paints.

We were blessed with a gorgeous, sunny day.

Meanwhile, Annie did her own playing.

Andrew's "Baby"

Andrew is taking a development "teach you how to be responsible" class and there's a unit on taking care of babies.  They have a doll that is programmed to act like a real baby.  You have to feed it, change diaper, etc.  So he had it home yesterday, and Annie and Audrey were so interested in it; Annie moreso.  I think Annie thought it was real.

Something Fun

Following a very rough, 18-month battle, a 5 year-old boy from our church went home to be with the Lord on Saturday.

Logan was a fun-filled boy who loved life and God.  Consequently, his mom, who I consider my friend, requested that in honor of Logan, everyone do something fun on Sunday.  

After church, I took some special time away from my normal Sunday routine, and played with Audrey and Annie.  I did what they wanted to do, which was pretty much just play with all the toys in the bedroom and make a gigantic mess.  In the process, I was able to get some photos of playtime.  I tried to use the timer to get some of me, too, but I couldn't get the camera in a good place and somehow my rear end faced the camera more often than not.  

At any rate ... here are photos of our "Something Fun" Sunday afternoon.

Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

From the "too cute for words" category.....

 

 That's all.  Have a good day.

Heart Chain - a Craft

I think I've mentioned before that I'm trying to make a more concerted effort to do crafts with Audrey.

I've received some ideas from Babble.com. I'm not a crafty person, so I don't aspire to much. And we don't have a whole lot of time to do them, so they have to be simple and generally something where our help is minimal.

Josh and I took his birthday off of work so we could relax together. I took advantage of the time home with the girls to do a simple Valentine's Day craft - heart shaped chain. I remember making chains like this when I was young to count down to something like a birthday, last day of school, etc.

For this chain, since I don't have construction paper in the house, I decided we would color our own. I printed out full sheets with different sized hearts. Then Audrey colored.

We cut the colored pages into strips. 

Then fashioned into a heart-shaped train. We used a combination of glue stick and stapler.

Meanwhile, Annie was snacking.....

Through the eyes of a toddler

Ever wonder what the world looks like to a 2 year old?


Hand a camera (that you don't care about) to a 2 year old and you will get an idea.

Mommy

Baby Sister

Books

Stacking Ring Toy

Laundry

Toy Blocks

Daddy

Computer Keyboard (and my feet)

For more ... there's an entire set on my flickr page for all her photos now.  

New to Us

I made an innocent comment last night at choir practice.  I was talking with Barbara about practicing and how, since I don't have a piano or keyboard, I practice to the piano app on my our Josh's Kindle Fire.


She said, "Do you want one?  I have one that I'm not using."


Ummm .... yes, please!


So I drove her home from practice and picked it up.  She said she had just bagged it up in the garage and didn't know what to do with it.


It's been 5 1/2 years that I've been without a piano.  I miss it so much.  I try to fill my music void with choir and my trombone, but it's not the same.  And let's face it, I don't play my trombone much.  Something about sitting down at a piano with a hymnal or old sheet music and just playing that is cathartic and relaxing.  Not to mention now I can properly practice my choir music.  YAY!


We had an extra few minutes this morning, so we set it up and the girls were thoroughly impressed.