Thumb Guards Are A Go

We have been working on life with thumb guards now for 3 days. Things are great till bedtime. then it breaks my heart to hear A plead for me to take them off. I actually caught her with her pointer finger in her mouth last night. So help me if I take away her thumb and she starts on a finger! B is ok, she found out she could take her thumb out the first night, and I think last night she sucked the thumb with the guard anyway. I don't say much since I know this is hard and we are only on day 3, but come week 2 things will get said if this continues. I am looking forward to the day I can take them off and the thumb stays out. the next challenge will be B and the guard at school. Not really looking forward to this fight. She seem to think sucking her thumb at age 6 is less embarrassing than wearing the clear thumb guard. I don't really understand that one. Come to think of it I really don't understand most of her thought processes.

Art Anyone?

My husband and I went out on a date night Saturday. our first choice babysitter is of course my sister Aunt V. the girls were so excited to see her now that she is home for break. one if the first things A did was to start some art work for her. Whenever Aunt V comes over she always leaves with plenty of new pieces of art work. this time however A took a little different approach to her work.

A: (showing her paper) Here Aunt V. Do you like it?
V: I do, but it needs a little more color. (it only had a few lines of marker on the paper)
A: You know what? I think I am finished with it.
V: What do you mean?
A: Here, you can take it home and finish it.

Yes, my daughter is now handing out half finished art work that you can finish on your own. Any takers?

Baby It's Cold Outside

My husband loves this photo. We seem to take one like it every year when it is super cold. I'm not even sure it got any warmer outside today. I was thinking of hitting the mall figuring that others would be home, but after stepping out for a few seconds, I decided -10 was not the time to Christmas shop. Plus, what do I really need to still buy? Not much, but a sale gets me every time. I spent my day with a surprise visit from out of state friends, and decorating cookies that I have been putting off for a few days. I even busted out the gingerbread house to finally have the girls decorate. I figured with only 3 days left it would be a good time to do it.

Not the best decorating job, but they taste good.

B is the official icicle maker. A's side is the one you see, not too bad for 3.

Quick Comments

At dinner tonight...

A: I'm a chicken.

Me: Great, eat your dinner.

A: I'm a chicken and laying babies out of my bottom.

M: Even better, now eat.

Away In A Manger...

I finished putting up the Nativity scene while the girls were at school. I know there was no snow in Bethlehem, but I needed a little something. B noticed it was up right away. She has a real thing for the manger display. I walked by it after the girls went to bed and noticed that there had been a small adjustment to my original set up.

You might not see it just yet so, let me get you a little closer.

There! B placed a little blanket on the baby Jesus. She is so cute :)

Teacher Gift Finished

I decided this year to make B's teacher an I Spy Jar. I found the general idea online and changed it a little to work for me. I was thinking I would do the I Spy Pillows, but when I found these plastic jars I knew this would be better.

B was so excited about it as well. We hit our local Michael's with coupons in hand to pick up needed supplies.

1. You will need an empty jar. I picked plastic in case of dropping. Any size will do, but you probably don't want it too large if for young kids.
2. Different small items to put in jar.
B and I hit the button section and found lots and lots to pick from. The best part is that many button packs are a theme so they have many different buttons in one pack. I also looked around the house and found beads, coins, paper clips...
3. Poly Pellets or Rice to fill jar.
4. Hot Glue and Ribbon for finished jar.

The jar is super easy to make. Put all items in jar after you write the list. Then fill jar with beads or rice. I filled about 3/4 of the way so the objects would move around nicely. This is geared towards a 1st grade class so I didn't want it too hard to find the items. The more you fill the jar the less room the items have to move around. This makes the SPY part harder.

I then printed a list of things to SPY and laminated it on card stock. Added the ribbon to the card, hot glued the ribbon to the inside of the lid so the tag will hang.

Hot glued the lid on, and added the final ribbon around the outside of the lid. All finished! A different, inexpensive, useful teacher's gift.

Now to make one for B. She picked all the items for her jar. I figure it will be a good thing to take on a car trip. Could keep them busy for a while.

Sticker Fun

What does one do when it is 10 degrees outside and you just found the container of stickers? Well if you are A you will do this...

And there were more but they fell off around the house. Nothing like peeling stickers off a hard wood floor :)