More of MJ's birthday photos

Good Morning Birthday Boy

Here are some photos of what we did for MJ's actual birthday on Tuesday.  We mostly played at home for the day.  I asked TJ if he feel like going to a splash park, but the boys enjoyed  the house more.  We played bubbles, painted, looked at photo albums and had a wonderful day together. Dinner was MJ's favourite meal of spaghetti ('gebby') and ice cream for dessert.

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New Socktopus and bottle quickly found their way into the truck

painting with bubble wands, balls, etc.

Body painting

More body painting

MJ covers himself too

Foot prints

 The boys loved this messy painting.  They enjoyed the feeling of the paint on their feet.  The lawn looks bad, but should clean up after the next mowing.

Happy Birthday my little one!

Happy 4th Birthday TJ

My wonderful boy TJ turned 4 years old yesterday.  I can not believe how fast time is going by, and I can not remember life without him.  I wanted to make this day so very special for him so here are some of the things we did to celebrate his birthday.

 The night before his birthday I brought out his baby scrapbook and another one I made while I was pregnant with him.  We looked at all the pictures, talked about how much he had grown and all the new things he learned to do this year.  We also discussed some plans for he next day. Finally before he went to sleep I read this wonderful poem that was passed on to me from a yahoo group.

"When I have said my evening prayer,

And my clothes are folded on the chair,

And mother switches off the light,

I will be ___ years old tonight.

But, from the very break of day,

Before the children rise and play,

Before the greenness turns to gold,

Tomorrow, I'll be ___ years old.

____ kisses when I wake.

____ candles on my cake."

 First I decorated the house while he was asleep.  This made for a very late night for me becuase he didn't fall asleep until after 10pm. I set the kitchen table with a fabric party hat and felt birthday cake I made for him. The fireplace has felt flowers, streamers and some flowers the boys made.  I also hung our fabric birthday banner (forgot to take a picture of that) and some balloons.  On a table I placed his photo albums, some pictures in frames and other baby items for him to look at.

 When TJ woke up he was a bit confused about this whole birthday thing.  He thought it was only the party that you get not a whole day for your birthday.  He loved all the decorations and helped me add a few more.  We made birthday cards (I had expected MJ to wake early and surprise TJ, but he slept later), watched the Signing Time birthday video, and played with balloons.  Next we decided what park TJ really wanted to go to.

 Nanny invited us to her house for lunch so we decided to go to a fun playbround near her house.  Cousins E and J joined us.  TJ wanted to dress like a super hero so he could rescue his cousins and MJ if they needed his help.  At the park TJ started to play with some other kids and had conversations with them (this is new for him).  He loved riding his bike there too.  Lunch was delicious and TJ was thrilled with the cake Nanny bought.  TJ has also taken a liking to baby J and loves to pet him.  He was very proud to be asked to hold him for a photo.

Ater lunch we went home.  I tried to put the boys down for a nap... I told TJ a birthday story I learned from several Waldorf groups, using the fairies we had made. He lay down for a few min and then came to me and said he couldn't sleep because he really wanted to play in the rain.  So out he went to use a paint roller on a stick in the puddles!  MJ of course couldn't sleep either although I tried much longer with him.  After some fun in the rain we came in for a special birthday circle time.  We sang some Signing Time birthday songs.  I had more planed but Daddy coming home was way more exciting.

For dinner TJ asked to go to Boston Pizza.  He wore his little party hat and was so excited.  The boys were too eager to get to the cupcakes we brought so they didn't eat much.  Dessert was a big hit and so was TJ's gift.  He had been asking for a basket to carry his stuffed friends on his bike.  You can't imagine how hard it is to find a non-girly pink basket!  I have never seen someone so excited over a flashlight and some bike accessories.

Of course TJ wanted the optional plastic flowers on his basket!

When we got home we decorated his bicycle and played outside for a while.  we proceeded with our usual bed routine just a little later than usual and everyone (including Daddy) went to be early.  I, on the other hand, stayed up to write to all of you!

Thank you all for the wonderful birthday traditions that were shared with me.  Many thanks also to everyone who passed on special birthday wishes to TJ, he was very happy to hear from each of you.

Lenten Traditions for the Family

This has been an exciting year of beginning rich and meaningful traditions with my family.  A few weeks ago I was looking at my calendar and noticed Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.  I'll admit that I had heard of them but never really knew what they were all about.  I was surprised to find out the meanings of these celebrations and the whole Lenten season.  So with that said I do encourage you all to find out why certain celebrations are on the calendar and to participate in those that resonate with you.

I am terrible at summarizing so I suggest you click on the links above to discover these celebrations for yourself.  Here are some activities that we chose to do this year to celebrate. Although we are not Catholic ourselves, many of the resources below come from wonderful Catholic sites.

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday)

• We were going to have pancakes but didn't have all the right ingredients so we made French toast instead.
• We used items from our play kitchen to have our own pancake race with felt pancakes.
• Next year we'll discuss the meaning behind this celebration and have the kids help make the food.

Ash Wednesday

• Talked a bit about repentance and the reason behind the celebration.
• Mommy shared what she was going to give up for Lent (I gave up Facebook in case anyone is missing me).
• Next year we will have a fire or light some candles.

Station of the Cross table

Lent

• Printed a count-down calendar from the internet. (We may make our own next year)
• Set up a Stations of the Cross area in the house. See the picture above.
• Every few days we are working through the Stations of the Cross for kids.
• I created a box of objects for the kids, similar to the link, to add more meaning to the Stations of the Cross readings.
• Later in the month we will be changing up our nature table 
• Plant seeds that will hopefully sprout in time for Easter
• Decorate the house with simple homemade decorations
• Decorate eggs

Holy Week/ Easter

• Make resurrection buns and hot cross buns.
• Wash each others feet and have a simple meal to talk about the Last Supper.
• Possibly do egg hunt using Resurrection Eggs (plastic eggs with meaningful objects inside)
• plant our seeds if they are big enough.

I'm still working on more Easter ideas since I know I'll come across some great ideas online.  Please do share some of your ideas and traditions with us we'd love to hear from you.

Happy Valentines Day

I am so full of love today.

I love God

I love my family

I love my husband

I love my boys

Our yummy cooies

I also love these cookies we made for Valentines.  Check out this recipe from I am Momma Hear Me Roar. Both boys had fun scooping the ingredients.  TJ was out at the part store with daddy while MJ and I rolled out the cookies.  He had a great time with the dough for a while.  Once he started to eat the dough I got out our play dough things for him to enjoy.  We had a nice quiet time together.

Later in the afternoon TJ used edible food markers to decorate some of the cookies to make sandwiches.  We took some of these delicious treats to my parents for a Valentine party on Saturday.

TJ decorating cookies (yes he still has the pacifier)

This past week we also made our own valentine cards.  Just decorated simple heart shapes with stickers and stamps.  We used glitter paint to decorate more hearts to stick up around the house.

TJ carried around his Valentine from cousin Elodie all day

Next year I want to try this new tradition: Write a bible verse about love on a heart shape. Each night from February 1-14 pull out one heart, read it and post it somewhere special.

For breakfast today we are eating sweet potato pancakes.  The recipe is from Taste of Home magazine.  I cut them out with heart cookie cutters.  And I saved some special big heart cookies for dinner tonight.

How are you celebrating Valentines?

Our New Stocking Tradtition

This year while organizing our Christmas advent calendar, I started looking at many different traditions.  There are so many interesting ideas on the internet that it is hard to decide what would be most meaningful for our family.

One new tradition that I thought up has to do with our stockings.  Each year we unpack them with all the other decorations and they sit around until we use them for Christmas day and then they are packed away again new the end of the year.

I thought it would be a neat idea to make the stockings like a mini time capsule.  Each year at the end of the year I'll take a picture of the boys with their stocking.  They also made a picture for themselves and we wrote a letter about the year for each stocking.  Next year when we unpack the decorations we can take a look back at how things have changed. I hope to start a little photo album or scrapbook to save our stocking capsules over the years.

Some ideas for the stockings would be:
Photos
Picture drawn by children
Letter written by children
Letter you write to the kids
Predictions or hopes for the new year

Happy Birthday to Me and my cousin Alexandra today!

Many blessings to you all for the new year.

Advent Ideas

I can hardly believe it is almost December.  I know many people have started to decorate.  We are still quite busy and the boys have colds so I'll probably decorate in a week or so.  I did want to share an idea that does take a bit more planing so you'll have time to get ready.

My boys last year at Christmas

Several years ago I gathered up all my scrap material and made 24 simple little stockings.  Ours don't have a theme but are all fun little stockings that we can fill with our own treats. I'll post better photos once I get decorating.

Our stocking advent calendar in the background

Last year I came across a great idea but I'm not sure what blog it was on.  We have now added activities to our Advent Calendar.  Basically each day there is a piece of paper tuck into the stocking, that has a special activity on it for the day.  If you go to Code Name Mama, she has a great list of ideas for activities.

Our hand knit Nativity

We have included crafts, giving, parties and local events, winter activities. Here is our list to get you started.
1. Snowman craft
2. Gather our Christmas books, puzzles etc.
3. Main Street Christmas (event at a local Church)
4. Donate (to be determined)
5. Make Rice Krispies trees
6. Game night
7. Reindeer craft
8. Christmas movie
9. Decorate Christmas tree
10. Bake loaves
11. Cousin's birthday party
12. Decorate house/ make paper chain
13. Service project (not sure yet)
14. Make cards for extended family
15. Act out Christmas story with toys
16. Bake ginger bread cookies
17. Make gifts for extended family
18. See the lights around town
19. Christmas movie
20. Angel craft
21. Wrap gifts
22. make ice candles
23. Bake birthday cake for Jesus
24. Family party (bring cake)

I like these ideas for advent calendars too.
Names of Jesus ornaments - I just added this after my original post.  I think I'll try to do this too on a wreath
Activity Advent Calendars
Book advent
10 simple advent ideas