Feeling grateful on a lazy winter day

Today we stayed in just about all day long. It sure was great, and I had so much fun with my kids! Here are some things that made me smile today:

--Drew's new infatuation with putting things in the fridge "so they get all cold" he says.

--The fact that Grant started covering his eyes and saying "da... da.... da...." (as if to count) when we were playing hide-n-go-seek.

--The joy that came to Drew's face as he danced and sang his heart out for about an hour :)

--Seeing Grant get tired of watching Drew and just planting himself on the floor to rest :)

--Singing "Five Little Ducks" with Grant and watching him do the motions of 'over the hill and far away' and 'quack, quack, quack'

--Seeing these two cuties cuddle together on the couch while they watched LeapFrog's Letter Factory

Life is good-- I have so much to be grateful for!

Creations

Here are just a few little creations I have done in the last little while. I got a sewing machine for Christmas (thanks mom!) and I'm itching to break it in. I really don't know how to sew, but I'm so excited to learn.

I love to create things, and feel like I've stopped doing this the last few years. It feels good to get back into it, even if it's just a little :)

Have you seen the "Make it and Love it" Blog? I found a link on one of my friend's pages, and have fallen in love! Wish I had the time to make everything on there.

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/

AND, no picture for this one, but using an awesome new recipe and my awesome Bosch to make homemade whole wheat bread... MMMMmmmmm.... We either eat it or I give it away too soon to ever get a picture :)

So, what things do you create? I always love some fresh ideas!

Birthday Party-Throwing 101

Okay, so Andy and I have learned a lot about throwing a birthday party for a 4 year old.... If we keep good track of our 'things learned', hopefully we'll have it down by the time we're on our last kid :)

- 11 kids and 2 adults just doesn't work (thankfully a couple of parents did stay and were a help!)

- 3-4 year old kids will do what they want to do- no matter what

- when they get each other going on a crazy wave, watch out ;)

- the one chance you have of getting them all to do the same thing at the same time is when you eat cake and ice cream

- prepare for tears

- opening presents in the middle of the party... not a great idea

- have about 12 'backup' plans, and then you'll be set (our 2 plans ran out about half way through the party)

Overall, though, we had a great time! The kids are all great kids, they just had so much fun sometimes it was hard to control them! Drew had fun, and that's all that really matters.