Prize Necklaces

O, my mom, and I made prize necklaces for the children who attended O's 4th birthday party in July.

To make prize necklaces, you need ribbons, cellophane, and small treats. I cut strips of cellophane that were about 7 inches wide. I put a pack of cookies in the center and rolled it and tied it at each end. We then put 2 prizes on each side of the cookies to make a total of 5 prizes in each necklace. Each prize is separated from the next by ribbons tied around the cellophane.

The other prizes included mini bubbles, mini playdough, bouncy balls, silly bandz, glitter glue, smarties, mini boxes of raisins, punch balloons, etc. We had fun making the prize necklaces, and they were a hit with O's friends!

Thank You!!!

Thanks to everyone who notified me of my accidental postings last night! I usually don't read the blog, so I depend on you to tell me if I make a mistake :) I was trying to quickly catch up on blogging for my private family blog and accidentally posted on the wrong blog. I'll blame it on extreme sleep deprivation...E's been sick for a week and a half...1st roseola and now a cold. I gave her a breathing treatment tonight, and hopefully it will help.

So, now you know the girls' names and have seen O's face...oh, well. Worse things could happen, I suppose :) Btw, did you see my amazing kayaking girl? Elliott put her on the kayak so she could see what it felt like to sit on it. She took off and seemed to instinctively know just what to do. E had her first ride on the kayak this weekend, too, but I don't think I posted those pics :)

So, thanks again, to all of you who commented and emailed to let me know about my accidental postings. I'll try to pay closer attention when blogging, but PLEASE let me know if you notice anything like this again. It really is important to us to maintain a little privacy out here in blogland.

We Are So Thankful...

We had a near tragedy while we were at the beach...Elliott, his dad, and O were in the ocean. O was in an inflatable boat, and they were riding the waves in water that was waist deep on Elliott. A huge wave crashed on them. When Elliott wiped the water from his eyes, O was gone. The wave knocked her out of the boat, sucked her under, and pulled her away from him. Luckily, she had on a life jacket, and she popped up about 10 feet from him, and they quickly swam to each other. I don't even want to think about the outcome had she not been wearing a life jacket.

We spent 2 weeks at the beach and saw plenty of small kids swimming and playing in the water, and O is the only child I ever saw who was wearing a life jacket. Elliott and I are known for being overprotective, but in this instance it paid off. We are forever thankful that we insist on our sweet girl wearing a life jacket in the ocean.

I'm sharing this story to encourage you to put a life jacket on your child if they are swimming in the ocean. O was with 2 adults and was in an inflatable device, but she could have easily been lost had she not been wearing a life jacket. It's amazing how quickly a tragedy can occur especially in a place as unpredictable as the ocean.

"The Best Popstickle Ever!"

O loves "popstickles," and a few days ago she said "I have a great idea for a popstickle! I'll put water in a cup, stick a spoon in it, and put it in the freezer. Then I'll pull it out and have a popstickle." She was VERY impressed with her "popstickle" and thinks it is absolutely fantastic. She's made several since then. Simple pleasures are best :)

O's 4th Birthday Cake

We started the tradition of having O decorate her own birthday cake last year, and she was SO excited to do it again this year! She picked out the decorations, icing, and candles, and she and my mom made her cake and icing on the day before her party. My mom iced the cake with white icing, and then O decorated it with supervision from me. I helped her press on the nozzle for the blue icing (we did hand over hand), but she did everything else on her own. She had a great time and was so proud!

O has had Cinderella on her mind since she had Princess Dance Camp a few weeks ago, so she decided she wanted to have Cinderella on her cake. I felt a little panicky when I overheard her telling her grandmother that she was going to let me help her decorate her cake so that I could draw Cinderella on it. Yikes! I told my mom about this, and she had the great idea to use O's Cinderella figurine. Phew!

O decided to put Miss Lilly on her cake, too, since Miss Lilly is a ballet teacher (and reminds her of her imaginary friend/dance teacher whose name is also Miss Lilly). If you've never let your child decorate a cake on their on, I highly recommend trying it! I love that there is no pressure on me to make a beautiful, creative cake, and I love that O is able to have creative freedom to create her own masterpiece!

July 4th Flag Cake

My mom started the tradition of making this delicious flag cake for July 4th last year, and we were glad that she continued it this year. She makes an angel food cake and tops it with cool whip. O enjoys decorating it to look like a flag with strawberries and blueberries, but she REALLY loves sneaking licks of the cool whip...there was a tongue indention and several finger marks in the cake after she finished decorating it!

A Simple Behavior Intervention

As a School Psychologist a huge part of my job is planning behavior and academic interventions for kids. However, when it comes to my own child, it is a little more difficult. Luckily, I work with some wonderful psychologists who are great at coming up with super simple interventions.

O has not been listening quickly for the last couple of months, and I've found myself repeating myself more often than I would like and counting to 3 to get her to listen. I really don't like counting to 3...it just gives her a reason to wait to listen instead of listening quickly. So, I asked my friend Jan for ideas...

To do this intervention, I gave O a piece of blue cardstock (blue is her favorite color). I explained to her that when she listened the FIRST time I asked her to do something, she would get a star on her paper. That's it. Simple and VERY effective.

O was very excited about her sheet. At first I gave her stars very frequently, but I didn't give them everytime she listened the first time because random reinforcement seems to work better than continuous. Also, I didn't want her to expect to get a star for listening...I worry about eroding the intrinsic motivation that comes from behaving nicely. However, I did want her to be excited about earning the stars in order to help her get back into the habit of listening quickly. So far this is really working. Here are a few important points of this intervention:

-She is not allowed to ask for a star (this was never an issue, but if it had been I planned to tell her that she would not get a star if she asked).

-I did not ask her to do something by saying "If you do ..., you'll get a star." The stars were like a fun surprise after she listened the first time...there was no convincing her to listen by promising a star.

-I did not take away stars when she didn't listen. I didn't mention the stars at all when she didn't listen.

-She doesn't earn anything once she fills the sheet up with stars other than the satisfaction of knowing that she did a great job and earned a sheet full of stars. (Elliott's first question was "what does she get for filling the sheet?") I didn't want this intervention to be about what she would get because I don't want to instill in her that she should "get" something for behaving appropriately. I just want to help her get back into the habit of quick listening.

So far this is working for us, and we're having fun (which is the most important thing). This turned out to be a pretty wordy post (for me!) for a simple intervention. Enjoy!

1000!

I just noticed that I have 1000 followers on blogger. Thanks!

Little Ballerina Shadowbox

O just completed her 1st year of tap and ballet lessons, and she LOVED it! She spends most of her time dancing and putting on shows, so her recital was especially exciting for her (and us!). She glowed on stage, and we were so excited to see her so happy.

I made this ballerina shadow box as a memento of her first year of ballet lessons. I used double sided tape to attach her 1st pair of ballet shoes and her ballet picture to the matte. This shadowbox took about 5 seconds to put together, and I love how it turned out. O gets VERY sad when she sees it because she's so sad that she doesn't fit in her ballet shoes anymore (she has several hand-me down pairs that do fit), so she says that she can't even look at it. What a sweet and silly girl!

I'm looking forward to making several more shadowboxes of special mementos...the only problem is that I have no where to hang them. I wonder if we should buy a bigger house just so I can have wall space for O and E's artwork and shadow boxes...

Learning the Art of Patience

We always practice the art of patience by trying to catch minnows in the lake each spring and summer. We usually use our hands, but my niece left her net here which makes it much easier. O kept swiping (sp) at the fish to catch them and was getting frustrated. I reminded her that if she sat very, very still and was very, very patient they would come to her. They did, and she was thrilled. She named her minnow "Lucisander," and she loved Lucisander very much for the hour or so that she was in our bucket. When we went to pour Lucisander back in the lake, we discovered that she was gone from the bucket. This was a good lesson in determination since Lucisander was so determined to get back to her family in the lake that she jumped out of the bucket back into the water. O was sad, but I think she understood Lucisander's motivation. A few days later she asked if fish had good memories...she was quietly calling Lucisander's name and was wondering if Lucisander remembered her. Moments like these are what I want to remember from O and E's childhoods...we've put aside most of our Montessori and preschool work, and we've been spending hours and hours playing on the beach each day. It's a wonderful life, and I treasure every moment with my beautiful girls. God is good.

A Lesson Learned

I was suckered into subscribing to Mothering magazine by the promise of a free mini beco carrier. I didn't need another magazine to read, but I thought that O would love a mini beco carrier for her 4th birthday, and I've always been a little intrigued by Mothering magazine. So, a couple of days ago, I received a book in the mail from Mothering. It seems that the mini becos went fast, so they sent books to everyone else. HUGE disappointment. I called Mothering and left a message that I would like my money refunded since I only subscribed to the magazine since they were offering mini beco carriers for new subscriptions. Someone called from the magazine and was very nice. They'll cancel my subscription, but I have to go through the hassle and expense of mailing the book back. Grrrrrr. I would have thought that the people at Mothering would have been technically savvy enough to have a notice on their site that alerts subscribers when certain deals have been sold out...they only had 300 mini beco carriers, so after 300 people subscribed a message should have come up when the code was entered saying that the deal was no longer available. Anyway, what's done is done. I'm hoping that they'll cancel my subscription and just charge me for the book (I can save it for a birthday gift). I've learned a valuable lesson...don't subscribe to magazines just for the free gifts! Also, I don't think I'll ever be intrigued by Mothering magazine again...I'll stick to Living Crafts and Family Fun!

Where do you host your photos?

I've been using dropshots to host my pics for a while, but my account is full. I don't want to pay 60 dollars to host my pics...I need somewhere free! So, where do you host the pics that you blog? TIA

More on Earthboxes

Several people have asked for more info on the earthboxes, so here is the link. This is our 3rd (maybe 4th) year of growing our vegetables in earthboxes. Usually, we also plant tomatoes in typical containers, but the plants grow so much faster and produce so many more tomatoes in the earthboxes that we decided to only plant in earthboxes this year. We have our earthboxes on our 2nd story deck, so we have very few bugs. We are able to grow organic vegetables with very little work. We just have to remember to water them which is not as easy as you would think :)

Doing a Little Tinkering...

You can probably tell that I'm playing around with the layout of the blog. It's needed updating for a very long time, but I've never taken the time to do much maintenance. There's still a lot to do, but I've added a button for people to subscribe via email. Many people have requested this, so I'm SO glad to finally have it on the blog! There's also a link to subscribe in reader. I want to make a lot more changes, but I really don't know what I'm doing and have very little time, so it could be months before I get back to this :) Enjoy!

Life Sized (Kid Sized) Lincoln Logs

O had a great time building a house out of tobacco sticks with her grandparents a few weeks ago. The great thing about them is you can knock them down to build again another day. I think this is an activity that O (and E) will enjoy for years.

Planting E's Tree

We FINALLY planted E's Pear tree last weekend! We plant fruit trees for each of our children when they are babies, and I was relieved to get E's tree planted before she turned one! We planted a peach tree and a fig tree when O was a baby, and we planted a plum tree on the due date of the baby we lost. We now have trees full of peaches, figs, and plums, and we are so excited to have fresh, organic fruit picked straight from our yard this summer. I can't wait to have pears next summer! Elliott and O worked hard to plant the tree. E and I held it steady while they shoveled dirt, and E really wanted to get down and eat some dirt!

Sick Kids

My girls are sick, and they've both just had their first antibiotics EVER! I know we are so lucky that they have been so healthy so far, but the last 2 weeks have been rough. We've been trying to fight their colds naturally, and they were both doing better for a while. Then they both started coughing more on Tuesday and last night was terrible. We took them to the doctor this morning...it was O's first EVER sick visit to the doctor, and she is almost 4 years old. I'm hoping that the antibiotics will work their magic quickly, so my girls can feel good again very soon!

Finger Update

I just wanted to post a quick update on my finger since several of you have asked :) It has healed completely, and I was so glad that it healed before our mini vacation a couple of weeks ago so I was able to enjoy the pool with the kiddos. I can't straighten my finger, but I'm not too worried about that. It looks strange, but I'd much rather have a bent finger that won't straighten than a straight finger that won't bend! It's only a problem when I try to put my hands in my pockets, and it just doesn't quite work :) Thanks for all of the well wishes...I'm off to chase my newly crawling baby now!

That Explains It!

I tried scheduling a couple of posts and did not realize that they never actually posted (I really need to start reading my blog, I guess!). I was wondering why no one commented...usually there is at least one comment per post. Thanks to all of you who comment. I read every comment, and I try to answer the questions in the comments section. Although, I have gotten a little slack about doing that lately...sorry about that. I'm trying to do better :)

On the Mend

My finger is finally healing! The stitches didn't work, and my stepsister who is a wound care specialist recommended against using glue. She did an ultrasound mist treatment on my wound, and I've kept it wrapped and splinted. It has healed amazingly fast since the ultrasound mist treatment. I'm hoping that I may be able to take the splint off within a few days. It's not easy to take care of these kiddos with only one good hand :) Here's a picture if you dare to scroll down...











































Don't use a knife to pit an avocado!!!