fun and free resources for kids at home!

this morning involved
listening to disney songs and feeling our bodies move to the music.
exercise {for me} on the stationary bike and reading under the tuscan sun.
a brief quiet play time for the boys in their room {and a subsequent mess of cars, blocks and books covering both their beds.}
a relatively unmessy but definitely poopy accident by jude.
laundry {both washing and folding}.
a free, fun and educational activity that suited both my boys' learning levels.

this free printable can be found here  {a fantastic site. check it out!} and is all about matching colours and words in an ice cream store!
i decided to split the activity into two - noah's involved matching popsicles to the correct colour word and he really enjoyed sounding out the colours and trying to find words that matched {or at least matched the first letter}.

noah decided he wanted to tape his popsicles down after matching them to the correct words.

jude's sheet involved matching up the right ice cream scoop to the cone with the same colour on the top. i hadn't planned on this happening, but both activities fit where the boys are at exactly.

and jude decided that he wanted to glue his scoops onto the sheet.

this was a really simple and easy activity to do with both my kids and teaches about colours and fine motor skills {or at least, it ended up doing that as both wanted to affix their "cold treats" to the paper}.
and they focused on an activity.
for all of about 10 minutes.
awesome.

some other great resources for fun learning that we make the most of in our house are:

we give books - a free, online library of books that you can read to your kids just like you would a book. not as great as holding a book, but when libraries are limited {as they are here} it's a fantastic opportunity to read, read, read! my boys' current favourites are big, red lollipop {the same book we took out at a library in guelph and loved back then, too!} and max's chocolate chicken.

starfall - i mentioned this in another post, but it's a great, free website that teaches kids all about letters, phoenetics, and reading in a simple but fun way. i think it's cute to see noah maneuver the mouse and click away and hear him echo the sounds of letters.

robert munsch's free audiobooks - when i found out almost all the robert munsch books are available as audiobooks for free online, i immediately set to work downloading all of them. now it's noah's most requested thing to listen to during his afternoon quiet time. i love that he knows so many of the books i grew up reading and it's super cute to hear him reciting along with the story.

then of course there's the millions of fantastic websites and blogs that can be found by googling or looking on pinterest. my next plan is to make up some quiet time bins or bags for noah and jude that i can vary throughout the week. stay tuned for some fun ideas for that!

when tuesday feels like a monday

it really was one of those perfect kind of days.
we didn't really do anything out of the ordinary. but we made the most of the day we were given.

i've started a morning routine for the boys where jude gets to experience "room time" and noah gets some time to play on this fabulous website called 'starfall' where he learns about letters and phonetics and whatnot.

i set jude up in his room with the toys he wants on the carpet, bring in the stereo and put on some music. then i tell him he gets to play in his room until the timer goes off {today we attempted 45 minutes. i know he can do longer, but we haven't been practicing "room time" so we're slowly building up}. today he happily played except for the part where he played with the plugs on the power bar and turned off his music. i went in and turned it on again.

noah happily plays on starfall and sometimes i'll sit with him and talk about the letters, or sound out letters and words with him and then sometimes i'll get some things done like laundry done or exercise {i've been doing these since i found out i was pregnant alternating with riding our stationary bicycle}.

then i carried out some buckets of water and some water toys for the boys to play outside with. eventually jude decided to "water the car" which led me to get some more water, some stools and some cloths for them to full-on wash our car. they loved it and spent the better part of the morning outside washing our car.

but it eventually turned into this. we're sorta doing potty training with jude right now.

noah was such a helper today, jude is getting so much better at sharing with his brother and we did a bunch of crafty-type things today. it was a good day.

i covered some tin cans in ribbon to make the boys' marker jars so much prettier. and i made a tiny vase for the flowers that the boys like to pick for me. 

oh and jamie came home with these today:

superhero wednesday

some days you just need to be a superhero.

jamie had a shirt that had shrunk and was too small. he mentioned this to me and i immediately snatched it away after seeing something my friend kelly had pinned on pinterest. this brilliant idea of cutting up a big shirt to make a superhero cape for little boys. absolutely brilliant. and easy. and i had all the supplies.
you see, i find tons of fantastic ideas on pinterest, but the supplies are not always available here in kampala. but this? this i could do.
in less than 5 minutes i had created TWO capes out of one old shirt. {for the back piece of fabric, i just cut a slit big enough to fit over their heads.} and then to make it even more awesome, i made a mask out of the long sleeves!

i'm not going to lie. i'm quite proud of myself. 

someone is already too cool to pose for his mama.

{go gryphons!}

what have you done lately that you're proud of? is there an easy craft or activity you can do with your kids? please share!

november busyness

i can't believe it's november 25th already. craziness.

we've been busy here! 

we had our first visitors this past week {did i take pictures? of course not. ugh.} and i went on my second ever boda boda ride {it was much better during the day than at night}. 

i bought christmas presents at the craft market {have i mentioned how much i love shopping without my kids? so.much.easier.}, i wrapped christmas presents {which jude got into while i was blow drying my hair and totally opened at least one present and then proceeded to adorn himself in said christmas presents},

 wrote {or at least started to write} christmas cards, 

made the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake {and it was just as amazing as she described},  

and even completed making my advent envelopes {here's a sneak peek}!

i've started playing christmas music and on saturday we'll be decorating our tree! 

i love christmas and since i've become a parent i've found an increased richness to this holiday. i've searched for ways to make memories but also tools and ideas to teach and instill in my kids the true meaning of christmas. this year we are starting a few new christmas and advent traditions. i'm excited to have this time with just our family to strengthen us as a family unit and solidify the traditions we'll decide participate in possibly for the duration that our kids are at home - maybe even longer! 

{on monday i'll be sharing some of the tools and ideas we're enjoying during this Advent season with our kids and our family. so stay tuned!}

until then, happy friday and enjoy the christmas tunes!

the one where a milk truck almost falls on me

today a milk truck almost fell on me and noah.
i'm not even kidding.
it all started with a trip to the friday market - to buy lovely crafts and such.
my friend aletha and her adorable son clancy joined us.
when we got there i found that the entire dirt road that leads to the friday market was all churned up on the left side {which was where we parked last time} and now was a cavernous, hilly landscape. totally unfit for parking on.
so we ventured up a bit further and decided to park on the right side of said dirt road.
and then cars were just barely missing us as they tried to squeeze past us and avoid the mountainous left side of the road and we thought, "hm, maybe not such a good idea to park here." but then as we were heading back into our cars, aletha gasped and grabbed clancy {he was in his carseat on top of the hood of the car} and dashed beside me and up onto the hill we were parked right up against and i looked

and there was a HUGE milk truck. barrelling down the mountainous left side of the road and was now at a 45 degree angle. it was about to fall on us and our babies. i grabbed noah {jamie had jude a bit further up and out of harm's way} and dashed up the side of the hill as far away as i could get from the truck and covered noah with my body thinking, "if it falls, it will fall on me and hopefully i can protect noah."
it somehow did not fall on us and i am certain that there were angels holding it up because how can a truck drive at a 45 degree angle and not tip over? how?
aletha and i talked afterward {with shaking hands} about how we understood the instinct that you hear about how mother's would gladly sacrifice themselves for their children's safety.
we ended up laughing and shaking our heads saying, "this is africa. T I A." truly. because what would prompt someone to drive their massive truck down a road like that? the answer: this is africa.

basically, anything goes here in this beautiful, crazy, tragic, amazing continent.

this is africa.

related: i have become convinced of the presence of angels all around us - especially in relation to vehicles.

kibosh

a few days ago i decided enough was enough.
for whatever reason, i feel a lot of guilt when my kids watch too much tv. i think mostly it's because i know i put it on for them a lot of the time because i'm lazy or selfishly want to do my own thing instead of interacting with them.
so i put a kibosh on tv during the weekdays. except for a movie night a week there is no tv allowed. on the weekends they'll be allowed to watch saturday morning cartoons and that's probably going to be it.
i expected so much resistance from them, but for the most part...nothing.
they've asked a few times and when i've said no, we've thought of another alternative and they've been happy enough with that.
because today was rainy for most of the day, they did get to watch a veggietales movie while i biked on the stationary bike. but because of this, i've been engaging so much more with them and we've been so much more creative and things like this have happened:

lots and lots of reading. we've always been big readers, but lots of reading happens around here.

we play with cars. a lot.

we do a lot of crafts. this is the boys "car garage" that they built this morning and played with for so long this afternoon.

our very own cooking show, here in uganda! {here you can see jude stirring the popcorn and noah is cutting his stove with a plastic knife while thomas the tank engine is being fried up in a wok.}

music + crafts = dance party.

i read a quote a couple days ago that said, "the grass is always greener where you water it." and so that's exactly what i'm doing. here and now. i'm watering this grass that i've been given. and it's so good.

green

happy st. patrick's day!

i often stumble upon crafty, wonderful, yummy or exciting ideas online and want to follow through on them.

so this year i decided to do a st. patty's day party/play date with some moms from my church.

we had all-green fruits and veggies.

home made potato tots (like tater tots, but healthier. gotta have potatoes on st. patty's day!).

green and yellow veggie tortilla chips with hummus.

ham & cheese muffins.

zucchini muffins.

peanut butter and jam muffins/cupcakes.

jen brought some amazing green cake pops.

and jude LOVED eating his allocated two "pops" later on. he savours his "pops". 

little licks.

bobbing it in and out of his mouth until it falls apart.

such a silly boy and completely giddy to be eating "pop" after dinner tonight.

oh and the party was a blast. so many kids and so much fun! we crafted, chatted, ate food and watched this with the kids.

paint

today i suggested noah do some painting because i didn't have any wrapping paper that i liked.

so we/he made some.

it's drying (still?).

today's painting session was surprisingly less messy than last times'. 

i think the key is not to add too much water to the paint.

it gets too drippy if you do.

v-day

i'm not usually one to decorate for valentine's day - much less "celebrate" it or make a big deal out of it {or spend piles of money on it}.
but i think i've always wanted to {well, maybe not spending the piles of money, but definitely decorate for it}.
this year i've been getting my fill of sweetie-pie, cutesy, romantic crafts in preparation for valentine's day.
because of this, noah doesn't get that it's a 'day' because we've been making valentine's for the past month.
oh well.
that's a good thing, right?

in my head, my mantel is not quite finished so i won't post a picture of it yet, but i'm pretty pleased with it as is. {so pleased, in fact that i have had it set up as it is for weeks now without adding the finishing touches}.

create

another day house-bound.

too cold to go out with a sick baby.

too many movies aren't good for the soul.

so we create.

Crafty

We were feeling especially crafty and non-tv/non-computer (except for right now) today:

the beginnings of Valentine's Day decorations:

DIY paper candies {with an old Quality Street tin, wrapping paper and tin foil}

and Frosty! {Noah was a bit disappointed that he didn't come to life after we put his hat on and sang "Frosty the Snowman". It kinda made me sad, too.}

I also started training for my 1/2 marathon in May. 

And worked a little bit at Starbucks.

I love *productive* days. 

Think Time...

The other night (aside from Jude rejecting his crib/room for the third night in a row) Noah woke up at around 11pm and cried for awhile. So I went in and sat with him - I said I would stay until he fell asleep but 40 minutes later with my left leg completely asleep and Noah standing up in his crib peering down at me in the dark I realized it wasn't happening. So I left. And he was quiet for a little while but then cried again about 20 minutes later.

We eventually hung out in our bed until 2:30ish and then all fell asleep in our respective beds.

But all that to say, I had 40 minutes of quiet, uninterrupted think time while sitting with Noah.

I don't often get think time. So much so that after I came back to bed with Jamie and words started pouring out of my mouth of all that I had been thinking about, Jamie remarked this very thing to me.

It's true.

But one of the things I thought about was creativity.

I know it's a bit late for New Years' Resolutions, but if I had to make a goal, I'd say that I want 2010 to be all about creativity for me.

Here's how that breaks down for me:

1. In the kitchen.

I want to be more creative with my cooking.

I want to try using ingredients that I've never used before (like bulgar wheat).

I want to discover new food loves (maybe even ones that don't include sugar...?).

I would like to try fancier desserts and work on my cupcake skills...

2. In my leisure time.

By the end of 2010 I want to be proficient and confident at using MY sewing machine. I want to know how to fix minor issues and be able to use at least a handful of the settings on it.

I'd love to be able to sew basic things like pillows, simple clothing patterns, and even make some kids toys/baby accessories.

I'd also like to get out with my camera and even though my favourite subjects are my boys, it'd be nice every now and then to capture the world around me.

3. In my health.

This does tie into cooking, but also by trying new exercise classes, videos and other ideas for staying (read: getting) in shape and keeping healthy.

I would LOVE to get back into softball/baseball some day and maybe this year could be a year of betting the old glove and ball out and playing some catch with Jamie (and entertain the boys all at the same time).

I want to have more of a creative outlet in my life. I was made with this creative 'itch' and I think it's about time that I scratch it.

A plethora

This post will be quite eclectic in its topics as there a few different things I'd like to write about.

On an entirely random note...is it just me or does anyone else make words out of the author verification letters that you have to fill in to post a comment on certain blogs? I also think of words. I'm sure there are others out there just like me. Hmm...maybe I should make a Facebook group for that.

Moving on...

Today I am thankful to have a faithful, loving God who answers prayers. Well, I am always thankful for that, but today I just saw God so clearly answer a specific prayer and I thought to myself after the event while washing dishes, "Wow. God so clearly answered my prayer. Some could attribute it to other things, but I know I asked for these specific things and they happened! In the best possible way!"
It's good to thank God for answering our prayers. It's good to acknowledge the one who is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Especially answered prayers.

I got a crafty urge today. I need to have some kind of crafty outlet. As Kirsten and I discussed this I thought of all the wonderful things I could do; start scrapbooking again (it's been months), start crocheting again - I could crochet a toque!, learn to sew and make clothes for myself, learn to quilt (I am seriously considering taking up this "old lady" hobby), paint beautiful paintings on canvases (well, ok, they might not be beautiful), make jewellery...
So I have decided I need to take a sewing class so I can actually learn how to use my sewing machine so I can both learn to quilt as well as learn to make clothes for myself!

As Kirsten and I perused the aisles of Michaels and Bouclair I felt like I had no idea where to begin. I could spend HOURS in each of those stores. It was fun. And it made me want to buy masses of ribbon and paper. I love paper. Stationary, scrapbooking stuff, cards, I even was tempted to buy some stamps and take that up as a hobby. Dangerous stuff these craft stores!

Now I will eat some crackers and peruse the sewing courses available in Guelph!