Books Before Bed

My friend Shannon posted pictures of her girls' bookshelves this week.  I thought this was a fun way to share what we are reading this week so I decided to post mine too.  My photos are a bit different than the bookshelf photos.  Lately, I have been setting a few books out on C's and R's beds and letting them choose a few every night before bed.  I took pictures of how I set them up.

 I usually read three books to R before bed.

(I am currently reading James and the Giant Peach to C.  We read one chapter of that book every night and we also read one or two other books.  He also reads to me every night.)

A Luau

The best way to complete a unit of learning about Hawaii is to celebrate with a luau!

A pretty floral tatoo and a few leis are necessary.

Decorating a door knob hanger with Hawaiian stickers is a plus.

Face painting makes the luau fantastic!

A local restaurant has theme nights every week.  We lucked out with the timing of their luau theme.

Snowman Cookies and a Tea Party

How cute are these cookies?

I saw similar cookies in The Popcorn Factory catalog and decided to make some myself.  We made sugar cookies and put the chocolate chips in right when the cookies came out of the oven.  This worked perfectly.  I then used orange icing to make the noses.  Super cute and yummy.

We enjoyed our special cookies with a spot of tea (orange juice for R). 

She is drinking from her favorite fancy tea cup.  She loves to be fancy!

Snowmen for Breakfast

I made snowman pancakes this weekend.  They are certainly not the healthiest things to eat for breakfast, but they were cute and tasty!   The eyes and mouth were made with mini chocolate chips and the buttons were m&m's.  I used a little orange frosting for the nose, licorice for the scarf, and pretzel sticks for the arms.  A little powdered sugar made them look even better.

The snowmen did not stick around very long. 
I was inspired to make these when I saw snowman pancakes on the Family Fun website.

If you are looking for a healthier snowman snack, click here to see the banana snowmen we made.

Shed a Little Light

Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound and we are bound

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

(chorus)
Shed a little light, oh lord
So that we can see
Just a little light, oh lord
Wanna stand it on up
Stand it on up, oh lord
Wanna walk it on down
Shed a little light, oh lord

Can't get no light from the dollar bill
Don't give me no light from a tv screen
When I open my eyes
I wanna drink my fill
From the well on the hill

(do you know what I mean? )
- chorus -

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Oh, let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
- James Taylor

Snow Globes

This week, we read The Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor.  The book parallels a normal family with a miniature family that lives in a snow globe.  Both families are hoping for some fun in the snow.

We all enjoyed the book so much that we made our own snow globes.  I spent quite a bit of time debating which type of snow globe to make and eventually decided to steer clear of glass, water, glycerin, and epoxy glue.  I was inspired by the winter snow globe on the Crayola website, but we made a few changes.

First, C and R made wintry scenes out of Crayola Model Magic.

We placed the scenes into the lids of containers.  C used a container that used to hold cashews and R used a craft kit container (her container is a box, not really a globe, but that was what she wanted to use).  You can use anything that has a lid and is clear plastic.

We then put A LOT of white glitter in the containers and put the lids on tight.

There is no water in these snow globes, but the glitter works great alone.  We were very happy with the end result!

Cousin Sandra

My cousin, Sandra, lives in Florida and I saw her today for the first time in nine years.  It was so great to spend some time with her. She grew up in South Carolina, but also spent some time in Massachusetts and I have very fond memories of her from my childhood.  She is one of those people who just exudes confidence and is always very positive.  I think she is a wonderful person, and my children seem to feel the same way.

Hopefully, we won't have to wait another nine years before we see each other again!