Art Lessons

By the time May rolls around we are all tired of "doing school". I'm talking about the ordinary stuff you just have to do everyday. So, I decide I'm ready for some fun! I got a little Art Unit ready. We have History, Reading and actually making some Art!

We started off with some fun books that I could get Pants and Pie Pie interested in easily. We read The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola and Mr. Panda's Painting by Anne Rockwell. These are both authors I know the girls already love. Then Pie Pie and I moved onto Inspirations: Stories About Women Artists by Leslie Sills. This was a wonderful book about four female artists. I would like to share some of the art by these very creative women.

The first woman was Georgia O'Keeffe. She painted beautiful paintings of nature.



Frida Kahlo was next and her paintings were a little dark. I felt it was because she was in a lot of pain most of her life. This was a way she could express her pain.

Alice Neel was the third artist in this book. She tried to paint people the way they were feeling inside. They weren't always pretty, but people aren't always happy.

Our last artist, Faith Ringgold, was not only a painter. She was a quilter who used fabric to tell her stories. The quilts are beyond beautiful!

We read some other books:

Beatrix Potter by Alexander Wallner,

All I See by Cynthia Rylant,

The Usbourne Book Of Art By Rose Dickens,

How Artists Use Color by Paul Flux and

123 I Can Paint by Irene Luxbacher.

123 I Can Paint was actually a step by step book that taught you how to paint all different kinds of pictures.

This one taught you how to mix primary colors to make secondary colors.

This one used different textures to paint a night sky.

I can't leave Pants out. She loved painting just as much as Pie Pie! This was one of her pieces of artwork. The paintings from this book were a little too much for her patience level at this time, but she was fine with doing her own thing. I was fine with it too!

We are moving onto sculpting!

A Decade Out With A Bang............and In With a Renewal!

There we are on our Happy Tenth Anniversary! This was after a fun day of celebrating with our friends and family!

Let's get to the bang part, which was the day before our party. For our "alone time" part of our anniversary my friend graciously offered to watch our girls for us. I'm not sure how many people participate in this activity for their dates, but I thought I would let Daddy have some fun. We went to the gun range! Yes, you read that right, the gun range. It was actually very fun!

Daddy likes to spend time there so I thought I would join him.

We took turns shooting his different guns and enjoyed the beautiful day.

 Since he picked the activity, I got to pick the restaurant. Red Robin, Yum! I love Red Robin and they recently built one right near our house. (I'm getting hungry right now just thinking about their food!) We were so into eating the yummy food we didn't take pictures! That's okay we have plenty from our renewal ceremony to share!

The night before the ceremony my Mommy-in-law and Sis-in-law helped set everything up with Daddy and me.

 My Mom was hard at work on the beautiful cake you can see in this picture! I just wanted to get a thank you in to them for all of their hard work!

I had ordered some special shirts for us a little while ago, they say "My Marriage Still Rocks". They are from an awesome company that is all about the celebration of marriage. If you are interested check them out here. They make all different kinds of shirts, including some for kids.  Our Renewal day was just as bright and sunny as our original wedding day. We renewed our vows in the sanctuary and everything went very smoothly.

 There are some different reasons I wanted to renew our vows. One is because we didn't originally get married in a church. At the time of our marriage we did not attend a church. We stared attending our current church right after Pants was born and have grown to love God more each day. I felt it was time to honor God by saying our vows in the church. 
We had a couple bumpy years way back in the beginning of our marriage. I felt we needed to do this at this time because now I really know what I am saying. At ten years you know what you are agreeing to when you say your vows.  We are definitely stuck with each other now!
I also wanted to share this special event with our girls. They were not at our wedding, but they got to be a part of this event. They were very excited to see their parents "Get Married!".
After the ceremony we had a delicious lunch with our friends and family. At our wedding we decided to be nice to each other and not smash the cake in each other's faces. Not this time!

It's a lot harder than it looks to actually make a mess of the frosting! We tried and even got the girls involved!

Here's to many more years!

This was definitely an event I never want to forget! If there's something you want to celebrate, go for it! You will not regret taking the time to make memories and have fun!

Tiaras for Everyone!

"I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics; even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. All of us. Didn't your father ever tell you that? Didn't he?"

-A Little Princess-



If your father never told you that you are a princess, I am here to tell you that you ARE! Anyone who is a child of God, the King of Kings, is a princess. If you haven't worn your tiara in quite some time, now is the time to dust it off and wear it with pride!

Right now I am reading a fabulous book called Raising A Modern-Day Princess by Pam Farrel and Doreen Hanna. I recommend it to anyone who is raising a girl. It is all about teaching a young woman how to grow into the princess that they truly are. There is also a book called Becoming a Modern-Day Princess by the same authors for your daughter to read too. I will be looking into that for my girls a little later. The books for the daughters are geared for someone a little bit older than Pie Pie.

I had the pleasure of enjoying a Princess's Sweet Sixteen this past weekend.

 It was very uplifting to see my friend putting together a special event for her daughter.

 Girls need these milestone events so they can understand their worth to God and us.

I look forward to celebrating many special events with my daughters as they grow into young ladies.

Don't forget you are growing too! We need to learn everyday so we can be the best Moms we can be to our daughters and sons!

"For you must teach others those thing you and many others have heard me speak about. Teach these great truths to trustworthy men and women who will, in turn, pass them on to others.

-2 Timothy 2:2-

P.S. There is also a book for boys called Raising A Modern-Day Knight by Robert Lewis. I have not read this book because I do not have any boys. There are so many good books about girls written that I focus on those. If I have a boy one day then you will get some reviews about those books! I hope you understand. There is so many books, so little time!

Smiles

On a Nature Walk

Pants enjoying the beautiful day.

A special visit from one of God's creatures!

A chance to enjoy just being yourself.

An encounter with a gorgeous orange critter!

Perfect ending to our day!

Smiles,

Nikki!



Blue Marsh Dam Tour

I love Field Trips and so does Pie Pie. Anything to get out of "regular school"!

Before we went on our trip we did a little studying about Dams. My girls and I learned all about Beaver Dams. Now I know that is not the same thing, but they are used in similar ways. The girls also got to make little clay beaver dams.

 

Pie Pie had to make a beaver too. He's having a snack of wood.

 

Our field trip was almost rained out, but we went anyway. It was definitely overcast and humid, but we still had fun!

We got to go inside the dam and see how everything worked.

Some of the gauges and controls the dam operators check daily.

 

What a beautiful view!

 

Lots and lots of steps to go down and then up!

After our tour we went and had lunch down by the lake. They had picnic tables and a playground. My girls decided to get wet in the swimming area. I am very sorry to the other Moms. They did not ask me, but by the time I found out they were already wet. I figured it was to late to yell at them. They were having too much fun anyway!

They also enjoyed digging in the sand.

It was a wonderful day with lots of good friends!

I love to see a Smile on my girls' faces!

The Water Cycle

For our final study in Science this year we learned about The Water Cycle.

One of the experiments we did was about Evaporation. It is very simple. You just fill a glass up with water, put a piece of tape where you filled it to, and watch the water evaporate.

The water isn't completely gone, but we will wait until it is.

We learned how steam is water that turns into a gas when heated.

Another experiment was freezing a book and putting it in the steam to see Condensation form.

We made a cloud in a bottle. First you put hot water in the bottle, about halfway. Then you put a piece of ice into spout of the bottle. As the water cools you can see the clouds form.

My girls really enjoyed these experiments. Most of them came from Kidzone. The worksheets were great from there too. Pants, who is four, completely understands evaporation. She thinks the whole idea of the water disappearing is very neat!

Some of the books we used in our study were:

Water Everywhere by Jill Atkins

How Does the Sun Make Weather? by Judith Williams

Water Up, Down and All Around by Natalie M. Rosinsky

What Makes It Rain? by Keith Brandt

A Drop Around the World by Barbara Shaw McKinney

and every body's favorite teacher

Ms. Frizzle!



Smiles

Here is your weekly Smiles from the Boo Boo Princesses!

Getting ready to hunt for Eggs!

I'm a Monster!

The "Ghost" of Daniel Boone Homestead!

Pie Pie snuggling up in a warm blanket at Grammy's house.

Pant's beautiful dollhouse.

Smiles,

Nikki!