Category: Kid Stuff

Art Wall

On By debweeksIn Art, Kid StuffLeave a comment

Lili has been taking art classes for about 3 years now.  She LOVES art and each year I see improvement in her art skills.

She has sat under 3 different art instructors and she seems to be learning the most about technique from her current instructor.

The school she attends is a performing arts school.  Naomi attends as well, but her art is acting.  She is in the Jr. Acting class and the school has a variety show 3 times per year.

For the first variety show, Naomi had a part in Wicked as well as Beauty and the Beast.  Her teacher takes a section from the original plays and shortens each of them into a 10 minute performance.   The Sr. Acting students joined the Jr. Acting students in Wicked and they performed Mama Mia.   The dance students at the performing arts school perform their dances to the music from each show.  The art students create art for each of the shows, then during the variety show they share information about the techniques they used to create their masterpieces.  The curtain is then pulled back and the audience gets to see their art displayed on the wall.  This is done after each show is performed.

About a week after the show, Lili is able to bring her art pieces home.  We certainly didn’t want to put her art in a closet somewhere, so we have dedicated a wall in the house to display Lili’s artwork.

The girls had their second variety show about a week ago.  Naomi performed in , You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown and Seussical.   The other show was Aladdin and once again Lili brought home more artwork.

Over the weekend, hubby hung the newest art pieces, plus a couple of pieces Lili did when she was much younger.

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Lili did not begin taking classes at the performing arts school until several weeks after they had begun in the fall. As a result, she was not able to complete an art project for Beauty and the Beast, but we have displayed her art from the other shows.

She and Naomi will both be participating in the final variety show in June and have both decided they want to continue next year.  Fortunately, we have quite a bit of wall space left and we are thrilled to continue allowing the girls to participate in activities that provide them a great deal of pleasure.

Texas Size

On By debweeksIn Foster Care, Kid Stuff, storms, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’ve been Texas size busy the last few days, thanks to some Spring weather we’ve had.

On Sunday evening, storms moved thru the area and the severe weather sirens began.  We were hunkered down when we heard the skies tossing these our way.

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Granted, we had a lot more than 3 hit our house.  At one point I asked, “Did that just break a window?”  The others sounded as if they were coming thru the roof.

When the storm finally passed, hubby walked thru the house checking the windows.  None were broken.  Then he went out to check on the vehicles.  By this time, it was dark outside and he didn’t see any damaged.  I went out later with more light in hand and found this.

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Hubby’s windshield got hit by the Texas size hail.

About that time, our neighbor came out and told me her daughter’s car windshield had a lot of damage and as she shined her flashlight on hubby’s car, she found similar hail damage on the other side of his windshield.

The next day we were able to better inspect everything and we found several good-sized dents on both vehicles.  I found damage to the wood siding on our house and the roofing company found quite a bit of damage to our roof.  The majority of homes in our neighborhood now have roofing company signs in their yards.  Now we wait for our insurance company to do their estimates and then wait on the repairs to begin.

In the meantime, hubby is not able to drive his car because of the windshield damage and I was finally able to get an appointment to have a glass repair company come out to replace the windshield – next week.

Two nights later, another storm rolled thru the area.  This time, no hail, but we had some significant winds.  It was reported the next day that there was a tornado about about 2-3 miles from our house.  Fortunately, we didn’t sustain any additional damage to our home, but other homes in the area were hit and there were lots of trees and tree limbs down.

Fortunately, we’ve had a couple nice days since then, but now we wait for another round of storms to roll thru this weekend.

On the foster care front, someone from our foster care agency came over this afternoon and we signed the final documents necessary to get our foster care license.  As of this afternoon, the agency was still waiting on our homes study.  However, they are expecting it to be completed and sent any day now.  They anticipate we should be approved about a week later, so we are now in the home stretch.  I’m anxious to have this part done and begin the wait for a call.

On top of the weather and foster care excitement, I tackled Spring cleaning my coat closet.

Unlike Illinois, where most homes have basements, Texas homes do not.  So when a storm hits, we need to move to a room in the center of the home with no windows and one that is not on an outside wall.  In our home, that is our coat closet.  It is a deep closet and runs the length of our stairs, so plenty of room . . . . except when the closet is full of boxes, pictures, shoes and other miscellaneous items.  So when the storm sirens went off, hubby was frantically pulling things out of the closet so we could actually get into the closet.  The next day, I pulled everything out and began the process of finding new homes for the items that had taken up residence in the closet.

Once I had the closet empty, the girls decided the closet would make a great clubhouse.

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Okay, I didn’t have quite everything out of the closet when this picture was taken, but it is now empty except for coats, stuffed animals, Barbie’s, pillows and other items the girls have moved into the “clubhouse.”  I was told that I would need the password to enter the closet.

The only problem they have had with their “clubhouse” is air flow.  Apparently, it gets a little stuffy in there which means their closet play time doesn’t last long typically.  I’m waiting for them to ask me for a fan next.  🙂

Needless-to-say, it’s been a crazy week in our world this week.  I’m keeping fingers crossed that any storms we get this weekend are not severe, but at least we have the “clubhouse” if things turn really bad.  ?!

 

On a Windy Day

On By debweeksIn Baking, Kid Stuff, Uncategorized2 Comments

The winds were crazy on Sunday!  Stead winds at about 25 mph with higher gusts.  The sun hid behind the clouds and the winds weren’t very warm, so our time was mostly spent indoors.  The girls invited their cousin over for a playdate and about mid-afternoon they decided to do some baking.

For Christmas, Lili and Naomi got an Easy Bake Oven from my parents.  It came with one package, of a not-so-tasty cookie mix that they prepared shortly after Christmas. I vowed we would not spend the ridiculous amount of money needed to purchase other packages of not-so-tasty mixes you can buy for the oven and we decided to whip up a small batch of Snickerdoodle dough for them to bake in their little oven.

They rolled the dough into little balls, dipped them in cinnamon sugar, put them on the miniature cookie sheet and into the oven they went.

A few minutes later . . . . out they came.

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Six miniature cookies from their miniature oven.  They were yummy!!!!

They baked a few more batches before turning everything over to me.  Mine were regular size, baked in the grown-up oven and by bedtime, they were gone.

It was an enjoyable task for a windy day and with the help of Pinterest, I have a feeling that this Easy Bake Oven will be getting a lot of use as we try out other miniature delectables.

Photo Purge

On By debweeksIn Family, Holidays, Kid Stuff, Photography, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I had quite a few photos on my phone and was running out of room.  So why not share them here.

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Lili and Naomi get a little help from Zoey

 

 

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Visit to the Gandhi Garden

 

This girl loves Snapchat and I have a lot more pictures to prove it.  Just don’t have the room here to post them all 🙂

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We went to the museum and found out that there will be a new exhibit soon.  Lili is VERY EXCITED!!!!  I’m guessing we will see this exhibit several times.  Good thing we have a family pass.

 

 

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Time for a selfie while waiting for our friends to arrive.

 

In looking at these photos, I think it’s pretty clear to tell which one likes to have her picture taken.

 

Melting This Mommy’s Heart

On By debweeksIn Grief, Kid Stuff, Uncategorized2 Comments

After 5 months living in our new home, I finally tackled all the containers that I shoved into our coat closet.  I pulled out containers of coats, hats, gloves, pictures and home décor.  Since I’ve gotten one wall painted and ready for décor, hubby got out his tools and began hanging things.

As I was going thru all the photos I had displayed in our Illinois house, I came across a picture of Ben, our son who passed away in 2010.  It’s a photo that both hubby and I like quite a bit and we decided it should be put in a new frame and displayed on the wall.  However, not having an appropriate frame, I laid the photo aside.

Later in the evening, Naomi was sitting on the floor holding the picture of Ben.  She was examining it carefully and I asked her to please put it back with the other photos.  She did as I asked and then picked up paper and a pencil.  Soon she was asking me how to spell different words and I wondered what she was up to.

When she finished, she dropped her note into hubby’s lap.  It read . . . .

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Hubby asked for a little clarification.  Naomi was simply saying she was sorry Ben died and wanted him to know that she has a good life.

Big time mommy heart melt!!!

Kitchen Space

On By debweeksIn Cooking, Kid Stuff, UncategorizedLeave a comment

One of my biggest challenges while living in the RV was not having ample kitchen space.   Maybe I would have mastered it given more time, but preparing meals in a small space was not easy.  I avoided doing anything complicated simply out of frustration.

– Not enough cupboard space for storing the things I would use on a regular basis.

– Not enough counter space for creating complete meals.

Now that we’re back in sticks and bricks, the majority of our meals are being prepared in our kitchen, which has ample space.  For a matter-of-fact, I recently told hubby that I like this kitchen better than the kitchen in our Illinois house.  Although it has less cabinet space, it’s laid out nicely and all four of us can pretty comfortably be working in the kitchen at the same time.

The space is really nice for allowing the girls more time in the kitchen with me and not only are they helping prepare meals, but they are assisting in selecting the meals we prepare.  Being invested in the food we purchase, prepare and partake in has made them much more willing to explore new foods.  That is a good thing.

Because it’s hot in Texas right now, we’ve been utilizing the Instant Pot for our meal preparation.  The girls enjoy helping me find new recipes, including some of our favorite meals prepared in the Instant Pot.  Like the Chicken and Dumplings Naomi helped me make a few nights ago.

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We will need to tweak this recipe a bit next time, but so far we’re pleased with the results of our Instant Pot meals.

From time-to-time, I’ll post our adventures in the kitchen and hopefully share some tasty recipes along the way.