Happy Valentine's Day

Jon and I never really celebrated Valentine's Day but once the boys were born it has been fun to have a "holiday" to look forward to, especially during the harsh winter. The boys think it's a lot of fun and the big Valentine's celebration will take place tomorrow at "auntie" Heather's home where we'll have a fun Valentine's party.

 

Yesterday we got these mustache lollipops ready. We also made

some with big red lips. These are to pass out with our Valentine

cards tomorrow at the party. The idea came from Family Fun.

 Yesterday, we also had to get all the Valentine

cards ready. Jojo is passing out Star Wars cards.

We can't buy a package of Valentine cards here

in Russia, so Jon's mom usually buys them for

us and mails them to us beforehand.

Today the boys worked hard on making cards for daddy.

 

 Jojo wrote the following on his card: "I love you daddy. I love

to play the Wii with you".

I made a special dinner : cordon bleu, green beans with sauteed

onions and bacon, and our favorite green salad.

 

I bought these itty bitty cute plastic drinking glasses and the boys 

had fun drinking from them.

 

Dessert anyone? Cupcakes or "pupcakes"

as the boys call them.

 

Week 20 - Pretzel Dogs

These were so much fun to make. The boys really liked them also. I always thought making pretzels would be difficult or too involved but it's actually quite easy. There was quite a bit of dough left over so I made some huge pretzels and froze them for later.

 

You can see the "pin" here.

Silly Talk

Memories

Lately both boys and I have been having some great conversations. They are enthralled about hearing stories from the time they were babies. It's actually been fun for me to think back on all those great memories I keep in the muddled corners of my mind. I've also noticed that for some reason I am able to remember more stories about Jojo than I am about Nathan. Maybe it's because Jojo was my firstborn and all my attention went to him? Or maybe it's because Nathan didn't start sleeping through the night until he was 7 months and I was a walking zombie for all those 7 months!

Father of Lies

We taking lying pretty seriously around here. Yesterday Josiah lied about something but quickly told me the truth (I can't even remember what the lie was). He knows what the consequences are so he quickly confessed and told the truth. Anyway, if the boys tell a lie I always ask the following: "Who is the father of lies?" Josiah knows the answer and he realizes that he doesn't want anything to do with Satan. I think it scares him. Well yesterday I asked that and Nathan heard and answered, "Dad!?" I got a big laugh out of it!

Future Plans

The boys have also been talking about their future lately. Both Nathan and Josiah say they will build a big house so that I can live with them. The other day when Nathan was telling me about those plans,  Josiah told Nathan that he should build a bigger house so that we can all live together. Josiah says he wants 10 children and Nathan wants 9. Nathan says he will name one boy Nathan so that mommy can call him "Baby Nathan", since I am not allowed to call him a baby anymore now that he is a whole 4 years old. As far as career goals go, Josiah wants to work at home on his computer all day, have an ice cream store, or a lemonade stand! 

Bento Boxes

Our Geography studies last week took us to Japan. We did several activities like we always do. I also thought I'd try my hand at bento boxes for lunch. Of course mine isn't as elaborate as a Japanese bento box nor does it contain sushi but it was a fun way to eat lunch. I'm thinking of looking into buying a couple of lunch bento boxes. Anything to make eating fun!

Chinese Lanterns

Last week in our Geography studies we learned about China. As usual it was fun learning some new facts about a country we don't know too much about. For the craft we made Chinese lanterns. It was a pretty easy craft for the boys and kept them busy since they had some cutting to do.......keeping them busy means a few moments of silence! I found the instructions for the lanterns here.

 

Jojo busy snipping away.

We added some "jewels" to make the lanterns fancy.

 

 

Week 19 - Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I had small group yesterday and a busy day in general so I tried this pin. If you click on the picture of the muffins it will take you to the blog where you'll see the darling muffin liners that were used. Of course I don't have the cute liners but will definitely be buying them in the future. This recipe was super easy and my boys also loved it. I will definitely be baking these again.

Week 18 - Cinnamon Crescents

This week's creation would have also been easier if I could buy Pillsbury crescent rolls here in Russia.

I made my dough the day before.

I think I used too much butter for the filling because during the

baking process these made a HUGE mess.

 Thankfully they turned out fine.......phew! Jon had to take 

these to meeting and I kinda panicked when I took them

out of the oven!

  

There were only a couple left for us to taste test and the boys loved them!