Star Wars finger puppets

This is another cute idea from our Star Wars craft book. I made these on my own time since there was really nothing that the kids could help with, and I forgot how relaxing it is to sew! I kind of want to make the kids an army of finger puppets, just because I enjoyed it so much. :-)

Oliver wanted a "bad guy" puppet. He asked me to make General Grievous, but I vetoed it (too many arms and weird shapes to cut out!), so I made him Darth Vader instead.

Buttercup likes Yoda and "R222" (R2D2), but she wanted her guy to have a purple light saber. So I chose Mace Windu for hers, since he's the only Jedi I knew of with a purple light saber. :-)



I'm going to toot my own horn here -- I think they came out really cute. :-) And they were an instant hit with the kids!

Easter pictures

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday celebrating our risen King! We had a lovely, relaxing weekend. Here are some cute pics!

Moving up!

It's been almost 1 month since Oliver started swim lessons, and I can't believe how far he's come already! Of course he's used to being in the water, since we swim/play so often in the family pool, but I wasn't expecting him to do so well this quickly!

He started Level 2 on Monday, and after watching him swim for the first time, his teacher looked at me with her mouth open and said, "He can swim! Are you sure he's supposed to be in this class??" Ha ha! She also said that he's ready for Level 3 right now. There are no Level 3 classes currently being taught, so he'll stay in Level 2 and his teacher will challenge him each lesson with new skills.

Wednesday was his 2nd day in Level 2, and he was the only one in his class who didn't use a flotation belt! He also: 1) swam freestyle from one end of the pool and back without assistance -- twice!, 2) used a kickboard for the first time, 3) swam halfway across the pool underwater, 4) floated on his back without assistance for almost 1 minute, and 5) floated on his tummy without assistance for about 20 seconds.

He is just doing amazingly well. It's hard to believe that a little over a year ago, he was afraid to get in water over 1 or 2 feet deep. I guess he partly has his sister's fearlessness to thank for him getting over his fear, ha ha! Hubby and I are just so proud of our big boy!!!

Here are some pictures of him using the kickboard and hanging on the edge of the pool:

What will he think of next?

Oliver likes to make all sorts of interesting creations with the items from our recycling bin. He usually makes boats or rockets (and uses a ton of tape in the process!). Over the weekend, he wanted to build something, and he had a different -- and very specific! -- plan in mind.

He selected a plastic strawberry container, a small box, and 2 paper towel rolls. He asked me to cut the rolls in half, and while I did that, he started taping the small box to the plastic container. I asked him what he was making, and he said with a smile, "It's a surprise!" Pretty soon, I figured out what it was -- an Imperial Walker!



I ended up having to help him with duct tape to hold the boxes and cardboard tubes together, and pipe cleaners for the guns/lasers/whatever they are. But everything else is his own creation. I'm SO impressed!

He also made a Rebel and a Snowtrooper, to reenact the Battle of Hoth. He's something else! :-)

Resurrection Eggs

Resurrection Eggs are a fun way for kids to learn about Easter! We did it last year for the first time, and both kids had so much fun that I knew we had to make it an Easter tradition. Even though Buttercup was too young last year to know what was going on, she still had fun looking for eggs and opening them to see what was inside. This year, I used the example from the MOPS website since it's geared more toward kids Oliver's age and was easier for Buttercup to understand.

First, get six plastic Easter eggs and number them 1-6. Fill them in this order:
#1 -- a piece of bread
#2 -- three silver coins
#3 -- thorns
#4 -- a cross (I cut mine from felt)
#5 -- a rock
#6 -- leave empty



Hide the eggs, then after the kids find them, have them open the eggs in order and use the objects to tell them about the Resurrection story.






And here's a video of Oliver explaining the Resurrection story. :-)

Pictures from our weekend

The weather was gorgeous this weekend, so we were able to spend a lot of time outside. Hubby had to work on Saturday afternoon, so I took the kids to the lake for the first time this year. It was 88 degrees, but the water was on the chilly side, so I wasn't planning on the kids getting too wet. Still, the water was too tempting and the kids were completely soaked before I knew it. It's a good thing I keep extra clothes in the car! :-)







On Sunday, the four of us went to the Barton Creek Greenbelt to hike and explore. We're under a drought, so the creek bed was bone dry, but Oliver had fun climbing on the big rocks while Buttercup picked out rocks to take home.




And of course you can't hike without the proper fuel -- breakfast tacos from Rudy's, yum!


Such a fun, wonderful morning with my little family!

Bumping along

Poor third baby. I've only taken 3 belly pictures this time around, and we're getting close to the end! So here he is, or rather, here's my whopper of a belly at 34 weeks.



I'm at the point where only my large maternity shirts come close to covering my belly. Everything else looks ridiculously small. Actually, I only have one shirt that totally covers my belly. This is not it, obviously. :-)


Buttercup likes to pat my belly and say, "Baby brother get real big?" :-) Yep, and it's hard to believe that he and my belly are going to get even bigger. Grow, baby, grow!


P.S. Please ignore the water splotches on the bathroom mirror -- life is too short to Windex every day. ;-)