Brenna's new skill

Brenna has been wanting to learn how to ride her bike. She went to stay with my parents last week for spring break so they started working with her. She came back home and was ready to go! We have been practicing around the neighborhood while I push Natalie in her car. Brenna is doing really well, but she has to learn how to turn a little better. It's so exciting when your kids learn something new. She is growing up so quickly. I still can't believe I will have a second grader next year!

Easter Time!

We had our Easter egg hunt at church last Saturday. Our friends James, Lauren and Lily were in town so they were able to attend with us. We watched the new Veggie Tale movie, The Night Before Easter, and then had our hunt. Everyone had a great time. Natalie really loved it this year. She had to open every egg before moving on to the next one! I haven't taken her to see the Easter bunny yet because I thought she would be scared. Man was I wrong. There was a bunny dressed up at Kroger the other day and she was totally in love with him, and there was a lion dressed up at church. She kept asking for the lion, and when she saw him she would wave and give him hugs! Funny girl. I also took Brenna to a flashlight egg hunt at the Kettering rec. center. She did a craft and had cookies and juice before the hunt. We had a really good time. I am planning to take them both to the flashlight candy cane hunt this winter. Natalie will finally be old enough! Enjoy the pictures. I will be posting some of the girls in their Easter dresses soon.

Arts and Crafts

Well with spring in the air (for a few days anyway!) we have been feeling crafty. Brenna bought a new fun craft with her own money the other day at the store. There were over 900 colorful pieces of rolled up paper in this thing! It has sticky paper to design your ideas on. She used the template for a fish, and it turned out so cute. She actually gave it to some good friends of ours that are moving to Virginia this week. Always so sweet! We had a to take a picture of it before she gave it away.

On Wednesday mornings we attend a women's event at the house of an awesome lady we go to church with. She opens her home freely to all the women of the church. We do lots of activities which include bible studies, crafts, lots of fellowship, and of course eating! She also has us put out a huge garden in the summer, and you can take any of the vegetables you want! Last week we made three meals to put in our freezer for future use. We had 16 ladies in one kitchen! It was so fun and it all worked out great. Her name is Mrs. Kathy and she is such a blessing. She has transformed her basement into an infant, toddler, and preschool area. The girls absolutely love going. Natalie asks me almost every day if we are going to see her! Kathy plans bible lessons, and crafts for the kids each week as well. After that long intro, I wanted to tell you about the cake decorating we did. It was actually Kathy's daughter that came to teach us some basic cake decorating techniques. We had a lot of fun, and the cake was delicious!

Lastly, I found a really cute craft idea for school in one of my magazines I subscribe to. Brenna loves art which I am not good at! I try to be a creative home school mom sometimes, and this looked like a great idea! We hot glued peeps around an embroidery hoop. She had fun painting the dowel rods green and helping me glue. We stuck the rods into foam and then just added our grass. Brenna picked out the little glass containers. They are so cute, and I hope will make spring want to come and stay for good!

Shame on me!

Well what is my excuse for not blogging you ask? Life! Every since I have started homeschooling Brenna, things have just continued to get busier. She is doing really well and has started to read which is very exciting. We are both very excited for summer though! Natalie is just a bundle of fun and energy. She is talking so much now, and her hair is really growing. It's finally long enough where I have to pull it out of her eyes. I bought a new camera several months back, and I still have to figure out how to compress the pictures. I am hoping to have Ben show me how really soon, and get back to regular blogging. No promises! I am going to shoot for once a week, or at least twice a month. You guys can have the every day thing! Not me for me.

It's so hard to believe we will have been back in Dayton for 2 years in just a couple of months. Ben is half way through his doctorate which is just amazing to me. I am already itching to know where we are going next. I know you guys will be shocked, but I am actually looking forward to moving. I guess part of that is that I am ready for the next phase in life. I don't want to wish away this time, but I am so ready for Ben to be finished with school. It will be nice to have more family time. I feel like since the girls are getting older we can finally do some of the stuff we have been waiting to do as a family.

I can't promise lots of pictures this time (zero for that matter!), but at least it's a post!

Gingerbread house

Brenna made her first gingerbread house. It was fun watching her creativity. Natalie really didn't help much this year. She was just interested in the candy! I am really trying to put on my craft hat for homeschooling. We are going to do hand and foot angels this week, and of course we have to make cookies!





Concentration!

The finished product.

The Nutcracker

We took Brenna to see the Nutcracker for the first time last weekend. We went to the performance in Louisville so we could go with the entire family. My mom watched Natalie for us, but we got an awesome family shot before we left. Brenna really enjoyed the ballet. It was so much fun watching her face light up while she watched it. I look forward to when Natalie is old enough to join us for the fun. Enjoy all the great family shots we took.

Anthony Thomas Candy Company

We went on a candy factory tour on Friday last week with our new home school group. It was the Anthony Thomas Candy Company in Columbus. Brenna and I had a great time. There were over 85 of us on the tour! We unfortunately couldn't take pictures in the factory. They were already putting together Easter Milky Way packages. We could take pictures in the store. They had a 235 pound Buckeye! It only costs $3500.00 and was 7 years old! We found out that they seal the tops with a white chocolate cap for consistency and to lengthen the shelf life of the peanut butter. We had to buy some Buckeyes to take home and some of their caramel corn.

The 40 pound Santa. He costs $295.00.