Birthday party and snow in March!

 It snowed a bit the end of February and Renna wanted some snow for her birthday on March 6th.  WELL, it didn't snow ON her birthday, but it snowed the day before!  She was so excited.

The berry tree out our back door.

The little one doing a snow angel.

 The snow was so perfect for half the day, then melted all away.  I used to live for winter days like this!  The sunshine on the snow might be the most beautiful site ever... like a billion diamonds glittering....

Our view (under the berry tree)

Fluffy was taken on a walk in the snow.

Both older girls rolled their own large snowballs.  Hard work that.

Rolling the snowball.. this is the view out my kitchen window.

They all wanted to make an "Olaf" so there you go.  ;)  He melted by the end of the day.

And happy birthday to Renna!

 The girls loved the rainbow balloons for "R week" and Renna's birthday.  It was quite serendipitous.

Cupcakes were made with chocolate and nutella and golden papers for the "gold at the end of the rainbow"

Her present was getting to pick out an American girl doll.  She chose Samantha.  We all pooled our birthday money for her in to get this and some outfits for all of them to share and play their dolls together.  I really like getting toys that they can all play together!  And my oldest already had a doll and the doll from when I was a kid, so now there are three.

 The girls all have a doll now and we ate some dessert at the cafe there as well.  It was pretty special.

 We don't usually eat at restaurants so this was very fancy for them!

Escalators are always a hit.

So much excitement this day!

And blowing out candles!

 The girls had fun decorating the cupcakes with the rainbow colored chocolate balls.

On her actual birthday (the 6th) our church was doing their monthly "parents night out" so we made tiny cupcakes to take to share.  Saved me from inviting people to a birthday party, but she still got to celebrate with friends and everyone declared it to be the MOST FUN EVER!  so that was good!

My fashionable imaginative Renna also likes to curl her toys hair now.  She's been fixing her OWN hair as well which is really nice since she hated me to brush it.  Now she puts her own hair in a pony tale and is so much more grown up even from 6 to 7.  It feels like there's less of a struggle about things because she seems to want to grow and learn now.  Instead of looking at making her bed like the worst thing ever she's starting to see that she likes her room more tidy and just over all is more aware of herself and the people around her. 

One day she was tracing this picture and while she was coloring it she was telling the story of it.  She told part of it to her little sister and then went to tell her big sister.  I found it amazing that she was able to tell it exactly the same way.  I asked if I could type it out for her while she told it.  I typed exactly what she said and didn't change anything.  I think it's lovely and lyrical and such a great vocabulary for a just turned 7 year old!

This is Renna's story --

This is a princess.

In my dream she was me.

She was stuck on a rocky island.

One part of the island was bright and sunshine.

The other side of the island was dark and gloomy.

The princess trusted in the sunshine, but she looked at the black.

She had one black streak in her hair.

She trusted in the sunshine to give her back her loved one.

But her wish never came true.

So she was stuck on it until the crocodile helped her across.

All the animals helped her and some flowers made a bed for her.

While she was walking through the night it suddenly became day.

She walked in the night.

It became day every night and day and night.

The only noise that the animals and the flowers heard at night was the snoring of the little girl sleeping in the flower bed.

That was my dream.

R week!!!

 I was a little tired and didn't put as many things on the chalk board this time, but the girls like the Rose shaped like an "R" and the little "r" rabbit romping over a rock to the radishes.

Oldest is the top, 7 year old is middle and the 3 year old scribbled and I wrote the R's over her scribbles.  :)

R "week" felt a little spread out, but here are the highlights.  It also feels a little out of order because it started with a birthday, but I'll post about that later.  :)

At one point I came up with making a little "teacher's helper" sign for my older girls so they could take turns helping me with the little one while I helped one of the others.  It worked out okay, but it's a work in process.  I think they feel more official with the tag on.

We read a book about a "rock walk" and so we walked around the parking lot here at the complex and the girls had fun finding different sorts of rocks.  When we got them inside they washed them.  Everyone got sick though so we didn't get a chance to take them to the nature exchange at the zoo yet.

And this was the book that inspired the rock walk.  I'd recommend this one.  :)

The pictures were interesting and gave the girls fun ideas to do with their rocks.

 Another day my oldest decided to make a giant paper plane and we spent some time outside flying it.  Talk of air flow and how the flaps on the wings changed how the plane flew so on were the main topics.

A 9 year old very happy with her plane

Sisterly love, got to capture the sweet moments!

 Another day, it had been dreary for a while and everyone was feeling a bit depressed, so I cleaned out the back of the landrover and we did our school in there!

 The cat even joined us for a while.  :)

The little one played with rocks while I did school with the older two.

We pulled out a few work box drawers and brought them out here.  It was declared the "best day ever"

The cat wasn't quite as sure.  ;)

Reading and snacks and even lunch later were enjoyed in the car!  It was like a club house to them and it's funny how much better we all felt just getting a little change of scenery.

A little random I guess, but my oldest expressed some interest in playing the piano a bit so I did a little quick lesson on reading music and she learned how to play this little scale.  And I put stickers on the C's for her too.

The craft desk in a relatively tidy state.  Lots of visual journals drying.

 It's not always easy to foster creativity and crafts and art when you live in a little apartment with 5 people and are there all the time.  The car was a relief because we got out of the house for a bit!  But it's important for me to remember why I'm putting up with mess most of the time.  Creativity is super important and the skill that can't be taught.. it can only be allowed to grow.  :)

Which means that my dinning room table is usually covered with art of some kind.

 There are always paint brushes in the little half bathroom off the dining room.

 Yarn projects are usually out and laying about somewhere

 Sewing explosions and fabric get dumped on the floor.

 And my desk area doesn't usually look cleaner then this picture above.

 Craft corners are all over the house and I know my husband gets a little stressed with the mess, but it's important to be okay with this.  I do dream of one day having some sort of craft room or at least a little more space to allow all this to happen and not as easily getting overwhelmed from all the "stuff" and everything pressing in on me.

 R week and the rainbow theme ran through St. Patrick's day.  The girls wanted to celebrate the holiday and after Christmas I start to run out of steam for doing too much for other holiday's but I did a few things.  I told them to watch out for leprechaun tricks and they played that their toys had been "Leprechaunded" and said they had to cover everything with blankets so the Leprechauns wouldn't get to their toys.  They totally freaked out the 3 year old with this talk!  But I think over all they had fun with it.  They woke up to the picture above and their cereal had green milk (Those silly leprechauns must have gotten to it!) And for dinner our mashed potatoes were green as well since I put milk in to mash them up.  Everyone was delighted.  ;)

I put rainbows on my fingernails for St. Patrick's day.  I love the sparkles! FYI these are only available for a couple more weeks - till April 15th in case anyone was wanting to get one of the "fashionably festive" designs!

We've been doing a lot of visual journaling lately and our favorite place to do this is out by the pool.  It's not as loud with the water fall under repair.  It's still pretty loud with the highway and all, but it's nice to get a change of scenery.

I brought some books out one day and red to the little one for a while during our art time as well.

My oldest especially loves doing the visual journaling outside.  She wore her rainbow dress for St. Patrick's day too.

And that's basically the end of our "R week" but I didn't talk at all about the 6 year old that turned 7!!!!  Renna was so thrilled that "R week" came at the same time as her birthday.  We decorated in Rainbow balloons!