A Homeschool Group Activity; Meeting The Police

One of the moms in the Kindergarten/ First Grade homeschool group Caleb is a part of organized an awesome activity for today.

The kids got to meet some police officers.

And do some "police" crafts.

I have no creative words tonight...just check out the pictures:)

Busy coloring, cutting and glueing.

Miss preschool herself.

Mailee and Cambri helping Caiters with her glueing skills.

Cutting concentration.

Deputy Caleb.

{sidenote: my son colored his hat to perfection.  

No help.  

Very impressive.}

 Deputy Cutie Pie with her badge and hat.

The whole gang.

Learning the hand signs for stop, left and right.

Checking out the handcuffs!

Super cool, they got to go in the back of the car.

Other highlights:

-turning on the siren and flashing lights

-handcuffs

I love his face here...he was a little bit shy about having me with the camera following him around!

So fun!

I really enjoy seeing the world through the eyes of all my different children.  We did field trips like this in school with Mikayla, Mailee and Maddie.  I went to the exact same locations three times in a row and each trip was a completely new experience. They all have such unique personalities! 

 I'm excited for them (the youngest three especially) to explore their world and have fun and interesting places to discover.  I love the way they sit up strait when they are interested, the way their eyebrows go up when they explain what they just saw with excitement.

Early elementary years are soo fun, I just want to see them enjoy these years and not try to skip and get big too fast!!

Cambria Is Almost One

Little Cambria is closing in on her first birthday!

Here's a funny little sequence of photos in an attempt to capture her baby-ness on my real camera.

Baby with the ruffle bum, come back here!

I love when she sit on her knees like this to play!

AND...in comes the big sister.

Clearly she's a professional at smiling for the camera...

...and really good at the choke hold!

Ok- watch the apple in the next few pictures.

The apple was Cambi's bribe.

The only thing that would get her to stay put for my pictures.

Uh oh.

"hey sissy... that's mine!"

(Cait looking at me to see if I have noticed what she's done)

Such funny little interactions between these two little ladies!

"Mommy!!"

"Caity took my apple!"

She's outta here.

No more pictures.

One more glance back to be sure that I know she means business!

What a cutie!

We love our baby to pieces.

She gets kissed NON STOP.

We talk for her and tote her around and ooh and ahh over everything she does.

Some of her nicknames are:

Cambi

Cambri

Cambers

Bree Baby

Bree

I know she does not care about her first birthday but I sure am excited to celebrate this sweet little blessing!

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Mikayla was in charge of St. Patrick's Day this year.

I couldn't fit in one more thing to think about.

She did a FANTASTIC job!!

I am sure she will share the details soon on her blog but here are some of my favourite pics from today...

Caity was really into playing the party games.

She is growing up so fast and really eager to be included!

Green soup and grain-free Irish Soda Bread!

My sweetheart.

We moved the rocker out of her room and into the living room and we are both loving all the rocking!

{P.S...this is a "crawling suit".  She has 4 of these.  They were hand-me-downs given to Cait after they went through a family of three girls.  They are well loved.  Cambi lives in these suits around the house. It saves the rest of her wardrobe from getting filthy with all the crawling!}

I tried for a little photo shoot with my tiny girlie.

She was blurry in all of them.

Yup, too busy to sit still for Mommy's pictures!

You guys, seriously, she is so sweet.

This precious time with a baby in my arms is evaporating too quickly.

Sniff sniff.

Dollar Store Candle Revamp Tutorial

Ok, I have revamped a few Dollar Store candles and gotten a lot of questions and comments so I thought I'd talk you all through it.

Here's what Maddie's birthday candle looked like when I bought it.

Kinda predictable.

I grabbed some glittery puff paint

{not to be confused with glitter glue}

I stuck all sorts of cute buttons and tiny rhinestones in the inside of the outline with the puff paint.

{If I hadn't liked the teal outline for my party theme, I would have re-outlined it with my sparkly puff paint)

I let it dry for an hour

{at least}

After it was dry,

I gently stuck a toothpick into the bottom of the candle.

Here's what it looked like when I got finished with it.

{oops, this is BEFORE the toothpick but you can imagine what that would look like, right?}

See how nicely it sits in the cupcake thanks to that handy little toothpick?

Isn't this a simple, pretty alternative to the plain candle?

If you make a candle like this, will you please show me? 

I'd love to see!!

Maddie's Shopping Party

We kicked off birthday party season with Maddie's 8th birthday!

Mikayla and Mailee both had "shopping" parties for their 8th birthdays and Maddie asked for the same.

Check it out:)

Eight already!

Maddie is fun loving and full of questions, jokes, new realizations and an eagerness to try new things.

She loves to read and color and play games.

I gave the girls a big list of fun photos that they needed to take around the mall.

Here's "wearing funny sunglasses at Claires"

We made a wallet for each girl and gave them a little spending money 

(instead of a goody bag)

Mailee helped Maddie make these cute cards to go in the wallets too!

6 little wallets!!

Along with the list of photos, they also got this list.

And this list too!

There they go, on a mission!

They found the sequins!

Glossy lips at Sephora.

Sitting on a cute couch.

They found some tiny bikes:)

I think this is my favourite picture.  

How cute are those little 7-8 year old feet.

I am realizing how quickly my little Maddie will catch up to her sisters and be wearing my shoes!!

Going green!

Cute!

I asked this store if they could go in their empty front window.

Some of the girls were so embarrassed to do this:)

They came up with all their own poses.

Aunty Terri and Jamin came along.

Terri has been at pretty much every party I have thrown as long as we have lived here.

She is an awesome support, helper, fan and party goer!

Back at the house.

The party set up.

Mikayla and her friend Kyenna were an amazing team setting up, preparing food, dressing little sisters...

Playing musical chairs.

Girl who won got her present opened first.

Cheering on the musical chair finalists

Incredible little purses for the cupcakes.

 Made by Julie at Sugar Jewels Cakes & Creations.

Just a little cuteness.

Blowing out her fancy 8 candle.

My little Maddie Faith!

Happy 8th Birthday beautiful, sweet, happy girl!