Pottery Painting

Yesterday I met up with Twistyn halfway at a pottery painting studio....child free!

{WOOHOO!}

We were supposed to meet at 2, but I was late...REALLY late.

Things have been taking me forever to get done lately.

It stinks.

I hate being slow.

{I'll blame it on sleep deprivation...yeah, let's go with that}

So I got there are 2:30ish and we picked out platters to paint.

I don't own a platter, and have been wanting one for a while now.

The livingsocial vouchers that I bought were for $20,

and that's how much the platter cost, so we ended up only paying tax.

I LOVE that!

The place that we went to is called The Mad Platter in Burlington.

I had never heard of it but apparently, it has been there since the late 80's or early 90's.

The things I liked about the place are: you don't have a studio fee or have to pay to use the special paints.

They have a smaller selection than some of the places I've been to before, but that could have been because they had been wiped clean from xmas.  And they weren't slammed like the last place I went to.

We had a lot of fun.
We were there much longer than planned...but it was so nice to go and not have to supervise kids, I could just paint away to my hearts content.  It was wonderful.  We left at 6 and Twistyn had to rush away to her meeting.  The hubby took on Pizza Night, so I was very thankful to not have to cook when I got home.

Wanna see?

We will definitely be going back sometime soon.

I can't wait to see what they look like after they have been fired and glazed!

SQUEAL!

Play date, Craft Time, Sleep Over

Today Ethylwolfe is having a sleepover!

Sleepovers are The.Best.

I practically lived at my friends houses when I was a kid.

Boy (that's what his mom calls him on her blog, so I'm keeping with the theme), came over at noon today with his mom and little sister.  We ate lunch, played, and crafted.

To find people that enjoy making stuff as much as I do is well... happiness.

As you can assume I use up a lot of felt when making my flowers.

But what do I do with the extra scraps?

I save them.

For who knows what, but I save them nonetheless.

A month or two ago, I came up with one solution

And today we finally got to make them, with friends on top of it!

  

I'll assume that you got what we did from the pictures above. :)

I love how they turned out!

So Biscuit and Mommy went home this afternoon, and Boy remains.

So far they have been having a blast.

At one point my son told him "You are really nice...  I like you a lot...  You're my best friend."

I don't know why hearing things like that melt my heart but they do!

Now back to the sleepover...

Have a great evening!

Oh and I finally listed more flowers in the shop...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89220962/light-blue-dahlia-flower-pin-or-hair

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89220221/orchid-purple-100-percent-wool-felt

9 sales so far!  Woohoo!!!

The end of another week

 I can't believe the first week of E's break is already over :(

It makes me really sad. 

only 2 weeks to go.

This week hubby was off for 3 days, so E got to spend a lot of time with his dad.

Tuesday was story time.

E started off not wanting to go, thinking his friends wouldn't be there like last time.

But he was pleasantly surprised when he found that 2 of his Buds were there!

{Sorry for the following blurry pics I can never get a good shot at the Pizzeria and I don't know why the kids love playing in this corner of chairs, but that's how it goes}

Wednesday, Hubby gave me a day to myself!

I had so many plans for the day:

meander through the book store

Sit & sip tea at the coffee shop while spending a ridiculously long time writing my Pals of Pen

Craft store hop

Haircut

Mall

Lunch at a new place

Window Shop Franklin Street

and so forth...

Well, to make a long story short, my haircut took 4 1/2 hours!  So after that crazy experience, I ran in and out of AC Moore to buy more supplies for my flowers and then headed home.  Hungry and unrelaxed.

Boo.

I hate a good day wasted.

But it was nice to get out and my hair Badly needed a cut, so I'll take what I can get, and save my other plans for another rainy day.

Thursday after the meeting and the family was in bed, I put on an 80's BBC version of Pride & Prejudice and flowered to the wee hours of the night.  I really need to start going to bed early...

This morning, a pal picked us up and we spent the day at Monkey Joes!

Sorry, I'm having a hard time remembering to take pictures lately
But, they had a blast, you'll have to take my word on that!
Thanks Friend for the invite!

A very hot Biscuit!

Oh and this morning, I learned how to make cute boxes out of paper for my flower packaging!
I LOVE making them!  And hopefully my customers will enjoy receiving them!

The kids were pretty in-love with the idea of making boxes out of paper, so I taught them as well.

They made mini boxes and check out what my cute girl put in her little treasure box!

And as I'm typing this, look who woke up for a snuggle!

Good Night everyone!  Have a great weekend!

We're looking forward to a lot of fun with a lot of great friends!

Can you believe this year is almost OVER?!?  Crazy!!!

Monday

Mondays are always the worst for me.

I can't pinpoint one particular reason why but my guess is because I'm bitter that the weekend is over, plus it seems like I always have my dentists visits on Mondays.  Something dreaded to look forward to {enter sarcastic "yay" sound}  

Today was one of those days.  I had my first crown put in today.  

I have a crown.

If I weren't in so much pain I may just joke that I must be royal because even my teeth wear crowns...but no, it's no joking matter....ok maybe it's a little funny.

The throbbing pain in my mouth wont go away.  It was the worst 3 hours ever.  It's expensive, I never want to have a crown put in or any other dental work done ever.again....but wait, I get to go through this whole thing again in 2 days.  I HATE how expensive dental work is.  When this next crown is over I will have splurged right around $1500 {that's after insurance} on dental work in the past 2 months.  

Remind me to never put off getting bad fillings repaired EVER AGAIN!  

My head has been resting on the heating pad for the past 5 hours.  It hurts so bad.  How can they expect you to want to come back after they torture you so?  The thing I hate the most is the drill attachment that feels like a sledgehammer rattling around in my brain.  or maybe it ties in first place with the fact that no matter how many anesthetic shots they give me, they just can't numb my darn teeth!  No half facial numbness today, yay! {Is this really what I'm diminished to bragging about?} In fact, there was no real numbness at all. I lost count of the # of shots this time but it was a heaping ton.  And she jokes "I have never seen someone's body soak up anesthetics like yours does!  It runs through you like water! hahaha!"  then she says, "well, since it's not working, lets just get this done quickly."  Yeah, I'm kind of tired of the "let's get this done quickly" line when it takes 3 hours to get it done....

On a happy note, today is the first official day of E's break.  I made my first from scratch chicken pot pie.  It was yummy, or I'll guess it was from the smell, because my taste-buds were dead.  Ethylwolfe and KennaKat put on the cutest performance today.  Singing, laughing, joking, giggling, dancing.  I wish I got it on camera.  They played that way for an hour, oh what a lovely peaceful hour that was in the house today!

And to top off my day, I ordered my first pair of glasses from Zenni Optical today.  After getting recommendations to try them out from just about EVERYBODY I decided to check them out.  I got a free pair of sunglasses when I got my costco prescription.  But I wasn't in love with any normal inside glasses that they had.  I wanted something fun.  Something to make me giggle when I looked in the mirror. Something that would make me want to wear my glasses. I hate wearing glasses, but my astigmatism seems to be getting worse and I feel like half the day I'm cross-eyed and not focusing, thus making my head-aches much worse.  So I checked out Zenni and found a fun pair.  Want to see?

I know what you're thinking and the answer is yes, yes I'm for realz.  The total after shipping was $16.  Not bad for prescription glasses with anti-glare stuff.  If I like these then my next pair will be giant nerd glasses.  :)  But they do have regular glasses too.  And lots of great stuff for $6.95, so check 'em out if you are in want/need of a new pair of specs.

Ok well it's officially Tuesday now, I made it through another Monday.  Tuesdays are way better.  Oh and did I mention that I "slept" in till almost 9 today.  Well, that's how long I stayed in bed at least.  It was great. I hope to sleep in that late tomorrow too!

Happy Tuesday everyone.  

Tonight I was sleepy.  

After snuggling with hubby while watching a movie, we decided to go to bed early.  While he was softly snoozing in my ear, I realized that tomorrow is the last day of our CO visit and I really wanted to give Madame CO a flower.  Well, generally this isn't a problem, but since I've got all of my currently made flowers listed on Etsy and paid for, I didn't want to have to un-list anything.  So I hopped out of bed at a quarter till10 and started making a flower for her.  Then I had to turn on my computer to play some tunes whilest flowering, then and then and then, one thing led to another and now it's after midnight.  So much for getting an early night and some much needed rest. 

 Today was a lazy good day.  We worked in the ministry as a family.  I beat hubby in magazine placement 6 to 2 Ha!  It was cold and I severely under-dressed the kids. {bad mommy}  We met at 9 instead of 9:30 and even though I knew this in the back of my mind, the front of my mind forgot.  As the hubby is getting ready at 8:30 and I'm slowly crawling out of bed, it dawns on me!  {Ah!  Hurry!}  I didn't have time to check the weather, and since it has been freakishly warm most of the time, I figured it would warm up.  Weeeell, it was warm in some parts: like around our house and the kingdom hall, but apparently the street we worked didn't get the memo {38 degrees}.  It was down right frigid and breezy.  KennaKat was not wearing tights, neither of them had gloves, it just so happened that I threw jackets on them as we ran out the door.  E's was just a paper thin jacket.  So when they were complaining/whining every-time we came to a house that required them to knock instead of ring a doorbell, I realized, oh yeah, they are cold!  Their hands are cold, it hurts to knock! So after an hour, we went over to starbucks for hot cocoa and cups of whip cream and a chai tea latte for me. {We never break so this was a nice treat} After warming up for a while, we ventured back out and worked another hour.  We were quite satisfied {and out of current magazines}.


So we came home and Husband so kindly gave in to my begging him to make lunch.  He made Quesadillas. Mmm.  I had seconds.  Then we studied the Watchtower and played cards and layed around.  I wish I could nap, I definitely would have napped.  Then he made pizza for us all.  {He's the best}  And well, you've heard the rest.


Yesterday, Tricia Jane asked me to come over.  Having a migraine most of the day, I wasn't really in socialize mood, but when a friend going through cancer asks you to come over, well... you go!  So after dinner I popped a migraine pill and headed over.  What did I find?  Her daughter was in town, sitting on the living room floor surrounded by oodles and oodles of beautiful beads!  {that's like being a kid in a candy store to me....OK, I'm like that in a candy store too}  "Sit down" they say, "Bead away" they say....'well, I don't mind if I do!'


What's even better?  Paige proceeded to show me a necklace she had made and while I'm ooh'ing and aah'ing over it, she GIVES IT TO ME!!!  She actually made it for me!  How sweet is that?!?  She apparently reads my blog {never ceases to amaze me that people actually read this!} and read the whole "house broken into, stolen jewelry thing" and felt pity upon my bare neck!  Thanks Paige, You Rock!! {Did I mention that I'm in LOVE with turquoise?  Well I am!}

I sat there ogling her beads for over an hour.  Trying to decide which ones I could bring myself to steal when it donned on me.... I had a broken necklace in my purse that has been there for 2 months now, just waiting for me to remember it.  So, why not repair that, and let her teach me the proper way to make a necklace?!

So I left Tricia's house with not only my most used necklace properly repaired { Baby Lisa is going to be so thrilled to have her favorite chew toy back in action!} but a brand spank'n new necklace to boot!  Thanks Paige, my bare neck and I thank you!!! :D 

I'm so happy when people make me come out and socialize.  I'm generally so content in my humble home that sometimes I forget...Oh yeah, I like being around people!

Good night everyone!

{Or rather a very early Good Morning}

(Early Bird gets the worm)

I hope everyone has a happy Sunday.

I am really looking forward to the next 2 talks by the CO!

Friday

http://www.etsy.com/listing/88792755/peacock-blue-dahlia-pin-or-headband

Trying to follow the "rules to success" in my etsy shop and add new items as frequently as possible.  Perhaps I'll be able to add one a day at some point.  But I'll need to get ahead and make a pile before I can count on that.  I'm more of a sporadic maker and not an every day maker.  And another problem is that once I've made my pieces, I'm too eager to share, so I post them all at once :)...one day I'll get it all worked out right...one day.

Yesterday, E's class had share time.

They invited friends and family to come in and see what they've been working on.

E chose stick bugs as his project.

He made stick bugs out of clay, but then while he was out of the room, someone took his clay and used it to make something of their own....ooops!  So yesterday before the share, he hurried to make these stick bugs out of pipe cleaners.  I love them.  I wonder what his clay ones looked like?

He's not much into sharing what he's made over and over, so it's always funny to see how he reacts after having to repeat himself for the 10th time... :)

Nani joined us and that was a special treat.

Today, while I listed my flower shown up top on the etsy shop, KennaKat sat next to me and painted a rainbow.  Rainbows are her new "thing" and I LOVE having rainbows all over my house!  This one she painted on canvas just for me! {I really need a new workspace because keeping my supplies and inventory right next to wear the kids art to their hearts content is a little bit nerve racking!}

When E was home sick earlier in the week, he painted this picture for me on canvas as well.  I love that he put a description underneath. :)  Also note, he is giving me a flower and there is a heart because he loves me {cue heart melting}

So now I have 2 beautiful rainbows on my wall in my room, what more could a mommy ask for?!?

A point of celebration is in order...

Today is E's last day of school for the next 3 weeks!

Woohoo!

I am thrilled to have him home and with me all day every day for a few weeks, but what am I most excited about?  I don't have to wake up at 7:15 every day and make lunch and get my kids dressed, woohoo!

Let the winter break begin!!

{side note: this school year has flown by way too quickly, I can't believe my son is halfway through first grade :( *tear*}

Sick and doing a happy dance

Being sick and doing a happy dance don't generally come hand in hand, but tonight they do for me.

For starters, we have our CO visit this week.  It's been a bummer that I had to catch a cold during this special time.  My goal was to be out in the ministry with them every day while they were here, and after getting this cold, well, the goal was switched to Make it to the meetings.  So I haven't been able to enjoy them as much as I would have liked, but I am thoroughly enjoying them.  We have a substitute CO and Wife because our CO is teaching Elders school.  I LOVE our sub though, they are so kind and sweet, and I don't think brother Pack has ever frowned, he has the kindest smile on his face at all times.  If that's not inviting, I don't know what is.

I have thoroughly benefited from his talks these past 2 meetings, thoroughly.  So so SO encouraging, and definitely what I needed to hear.  I'm so glad that I made it tonight.  I was feeling completely exhausted and stuffy and like my head was carrying around an anvil instead of a brain.  But I made it, and by the end of the meeting, I was feeling SO much better!  Thank goodness!  I'm still feeling good, so my hope is that I'm getting better, and if I wake up feeling mostly like a human being, then I'll be out in the ministry.  I'm really hoping!

So that's part one.

Part 2 is that I came home to find that a friend from out of town ordered one of my new flowers that I listed on Etsy today!  How awesome is she?!?!?  So I packed up her order and it's all ready to drop at the post tomorrow!  Woohoo!  I created a new category on my shop, I decided not to put a backing on the flowers and  the category is called "you decide" so the purchaser gets to tell me what to make it into...a brooch pin, headband, barrette, alligator clip, what have they.  Hopefully it will get good results :)

If you care to see my latest additions to my shop, click and see...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSpeckledKat?ref=si_shop

Oh and I've been meaning to say... If you live in the area and want to help me out by modeling some of my stuff for no pay what-so-ever, that could be arranged.  I need more pictures in my shop and could use some free models :)  Thanks in advance, you're awesome!

Field Trip and Ice Show

Lets have a post that doesn't include my whining shall we?

This past Friday was a busy day for this Gal.

E's class took a field trip to the Museum here in town.  There were 21 chaperons to 47 kids, yeah our school rocks with parent involvement!  The first graders are finishing up a project.  Each student chose an animal or bug to do a project on, they had to choose something that was at our museum to research.  And this Friday, we took a trip to the museum for Field Study.  I'm pretty sure that when I was in first grade, I didn't use words like "Field Study", "Research", "species", and "habitat" but those words are common words to these cool  kids.

KennaKat was allowed to join me which made me glad, because that meant I was allowed to come.  We hopped on a bus in the morning, ate our snack under the huge dome, it was cold, then we were divided into groups and sent on our merry way for field study.  I was put in a group without E :(  I was a little sad, and was really hoping that I could be with him to help him finish up his report, but oh well.  I guess things like that are understood when you sign up to be the "class parent".

My kids are sweet kids and guess what they chose to research?  Fish.
Oh man, SO boring!  The fish here aren't even cool tropical fish, they are ugly river fish.  So we did our field study then we played with the exhibits until it was time to meet up for recess.
{I don't think they realized how uncool their exhibit was until the groups were split up and theirs was the smallest.  Then they were down, and mentioned how nobody thinks fish are cool.  So I had to cheer them up and say how we were going to have the coolest field study ever!}  I brought paper and a small clip board for KennaKat to get in on the action too.

E's class photo...I think it's funny that KennaKat snuck into the photo, the brunette boy next to her LOVES her.
I can't even count how many arguments E has had with him about how he is NOT allowed to marry her!

After recess, we had lunch.  Then we were given 2 hours to explore before leaving.  The groups were switched up, so I took the opportunity to grab my 2 kiddos and have some fun just the 3 of us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After we got home from the Field trip I was exhausted!
So were the kids.
I almost forgot that KennaKat and I had plans for that evening!

At 6 o'clock I told KennaKat the surprise
She and I were going to see Disney on Ice!  It was Princess themed this year and most of her friends were going to be there.  2 of them were coming to our house to ride with us!
{I was so busy during the week that I forgot to clean my house...oops!}

To say that she squealed and was thrilled beyond belief would be an understatement.
Even more exciting was the fact that I bought her a rapunzel dress to wear!

We hurried to get dressed and our friends arrived at 6:15.

Amy brought frying pans for the girls to carry around, such a cute Idea!

4 Rapunzels!

And thus concludes our busy day.  KennaKat was so tired that she almost fell asleep during the 2nd half of the show.

It was a busy, fun filled day, just the way Fridays are supposed to be!

Oh and if you feel sorry for Ethylwolfe, Daddy took him to Frankies and they played mini bowling, arcade games, and he got to drive a go cart all by himself...yeah, no pity for him!

When they tell you what's wrong with yourself

So I went to the Doctor today.
I hate going to the Dr.  Everything about it makes me feel uncomfortable.
Why can't they have a reclinable lazy boy instead of those really tall uncomfy tables. Calming paint colors and decorations,  And some good reading material.  I was annoyed that I left my watchtower in the car that I intended to bring in.

Aside from the general sense of uneasiness.  The visit in itself was undramatic.
I never see the actual Dr, just the practitioner or whatever they are called.

She confirmed that I do have a staph infection on my leg...actually I have 3 staphs that she insisted on draining...ouch.  Gave me a topical and oral prescription for that.

I told her about my terrible headaches.  And when she asked how long had I been having migraines, I said "Whoa, I don't want to over do this,  I don't call this a migraine, it's just a headache"  So after asking me a series of questions she said "you have migraines, really bad ones"  She gave me a bottle of pills to take and said to steer clear of Ibuprofen.  She also told me to keep a journal of everything: what I eat, how much sleep I get, how I feel throughout the day, how many pills I take {I'm allowed a max of 4 per day}, moods, emotions, what I do, etc.  Also to take note of anything unusual, and to come back in 10 days to get a better assessment of what's going on and what's causing them."  {She seemed really determined to get to the underlying cause, problem is, she's 37 weeks pregnant, I doubt she'll be there in 10 days}  So I said "I guess sleep walking would be considered unusual"  She looked surprised.  I laughed.  So I'm keeping a journal... I doubt it will last more than 2 days tops.  I'm not the "journaling" type.  Always wanted to be though.  And I plan on seeing my chiropractor or somebody soon about all of my back and neck issues.

A friend posted on her blog a few days ago about burnout.  She gave a link to an article with 5 stages to being burnt out.  Sadly, after reading it today, I believe I'm on the 5th stage.  Can't think straight, can't focus, always busy, always with the mind racing, never getting enough sleep, exhausted before my day begins, snappy and impatient, etc. Actually the only difference I see is that I'm not gaining weight like they say is common, I actually have lost 5ibs.  So my guess is that I'm burnt out and that's what's causing my migraines, my body is screaming at me to relax and I'm not listening.  For my stage of burn out they recommend 8-10 hours of sleep per night plus 3 15-30 minute naps or retreats per day.  To get that much rest in my day seems like a fantasy that wont come true, but I'm going to make a conscious effort.  We'll see how I do.  Hopefully I'll see improvement.   And they suggested grazing throughout the day when it comes to eating, and avoid missing meals and stuff.  I already knew that, but will try harder to keep fruit on me to eat in-between meals.

Alright, that's it for today.  I'm tired and it's 10:30.  If I can get to sleep by 11, I will get at least 8 hours of sleep for tonight.  That's the minimum I should get, so I need to hurry if I'm gonna make it.

G'night all!

week in progress

As I write this, I'm suffering through a headache that I've had since I woke up this morning.
I've been getting really bad headaches lately, the kind where I feel like I'm going cross-eyed just looking at something or listening to someone.  I can't focus, can't respond as I want, and the pain just doesn't go away.  {think constant jackhammer rattling around in your brain}  I'm thinking maybe I should schedule a visit with my Dr to handle this issue and other issues, like my infected knee that still hasn't healed and it has almost been 2 months, and my back pain, oh the pain that never goes away.

But I didn't begin this post to whine about my head or the rest of my aching self... I'm posting to talk about my week in progress...

Monday was rather eventful: KennaKat and myself spent time at E's school.  We did the librarian thing, as usual, I loved it.  Then, the teacher asked me if I could do her a favor and quickly wash the tables since she didn't get a chance to after snack time.  So I did that, then I proceeded to clean the floors, and then we hung around for Writer's Workshop.  E is writing his own Sonic the Hedgehog comic book at school, also one at home...he's obsessed. Then I helped the kids with their research for their big project that they are working on.  They each had to pick an animal/insect to do a project on.  It's so cute, I can't wait to see the final results!

I mailed off my first flower on Etsy.  Asked the mailman lots of shipping related questions.  Trying to learn the ropes on that whole thing.. After lunch I scooted off to the Dentist.  I'm in the process of getting my teeth repaired.  After I had E, my teeth were ruined.  I don't know why having babies has to suck so much out of you that you get cavities, but there it is, they do, and I got them.  My dentist did a terrible job with filling them.  3 or more years ago, my new dentist decided that I needed all new fillings because whoever did them did a terrible job.  Well... I kept making appointments, and then cancelling them.. I HATE dental work!  And to suffer through getting something done twice...yeah, don't think so!  Every 6 months, she would remind me that I still had to have those taken care of and I'd make and break my appointments over and over.  I finally got tired of her reminding me that I stopped getting my teeth cleaned... So for a year and a half I didn't go at all.

Then this year, a tooth chipped that had a bad filling in it and I lost another filling...ok, well, I guess maybe she was right about those fillings being bad.  So in October I went in for a cleaning and the appointments were started for repairing my teeth. I hate dental work.  I love my dentist, she's kind and hilarious and a big mama, reminds me of several large women that I loved as a young girl.  But she is not gentle...AT ALL.  She kills me.  Monday was my worst visit yet.  For some reason, the numbing shots never work for me.  The numbing shots are the main reason I hate getting my teeth worked on.  My gums hurt for weeks afterwards.

So Monday, I stopped counting after the 15th shot...no lie.  The first shot she gave me I believe was too far into my cheek because I was instantly numb on half of my face from nose to ear from lip to forehead.  It is the weirdest feeling having a numb eyelid. SO WEIRD.  And the numbing lasted until I went to bed that night.  I thought I would never have feeling on that side of my face again.  My cheekbone still feels like someone punched me.  And my teeth weren't numb.  Finally I gave up telling her that I wasn't numb and suffered though the rest of the drilling.  Even worse than the shots was this new "toy" that she has for doing fillings.  They are rings and clamps that she installs all over my tooth for a "neater job", but she dug them so far into my gums that I have big raw spots.  And she couldn't get them to fit on properly so they kept popping off and she had to redo them and redig into my gums Over and OVer and OVER again!  The visit took 3 hours and I came home to find hubby making dinner.  How wonderful is he.  I wanted to ball up into fetal position and relax and dreaded cooking dinner and there he was...my knight in shining armor.  He let me whine all evening too!  I have 2 visits left...2 crowns...yikes, I don't think I'll be able to handle another day like Monday, and I hear that crowns are way worse :(

Oh and apparently I sleep walk now.  Hubby woke up in the middle of the night to find me pacing back and forth next to the bed, caught between my pile of art bins and the computer desk.  He asked me what I was doing and apparently I garbled some incoherent blah blah blah and eventually got back into bed.  I have no recollection of this.  It's a good thing my art bins trapped me or who knows what I would have done.

Tuesday, I actually took KennaKat to the library.  I've been majorly slacking in that department for a while now {well we still go, but haven't made it to story time}.  She was happy to go and so was I.  Em and CharliKat joined our little group which was a nice addition.

They were both sitting so cutely on the window sill until I got out the camera...oh well.

Hubby graciously moved family night to Tuesday night because of my Dentist drama on Monday.  We finished reading through the Listen to God brochure.  I LOVE that the society has been coming out with more "beginner reader" friendly material.  With the new watchtowers and the brochures, my kids are enjoying it and learning so much more.  E is so entirely too cute reading the brochure and the scriptures.  KennaKat has been getting into it more recently "reading" parts of it as well.  We also acted out another bible story.  This week was with the talking donkey.  Daddy was the donkey and Kennakat got to beat him, very funny.  E wanted to be the Angel because he had a sword...sigh.  We've been giving the kids scriptures of the week to help them remember Bible verses and get more familiar with using the Bible and navigating it.  I could definitely use more tips on helping the kids to remember books and scriptures.  What techniques do you use with your kids and what did your parents do to help you learn?  All suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance! :)

Today we scooted on over to a friends' house for a play date.  Aside from my painful headache that wouldn't go away, we enjoyed ourselves.  It's always fun socializing with friends and letting the kids play.  Jen brought a gingerbread house kit with lots of little houses for the girls to decorate, which was fun.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home, so I'll have to steal pictures from my friends when they decide to share.  I broke KennaKat's house during set up and after she decorated it so neatly and cutely, it caved in.  I tried to repair it, but I think it looked better before I tried to help.  It was a very messy sight, but she didn't mind too much.  She's used to mommy messing with her stuff.  She and E ate almost all of it this afternoon.

They get along so well most of the time now.  Especially when they are together for the whole day.

I love these two, I hope they grow closer and closer over the years.  Yay for siblings!