Family Activities
Skipper Being a Good Sport
Skipper claiming a new bed on the back porch!
Earlier in the day the girls were out on the back porch coloring and drawing in a couple big boxes we gave them to play with. The girls get so excited about getting large boxes to play with around the house. Every time we get a box or a group of boxes of any size they usually ask for permission to use them for their play time. Jake and I try to give them as many opportunities to explore creative play, but sometimes the boxes hang around for longer than intended or can get in the way or make a mess with all the “decorating” paraphernalia scattered around.
Sometimes when the boxes are big, taking over the house, and it is going to be a sunny day we will send the kids with their goodies outside. They have been know to play with boxes building various forts and structures for hours. Skipper loves it any time the kids are outside playing. She usually hops right in the middle of everything and at times is in the way, but the kids and the dog love it!
Skipper snacking on a treat from the kids.
Even after the girls came inside Skipper decided to hang out in their box.
Waking up from a nap in the box. She slept in the boxes for several hours in the sun that day. I am not sure who enjoyed it most the kids or Skipper.
Hiking Through the Woods
The girls love going for hikes in the woods!
Recently the girls and spent a couple hours outside having a picnic, hiking through the woods, climbing on trees, raking our campsite, playing with the animals, and more fun. Thankful for some quiet and relaxing time with them out in nature. They love spending time outside. Hiking through the woods is always an adventure with them!
Skipper is always willing to join us!
Karlie hanging out by the big tree!
Waiting patiently for us as the girls play around and climb a couple trees.
Enjoying our time outside!
Hiking deeper into the woods!
Raking and trimming the thorny bushes at our old campsite. The girls are ready to go camping again!
Brina having a blast!
Intentional Living: Weekly Goals
Hello March!!! Last week the girls only had one full day of school. We had a great time playing in the snow and spending time together, however, our schedule was off with all the changes. There is so much going on in March I just know it is going to zoom by quickly. Our family has some exciting events planned in March and I look forward to sharing them with you soon! Spring is in the air and I think we will start seeing a little warmer weather soon. I have a lot to get accomplished this week, but hope to make great strides in a positive direction! Here are my goals for this week:
Last week’s goals
Family Goals
Finish reading Wonder’s Yearling (Thoroughbred Series #6) by Joanna Campbell to the kids– the girls LOVE this series, if you have a kid who enjoys horses this has been probably their favorite horse series that we have read so far. We finished this up with the extra snow days this week! 🙂Plan one special activity with the family– it was a spontaneous SNOW day playing outside for hours – building a snowman, scouting out animals tracks in the snow, sledding, eating snow cream, going for hikes in the woods, and more fun!Play a Game with the Kids– we got to play several games with them home more this week!- Prepare for Upcoming Winter Events – working on it
Spend time Monday – Friday helping the kids with Homework– we did homework even on snow days, but we had plenty of fun too- Attend After School Activities – a couple of these were cancelled this week due to the snow
Lunch Boxes & Book Bags packed the night before- Prep for upcoming Family Adventure – getting ready!!!
Pull out our Spring / Summer Clothes– Spring is around the corner!
Personal Goals
- Drink 8 glasses of water each day – I was so busy having fun with the kids I didn’t do great drinking all my water! Opps!
Continue my YouVersion plan(s)Go to my Doctor Appointments Scheduled this week
Home (Yard & Pets) Management Goals
All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one dayWeekly Dinner Menu planned out for the week- Use up food items in our pantry and freezer – still going through items in the deep freezer!
- Clean House (Focus – Laundry Room) – playing in the snow with the kids took priority over laundry room organization
- Organize Chaos (Focus – Linens Cabinet) – didn’t happen….
- Yard Cleanup (Focus – Pick Up Down Sticks) – let’s just say there are more sticks now than at the beginning of the week due to the snow / ice storm
Pet Care (Focus – Pick Up Sweet Hay)
Business Goals
Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts- Respond to Inquiry – Business Relation Emails – have some items that need my attention
Keep up with the day to day items that need my attentionWork completed for clients
Ministry Goals
Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
Financial Goals
- Payoff the Car – working on it
- Payoff Medical Bills- working on it and made the final payment on a couple this week
- Payoff Other Outstanding Debt – (replacement microwave, refrigerator, hot water heater, bed, and other debt)- working on it
Pay Bills & File Paperwork- Attend “Financial Peace University” Class & Become More Accountable with our Finances – this got postponed due to the weather
Go grocery shopping one time to one store this week and stay within budget– I did it, so excited to finally hit my target budget this weekSale Items no longer using or do not need on Facebook / Craigslist / Ebay
My goals for the upcoming week
Family Goals
- Finish reading the new chapter book that gets picked out to the kids….still haven’t decided on the new one yet!
- Plan one special activity with the family
- Play a Game with the Kids
- Prepare for Upcoming Winter Events
- Spend time Monday – Friday helping the kids with Homework
- Attend After School Activities
- Lunch Boxes & Book Bags packed the night before
- Prep for upcoming Family Adventure
- Go on a Date Night with one of the kids
- Send out Thank You Notes
Personal Goals
- Drink 8 glasses of water each day
- Continue my YouVersion plan(s)
- Go to my Doctor Appointments Scheduled this week
Home (Yard & Pets) Management Goals
- All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
- Weekly Dinner Menu planned out for the week
- Use up food items in our pantry and freezer
- Clean House (Focus – Laundry Room)
- Organize Chaos (Focus – Spring / Summer Clothes Organized)
- Yard Cleanup (Focus – Check the Boundary Fences)
- Pet Care (Focus – Pick Up Turtle Food)
Business Goals
- Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
- Respond to Inquiry – Business Relation Emails
- Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention
- Work completed for clients
Ministry Goals
- Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
Financial Goals
- Payoff the Car
- Payoff Medical Bills
- Payoff Other Outstanding Debt – (replacement microwave, refrigerator, hot water heater, bed, and other debt)
- Pay Bills & File Paperwork
- Go grocery shopping one time to one store this week and stay within budget
- Sale Items no longer using or do not need on Facebook / Craigslist / Ebay
I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true. When I focus on small steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals. Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick). Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.
Why Share My Goals?
- To keep me accountable
- To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
- To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
- Create healthy habits in my life
- To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn
How did you do this week on your goals? Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.
The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results.
Flashback Friday: Happy 4th Birthday
Happy 4th Birthday!
Today’s Flashback Friday brings us back to the girls 4th Birthday Party Celebration! The theme was “Under the Sea”! We had a great group of family and friends join us for the celebration. The kids had fun playing games, eating delicious cake, and snacks!
We had two main games for the party – pin the tail on Willy the Whale and the favorite game for the event, for both the kids and adults, the Goldfish Races!!! We picked up the goldfish at the pet store the day before the party. We used a long and flat storage container to put the water in and divided it down the middle with a board. Two people were given straws to blow on the water to get their fish to swim faster. The person whose fish to got to the other side first wins! All the kids got to take a fish home with them at the end of the event (not sure this was the highlight for the parents, but the kids liked taking a fish home with them).
Grandma Kay made Karlie a shark cake!
Grandma Kay made Brina a turtle cake!
Fascinated by the cool cake! Thanks Grandma!
Grandma Kay and Brina racing their fish! Super fun!
Jack showing off the fish he is taking home with him. Karlie enjoying a treat!
Hung streamers on the wall and put a variety of fish on them!
Karlie blowing on the water with her straw to get her fish to swim faster!
Luke and Kristen racing their fish!
Mandy and Sam racing their fish!
The fish races were so much fun the kids did them several times!
Josh and Rachel racing their fish! Even the adults had fun doing this activity!
Fish snacks anyone?!
The kids enjoying some snacks!
Pin the tail on Wally the Great White Whale! The kids did pretty good with this game!
Love It – Butterflies and Flowers Connectagons by HearthSong
Butterfly and Flower Connectagon Fun!
One of our kids got a Butterflies and Flowers Connectagons by HearthSong toy as a gift. It has been neat seeing the various configurations she has created with this fun toy. The butterflies are beautiful bright colors and the flowers are all snowy white. The pieces are wooden and they can be interlinked in several spots on each piece. There are many combinations that can captivate their attention for quite some time.
The HearthSong Connectagons is a building set that stimulates creativity. Our set includes 50 butterflies and 12 white flowers. The slotted sides allow the kids to connect the butterflies and flowers together. It helps with hand-eye coordination and teaches kids how to experiment building many different sculptures with these beautiful pieces. Some of the configurations make it look like the butterflies are flying to or from the flowers.
Showing off another butterfly configuration she made!
To learn more about Connectagons or to read reviews you can go to HearthSong’s website or Amazon. If you are not interested in the butterfly and flower Connectagons you may enjoy one of the other sets they carry:
HearthSong Connectagons® Glow-in-the-Dark Celestial
- 157 glow-in-the-dark pieces with slotted sides
- Full moon, moon phases, constellations, and galaxies
Hearth Song Connectgons Original Building Set
- Connectagons Creative Building Set
- Set includes 240 Wooden circles
- Build freeform sculptures in any direction using wooden pieces with slotted sides that connect
- Encourages open-ended play
- For Ages 4 and Up.
“Love It” is a series of posts on items that I use regularly in my household that I love! There are some items in our daily lives that make life more enjoyable, efficient, or just plain fun. I will be sharing with you some of the products that have been given to us (or to me) that have made it to the top of my list. It’s my way of giving a huge thumbs up!
Birthday Celebration
Happy Birthday breakfast
The girls got two of their birthday wishes on their birthday – one was that they would have snow on their birthday and the second was that they would not have to go to school because of a snow day. They got both wishes and were very excited. It’s not every day you get out of school on a Wednesday for snow in South Carolina. Thankful for these two girls and look forward to many more amazing memories this year with them. They each got to pick out what they wanted to eat for their birthday breakfast. For their special birthday dinner they wanted a Seafood Meal at home.
Karlie had eggs with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese in them.
Brina had a slice of cinnamon swirl breakfast cake.
My sister-in-law Becky shared a chocolate cake recipe with me that was both egg and dairy free so I decided to try it for their birthday. It turned out really well. They loved it. You couldn’t even tell that it was egg and dairy free. The flavor reminded me of my Grandma Doris Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake she used to make from scratch.
The girls wrote out a list of inside and outside activities they wanted to do on their birthday since they were home from school due to the snow. Even though they didn’t get to do all the items on the list I would say they did the majority of them. We packed a lot of fun activities into the day.
For their family birthday dinner they requested a seafood meal and specifically asked for King Crab. They love seafood and the King Crab was a hit and they are getting better at digging out the meat without assistance.
Jake and I picked up Mai-Mahi steak burgers to try as well for their seafood birthday meal. The Mai-Mahi steak with the fresh bakery bun, lettuce, and tomatoes were a tasty hit too! Thankful for our girls and that we can celebrate another birthday with them!
Flashback Friday: Happy 3rd Birthday!
Happy 3rd Birthday Girls!
Today’s Flashback Friday goes back to 2008 for the girls 3rd birthday! We did a Garden & Bug theme for this birthday party. It was neat seeing them getting excited as we decorated for the birthday party. They had a blast! It is amazing how quickly they are growing up.
The family is ready to celebrate at their 3rd birthday party! WooHoo!
Grandma Kay made the delicious birthday cakes for the girls. Brina had a bumble bee, Karlie had a ladybug, and the big cake was a flower garden. They looked adorable! Jake’s Mom makes some amazing cakes!
Brina and Karlie with Grandma Kay right before the birthday party!
Watching the candles as the guests sing Happy Birthday! So excited!
Checking out the candles and their cakes!
Karlie eating little bits while Brina digs right now!
Brina’s ready for clean up…I think it’s Jake turn to hose her down, ha!
Karlie eating her cake and enjoying the fun!
Snacking on their yummy party food!
When they were little we pulled the cooler up the counter so they could stand on it and “help” us cook. Food is ready now the party can begin!
Opening their birthday gifts!
Happy 10th Birthday Brina & Karlie! We Love You!
Happy Birthday Brina & Karlie!
Wishing our two beautiful daughters a very special 10th birthday! Today is a bitter sweet day. They now in the double digits which feels like such a big step in them growing up. We are so excited to be celebrating our twin daughters 10th birthday, but at the same time we are in shock that they could be turning 10 already. The time has gone by way too fast and our babies are growing up!
Thankful for these two amazing blessings in our life. There is not a day that goes by that we do not thank God for giving us these two precious gifts. God has richly blessed our lives with these sweethearts.
Brina and Karlie both fill our home with excitement, laughter, and a lot of fun activity. While they were born on the same day they could not be more different. Thankful for the gifts and talents God has given each one. Brina has a big heart for animals and Karlie has dreams of one day blasting off into space! We are proud of them and look forward to watching them grow up into beautiful young ladies.
Praying that God will continue to work in their hearts and lives this year as well as give us wisdom as parents in raising them. Wishing them a year packed for awesome memories, growth, good health, and so much more! Happy 1oth Birthday Brina and Karlie! We LOVE you more than you can imagine!!! Hope your birthday is truly OUT OF THIS WORLD!
We LOVE you!!!
Package Full of Goodies
My cousin knows us well….the perfect tasty, practical, and fun gifts!
We recently received an AMAZING package from my sweet cousin Renelle! It was packed full awesome items for all of us! The girls were super excited to open it. They were very impressed with how much she was able to fit into the box. Lots of “Ohhs…Ahhhs…” throughout the unpacking process, followed by “Wow, Aunt Renelle is so creative!”
Renelle was the closet “sister” I had growing up in a family with 3 brothers. We had a lot of fun hanging out over the summers and various Holidays during our childhood years. Unfortunately, now that we are older and many more miles apart we don’t get to see each other as often as we like. We try to get together as often as possible and thankfully we are able to stay in touch regularly throughout the year.
The package arrived packed full! So exciting!
Going through Aunt Ren’s goody package and reading all the instructions!
Jellyfish air plant! So cool!
Putting the dirt in the pots for their plants!
Enjoying all the fun goodies from the box!
Awesome name tags for the furry critters – Snowball, Skipper, and Oreo!
Beautiful key chain rings for the girls! They were super excited to put these on their book bags for school!
Always love a delicious chocolate bar!
Super fun Face Paint craft for the girls! Love it – even if that means I have to be the canvas at times!
Bread N’ Boards – the person who made this cutting board, Sears Trostel (a locally owned custom wood shop) donates their proceeds from the sale of this item to a local Food Bank in Larimer County, Colorado! Such a cool way to help those in need in the local community. I love the cutting board!
Amazing White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Coffee – freshly roasted in Fort Collins, Colorado by Jackie’s Java! Delicious!
Ren’s famous homemade Peach Raspberry Jam (it’s AWESOME) and a new flavor of hers I haven’t tried before, but is yummy too – Grape Apple Jam!
Gorgeous plant clippings from Ren’s plants! So far I have been able to keep them alive! So cool!
Some of the amazing items in our package! Thanks Ren! Including a cutting board, cutting more oil, body scrub, local coffee, homemade jam, and more!
Now we are ready for our next pedicure with scented polish and pebble picture crafts for girls night!
Hanging jellyfish air plant! The girls call it the “Wild Hair Day” plant!
Love It – Elenco Snap Circuit Set
Building with the Snap Circuit set
The girls have enjoyed their Elenco Snap Circuit set. They can build a variety of projects with it. The set they have allows them to do over 300 different variations. They received the Elenco Snap Circuits SC-300 Physics Kit and it has been a huge hit with them!
Karlie has spent a lot of time working through the various projects. One of her favorite tasks that she did at the beginning was building a working radio. She was very excited to be able to tune into a real local radio station and hear it over her newly built radio. Love seeing them building items and learning how to put together various projects on their own!
Working on a different project!
Close up of one of the Snap Circuit items she put together! If you have a child who loves to build, create, and/or a budding engineer who loves to explore a variety of technology items this is a wonderful educational toy they will love! Also, you can by additional kits to add onto the sets to expand the number of projects you can do.
You can learn more about Elenco’s Snap Circuit Toys or read reviews by going to the Elenco Snap Circuit website or on Amazon. There are several different Snap Circuits you may enjoy trying, here are just a couple that they carry:
“Love It” is a series of posts on items that I use regularly in my household that I love! There are some items in our daily lives that make life more enjoyable, efficient, or just plain fun. I will be sharing with you some of the products that have been given to us (or to me) that have made it to the top of my list. It’s my way of giving a huge thumbs up!
