Joy. Love. Peace …
The Best Gifts in Life …
Relationships: Lifelong Friends
A special friend is a rare find….
- Someone who shares your joy and happiness,
- Someone who cares enough to show love and kindness,
- Someone who is a comfort is a comfort to spend time with,
- Someone who is honest and thoughtful.
A special friend is a wonderful gift….
- Someone who offers understanding when life is difficult,
- Someone whose smile is enough to brighten any day,
- Someone who accepts you and is glad that you are you,
- Someone who forgets mistakes and is gentle and trusting.
You are this special friend to me.
- Our times together are treasured in my heart.
- I wish you love, laughter, and all of life’s most beautiful things.
- I wish you health and cheer, and more of everything that makes you happy.
- I wish that we will always be friends!
– Donna Levine
Thankful for Donna Levine’s words and great reminder of the importance of friendship. It is nice to find a rare friend that sticks with you in the thick and thin. Sharing your joy and sorrows. One of the biggest gifts we can find is that of a friendship.
Flashback Friday: First Father’s Day Celebration
Brina and Karlie laying in their on a sheet in the shape of a heart. Happy Father’s Day Dad!
Today we are flashing back to about 10 years ago for Jake’s first Father’s Day with the girls. It was wonderful to celebrate this special day with Jake and the girls. He is an awesome Dad to the girls. They love their Daddy very much. He took great care of me throughout the rough pregnancy,12 weeks of bedrest, followed by NICU, and sleepless nights helping with the kids.
Thankful for this amazing man to live life and raise our kids with. He is loving, kind, patient, generous, and so much more. Jake has always taken good care of us. He knows how to keep life exciting. Jake is always ready to give a hug, encouragement, or smile.
Brina gift. She wasn’t sure about the blue tissue paper stuffed into her pjs.
Brina in a gift bag with tissue paper. One of Daddy’s greatest gifts!
Karlie is a little concerned about being in a bag with tissue paper. Another one of Daddy’s sweet gifts!
Jake playing and talking with Brina.
Happy Father’s Day Daddy! We LOVE YOU!!!
Such a fun day everyone needed a little nap! Jake and his sweet little girls!
Insta-Snow Powder for Fun Indoor Snow Activities!
Super cool fake snow!
Our friends Mike, Ashley, and Bradley gave the girls Insta-Snow Powder for their birthdays! It is AMAZING! The girls have spent hours playing with it. Ok, I will admit it I have been playing with it too. It’s just so cool to play with inside!
It is super simple to make (just add water to a measured amount of powder). The canister we have makes 2 gallons of snow. We have only made a few batches and still have the snow we made from the last several weeks. It lasts a really long time if you put it in a ziplock bag. It is fascinating, not cold, and funky to play with.
The girls were wanting to go somewhere with snow for their birthday so our friend sent “snow” to them. They had the snow out almost immediately and within a couple of days of playing with the Insta-Snow we got real snow outside in SC. The kids are convinced our friends are good luck because every time they played with the Insta-Snow they sent them it would snow again in SC (which means no school too).
It is a fun activity for the kids. If any of the snow particles do get on the counter or floors they are easy to wipe up or if you miss them they will dry back up into the powder which is easy to sweep or vacuum up off the floor. We are gearing up to do a science project and the girls are convinced that whatever they decide to do they will need to add some of the Insta-Snow powder to give their science projects an extra WOW factor, ha!
I think the next thing we are going to try is to dye the snow different colors to see how it handles that and what it looks like when you mix various ones together. Thankful for thoughtful friends who know how to brighten the lives of the little ones (and big ones) in our home! THANK YOU Ashley from Reflecting on the Simple Things in Life for providing hours of entertainment at our house!!!
They thought it was neat being able to write messages in the snow!
The Insta-Snow Powder came in this canister and it makes 2 gallons. The snow expands rapidly to 100 times its original size. It goes from being a dry granule to fluffy white snow-like substance in a matter of seconds.
Inside the canister there is a scoop for easy measuring!
First we measured the insta-snow powder into a red cup than poured the water into it.
Mixing up the snow and water. It literally grew in her hands. Super cool!
Playing with it!
So fascinating they wouldn’t even look up for the camera
Pile of fake snow to play with inside.
Felt really neat!
Loved looking at all the little pieces and playing with it.
Building a volcano!
Look it’s snowing inside!
You could play with it for hours with your bare hands because it is not cold like actually snow plus it doesn’t melt and it’s easy to clean up!
Brina playing with the snow!
Creating a replica of the Great Wall of China which we were just talking about the other day!
If you are looking for a fun and indoor activity you can find Insta-Snow Powder and other Snow like items on Amazon.
Beautiful Plants & Basket from My Thoughtful Husband
Love it when he surprises me with something special!
My husband brought home these plants as a surprise for me a couple weeks ago. He is sweet and I love it when he does the random thoughtful gifts. My only regret is that it was such a busy weekend I did not take a picture of the beautiful basket with both plants green and blooming.
At this time only one plant is still alive. Yes, I have already killed the miniature rose bush. I love the mini roses, but have a horrible time keeping them alive for very long. You can see pieces of my sorry looking rose plant beside the one that is pretty and still green.
I love plants and flowers, however, I am not the best person to grow them. Usually I either over or under water them. I like the ones that are easy to maintain and can handle wet or dry soil and withstand lots of sun or no sun. In other words a very strong and durable plant that handles extremes well. Grateful for a thoughtful and caring husband. Love my plants and basket!!!
I love the basket the flowers came in and have already used it a couple of times since he gave it to me!
It has been fun using this basket for surprises and goodies! Thankful for my husband and everything he does for me.
Love It – Magformers Set
Brina loves creating things with the Magformers!
The girls got a Magformers Set for their birthday. Since then they have played with the set for hours. A bunch of time was spent playing with them during their recent snow days when they did not have school. I love it when they get a toy that promotes creativity.
Magformers are bright colorful magnetic toys that you can use to build all kinds of items with. The set we got contained squares, triangles, and pentagons. They are easy to use and the magnets are enclosed so they cannot be swallowed by younger kids. The pieces always attract, never repel, making it easy for anyone to stick two pieces together to build. The magformers stimulate creativity, engineering, spatial awareness, coordination, and mathematics. You can build pretty much anything you can image from balls, houses, pyramids, turtles, towers, and so much more. This toy has sparked our kids imaginations over the past month and they are still pulling it out to play with it regularly.
Big ball out of Magformers
Of course knocking it down is always a fun task to do too
Brina built all the items in the book first than started creating her own inventions. Love watching her read the directions and put things together. She was pretty quick at it!
Magformers creation
She has spent hours putting together different combinations and items with this set.
Proud of her creation
Making some little items
So much fun
House
Karlie loves playing with them too. She split her time between the magformers and reading some chapter books.
Myrtle the Turtle
Time to take this one apart and start on a new project
Having a blast
Neat creation
Fun toy
There are many different Magformers Sets that you can get. Amazon is a great place to look for them and you can read all the great reviews as well.
“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!
Love It – Splade
Jake surprised me a couple months ago with a cool and practical gift! Love those types of gifts! A splayd!!! Before getting my gift I didn’t know what a splayd was and my first thought was that it was a spork (which is similar, but not the same).
My husband had been noticing how our silverware drawers would be empty before the dishwasher needed to be run so he came up with this great utensil that would cut back on the silverware we would need to use for each meal. Since is a combination utensil we shouldn’t need to get out both a fork and spoon for each meal.
“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!
Christmas Tree Ornaments
Thanks to my sweet cousin Renelle the girls got a cool Christmas Ornament craft this year. Renelle sent glass ornaments and some paint so the girls could make their own Christmas tree ornaments. They had a blast making these ornaments! The ornaments turned out beautifully too!
The ornaments have a tie die and swirl mix of several colors. Brina and Karlie were so excited to have these hanging on the tree. Both girls agree that they want to do more of these or another Christmas tree ornament next year!
Karlie squeezing paint into her ornamentTake the glass ornaments and slowly squeeze paint into them. Add at least 2 or more colors and swirl around until the glass ornament is coated on the inside.
Brina making sure the paint is covering the entire glassAfter adding paint rotate the ornament around until the paint has coated the entire inside of the ornament. The colors will start to blend as you do this which is very fascinating for the kids to watch.
Karlie swirling and coating the inside of her glass ornament with paintThe colors blend together and look pretty neat together.
Turn the ornament upside down in a styrofoam cup or muffin pan so the extra paint can drain.
Every few hours flip the glass ornament the opposite direction so the paint will dry evenly inside the bulb
One of the glass bulbs hanging on the trees
Beautiful ornament made by the girls hanging on the tree
The girls did a fabulous job making these ornaments.
Colorful and looking great on the Christmas tree
The colors merged beautifully on their glass ornaments
Thanks Renelle for an amazing craft! The girls had a craft and they turned out beautifully!
Gift Giving: “The Graduates Survival Guide” by Rachel Cruze (Dave Ramsey)
Do you have a family member or friend who is graduating from High School this year? Are you looking for a unique gift for a reasonable price to give them that can help for many years? You can order “The Graduates Survival Guide” for $19.95 on Dave Ramsey’s website.
“The Graduates Survival Guide” includes:
- Quick Reference Book (132 pages) – Question & Answer Format that includes information and resources about:
- Balancing a Checkbook
- Credit Cards
- Debt
- Part-Time Jobs
- Collision and Liability Insurance
- Student Loans
- Giving
- Compound Interest
- Saving
- And Many More Valuable Resources
- 4 Track DVD – information and discussion on college topics:
- College Life
- Marketing & Debt
- Practical Saving
- Navigating Academic – schedules, classes, internships, and goals.
- And More!
- Commemorative Gift Case – that holds all the goodies for your graduate
Description:
“The Graduates Survival Guide” is designed to prepare graduating seniors for college. Rachel Cruze’s “The Graduates Survival Guide” is for graduating High School Students as they step into the next phase of their life as a freshman in college. The guide is humorous and informative. The DVD about college life has helpful tips and stories (regarding schedules, finances, eating out, college life, roommates, and more) from Rachel Cruze, Christy Brown and Jon Acuff.
More about Rachel Cruze:
Rachel Cruze was taught the basic principles of money at an early age. She is part of Dave Ramsey’s team and has traveled across the country to speak to young adults at high schools, colleges and youth conferences about finances. Some of the topics she discusses with teenagers is how to budget, save for cars & college, and giving.
