Proverbs 3:5

Caleb's memory verse for March...

Proverbs 3:5

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding."

Dupage Children's Museum

Since Nana is in town from Florida, we planned a special outing. The original plan was the zoo, but due to some frigid temps (boo!), we went with Plan B: The Dupage Children's Museum.

The kids had a great time....and we did as well, although I must admit that I am exhausted. I think I have the stomach flu (another boo!), and spending the greater part of the day battling Spring Break crowds tired me out big time. Thankfully it wasn't just me and the kids. I love when Kris is able to go on these types of outings with us, and it's a great bonus when a grandparent can come as well!

Captain Caleb...
(On our way home, he said that this boat was his favorite part.)


Meredith liked the boat as well...


Fun with lights...


Fun with wind...



Fun with pipes...




Fun with water...



Fun with bubbles...



Serious business...


Shane had some fun, too...


But, mostly he slept...

A-Z by Meredith

M

Wordless Wednesday: Block Tower

Coffee Filter Butterflies

Even though it doesn't quite feel like it, Spring is officially here (as of yesterday)!

In honor of this, we made some coffee filter butterflies this morning...

4th Trimester

I have heard it said that the first 3 months of a baby's life are likened to another trimester of pregnancy. Meaning, they have similar needs as to when they were in the womb. Not exactly sure what that entails, but it does make me a bit teary-eyed to think of my baby's "4th trimester" as being over.

It's true. Sweet little Shane is 3 months old today! He is seriously such a sweet bundle of goodness to us. He is content and sweet and cute and even his drool bubbles are precious. A true joy, this little one is.

He sleeps great...11.5-12 hours straight at night. He naps pretty well during the day, and since we've configured it so that his afternoon nap and the big kids' afternoon naps coincide, Mommy gets time to paint her toenails and eat chocolate and watch soap operas time to read her Bible, get dinner ready, do laundry, pick up toys, clean the house, etc. each afternoon. =)

He doesn't seem to like the pacifier very much, and is constantly trying to suck his fist/fingers/thumb.

We swaddle him at night, but usually by the morning he's wiggled his arms (or at least one of the them) out.

He hates tummy time, as most babies do, and we probably need to work on that more...no mobility on the near horizon, but that is very much okay with me!

His coos are about the cutest things I have ever heard.

He enjoys bath time, although he doesn't get nearly as many full baths as Meredith did when she was a baby, and not even close to as many as Caleb had when he was a baby. Poor 3rd child. Don't worry though, we make sure he's clean. =)

He still likes "playing" on his play mat, although I have to be cautious when giving him floor time...the other day, Meredith tried to put a goldfish cracker in his mouth. Thankfully I caught that one in time!

He has the sweetest little grin, and occasionally lets out some little giggles. We've found a few ticklish spots that make him laugh, and sometimes just talking to him the right way provokes some giggles.



We love our little Shaner. Happy 3 months, baby!

St. Patrick's Day

They are Irish, after all!


Caleb and I looked at a world map today so I could show him where Ireland is. We talked about how in order to get there, we would have to take an airplane all the way across the ocean! I also told him that his Nana was born there.

We talked about St. Patrick, that he was a man that went to Ireland to tell the people there about Jesus. We also touched very briefly on how St. Patrick used the 3 leaves of the shamrock to explain the Trinity to those people. Tough concept for a 3-year old to grasp. Wait, who am I kidding, it's a tough concept for me to truly grasp!

The kids (especially Meredith) love stickers...


Caleb made this at school...


They each colored a map of Ireland and glued the cross on as a symbol of St. Patrick's efforts in telling the Irish people about Jesus. And of course, more stickers for Meredith.


With Caleb, I also pointed out that Ireland is an island, so we cut his map out and glued it on some "water."


For dinner, we had Irish Beef & Potato Stew and Irish Soda Bread (thanks to my mother-in-law for the bread recipe!)...for dessert, we had a minty-chocolatey-whipped creamy-concoction that I didn't have all the ingredients for, so I improvised. Oh, and the kids had vanilla pudding (tinted green, of course)! Caleb wouldn't try either of the desserts, and Meredith tried the pudding...but didn't like it. Typical.



My lucky charms...




I was reading a little bit about the history of St. Patrick's Day and learned that many Christians use this day to spend extra time in prayer for missionaries around the world. What a great reminder.

Rainbow Tye-Dyed Cupcakes

So, this was what our cupcakes were supposed to look like.


(photo found online, when I googled photo of rainbow cupcake)

Aren't they pretty?
And perfect?
And don't they look just like the rainbows they are supposed to be?

Ahhh, I like things that are pretty.
And perfect.
And look like what they are supposed to be.

But, I suppose that cupcakes (and life) don't always turn out so perfect.

Alas, this is what our rainbow tye-dyed cupcakes turned out like!
(This is a photo of the inside of the cupcake...the outside had no color definition at all!)


Not sure what "went wrong". Poor Blue and Purple...they are virtually nowhere to be found.

Although, the most interesting thing to me is that we started with the purple batter on the bottom and red was on the top...for some reason, the colors flipped themselves around during the baking process.

My oven is magic.

Oh well, the kiddos had fun mixing the colors and watching them turn into cupcakes.

They are always entranced with the mixer. It's apparently better entertainment than TV.


Working on those fine motor skills by squeezing out the color drops.


Little Miss did a great job of putting the cupcake wrappers in the pan.

And taking them out.

And putting them back in again.


The best part was for sure mixing the colors. Caleb loved to see the batter transform as he stirred. We also got to witness how certain colors blend to create other colors (red+blue=purple; red+yellow=orange).


Look at how pretty the colors are!


Voila.

Rainbow tie-dyed cupcakes.

Noah's Ark

More rainbow fun...
(for Friday's rainbow project, see previous post)...

Noah's Ark
by: Caleb


Noah's Ark
by: Meredith
(Her rainbow is of the abstract variety!)


I got this idea from here and modified it a bit!

Rainbow

In the hopes that we'll be getting more Spring-y weather soon, and because Caleb's preschool class will be learning about rainbows next week, we decided to go ahead and make our own rainbow!


Both kids loved gluing the squares on the rainbow, and making clouds with cotton balls.




It was a fun way to help Meredith practice identifying colors, and to teach Caleb the color words.

(I know that, technically, there is no purple in the rainbow...after blue comes indigo and then violet. But for the sake of simplicity today, we just went with purple. )

And, we talked about how God created rainbows to forever remind us that He always keeps His promises!


I love rainbows. The bright and beautiful colors, the fact that if there is a rainbow there must be sun, and of course...the reminder of God's faithfulness. I think that we'll try to do some other rainbow-y things next week. We'll see!