Please Help Me!!!!

Hi Friends!!! This year for my birthday I wanted to do something EXTRA special for my birthday. My neighbor Clarissa is a mother of four beautiful children, and she is dying of cancer. I want to dedicate my birthday to her, and this is where I need your help. I want to plan a run for her family. It is going to be March 19th @ 8 am. The course is from Redlands Hospital to the LDS Redlands Temple (5 miles) or you can do the loop which is ten miles. We would love runners, walkers, helpers of all kinds (water tables, driving crew to make sure everyone is okay, a nurse or EMT to drive the course for medical purposes. Timers, people helping getting donations (oranges, bananas, water, etc.) Cheering squads, busing people, etc. ) Please help me make this birthday a special one. This women is amazing, and if I can only give her one thing LOVE then I did my purpose. Also I will be collecting donations for her family. 100% of the proceeds are going straight to her family to have one last vacation as a family. If you have any questions please contact me.

Also, please forward this to all your friends, co-workers, and family.Post it on your blog.

Let's make a difference!

Thanks! Katrina Parker

Katrinam21@gmail.com

My girls

This morning Lizzie was up at 4 am. She came and snuggled me, and then quietly disappeared. She woke Krislynn up and then the screams began. David went and shut the girl's door, and Lizzie was sent into the living room to watch her shows. An hour passes and I hear Lizzie playing quietly. I'm thinking "Oh she is playing in the playroom" so I take my time getting out of bed. As I walk into the hallway I see Lizzie standing in front of Krislynn's bed, and then I see this!!!! Krislynn's crib is hallway filled with junk! (toys, books,blocks, you name it and it is in there) Lizzie then tells me," Mommy I was building us a mountain!" It took us 40 minutes to clean up this wonderful mountain. Oh my girls!!!! What am I going to do with you?

stART Project

Today's project comes from another great story by Jan Brett "The Hat". The girls loved this story, and enjoyed the colorful pictures. This story is about a hedgehog, who gets a sock stuck on his head, put tells all the other animals that he is wearing it to stay warm in the snow, at the end of the story all the animals are wearing different pieces of clothing as hats. So today we made Hedgie Hats. Here is the link for the hedgehog hat. Enjoy!!!

Happy Birthday Angie!!!

So today is one of my greatest friend's Birthday. Happy Birthday Angie!!! I'm so glad we are friends, and that our girls are the BESTEST of friends. Thank you for always being my wing man in all of my CRAZY ideas. We really are two peas in a pod. You have taught me so much about myself, and I'm so grateful that we will be friends forever. I'm going to miss you terribly, and I wish there was a way for you to stay, and not leave me. I know I'm being selfish, and you have so many other adventures ahead of you. Remember to always find joy in the journey wherever you go, and I can't wait to come and visit you so we can visit the Amish and ride in your horse and buggy. I love you, and you will always be one of those special people who has changed my life for the better!
Happy Birthday!!

stART Project

Today Project is from one of my FAVORITE books 'The Mitten" by Jan Brett. This is such a cute book, it is definitely a good read. It is about a little boy who wants his Baba (grandma) to knit him some mittens. The Grandma tell him not to lose his mittens in the snow, but he loses one of them. Some animals find his mitten and crawl in, at the end the bear sneezes, and out fly all the animals. The boy finds his mitten, and his Baba wonders why his mitten is all stretched out.

How to make it:

*Cut 2 pieces of felt into a mitten shape
*Hot glue around the mitten except when at the bottom so the Popsicle sticks can fit in
*Click here for the animal printables
*Color and glue the animals on the sticks, and let your child reenact the story using the puppets.
ENJOY!!

Chinese Lunch

So to help finish our celebration of The Chinese New Year we went to Mr. You's Chinese Restaurant, and ate some yummy Chinese food. The girls had a great time enjoying the atmosphere and asking about all the fun decorations. While we were there the delivery truck showed up to drop off their food delivery. This really impressed the girls! They loved watching the men take everything out of the delivery truck, and then wheel it into the store. Lizzie loved showing us all the different items she could pick out (eggs, vegetables, etc.) Thanks Grammie and Papa for the fun afternoon!

Thumbprint Dragons

Today's stART project comes from Ed Emberly's Drawing book. We wanted to continue our fun Chinese New Year with one more craft so we made Fingerprint Dragons.

The girls loved sticking their fingers in the paint

If you look closely you can see what each dragon looked like before we added the details.

The girls were SUPER proud of their fingerprint dragons.

Go make some fingerprint art!

Draw a Dragon for Chinese New Year

So as I was surfing blogland I found this super cool website that teaches kids how to draw. I really love to draw and when I saw this tutorial I had to try it, plus the kids were napping so I could take my time. I love when artists give step by step directions, and then hopefully the picture will turn out like you want it to. I think my dragon looks pretty good. Maybe each day during nap time I will work on my art skills and start drawing again. I really want to go take some classes at the college out here, and spread my wings since my degree is done. You know all those fun classes you can't take since you are trying to fit in 15 units of classes for your major so you can try to graduate on time or a little early. I'm really glad that I took yoga the quarter I decided to take 21 units. Those three months almost killed me, but yoga kept me balanced, and I somehow made it though. Well go check out this website, and maybe we can practice our art skills together during nap time.

Year of the Rabbit

Happy Chinese New Year!!! The girls are so excited to share their Chinese lanterns with you. They learned how to make them at the Library this week. I'm so excited to have the girls do a couple more crafts to celebrate the new year. Hooray for fun cultural events!!!

More Chinese New Year Fun

The girls wanted to make a Chinese Dragon that was similar to the one at our Library. Our printer isn't working still so I had to draw the body pieces free hand. The girls loved the craft, especially since the body is made of their hand prints. Click here for the link.

The girls wanted to pretend they were in a parade so we made a dragon puppet for the girls to march around the house with. Super Cute!!! Click here for the link.

stART Project

Today's stART project was with the book"There Was a Cold Lady who Swallowed Some Snow"by: Lucille Colandro. I love the original book "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly" and it went perfect with our Winter Theme. Lizzie asks me to read her this book a zillion times a day, and she can almost read it to herself since she has memorized the dialog so well. So I decided to make a cold lady with a sandwich bag, and each little thing that she eats. The girls loved this craft!!! When we read this story at bedtime we used our Cold Lady and stuff her with all the things. At the end of the book she hiccups and out pops a snowman. *I included this, but I forgot to take a picture of the snowman. Enjoy!

Once there was a Snowman

Today we practiced cutting, and what better to cut than a snowman to go with our winter theme. Krislynn loved gluing with the glue stick. Lizzie wanted to give her snowman a pink and black outfit. All and all it was a great activity. While we were cutting and gluing the girls wanted to sing the song "Once there was a Snowman" If you don't know the words it goes: "Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman. Once there was a snowman, tall , tall, tall. In the sun he melted, melted, melted. In the Sun he melted, small, small, small."This is one of the girl's most favorite Primary songs. Hooray for fun learning activities.

Happy Groundhog Day!!!

What is Groundhog Day you ask... let me give you a little History Lesson. If the Groundhog sees his shadow that means that there will be six more weeks of winter or bad weather, but if he doesn't see his shadow the groundhog figures Spring is on its way and he stays above ground. It isn't very scientific but a lot of fun!!! Well for Groundhogs Day we made groundhogs. The girls loved learning about groundhogs, and we even did some predicting of what they thought the groundhog would do. Lizzie, Ella, Krislynn, and David didn't think that the groundhog would see his shadow, and that winter would be over and Spring is here to stay. I thought he would see his shadow, and we could have six more weeks of winter. What do you think happened???? He didn't see his shadow and Spring is ready to come and visit!!!

Go make some Groundhogs you kids will love them!!!!

Click here for fun Printable and activities to do with your kids for Groundhog Day

Our ABC's

So back in the day when my best friend Amanda's mom was teaching Kindergarten she used this technique. I thought it was genius! She used all cartoon characters that she knew the kids would be familiar with. I changed that part up a little bit as you can see since Lizzie already knew some letters corresponding to certain people. Lizzie and Krislynn LOVE these cards, especially since it's all people/cartoons they love. Thank you Jean for the FABULOUS idea, and now my girls are hard core alphabet geniuses! ( Lizzie knows all her letters but: U, V, W this one is super hard for her, and Z) Hopefully this month she will know all her letters; then we can move onto the sounds of each letter.

Davey's Countdown to Valentine's Day

So this year I was trying to think of something special to do for Davey. Of course we could go out to eat at our favorite restaurant, or go see a movie... BLAH!!! I wanted to make this year something special he wouldn't forget. So this year he is getting a countdown like the girl's, but his is using "The Great Sex Deck". Each day he will receive an envelope, and we will do what the card says. (Don't forget one of my resolutions was be be a better wife, and after these 14 days I will be the BEST WIFE in his eyes! )

So go do something special for your husband, and make him feel like a King!!!