Merry Christmas!

We have had a good Christmas Day. We started the day by reading the Christmas story from the Bible. The girls already saw their gift of the baby doll carseats, so those came along with them as we read the story. And then after that we opened gifts.

It was really fun to see Karis opening gifts this year. It's the first time she's really ripped into the paper and opened everything up on her own. She's so expressive and it's just so much fun to watch her open gifts.

The first gift was a pile of books from Nana. The girls enjoyed them so much and took a few minutes with each book before moving on to the other gifts.

Then it was stocking gifts.

The girls got pretty much the same presents this year since Karis just likes to do everything Eliana does, and plays with all the same toys. 

We kept it simple this year and the girls seemed to enjoy all their new stuff. And of course we had the traditional wrapping paper mess all over the floor!

We had a relaxing morning together and then in the afternoon went to a friends' house, where the girls got to play with their friends. One couple took our kids a couple of times before today and taught them to do a Christmas play. Eliana was Mary and Karis was a shepherd. 

They enjoyed performing the Christmas story for us, and also sang a song, along with costumes and movements.  

We had a really nice day and got one final picture with the snow in the background. We hope you had a lovely Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus, who came to save us from our sins. Merry Christmas!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

We were feeling left out of all the snowing weather our friends in Missouri and Texas are having. So now the ME is getting some too! The girl's schools were canceled today, and so was our language class. So we're taking the day to relax and enjoy some time together. Thankfully the electricity stayed on last night. But we're prepared to snuggle together in the same bed if we need too!

The girls were very excited to see the snow coming down this morning. Too bad it's too wet to go outside tough. It's more slushy than anything and it melts pretty quick. But it's pretty in the meantime. This is the second snow for the calendar year (the first was back in January), which is really odd for the ME. And since they aren't used to all the snow, pretty much everything is at a standstill and closed. Now is the time when it's very smart to live where your work is (some store owners live in the same building as their store to keep a close eye on it), that way you can just walk downstairs and open up for those who really need to come. 

It just opened up our kitchen door and snapped a few pictures of the snow coming down. The picture just below is our car. It's so pretty and I'm glad we get to see it. But I'm ready for it to be warm again!

Mom, I'm Bored!

As I continue to teach Eliana the alphabet, I'm finding more and more ways to help her learn that is fun and crafty. I am not able to do learning activities with her every day as of yet. So there are still days she comes to me asking, "What can I do?" We started this lesson learning the letter L. L is for leaf. L is for Ladybug. L is for laughing. Thankfully I found this fun craft we were able to make last two days.

I took an egg carton and cut out the holders and trimmed them down. I also located the washable craft paint that a volunteer group brought with them and it was leftover. Not all the bottles are full, but I'm just thankful to have it and that it's washable, although Eliana didn't get any paint on her clothes this time. (Nope, she came home from school with red paint all over her shirt, pants and shoes!)

The egg cartons here only have 10 spots (so we don't buy a dozen eggs at a time.) And there were 10 colors of craft paint, so she decided to paint each ladybug a different color. So yes, I had to run and wash each paint brush between ladybugs (thankfully we had two bruches!) But she had fun and she is learning at the same time. 

Here are the paints we used from Crayola.

And we just happened to have Crayola brand paint brushes as well. (Should I get some advertising credit here or something?) 

The first day we had to stop the craft to allow the bug to dry. Since it's getting a little colder inside our house, the paint takes a little longer to dry. And Karis woke up from her nap and I didn't feel like cleaning up 2-year-old hands from all the paint. So we set them out to dry and I told Eliana we would finish them tomorrow.

The next day after we got home from school and Karis was sound asleep, Eliana asked if she could finish her ladybug craft. So I got out the glue, a black fine point sharpie, some colored craft pipe cleaners and the all-too-famous googly eyes, and we went to work. 

I first had to punch holes in the top and Eliana put the pipe cleaner through to make antennae. Then we glued on the eyes, which some she used a little too much glue and they started drooping. But we fixed them. And then she drew on the mouth. I love how each ladybug seems to have his own personality with the way she drew the mouth. 

Aren't they so cute?! 

So our two-day ladybug craft went from this...

...to this!

Hmmm...  Now what can we do?

She's So Crafty

Recently I have been making some crafts. Well, not just me alone, I've had some friends to make them with. One friend was able to ask her neighbor to make some wreath forms out of metal so we could make burlap wreaths. She took a picture to him and he was able to make them really cheap. She also found burlap, the heavy duty kind, and voila! Three of us made a wreath and each came out a little different. I haven't added any flowers or ribbon on mine yet, but this is the finished product. Pretty good, I think!

This one is a painting I made using canvas, painter's tape and paint. I saw it on Pinterest one day a long time ago and kept going back to it recently. So I found the paint I wanted to use and took the girls to visit some friends and me and their mom worked on crafts together. I'm very happy with this piece as well, especially since it matches my new pillows.

My friend and I found a fabric district in a large city about an hour from where we live. There are all kinds of items that have been imported from all over. And each store is on one long strip of road. We went on a Friday morning and they were having a craft fair as well. Sadly I didn't take my camera. But I was able to find some fabric I liked pretty well and made these pillows. I used pillow forms from IKEA and my friend helped me to sew the fabric together. I made two pillows of each pattern. They turned out great and made a good addition to my couch. 

Who Needs Christmas Presents, Anyway?

Kevin is away this weekend, visiting new friends in another area in our country and the girls and I stayed home by ourselves. While he was packing he left out this large suitcase and the girls found it and entertained themselves for about an hour, while I cooked dinner.

This suitcase is large enough to hold Karis inside, so she climbed in and Eliana would push it around on the floor. 

They would take turns getting inside, but Karis wasn't quite strong enough to push it herself. 

It was fun watching them laughing and playing together, saying, "Your turn!" 

Learnin'

OK, so I'm not going to win "Mother of the Year". No, my almost 5-year-old doesn't yet know her letters. We've been a little busy learning Arabic...all of us! But that is something I'm working on. I think she knows pretty much everything else she needs to know for Kindergarten, just not the letters...and how to tie her shoes. 

I might give daddy that responsibility!

In the meantime, it is my goal as a mother to teach her the letters in fun ways. She already goes to school and hears Arabic for 5 hours, 5 days a week. So I know her little mind is probably full by the time she gets home. But still she is always asking "What can I do?" She isn't like me and needs to veg for a while after Arabic class. So we've started doing some learnin' together. 

Right now since it's Thanksgiving time, I've downloaded some educational packs for the letter T and Thanksgiving activities. She enjoys having the one-on-one time with me and I've seen her improve so much in her hand-eye coordination. The scissors are little hard because she's kinda a lefty and I can't find left-handed kid scissors for her here. 

Her coloring ability is awesome now and she stays in the lines really well. 

I'm really thankful to be able to find simple resources online for free and I'm thankful for the ability to print them out and use. It makes the learning time a lot more fun.

And this idea I stole off Pinterest. She enjoyed all the gluing and worked so hard to make her a beautiful fall tree picture. Looking forward to what we can learn tomorrow. The letter P!

Fun Day at the Park

Fridays are our days off. Usually we hang around at home a relax and maybe do something later in the day. But today we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go to a nice park. We have parks close to where we live, but they cost money and most of the equipment is broken. And they don't have swings. So we had to drive a little ways and found this nicer park. The girls had a lot of fun.

We packed up a lunch and found a green spot to sit and eat. It was a nice day! And we hope to do it again soon.