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.

Here I am with my friend who ran the 10K, before the race.  I think I will start a couch to 5k training.

Night Run 10K

No, no, no.  I didn't run.  My friend did.  Since it was a 9pm run, her husband needed to stay home with their kids in bed, so I went with her for support.  There were over 2,000 runners in this race.  I found a nice spot to see the start of the race.  They were all so very excited.  And I was surprised, there were people running from all over the world, holding up flags as well.  

The race started and ended in this are of a closeby city, where they have converted an old train stop into a fun area where they have some shops, organic groceries and fun activities. So while my friend ran, I checked out the food.  I didn't buy any of these, but it all looked so very yummy.  And I was happy for my friend, her goal was to run the race in an hour, and she did!

Potty Training Time!

This is my little potty training mess. She's doing ok, but hasn't quite started telling us when she needs to go.  Hopefully she will catch on soon.  But she does fairly well in daycare.