Balloons and Heaven

I have to tell you a sweet, but sad, story that happened the other day. We went to gymnastics and then ran some errands, I was too lazy to pack the girls a lunch to eat while we were in town (I only packed my own), so I had to splurge and get them lunch out. I decided to really splurge and get them Chic-fil-A. Not that Chic-fil-A costs a lot, but we NEVER eat fast food! I figured they always ask to go play on the playground, and I always say no (mostly because of the germ infestation that I can only imagine is in those places). So off we went to Chic-fil-A, they were SO happy, and SOOOO surprised! They ate there lunch and then played with the other children on the playground. This was Ainslee's first time actually playing on one of those, before that day she was scared to go up to the top even with help. As we were leaving the girls spotted the balloons they were giving away, so each of them snagged one. Kaylee was sure to explain to Ainslee how she had to hold on tight, and if she didnt her balloon would "go up up UP very HIGH!" Both girls held their balloons and successfully made it to the car and into my moms house for nap. After nap we loaded up, balloons and all, and headed into town for allergy shots. When we got to the doctors' office, Ainslee carefully pushed her balloon back into the car before I got her out, but her foot got stuck on the string and as I lowered her out of the car the balloon escaped! I tried to grab it, but there was nothing I could do.  I quickly thought of something to say as Ainslee watched helplessly. The first thing that came to mind was "Ainslee that was so SWEET of you to give your balloon to the children in Heaven!" Well that little statement opened up a great big can of worms, that began a discussion lasting 2 days (and counting)! While Ainslee had one single solitary tear running down her face, I attempted to explain to her that there are children up in Heaven that will be very happy to play with her balloon, and it was SO KIND of her to share with the children in Heaven. The girls asked all about Heaven "Where is Heaven?" "Why are the children in Heaven?" "Do the children get to go home after going to Heaven?" "Is Heaven in the clouds?" "Is Jesus and God in Heaven?" etc! How do you explain to a 2 and 4 year old about Heaven? I hadnt prepared myself for these types of questions. I told the girls that Heaven was up in the clouds and everywhere, and that once you go to Heaven you cant go back home. Ainslee obviously listened to the 1st part of that explanation while Kaylee listened to the 2nd part. Ainslee thought about where Heaven was for a few minutes and later said to me "Mommy when we go to Washington on the airplane, I will look for my balloon in the clouds!" I was shocked and amazed at her train of thought and ability to express herself. She knows that airplanes go up in the clouds and she thinks that when we go up there she will be able to get her balloon back. She nearly made me cry (darn pregnancy hormones!). And all Kaylee was thinking about was how she NEVER wanted to go to Heaven because I said that after you go there you dont go back home. This made her really upset and she was confident that she was NOT going there!

Since the balloon incident we have been discussing Heaven A LOT, as well as telling EVERYONE about losing the balloon. It didnt help that every 5 seconds Kaylee rubbed it in that she STILL had her balloon. side note: if it would have been Kaylee that lost her balloon Ainslee would have most likely given her balloon to her sister after seeing how sad she was, but not Kaylee!  Ainslee told my friend K about the balloon at least 3 times. K has decided that when we get to Washington, there is going to be a GIANT orange balloon waiting for her. She is going to tell Ainslee how all the children up in Heaven blew it up bigger and sent it back down for her. K was heartbroken from hearing how upset Ainslee is about her balloon.

Im not sure if I said the right things, or explained it the correct way, but it seemed to work and sink in. The girls responded well. Hope I havent damaged them for life!

Fall Photo Shoot - 2nd set

and here are the rest!

Fall Photo Shoot - 1st set

WARNING!!!

You are about to be showered with a ridiculously huge amount of pics of my girls. I couldnt narrow them down, because well I just LOVE them all so much!!! So I apologize for the bombardment. Just for your sanity, I have divided the pictures up between a couple of posts.

My AMAZING friend, Bethany, did it again! I just cant believe how she was able to capture these shots of the girls. If you want to book her for your own shoot let me know and I can give you her info. If you are on FB, she has a page set up for her photography it is called Little Sugar Photography. Get on and "like" it, and book a session with her......you will NOT be disappointed!

Acorns

Yesterday we (the girls and I) got the idea of collecting acorns that had fallen from our little Pin Oak tree and finding a craft/activity to do with them. We got sidetracked by our paint activity and some "not so great behavior" and never got around to it yesterday. So today was the perfect alternative. I sent the girls outside with a cup and told them to hunt for acorns. They both were able to fill their cups in a matter of minutes. And the excitement each time they spotted one was priceless. "I found ANOTHER one!" "my cup is almost full!" "LOOK here's 2 right next to each other!"

Here is their loot

And the supplies to open them. I sent them upstairs to find the "toy" tools that matched my real tools. We tried to guess which tools would work best at opening the acorns. They got to try with the toy tools first then I handled the real tools and actually opened the acorns.

Ainslee tried the pliers first

Then Kaylee gave it a try. They both enjoyed chasing after the acorns as they flew across the room, that was quite funny to watch.


Then they tried the hammer

The concentration was hilarious

Kaylee had the right idea trying to hold the acorn, she had pretty good hand eye coordination, and didnt hit her fingers

When they were finished trying on their own, I opened them with the real tools. Here Ainslee's has a crack in it and she is trying to pry it open.

Kaylee got hers open quickly and was very proud of what she found.

They both wanted to eat the nuts, but we threw them out in the grass to "feed" the squirrels and birds

Before we cracked them open we counted them, made shapes/numbers/letters with them (on the floor), and I even spelled their names with them. All the while I was trying to come up with some sort of craft we could use them for.

ATTENTION all you creative mommy's out there

send me some ideas of fun crafty things we can do with these little gems. Preferably something that the kids can do most of the work. I found a few ideas online, but most include a hot glue gun. I would prefer that they actually get to participate and avoid burns. Im considering letting them paint them orange and then letting them draw faces on them to make tiny jack-o-lanterns. But we dont need 50+ tiny jack-o-lanterns. I need more ideas people!

Fall Paintings

I've been meaning to take more advantage of the beautiful weather outside (while it lasts). I keep telling myself "plan outdoor activities, make lessons that pertain to outside." But in my laziness I have neglected doing so, until today. Painting outside has been on my "to do" list so i thought we would start there. We gathered up supplies, I had to make brown paint by mixing other colors. This was quite funny, because when we make our smoothies every morning the most basic one we do has strawberries and spinach with a few other things too. Our smoothie comes out almost everytime looking like dirt. So when I asked the girls what colors I needed to make brown Ainslee quickly answered "brown like dirt mommy!" I said yes, remember our smoothies are brown, what colors do we put in them? They both immediately said "GREEN AND RED!" So thats where we started. I added a little bit of white and a touch of yellow as well.

I decided since we were painting outside I didnt want them to use the regular brushes and things, so we gathered up "fall" things from the yard, as well as some kitchen utensils and we went to town.

Here are the supplies we gathered

2 girls ready to paint, dont ask me why Kaylee has that look on her face
our supplies from inside, including brown, yellow and orange paint

I showed the girls how to make a stamp out of a leaf

Kaylee preferred the kitchen utensils, while Ainslee enjoyed using the things we collected outside

trying to make her own leaf stamp

adding all the colors

pushing it down

"look what I made mommy"

but then she got a bit upset at the tiniest bit of paint on her fingers, i ignored it and she seemed to be ok for a few minutes. I think the messiness was why she wanted to stop painting so quickly. She was ready to come in and wash her hands

painting with pine needles

Overall, it was a super fun activity that they both enjoyed. We ended up doing 2 sheets of paper, the second one just turned into a big blob of mixed up paint. I wonder when they are going to figure out the whole "art" thing. They would rather just paint in one spot until they make a hole in the paper. Oh well, at least they enjoyed themselves.