Help With Contraction Words

Last week's spelling words for Jojo were a list of contractions. He didn't quite get the whole concept at the beginning so I made him this activity to try to help him understand. I first got the idea from another blog in helping young ones with numbers but it's easy to expand on the idea. Some would be matching upper and lower cases together, number words with numbers, etc. I am sure the list is endless if one really thinks about it.

 

So, I basically took a cereal box and cut out into a circle. Then I

divided the sections up. I made sure to measure the words up to

the clothespin. Josiah is real visual so this has been a huge help.

While I was at it, I prepared a number wheel for Nathan.

 He wanted to work on it right away. Basically the wheel has a

certain number of dots and the clothespin has the actual number 

on it. I also "laminated" the wheels with clear packing tape. I 

don't have a laminating machine here so that's the best I could do!

Women's Conference Part 2

 Saturday morning opened with a special tea.

 All the wives from our Wives Fellowship

group baked for the event. My friend Olya

along with 2 other gals did a great job of 

organizing and decorating this part.

 Lisa taught 3 more sessions on Saturday with my friend

Katya translating. 

We also had the wife of a local pastor teach

one session entitled "Consolation for a 

Grieving Heart".

The musical group Anastasia opened the Saturday morning

session with worship.

Week 21 Sticky Buns

This past week has been crazy! Thankfully yesterday I was able to take a day off and catch up. No school, no commitments, just catching up on everything that has piled up these last few days. It was also my birthday so I got to celebrate a little with my 3 men!

Tuesday I had small group and baked these wonderful sticky buns. I don't want to toot my own horn but these turned out great! Actually all of the Pioneer Woman's recipes turn out great. I did make some additions and subtractions. First of all I didn't have any milk so I used buttermilk instead for the dough. I also used to apples because I wanted a more appley taste. One thing I didn't do were the last few steps for the dough........I didn't add the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. I totally forgot to!!  But, they turned out amazing anyway and real, real moist. It was worth all the time it took to make them. These were definitely worth the brown sugar usage and I'll most likely be making them again!!!

Samara Space Museum

While I was away at our women's conference, Jon took the boys to the space museum. Josiah recently studied about the 4th day of creation so I thought it would be fun for him to see the rockets and so forth that are used to go up and see all of God's creation. Jon said the inside of the museum was actually pretty interesting and they all seemed to enjoy it. He didn't take pictures inside though because you had to pay extra for that so he only got some pictures outdoors.

When we first moved to Samara we actually

used to live right down the street from the 

rocket, we could see it out of our living

room window.

Oooooh, scary aliens!

 The boys with Yuri Gagarin!

Valentine's Party

This past week has been an insane one for me but thankfully I am slowly getting back to our regular routine. It's always nice to have a break from routine and then it's always nice to settle slowly back into it.

Last week we headed over to Heather's home for the annual Valentine's party. Of course the boys had so much fun hanging out with their friends.

 

Of course Auntie Heather had a craft for the kids to keep them

busy. She made some salt dough beads that the kids could paint.

Then they could make a necklace or bracelet with them.

 

Nana can't decide which one of these little ladies he's going 

to marry!

 

Here's Em with the lips on the lollipop.

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day

Jon and I never really celebrated Valentine's Day but once the boys were born it has been fun to have a "holiday" to look forward to, especially during the harsh winter. The boys think it's a lot of fun and the big Valentine's celebration will take place tomorrow at "auntie" Heather's home where we'll have a fun Valentine's party.

 

Yesterday we got these mustache lollipops ready. We also made

some with big red lips. These are to pass out with our Valentine

cards tomorrow at the party. The idea came from Family Fun.

 Yesterday, we also had to get all the Valentine

cards ready. Jojo is passing out Star Wars cards.

We can't buy a package of Valentine cards here

in Russia, so Jon's mom usually buys them for

us and mails them to us beforehand.

Today the boys worked hard on making cards for daddy.

 

 Jojo wrote the following on his card: "I love you daddy. I love

to play the Wii with you".

I made a special dinner : cordon bleu, green beans with sauteed

onions and bacon, and our favorite green salad.

 

I bought these itty bitty cute plastic drinking glasses and the boys 

had fun drinking from them.

 

Dessert anyone? Cupcakes or "pupcakes"

as the boys call them.

 

Week 20 - Pretzel Dogs

These were so much fun to make. The boys really liked them also. I always thought making pretzels would be difficult or too involved but it's actually quite easy. There was quite a bit of dough left over so I made some huge pretzels and froze them for later.

 

You can see the "pin" here.

Silly Talk

Memories

Lately both boys and I have been having some great conversations. They are enthralled about hearing stories from the time they were babies. It's actually been fun for me to think back on all those great memories I keep in the muddled corners of my mind. I've also noticed that for some reason I am able to remember more stories about Jojo than I am about Nathan. Maybe it's because Jojo was my firstborn and all my attention went to him? Or maybe it's because Nathan didn't start sleeping through the night until he was 7 months and I was a walking zombie for all those 7 months!

Father of Lies

We taking lying pretty seriously around here. Yesterday Josiah lied about something but quickly told me the truth (I can't even remember what the lie was). He knows what the consequences are so he quickly confessed and told the truth. Anyway, if the boys tell a lie I always ask the following: "Who is the father of lies?" Josiah knows the answer and he realizes that he doesn't want anything to do with Satan. I think it scares him. Well yesterday I asked that and Nathan heard and answered, "Dad!?" I got a big laugh out of it!

Future Plans

The boys have also been talking about their future lately. Both Nathan and Josiah say they will build a big house so that I can live with them. The other day when Nathan was telling me about those plans,  Josiah told Nathan that he should build a bigger house so that we can all live together. Josiah says he wants 10 children and Nathan wants 9. Nathan says he will name one boy Nathan so that mommy can call him "Baby Nathan", since I am not allowed to call him a baby anymore now that he is a whole 4 years old. As far as career goals go, Josiah wants to work at home on his computer all day, have an ice cream store, or a lemonade stand!