"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
About a month ago we began a chore chart with Gracie. She's definitely gotten to the age where she can be very, very helpful around the house! She enjoys helping and completing tasks and I enjoy the help! Her most common chores include unloading the dishwasher (just the silverware), putting shoes in "shoe corner" (a corner of the kitchen), and helping with laundry (sorting, folding small towels, and putting away). She really is capable of so much! She can also feed the dog, put her dirty dishes by the sink, bring in newspapers and the recycle bin, clean up her toys, and make her bed.
We also decided to begin teaching her the value of a dollar by giving her an allowance. She gets paid every 2 weeks and is required to save and tithe some of her allowance. She doesn't really understand it all just yet, but she will one day!
Below are a few pictures of her Ladybug Chore Chart. She chose the theme and we made the chart together. It was pretty easy to make and getting a chance to move her completed chores to the 'Done' side is gratifying for her. It's kind of like me crossing items off my 'To Do' list... feels so good! Sometimes I even write things down that I've already done, just so I can cross them off. I know, I'm weird!
Last weekend we went with Grandma and Grandpa Weaver to The Midwest Balloon Festival. It was a fun evening of hot air balloons and kid fun for Gracie. She got her face painted like a princess and bounced the night away in each of the bounce houses. Her favorites were the princess castle and the giant slide!
Gracie is a little reader. She always has been. We make regular trips to the public library and during the school year, I bring home books for her every time I work on Library Checkout day. She also has a pretty extensive home library to choose from, as well. We read books every night and oftentimes in the morning and afternoon, too.
Usually when we go to the library, I choose a few books ahead of time. She also gets to peruse the shelves to choose books that look appealing to her. Then I also look for books that seem like a good fit for where she's at in her reading life. Not too long, not too short, good pictures, and nothing about things she's scared of. The book Gladys Goes Out to Lunch by Derek Anderson was one of the random books that I grabbed for her. This book quickly became one of her favorites from her library dozen and we read it over and over again. She pretty much had it memorized within a few days. But the really cool thing about Gladys was that the author included a recipe for banana bread on the last page. Gladys the gorilla loved bananas and throughout the book she discovers that she also loves banana bread! So I promised Gracie we'd try that recipe to see if we liked Gladys' Banana Bread, too! It was a fun little project for the two of us on a hot summer afternoon.
Gladys travels through the pages of the book by smelling a heavenly smell throughout the zoo. She escapes her cage to seek out the smell and every place she stops doesn't have a food that tastes like that delicious smell. She can't figure out what it is, until she discovers it's banana bread! As our bread was baking, Gracie commented that she could totally understand why Gladys ran all over the zoo chasing that smell. She thought it smelled heavenly, too! The teacher in me was happy to see her connecting to the character... such a smart cookie!
All in all, the recipe was only so-so, but the fun we had was definitely worth it! I plan to seek out more books that we can connect with in the future because I loved to see her excitement about extended the fun from a favorite book!
This is our little girl dancing the night away at Ryan's cousin's wedding last night!
Boy, does she love to dance! I always wonder what she imagines she looks like? I'm sure it's not even close to how cute she really looks! Half a dozen people stopped to ask if they could dance with her... she always replied, "No." About a dozen people stopped to tell me how cute they thought she was. I agreed! Just for reference, this video was taken before we did the Cupid Shuffle together and after we got down to Vanilla Ice. Who would of thought?!
My sister is a member of a local Mom's Group and I tagged along for a visit to Papa Murphy's Pizza to see if it's a group I'd like to join. The Liberty location offers this super fun activity to organizations around town before the store opens for regular business hours. The manager along with 3 of his people organize this whole event.
Upon arrival, the kids wash hands, put on a chef's hat, and head to the back of the store. There the pizza people show the kids who to use the giant mixer to make a batch of pizza crust. While the mixer is mixing, they take the kids back into the refrigerator and show them where they keep the cheese and tomatoes. Each child grabs a roma tomato, which then gets chopped by the manager to show how they make the sauce. Then he demonstrates the cheese grater so the kids see how they prepare all the main ingredients. By the time they've grated the cheese, the pizza dough is ready to be rolled into crusts. Each child got their own hunk of dough to roll into a ball and flatten into crusts. Then we headed out to the front of the store where they'd laid out perfect crusts and cups of sauce and cheese for each child to make his/her own pizza! It was such a treat for the kids!
Waiting to get started!
Sauce!
More cheese, please!
The finished products!
Doesn't she look proud?
Sweet Natalie only got to watch, but the big kids shared their pizzas with her at home!
Before we left Papa Murphy's, each child got to put their Mini Murphy in a box to carry home AND each mom received a large pizza, any way we wanted it. And it was FREE! The whole event was free! How cool is that?!
We definitely had a fun time being chefs for the morning and having a ready-to-bake lunch didn't hurt things either. I served my free pizza for dinner the following night with salad and Ryan took the leftovers to work for lunch the next day. I'd call that a win-win-win! I think I'll join this Mom's Group!
And by the way, I get no kickback from Papa Murphy's for saying this, but I'd highly recommend the Liberty Papa Murphy's to all of my friends up that way!
Last week was a first for Gracie and I. We had a Mommy/Daughter Date! The Sound of Music was at Starlight and I knew Gracie, also known as Leisl, would love it! Steph knew Kia would love it, too. So we had a double date with our 3 year olds and we couldn't forget Grandma!
The five of us started with dinner at Panera (chosen by the littles) and ended at Starlight. We didn't tell the girls where we were going. We asked them to pick out a fancy dress to wear and choose where to eat dinner.
It was fun to watch the girls as we walked up to the theater. They were skipping and running, excited to see what was ahead. The attendants gave them each a program, with a picture of The Sound of Music on the front. Kia was the first to figure it out, but both girls were super excited to see the show. Kianna pretends she is Marta (Maw-ta) and Gracie pretends to be Leisl. Yes, she is 16 going on 17. Really, she's just a sassy three year old, but she's not far off! Kidding!
The night was a blast. Perfect weather. Perfect dates. And a perfect show! We had a great time surprising the girls and making them feel special.
This picture reminds me of one of my favorite songs! Here's my little family slow dancing!
'Slow dancing. Swaying to the music. Slow dancing, just me and my girl. Slow dancing. Swaying to the music. No one else in the whole wide world. Just you, girl.'
Last week our little family headed to the lake for the whole week! It was a perfect blend of fun and relaxation, including daily naps and lots of time in the water.
Both of our water babies!
Several evenings, after dinner, we headed out to our favorite "fishing hole" (a new term Gracie likes to use) to have some fun! This is the first year since Gracie was born that we've really gotten to fish. And boy, does it feel good! I was never a fishergirl, until I met Ryan. When it was just the two of us, we used to love going out in his aluminum fishing boat every, single night. We had the best time together! He's taught me how to tie my own hook, put on my own plastic worm, cast, fish without getting my line stuck, and even take the fish off the hook. Now, of all those things, I only regularly use the worm, casting, and amazing fishing skills. I still rely on him to take my fish off the hook. Too squirmy for me! Not Gracie though, she's gotten pretty good at touching the fish, but when they wiggle, she wiggles, too!
On the way to our fishing hole!
She's such a happy lake rat!
On our camping trip, Gracie discovered funny faces. This was her first attempt at making a silly face and asking me to take her picture. Pretty silly!
Funny face #1
Camping dog, Tysie!
Relaxing in Daddy's lounge chair, playing on my cell phone.
The life.
We're kind of addicted to flying kites when we're down at Pomme de Terre. It's always so windy, even on hot summer days, so we don't struggle to get the kites up and flying.
Daddy and his little buddy!
I love watching her run with her kite!
Gracie loves to fish, just like her Momma and Daddy. We spent some time fishing from the shore with real worms (which, I definitely don't touch) so Gracie could catch a few. She had pretty good luck, catching what she called the "King, Queen, Prince, and Princess Blue Gill". The "King" was bigger than Daddy's hand... pretty big for a Blue Gill.
Ready to catch something!
Casting!
A little help setting the hook!
First catch... and she reeled it in herself... sort of!
Watch the video below...
She's not afraid to touch the worm...
Daddy's girl!
The Queen!
One of our favorite things about the lake is all the friends we've made over the years. Ryan has known several of our lake friends since he was 5 years old, but many other friends are people we've met together. We met our good friends Ray and Diana (along with their son and his family) 2 years ago. We were so excited when Mr. Ray and Miss Diana arrived for the second half of our week. Another acquaintance we've made is Grandma Spike and Grandpa Lannon, and their dog, Baby. Grandma Spike stopped us one night to give Gracie a glow-in-the-dark headband and a finger light. And boy did Grandma Spike make Gracie's night! She was so, so excited about her headband!
Notice the finger light on her toe...
Daddy started calling her "Lazer Toe"
Sounds like a superhero, right?!
Uncle Chad bought Tysie a light for her collar, so here are our light up kids!
You can barely see Tysie's light, right next to Gracie's left hand.
We're always on the lookout for memorable things to do when we get family time, so Ryan bought these floating lanterns (just like Rapunzel's!) for us to release in the dark. They were so much fun! We even released a few from the boat, on the water, while our friends Brad, Chantay, Averi, and Carter were down! So cool!
Watching it float up, up, and away!
We always had the kids make a wish as we released the lantern.
Earlier this summer we initiated one of our favorite lake traditions, "Park in the Dark". It's pretty self-explanatory, but the reason we started it centers around the fact that the park has absolutely no shade. So going to the park during the day is almost impossible. Even if you could handle the blistering sun overhead, all the equipment is too hot to enjoy. So now, we go after the sun goes down, and we simply have the best time!
By the way, you'll notice she's wearing her light up headband again. Grandma Spike told us that you can store them in the freezer to get another night out of them. She was right! The headband kept in the freezer for 2 nights before we pulled it out for Park in the Dark.
Riding horsey!
Last year he was puppy, but Gracie finally figured out he is a horse!
Funny face #2
Camping girl, with her lantern!
Daddy getting in on the funny face pictures!
I didn't want to be left out!
Funny face #3
She got a few new ideas from Daddy and Momma's silly faces.
Merry-go-round!
Slide!
Climbing!
Climbing up the slide!
(no one else is there, so why not?!)
Happy Daddy!
Happy doggy!
Climbing the slide together!
I also took a turn, but there wasn't a photographer on duty!
Smart doggy, keeping her paws off the rocks.
Climbing the slide by herself... this is seriously harder than it looks!
Swinging by the arms!
As you can probably tell, we just love, love, love our time at the lake. We feel so grateful to be able to get away whenever we get the chance. It's nice to unplug and play together all day long! Gracie kept saying "Go home day is never fun" while we were packing to come home. We mentioned her comment to our camping friends Chris, Lauren, Dash, and Maylin as they were all packed and heading home. Lauren replied, "Truer words were never spoken." Well said. We all feel sad to leave the lake and get back to the daily grind. Poor Daddy always has to go back to work. And poor Gracie always misses her Daddy like crazy after having been with him, day and night, for a whole week. We have such a great time together!
