Truck Time

Today was a perfect day to go check out some BIG trucks!

Last year we took RC to the local Touch a Truck event. He was very shy and wouldn't really get on any trucks. This year, was a totally different story. I told him last night we were going today and he was very excited.

Once we got in today he ran from truck to truck checking each one out. No being shy this year. He had a blast pressing the buttons (even though everything was fully shut off), "driving" the trucks, and trying to seat belt himself in!

Next year will be Tank's turn to check everything out. This year...he just go to ride along and watch big brother have a blast!

checking out the ambulance

what a gigantic tire. It made a pretty good slide too!

A perfectly sized semi-truck!

A "Totally Brilliant" Fireman Sam Birthday

Wow...it's been forever since I have blogged. What better way to get back to it than to post about RC's 3rd birthday! I had so much fun with his theme...Fireman Sam.  For those that don't know it is a British kids show. Aside from Veggie Tales, RC is obsessed with it

Anyway...back to the party!

I had a very limited budget for the party so I had to really become creative. Plus since it's a British show and isn't super popular in the States, Fireman Sam stuff isn't readily available here.

Let's start with the decorations. Since I decided to give it a try to have his party outside I didn't go crazy on decor. There was a Happy Birthday banner that was fire themed. The main thing I did was created a utensil holder out of a formula container and made it look like Jupiter the firetruck from the show.

I also painted a piece of cardboard to look like the front of Jupiter the firetruck and made it into a photo prop for the kids. I tried to get pictures of all the kids that came to the party in it.

Lastly I was able to print out and tape together a RC sized Fireman Sam for the front door.

Now for the food! I tried to think of ideas that would be something from the show. I came up with:

Match Sticks: Pretzel Sticks dipped in red candy melt chocolate

Fire Hydrants: Chocolate chip cookies (cut with a fire hydrant cutter)

Dilas' Dogs: Hot Dogs cut into 1/3's with a toothpick for serving

Bella's Pizzas: Ritz Cracker Pizzas (cracker, sauce, pepperoni, shredded cheese)




Activities included bean bag toss, fire buckets, and a find and seek game along with just letting the kids run around crazy.

Finally the cake...my masterpiece! I had fun with this one...well I have fun with all the cakes I make! This one was a blast as I knew RC would love it as it was shaped like Jupiter the firetruck! I used one half sheet cake to form the entire truck!

Happy 3rd Birthday RC! We look forward to many more years with you!

Creation Family Devotional

Tonight was the start of our weekly family devotionals with RC. Travis put me in charge of the family devo lessons. We decided to stick with major stories from the Bible...particularly ones that are in RC's Bible! No better place to start than the beginning with creation!

I decided aside from just reading about creation in his Bible, we would do a craft as well! RC loves to glue things and cut things...well attempt to cut things. Our Kingdom Kids has a creation song, so I prepped a page for each day of creation. RC then got to glue everything down and we sang the song. Afterwards I laminated the pages.

For the first one, I think RC enjoyed it. He is still pretty young so he didn't get what we were doing, but now we have the pictures to go with the song so we can continue working on it with him!

Coloring the sky

Even Daddy helped out with the craft.

Trying to figure out how to use a glue stick properly!

Here is our final project!

The little things

It's the little things...

Something that made us crack up....RC singing the Veggie Tales theme song.

Just picture him singing....

Veggie Tale, Veggie Tales, rrrrr, rrrrr, rrrrr, 

Broccoli, celery, got to beeee veggie tales

calflower, ha for you

bonk!

Now picture the real words based on what he was singing.

Veggie Tales, Veggie Tales, there's never ever ever been a show like Veggie Tales

Broccoli, celery got to be, Veggie Tales (he has that line down)

Cauliflower, sweet and sour, HALF AN HOUR, Veggie Tales

To Elf on the Shelf or Not?

That is the question for this year. Last year we did pull out the Elf on the Shelf my sister had gotten for us. I struggled though with part of the idea behind it being a naughty elf and getting into trouble. With RC having been 18 months last year at Christmas and that we had started battling with him and the naughty things he was doing, I felt having our elf do anything naughty was wrong.

This year, I really struggled with whether or not I even wanted to bring our elf back out. We want to focus on the reason we celebrate Christmas. We want to celebrate Jesus. We don't want RC and Tank to think it's just about the presents. This year I decided to search around and see how we might be able to make it work. After all, RC did enough having Qwerty around last year and this year can understand it even more.

Last night Qwerty came back with a letter from Santa. Even though we aren't going to push Santa, we still will get pictures with him and have some fun. We'll let the boys make up their mind as they get older.

The letter from Santa was a request to have Qwerty spend the Christmas season with us so that he might learn about Jesus from RC. He needs to learn how to pray to Jesus and learn that Christmas isn't about presents!

Tonight during our bedtime routine, Qwerty joined us to listen to our Bible story and to pray. Oh and if you haven't maybe figured out, Qwerty the Elf is allowed to be played with. He must stay on the mantle during the night to watch over us all.

RC - "Jeus"

A goal of having Qwerty around is to help RC with things like praying as well. We'll see how all this works out this year. Along with trying to teach Qwerty about Jesus and how to pray, we'll be trying some nightly activities with scriptures and crafts!