Party Fun

We had Arianna's birthday party with family on Sunday.
She wasn't to into opening her presents.

She got clothes from everybody, which is great for me.  All the clothes I have in her size are summer so I asked for clothes since I knew she wouldn't care.

We gave her the Busy Ball Popper and the Bouncy Zebra. 

These were actually re-gifts.  They have been in storage for awhile.  We have so many toys that I didn't really want to spend more money to buy more toys.  So we spent about $10 on batteries and she is loving her toys.

 

I don't know if it was too loud or she wasn't feeling herself (she had shots a week before and they said side effects could show up a week later), but our little birthday girl was not interested in her birthday cake.

I did get a picture of her with her mini cake.

Not loving her first bite.

My little girl did not love her cake.  She wouldn't take a bite and just cried.

 

After awhile she did calm down and enjoy herself.  I gave her a bite of cake later and she still didn't like it.

 

 

Weeky Babysits

My sister babysat the girls Saturday night while James and I went on a boat with some friends.
She brought over a wuggle pet making kit to do with the girls.
She must have been really excited to do it, because she did it before we even left.

It only took her about 5 tries to get the thing working and she had the directions right there!

 

Arianna's Birthday

Last Sunday was Arianna's birthday.
James gets these e-mails from Chucke E. Cheese for free tokens on birthdays.
So we had free tokens for Arianna's birthday and Annabelle's half birthday.
She slept through the first part, but when she woke up she had a lot of fun!

she was upset when I took her out

In the evening we went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for a bonfire.
The girls worked on their Fairy Village that my Grandpa built for them.

We had hotdogs and s'mores.  Arianna slept through most of it though.

We had a fun day celebrating out sweet Arianna.

Happy Birthday Arianna

Arianna turned 1 on Sunday.
That year went by so fast.
My tiny little sweetie girl is now full of life and smiles!

We are having her birthday party on Sunday, but I couldn't let her miss out on having a little birthday treat.

I gave her a scoop of cool whip with sprinkles and a candle.

 

She loved it!  Ariel showed her a few times how to eat it (which meant she ate most of the cool whip)

Happy Birthday to our sweetie Arianna girl.

Courage

We did Courage a couple weeks ago.
Our bible verse was

One of the activities we only half way completed.  It was making a paper poppy.  It had something to do with honoring soliders.  This was a little hard for the girls to understand and then we just ended up not making the flowers.  They had fun painting though.

We made a ship in the storm bottle.  We but blue water and oil along with some beads (for fish and boats).  Then we shook it up and watched it calm down.  We talked about how the disciples had to have courage and trust Jesus when they were on the boat in the storm. 

 There were a lot of bible stories that we talked about where people had to have courage.

A few weeks after we did this lesson, Ariel and I were playing mommy and daughter.  She said I had to go to school and I told her I needed her to come with me because I was scared.  She told me, "You don't have to be scared.  Just have courage and Jesus will be with you where ever you go.  You will be fine."  Just precious!

Annabelle had a situation the week we did courage and we were able to talk about how she needed to have courage and be brave and to remember that Jesus was with her even though she was scared.

When I am afraid I will trust in You.

Psalm 56:3

Perseverance

This past week we talked about Perseverance.
Our bible verse was

Perseverance is a big word, but the girls had an easy time understanding it because we listen to GT and the Halo Express in the van.  One of their CD's is about perseverance.  So when I asked Annabelle if she knew what perseverance meant, this is what she said, "It means overcoming obstacles and trusting in God to do your best."  That is pretty much exactly what they say on the CD.

They also knew our verse from GT.  All the bible verses are turned into songs, which makes it really easy for kids to remember.

We did some fun activities this week to talk about perseverance.

We did some exercises with "weights" and recorded how many they could do.  Each day they could see that they improved a little bit.

This activity had 2 points to it!
Annabelle drew a picture of Jesus and we taped it to the wall. 
I had the girls practice walking across the balance beam.  They had to persevere until they were able to get across without falling.
For the second part of the activity, I had them look at the picture of Jesus and walk across.  Then I had them look all around and try to walk across.  When they focused on one spot they were able to do it successfully. 
I told the girls that when they looked to Jesus and made good choices, they would stay on the path to heaven, but if they looked around to bad things, they would have a hard time.  Then we sang O Be Careful Little Children What You Do.

We took a 450 foot walk, which is the approximate length of Noah's ark.  I told the girls that Noah had to have perseverance to keep building the ark because it was so big and because people made fun of him.

 Then we came back home and tried to build towers as tall as we could.  A little tricky with a baby around, but they used perseverance and did a pretty good job.

The girls liked learning about perseverance and had a lot of tun with the activities. 
I love that they are remembering our bibles lessons.  The other day Annabelle had a toy half way up the steps and asked for help getting it the rest of the way up.  She said, "I used perseverance, but I can't get it all the way up."

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13