Excited about Spring!

The snow's melting, there's more light, we bought some new basic lego bricks, life is good :)

ABC Scripture cards

Get your own *here*.

Fun With the World Map Magnetic

Jonah got this magnetic world map for Christmas from his grandparents, and it has been a lot of fun for him! I highly recommend this to any kid who is big enough not to put small pieces in their mouth. (The package said it's for kids 7+, but I don't see why wait, if the kid is interested in learning.) Our map is in Finnish but I found it also in English here. (It's located in England, I don't know if anyone sells them in the USA.)

Sally, on the other hand, is running out of activities to do since everything seems to go in her mouth. Her first watercolor session was very brief for that very reason. Activity suggestions for busy toddlers are welcome.

Cooking Together

Confession: I'm a lazy cook and I get discouraged easily when things don't go the way I expected. Another excuse reason for not cooking "real food" everyday is that I simply have no time from the kids. I'm caught in the middle of a 4-year-old who loves to learn new things and getting more responsibility, and a 1,5-year-old who is... well, quite busy climbing all of the time. Most of the time I spend pulling her down from walls, curtains, tables and chairs. If I am desperate, I buckle her in her high chair for a minute so I can get something done, but that only means she will scream the whole time she's in it, since she hates being restrained (needless to say, we don't travel in the car with her very much either).

What encourages me to cook more, though, is Jonah, who is a wonderful helper. He made meatballs with me the other day, and at bed time as I asked for his high and low points of the day, for a high point he said without a doubt, "cooking with you mom!". These things are more important to kids than we think.

Truth in the Tinsel

"Someone, someone!" says Mouse.

Vanilla Bunny, a gift to someone who likes bunnies.

"I made a crown because Jesus is the King!" Jonah declared.

Zechariah with wrinkly hands

Bethlehem

I'm so glad I found the Truth in the Tinsel eBook this year! We have been going through the Christmas story with that book, and it has been wonderful! We have not done the crafts in the book every day, but it has been nice to read and to discuss the scripture with Jonah. We even had Sunday school the other day when Jonah had a friend over, and we did one of the days in the book together. We will definitely do this again next year and I warmly recommend this to you and your little children.

Other than that, we have been making gifts. Jonah helped me with some of them, like the bunny.

Here is a book to read with toddlers that we received this last Christmas. I love the illustration and the different perspective of the Christmas story.  As I was googling a picture of this book, I ran into a lovely blog, Planet of the Apels, that had a list of children's Christmas books and reviews for them.

We also bought "The Very First Noel" short film and enjoyed it, too. There is one thing that bothers me about it, though…the wise men went to see Baby Jesus in the stable, whereas Scripture tells us they went to the house of Joseph and Mary (Matthew 2:11). Like with all books that have this common mistake, I just tell my kids while reading it how the story *really* goes.

There is so much to write about, and not enough time! I'll be back later, whenever I have a chance.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

This wall magnet calendar has been very nice for Jonah for learning and to plan his days out. I got it from Target last year when we were visiting the States.

We practised some stitching around the pumpkin, since Jonah has been asking for me to teach him how to sew and knit.  He did very well!

I found these wonderful free printable Thanksgiving decorations and activities online through Pinterest. You can get yours here and here.

Oh, Dinosaur!

Daddy enjoys this book almost more than Jonah.

These guys grow six times their size when you put them in water. Jonah got them from cousin E for his birthday.

What is it with little boys and dinosaurs? I was never too fascinated with them growing up and it has been interesting to see my son develop an interest in them, as well as many other so-called boy things. Those are anything that makes a lot of noise. It has been fun for me to see the world through Jonah's eyes and to explore it with him.