Wordless Wednesday

From our BROWN eyes to yours....

Celebrity in the Family!

Our local teacher free store, Crayons to Computers

asked our principal a few months ago for a few kiddos to be photographed.  Of course I told her sure, she could use our daughter.  :)  Then, she appeared in the C2C newsletter and I thought... Awesome!  (Actually, I was like.. whew.. she matched that day and did I brush her hair?  BAM! Score one for Mama!) 

To our surprise though, it just kept getting better.  Popping up at all our area Kroger stores are these super cute displays.  :)

We are all so, so, so proud of her.  Amelia said, "Mama, am I famous?"  And of course my reply is, "Yes you are." 

From our Brown eyes to yours...

FREEBIE!!!! Rewards for Children

Summer is upon us and that means I go from being a full time working mama to a.... full time (working) mama.  The only difference is now I can devote all time and energy to three little ladies instead of 73 ladies and gentlemen.  :)  Do not be fooled into thinking this job is any easier than when I'm teaching.  Sometimes it is even MORE exhausting than working during the school year.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these three little ladies, but WHEW... they can be a handful. 

In order to help myself out this summer, we are starting a Rewards, punch card system.  I have made cards that look like this to ensure our successful, less stressful summer.  :)

This is just one of the cards we will be using. Once the girls have earned all 18 punches they will get to choose a reward from a list that they've come up with.  Then, we will start a new card.  So, so, so excited for this!  This morning our two youngest were up, dressed, teeth brushed and room cleaned by 6:30 am!!!!!  All to earn 1 punch! :)  SUCCESS! 

I'm thinking about printing them on cardstock and using a hold puncher, but you could print them on regular paper and have your little color in the circles.  Good practice for our 3 year old. You could also laminate them. :)

If you want to grab a copy to help keep your sanity, click on the picture below!  If you have any ideas or suggestions, I will take them for sure!!!!!

Wishing you a summer of rewards!

From our BROWN eyes to yours.......

Listen

So today I was going to blog about the glorious day today is supposed to be.  I was also going to add in my opinions about people checking their phones during church.  But, I will save that for another day. 

Today I'm going to blog about.... listening.  Once we returned from church, a beautiful and PACKED service, we received some devastating news that a friend of ours had gone to live with the Lord.  While I know this is what happens.  The Lord will take you when he's ready for you, it has hit me like a ton of bricks.  I wasn't prepared for this.  I wasn't ready.  I'm still in a bit of shock.  It feels very surreal. 

Here's why I'm posting about Listening.  The last few days, I've been meaning to call my friend, but for one reason or another, I didn't.  He had been popping into my thoughts, even this morning.  The Lord was speaking to me in the quietest moments to call him, but I didn't listen.  So today, I ask you to listen.  Listen to the Lord when he nudges you to do something.  Listen to Him when he wants you to make a change.  Listen to Him through your children.  Just be still and listen.  He's there.  He's working on us.  Just..... listen. 

Where Does the Time Go?

I'm amazed at how quickly time goes.  When I was a child I felt as if the summer would NEVER end, I would NEVER turn 12, or 13, or 16, or 18, you get the picture.  Once I had kids, I felt as though time has continued to NOT be on my side.  The days for the most part seem to come and go in the blink of an eye. And my girls... they too continue to grow for me at an exponential rate.  I beg them to slow down, but to no avail.  They just keep growing and growing and growing. 

I do know this is all in accordance with the plan that has been laid out before me and all, but man... can't I just freeze time for a little while?  Do you feel this way too? 

I've been on spring break this week, but it hasn't felt much like a break since we've been very busy.  Our oldest still had to go to school this week as she was on spring break last week.  So this post is VERY overdue.  I just love these girls and I continue to pray to the Lord above that we are making them strong.  Strong in faith, strong in themselves, strong.  Strong.  I have a lot of fears an anxieties about the world and my girls.  I just pray we're doing it right. 

Here's a few pictures of our three brown eyed girls.

Our oldest.  She's getting ready to lose her 3rd tooth!!! 
A top one finally.  :)

Our middle before she CHOPPED her hair.



Over 10 INCHES!!!!

Our youngest..... don't let the cuteness fool you.  :)

 From our BROWN eyes to yours...

A Little Catch UP... As Always

It's so hard keeping up with everything.  I'm trying, really I am, but I'm a slave to other things right now. 

February is a BIG month for us!  2 birthdays and one 1/2 birthday!  :)  Other than that, I had two conference nights at school, swim lessons, a party for school, preschool, a 2nd lost tooth and the list goes on and on.  But I do know that the Lord would not give me more than I can handle and at this time..... this is all I can handle.  :)

  Our Birthday Girls...

  The BEST PET EVER!!!!

 What does a fox say????!!!!!!????

 

 Our new pet.

  She wanted no icing... just like her mama.  :)

 My sweet now 6 YEAR OLD!



At some point, I will share their stories of coming into this world, but right now... a stack of books are calling my name because they need to be graded. 
Only what I can handle, right?!?  :)


From our BROWN eyes to yours...

Wednesday Wowza!

Wowza is all I can say about the dumping of snow we received last night.  We are currently on Snow Day #8!!! EIGHT, you read that right.  I'm am completely and utterly tired snow, cold, and ice.  I'm looking forward to the 90's, sun, and swimming!!!!!  :)  Well... we will be swimming tonight, but it's not the same. 
So what do you do on snow day #8 you ask????  Why... Blizzard Bag #2 of course.  BOO!!!! One does blizzard bag, one writes a story and the other traces her nickname.  :)  That's not really my wow, but when all three can be working at once and no one is yelling at each other, I guess that is a wowza!!!

Last night catching snowflakes with our tongues


 

Here's the story our middle wrote.  In my class we are reading Mo Willems books and if you can read them... DO. He's sooooo funny.  So we talked about how she could write a story that is "inspired by" one of his stories (what we are going to do in my class next week).  She wanted to write a story called "The Pigeon Wants to Play" which is inspired by his The Pigeon Wants a Hot Dog book.  I use this organizer in my class so I was excited to try it out on her kindergarten mind.  Worked well!

"A playground"

"Maybe somebody is here"

 

My WOWZA is this..... Picture this... Sunday night..... I know it was the super bowl, but that's not the important part. :)  I made dinner (yes, yes, I did. For all that know me that's an accomplishment), we sit down to eat.  First, we pray.  Then, my kiddos start digging in to the new, yes I said new, recipe I tried.  It was my aunts rice casserole.  Here's the wow.... THEY LOVED IT!!!!!! At least two thirds of them loved it.  The youngest just said, "I no like that" without even trying.  Our oldest even went so far as to say it was the best thing she's ever eaten!  I beat out pizza and chicken nuggets!!!!  (I was doing the mommy happy dance in my head) 

So that's my WOW for this week!  Do you have a WOW??? Link up with my Curious Firstie Teammate Em at our teaching blog by clicking on the picture below.  :)

From our snow covered BROWN eyes to yours....