My Grandma celebrated her 80th birthday this weekend. It is times like this that make it hard to live so far away from my family. I longed to be there with her!
My childhood memories are filled with trips to my Grandma and Grandpa's house. Those visits were the highlights of my summers. I can still taste the cherries I could not stop picking from their tree, or the chocolate rice I would beg them to make me for EVERY breakfast.
Oh, the patience my grandparents showed me. They were never quick to anger when I did things like drive their tractor straight into a tree or my cousin and I decided all of their cats needed a bath.
My Grandmother sat through all of our "performances" we had prepared for her and she didn't bat a lash when we had the terrific idea to have a lemonade stand at her house (in the middle of the country).
Thank you Grandma for all of my cherished memories you have created. Thank-you for the pillowcase pajamas you made me, whenever I see fireflies my mind turns to the evenings we would wear those pillowcases and run around your yard. Thank you for the long country drives with breath taking Kansas sunsets we have shared. You are the best and I am lucky to have you!! Love you!!
Eve gave me this book "The Creative Family" to borrow and I have been totally inspired by it!! It is written by Amanda Blake Soule, she has a blog at http://www.soulemama.com/. I'm sure I am probably one of the last people to hear about her. I have to admit I have only checked her blog out once (as I have mentioned before I am a horrible blogger) but what I saw I loved.
Her book has so many simple ideas for family activities, like charades, family drawing time, making up stories together, just simple little things but they can create the best family memories.
I love in her book she said about children's toys "less is really more". Sometimes it seems that the girls have so many toys strung out that they don't know what to do with them all. This week I took 3 big trash bags of toys to D.I. and it felt great. I also stored a lot of their toys that they don't use very often in our crawl space. Now there is more room for them to play, and there is order to the toys we have.
Here are some things that I am dying to try from the book:
-Transfer some of my girls drawings onto cloth, embroider them and make them into pillows
-Make children's pants out of an old T-shirts
-Have regular family drawing time
-create a stage somehow in our backyard for summer time "performances". (something real simple, probably with just a couple of poles, string, and sheets)
Here are some "Valentines Crowns" that eve made for the girls out of a pattern that was in the book. How darling are these! I want to make some birthday ones for the girls that they can wear every year!
I made these bean bags a couple of days ago. The girls and I love to try to knock over toilet paper rolls and toss them in the laundry basket. I'm not trying to sound like I am telling you I am the perfect mom. I am Far from it (the girls are actually watching a movie and raiding the snack cabinet as I type). But I enjoy being inspired by other peoples ideas to become a little better myself.
