Artists

Yes, my daughters are artists, and I love watching them create their art. January was a month of watercolors, and Addie and Emily began demonstrating very unique styles. Addie is very careful with her brush, choosing colors carefully (often blue - the color that ran out first in her palette) and using light slow brush strokes to make very small lines and shapes of color. Emily, on the other hand, is a bit more wild with her brush, making broad strokes with bold colors (she was very sad when her black ran out). Emily began using a napkin to blot her brush between colors, and a napkin is now a staple for her when painting with watercolors.

Elizabeth's On Her Feet!

It is so fun to watch Elizabeth do something that makes her proud. Her face lights up, her eyes sparkle, and her smile stretches from ear to ear.

Walking and standing were Elizabeth's big accomplishments last month, and boy was she excited to to both!

Here she is walking with her new walker...


And here are a month's worth of standing pictures....

Ten Months!

Dressing Up

The dress up box and mirror came up from the basement last month, and have provided hours of entertainment for these two little imaginative gals.

Fun in the Kitchen

(Click on the logo above to visit Sticky Fingers' website. Among other things, you'll find tons of great recipes!)

The moms in my twins club meet one evening a month and there's usually a speaker. This month, we had a chef from Sticky Fingers Cooking come to talk about how to get kids inspired to make healthy choices when eating, and getting them in the kitchen to help with meal preparation. One of her suggestions was having the kids take turns making the dinner salad each night, and another suggestion was having kids use a lettuce knife to practice cutting skills.

In an ideal world, I'd have my kids in the kitchen every night to help me with dinner. The girls love pulling chairs up to the island to help with whatever they can get their hands on. But in reality, 5:00 is the witching hour and all I want is a few moments to myself while I throw something together for my family to eat. This weekend, though, with Dad home and focusing his attention on Emily and Elizabeth, I invited Addie to pull up a chair and make the dinner salad. She put the lettuce, carrots, and celery in the bowl and then cut up the avocado to put on top!

She was ecstatic, thrilled, glowing. She made the salad and then beamed as she brought it over to the table and immediately began serving it up to all of us. Throughout the meal, she reminded all of us that she had made the salad, and we all had many compliments for the chef. The most exciting thing for me - she ATE her salad! And so did Emily. Success!