Mommy Date

Home Made Play Dough

On Tuesday Evan and I had a very special day! We went on a date, just the two of us! It's something that I wish we could sneak away to do more often because we always have such a great time. Ampa came over just after I put the twins down for their afternoon nap for Evan and I to leave. He had a hard time deciding where to eat but finally chose El Charro's. Also, the location of our last date. After lunch we went Conyers to see a movie but first I wanted to go through the car wash since it was Ladies' Day. Evan didn't really want to go through the car wash, he didn't fuss but I could tell he wasn't happy about it. I explained to him that going on date sometimes met doing something special for the other person, even if it's something that you don't enjoy. I figured it was a good time to throw in a life skill moment. Anyway, back to our date... We went to see Kong Fu Panda which Evan LOVED! I did enjoy it as well, but it had some adoption implications that I didn't exactly love but I guess the review of the movie is another post for another day. My favorite thing about the movie was that Evan sat in my lap the entire time and we held each other so close, it was wonderful! Once we came home and got the twins entertained we made homemade play dough. It turned out really well. I've tried to make homemade play dough before and it never has turned out this well. This was a great recipe, for directions check out Evan's blog and leave him a comment. He enjoys them as much as I do. After that, we snuggled on the sofa together and watched Word Girl! What a special day!!

We haven't received it yet but I ordered Let's Go On a Mommy Date by Karen Kingsbury and I can't wait to get it. I love her books!

Crayons On a Roll

I was feeling a bit stressed today (the van door was left open and we had a dead battery, just as I was leaving for an appointment) Anyway, I didn't really feel like tackling the house, or the luggage that needed to be packed or the clothes that needed to be washed. So while the Baby E's took their afternoon nap and Evan watched a movie, I sat down with my sewing machine and felt.

I've wanted to make a Crayon Roll for a while and this one isn't nearly as cute as many that I've seen online but felt is all that I had. I learned some tricks for next time, as with anything creative...you learn as you go. Next time, there are a few things that I will do differently. However, considering that I made it out of my head I think it turned out okay. Clay's cousin Alonda, just had twin girls and I thought this along with a coloring book would make a great gift for Anna Beth, their 3 year old daughter.

Finger Puppet Monsters

Trying to keep a 5 year old entertained at the end of the summer can be a very difficult challenge. Today, I was determined to be up for the challenge! We gathered my sewing machine, felt scraps, wiggle eyes, yarn, and sequins and went to work. I cut out shapes and sewed them together, leaving a finger hole at the bottom. Evan had a lot of fun decorating the monsters. He couldn't wait for them to dry to play with them so we inserted popsicle sticks instead of getting glue all over our fingers. We worked on story telling skills and discussed elements of a story.

Evan's Monster Face!

Homemade Bird Feeders

A few days ago Evan and I made Pine Cone Bird Feeders. I think Evan enjoyed the new All Natural Peanut Butter that I bought better than actually making them. He kept eating it instead of putting it on the pine cone. It was so cute!

Standing under the tree with his pine cone bird feeder and his recycled coke bottle bird feeder that we made.

The Dinosaurs Are Now Extinct

Evan now has his own blog, where we will post some of our recipes and instructions for our projects (and of course some photos too). This is all because Evan wanted to have "His OWN Blog!"


Last week Evan shaped a volcano while playing with air dry clay. After it dried he painted it and we had a blast making it erupt. Yesterday, he got the idea to use it to play with his dinosaurs so he gathered his small ones and had a lot of fun playing, "Dinosaur." Now, with a little baking soda, food coloring, and vinegar, the Dinos are now extinct. Evan had just as much fun washing them in sink afterwards too.

"Now they're Dead."

Stickers Galore!!

Yesterday, we made our own stickers!!Here's an easy way to make your own.You can begin by cutting out small pictures from old magazines.Then, in a small cup, mix 2 parts white glue and 1 part vinegar.Use a small paintbrush to brush the mixture on the back of the picture. Let dry 1 hour, then lick and stick or use a q-tip to moisten the back.This kept Evan entertained for a while and he had lots of fun!!!

Rocket Experiment

Yesterday we created a ROCKET!!! Evan thought it was super cool, though a little startling at first since we didn't know when to expect the "blast off." Thanks to our friends, Chandler and Mrs. Cellosa we had a blast! We didn't really measure the correct amounts so the timing always varied which made it really exciting.

We had two different types of canisters so "hypothesised" which one would work better. I guess the taller pill bottle and Evan guessed the smaller film canister. He was right!!! We talked about why the top pops up and that it is a build up of gases or air, then I asked him why he thought the film canister worked better and he said, "Because it's shorter" My Little Scientist, hard at work!!!

Rockets!!1/4 of an effervescent tablet1 TBsp warm water. Place tablet in lid-pour water into container-quickly snap the lid on and place on the ground-stand back there will be a slight time delay and the top rockets about 10 ft. in the air.

Homemade Fun

As Moms we are have a few ideas or projects that we can share with each other to "entertain" our kids. I though this might be a good place to share some.

Homemade Sidewalk Paint
This works really well! Mix a little less cornstarch than water and add a few drops of food coloring and you have Homemade Sidewalk Paint that washes away when it rains. Evan and I did this again the other day and played Tic-Tac-Toe, he loves it!!

Post your ideas for us to share!!!

We need lots to keep us busy this year (okay that's gonna be hard :-) ) Not necessarily busy but entertained. No more afternoons in front of the TV.

I really want to spend a lot of quality time with Evan this summer since he will be in school ALL DAY soon. I am so accustom to having him home at 12:00 that I'll really miss him. I want this to be a fun summer for him. It's easy to get caught up in the "busyness" of day to day life with twins and I don't want Evan to suffer from that, which is why it is very important to be that we do some "COOL" stuff. My goal is to really focus on him during nap time, and forget about what else needs to be done. This Summer I will celebrate EVAN!

New Words around our house like...Metamorphosis and Chrysalis...

We have new vocabulary words around our house. Words like Larva, Metamorphosis, and Chrysalis. That's right, our house is full of Science Lessons and Projects!!! You already know that we're growing frogs, in fact, we're off to pick up more pond water this afternoon. We've also been growing butterflies too.

Evan is so into history and science, he absolutely loves it! I pray that he is always as interested in Presidents, money, how things work and grow, etc., as he is now. Whenever we go to the library, he heads straight for those sections.

For his adoption day, Amma and Ampa gave him a Butterfly kit. She mailed off the form and ordered the larva. We received them on April 26th and began watching them grow, they were about a half inch long. Within the next couple of days they doubled in size and soon they were hanging from the top of the cup. A day or two later, they had turned into beautiful shiny chrysalis and we transferred them into the net. Evan enjoyed recording the change in his Science Journal. On May 10th, we had 5 beautiful Butterflies! We cared for them and Evan named them all. Evan especially enjoyed watching them eat and petting the "sick" one. We had one whose wings did not develop and could not fly, so Evan took him out everyday and rubbed him softly. Yesterday, we said good-by to our new babies.

Saying Good-Bye

We had one who wanted to say around a while.

It was beautiful to watch them fly away.

Getting Bigger

Headed to the top

The Chrysalis hanging in the net.

Evan feeding them Sugar water on a rose and a paper towel.

The Fuzzy Caterpillar

The fuzzy caterpillar

curled upon a leaf

Spun her little chrysalis

And then fell fast asleep.

While she was sleeping

She dreamed she could fly,

And later when she woke up
She was a butterfly.
Anonymous

A Page from Evan's Science Journal

Tadpoles

Evan is so into history and Science, he absolutely loves it! I pray that he will always be as fascinated money, Presidents, how things work and grow, etc., as he is now. Whenever we go to the library he heads straight for those sections.

Once a week, usually on Mondays we meet Daddy for lunch at the Park. Evan swings while Clay and I feed the babies and then it's down to the pond to see what we can see. Here are a few pictures from the last two Mondays.

Evan wanted to catch tadpoles, so we came back well equipped. He had such a blast scooping them up in the spoon and watching them. After we left the park, we went to the library and checked out "Growing Frogs" by Vivan French. The book tells us how what to do. The tadpoles are proudly on display in the "Science Center" in Evan's room. (Along, with the caterpillars that he is "growing" and his three fish.)

Tadpole, Tadpole

Tadpole, tadpole

Swimming in my pail

Big round head

And wiggly tail.
Some day soon

Four legs will sprout

And then, small frog,

You'll hop right out!

Anonymous

Mommy and Daddy taught me how to eat a Honeysuckle...Cool.

The Swing...How High Can YOU Go?

The Little Turtle

There was a little turtle.

He lived in a box.

He swam in a puddle.

He climbed on the rocks.
He snapped at a mosquito,

He snapped at a flea,

He snapped at a minnow,

And he snapped at me.
He caught the mosquito,

He caught the flea,

He caught the minnow,

But he can't catch me.

Vachel Lindsay

Just Chillin' with my blankie

The Hodges Go Green...We Challenge You!!

(I just realized that this post was saved as a draft and never published, sorry it's late.)

Evan and I had GREAT fun celebrating Earth Day!!!

Sadly enough, we've never taken the time to recycle. Whenever we have an event at our house I'm stricken with guilt every time someone asks, "Do you want me to throw this [can] away, or do you recycle?" I've been really feeling a moral duty lately to begin to make some changes in our lives and not to live so vicariously but instead to take into account the impact that we have on our plant. It occurred to me within the last week, probably because of all of the global issues in politics and the awareness ads on television that we really do have a negative impact on the precious earth that God created for us. Not to mention the negative example that we're setting for Evan, that was the big one that opted the change. I want him to become aware of our impact and learn that we can make a difference.

After school, we went to the store and bought Rubbermaids to use as recycling bins. We used black chalk board paint to paint a square on the top so that Evan could write, what would be kept inside of it. We watched a video on recycling cans on youtube and he thought it was really cool. I explained to him why we need to recycle and he was really into it. Part of his daily chores now are taking out the recycling.

While we waited for the paint to dry we began making a paper mache Earth. Evan had so much fun getting messy and he was so funny trying to eat our homemade flour/water paste. The next day, he painted his earth and it now is proudly on display in his art room.

While we were at the store we also picked up some of the new energy efficient light bulbs. We plan on switching all of our bulbs out, but we are going to "grandfather" them in as our bulbs burn out. Did you know that these new bulbs are supposed to last up to 5 years and save over $100 in energy bills, not to mention they release 76% less green house emissions than standard bulbs do? Yeah, they cost more than standard bulbs but Wal-mart and other stores often have then on sale, plus you can click here for a coupon to use.



We also entered a contest at Kroger.com to create a reusable bag. We created a bag by uploading a photo that we took in Russia. (A photo of our bag is below)

Other thing change that we are making is to try to only buy concentrated products whenever possible b/c the packaging is smaller it equals less waste. CVS has concentrated ALL Clear buy one get one free this week.

My friend Renee, whom I used to teach with will really get a kick out of this one. I'm trying to use less paper towels and use rags and dishcloths. (Yes, Renee I did have to go buy some) I've never been much on rags and towels b/c they aren't disposable and I seem to think paper towels have less germs. Oh well, I'm giving it a try.

Yes, We still buy water bottles like crazy but we are recycling them now. I did some research and a plastic water bottle will sit in the landfill for 100 years! I also read that in the U.S. alone, we use 1 billion water bottles a week and 76% of them are not recycled!! No wonder our landfills are overflowing!

Another change... In the next couple of weeks I plan on purchasing reusable shopping bags for my groceries. You can get a pack of ten for $20.00 at BagsOnTheRun. A plastic bag sits in the landfill for 1000 (yes, 3 zeros) years.

There is lots that I would love to change but right now just can't. For example, our diaper situation. While I was pregnant I wanted to use cloth diapers but decided I would wait until they got a little bigger so that I wouldn't have to purchase so many different sizes. Now that they are a little bigger, I can't justify the time that would be spent washing them. Our laundry, without 20-25 cloth diapers a day piles up so, that I can't imagine adding that many diapers to the laundry.



We challenge you to make just one change to make a difference!!! Here are some things you might choose to do. Change your light bulbs, combine errands by driving less, take Bob the Builder's advice and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, buy concentrated items, use less water, turn the thermostat up or down 2 degrees, (we haven't done that one yet), turn things off when not in use. If you already do some of these things or if you begin, post us a comment. Evan and I think it will be fun to see what our friends and family do to help save God's precious earth.

Happy Earth Day 2008!

Our Bag...