Springtime - Part One

Spring is here and we are enjoying the beautiful warm weather that comes with it.  We have been outside as much as possible playing....

doing a little gardening (me)/digging in the dirt (Hannah and Lily)...

and my personal favorite, because my kitchen stays a little cleaner...grilling...

Hope you are outside enjoying your day too!

Our New Favorite Spot

Hannah and Lily have a new favorite perch these days.  It is a lovely little table that is just the right size for a one and three year old.  My cousin Lauren and her husband Chase picked it up for us from Ikea on a recent trip to Atlanta.  It has become a favorite spot to play music...

enjoy breakfast...

and create...

I have to be careful though because Lily can get a little bored while creating...

And once she is bored she now has easy access to the floor with her "just my size" chair.  Now she has the freedom to hop down and make a mess on the floor...

and then, well...hop back up and make some more mess on the floor...

Ahhhhhh....freedom!

Also, a note to any potential babysitters.  Now that we have this table DO NOT turn your back for even just one second or you, like me, might enter the room and find this...

One Year Anniversary

Today we celebrated the one year anniversary of Lily's baptism - the wonderful day when little Lils was officially welcomed into the church. After supper tonight we lit Lily's baptismal candle and said a prayer together as a family.

Lily sat quietly in her chair and tried to blow out the candle the entire time.

After the prayer we each took a turn blessing Lily on her forehead...

Once our prayer ended we enjoyed a special dessert picked out by Hannah for her sister...

Lily took a couple of little licks and much like her birthday cupcake sat it to the side and went about her business...

I am sure that soon enough she will be devouring these treats!  Happy Monday to you all!

A Peek Inside

I am praying that today is our last day of being home bound because of sickness for a while.  We have had quite a month thanks to sinus infections, viruses and stomach bugs.  While I certainly do not relish in the fact that any one of us is ever sick, I am trying to appreciate the time that it allows us to slow down, snuggle close and do nothing but take time for each other.  On one of our good days - meaning we were actually dressed and feeling ok - I took some photos of Hannah and Lily playing inside...

Hopefully life will return to "normal" tomorrow!

Blue Sky Dreamin'

I am in the midst of operating an infirmary around here thanks to a stomach bug that just won't seem to go away.   Since we are stuck inside I thought I would post some photos of the girls playing outside last week.  I hope to enjoy the blue sky and fresh air again very soon...

  

  

  

  

  

 

Mother's Luncheon

I don't know if any of you fellow bloggers do this or not but once I go a few days without blogging I get writer's block.  I have had a really bad case of writer's block/sick kids/out-of-town guests/messy house/pretty weather/my first trip away from my children in 2 years/...  I could go on and on but obviously I have a lot to cover so I better get started on my recap of what we have been up to over the past week and a half.  I thought that last weeks Mother's Luncheon with Hannah might be a nice place to begin.  This luncheon has been on Hannah's school calendar for the past month and we have both been looking forward to it.  Each week I could see via the calendar that Hannah and the other children were preparing feverishly to make this a very special day...the class was baking rolls and cookies, cutting vegetables, making super secret artwork and practicing songs that seemed to be on repeat in Hannah's brain week after week.

The day of the luncheon finally arrived and I went up the stairs of the school to the hallway by Hannah's classroom.  The doors to the classroom were closed and each mother was asked to knock on the door and enter the classroom one at a time.  It was my turn so I knocked and Hannah's teacher opened the door and let me in.  I was greeted by a class of little faces sitting quietly in their chairs and eagerly watching to see if it was their mother's turn to walk through the door.  I looked down and Hannah was by my side handing these to me...

 

I took my beautiful handmade flowers from her and she took my hand and let me to my seat.  After all the mothers were seated each child left the room and came back in carrying a plate of delicious food...  

  

Once the mother's were all served we were then entertained by some of the cutest kids I have ever seen (if I do say so myself)...

  

  

Oh and I can't forget my favorite part.  When we arrived we were greeted in the hallway with a portrait...

  

and underneath each child answered some questions about their mother...

 

My favorite answers are that I am "2 years old" and "My mommy is a worker in the garage with my daddy.  He works on cars and they are car workers."  Hannah's teacher now thinks we are a family of car mechanics.  Matt is just excited he got a shout out from Hannah on my special "My Mommy" paper. :)

Be back with more soon...

Jelly Beans and More

We have been preparing for the beginning of Lent here in the Brown household and since today is Ash Wednesday I thought I would share a couple of activities we will be undertaking over the next 40 days.

Today begins the first day of our Lenten activity based on the Jelly Bean Prayer...

RED IS FOR THE BLOOD HE GAVE.
GREEN IS FOR THE GRASS HE MADE.
YELLOW IS FOR THE SUN SO BRIGHT.
ORANGE IS FOR THE EDGE OF NIGHT.
BLACK IS FOR THE SINS WE MADE.
WHITE IS FOR THE GRACE HE GAVE.
PURPLE IS FOR HIS HOUR OF SORROW.
PINK IS FOR OUR NEW TOMORROW.

A BAG FULL OF JELLY BEANS COLORFUL AND SWEET,
IS A PRAYER, IS A PROMISE, IS A SPECIAL TREAT
MAY THE JOY OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION
FILL YOUR HEART AND BLESS YOUR LIFE.

This activity involves some jelly beans...

and a jar...

Today we set out a large jar for Hannah with a copy of the Jelly Bean Prayer attached.  For the next 40 days Hannah can earn one jelly bean a day of each color to place in her jar.  Each color jelly bean corresponds with a specific task or behavior based on the colors in the Jelly Bean Prayer.  The exception is the white jelly beans, which cannot be earned - they represent the Grace of Christ, which is a gift not earned ourselves.  On Easter morning, Hannah will wake up to find any empty space in her jar filled up with white jelly beans (Christ's grace).

Here is how we will interpret each color...

• Red is for the blood Christ gave (each morning we will choose something to sacrifice that day to earn the red jelly bean.  It will have to be something Hannah will have the opportunity to have or do on that day)
• Green is for the palm's cool shade (green jelly beans are earned for good deeds.  It was a good dead to provide shade for Jesus with the palm)
• Yellow is for God's light so bright (yellow jelly beans are earned for sharing God's light through kindness to others)
• Orange is for prayers at twilight (orange jelly beans are earned for attentive behavior during bedtime prayer time and night time bible story)
• Black is for sweet rest at night (black jelly beans are earned for going to bed like a big girl)
• White is for the Grace of Christ (white jelly beans cannot  be earned as mentioned above)
• Purple is for His days of sorrow (purple jelly beans are earned through apologizing to anyone we hurt with our words or deeds that day)
• Pink is for each new tomorrow (pink jelly beans are earned when we forgive those who apologize to us for hurtful behavior).

Because I am a little OCD and I needed something for Hannah to do while I was cooking supper, I had her go ahead and sort our jelly beans by color...

and Lily, who is a little young to participate this year, closely observed what her sister was up to...

We are also participating in 40 bags for 40 days this Lent.  The basic idea is to commit to 40 days of potentially uncomfortable "letting go" of some of the "stuff" that clutters our lives and so often interferes with our relationship with God.  It’s a pretty simple concept: We are committed to ridding our home of 40 bags of “stuff” during the 40 days of Lent.  We can throw it away or give it away—garbage, clothing, toys, books, etc.  We can pick the size of bag that makes the most sense for our circumstances—large garbage bags for a lot of clutter, smaller bags for less.  The rules aren't really hard and fast but we are going to try to do the best we can to "let go" of some of the material possessions that are cluttering our lives. 

This will truly be a challenging Lenten season but hopefully we are up to the task!