What we've been up to

Last week we had some beautiful weather. The sun was finally out again!!! So we took advantage of it and spent a good amount of time outside. We visited the park one day and on Friday the girls and I went to the zoo. Sanaa has been asking to go to the zoo for weeks, but it's been rainy and cold the majority of the time and we haven't been able to go. This week we're back to seeing lots of rain, but that's okay since we have another busy week ahead of us with lots of errands to run.

While I prepared dinner one evening, Sanaa decided Layla needed a hair cut. Layla sat still for a little while as Sanaa attempted to put a "cape" on her, but that didn't last long. When Sanaa realized she couldn't get Layla to come back she settled for giving her doll a hair cut instead.

I have started doing a lot of crocheting. I made a hat for Sanaa and she loves it! It isn't quite finished since I plan to attach some flowers and/or butterflies to the hat. I also need to start one for Layla now.

Sanaa insisted Nate needed to try on the hat.

I found a yummy recipe on Pinterest for taquitos and made them. The first attempt didn't look very pretty but they tasted good. With my second attempt they turned out great. Nate was very excited I made them since they are some of his favorite things to eat.

I've also been quite busy tagging and pricing all the items I'll be selling at the upcoming consignment sale this weekend. I'm glad the sale starts soon because it'll be really nice to have my dining room back to normal instead of filled with clothes and toys.

First homework

Sanaa brought home her first "homework" assignment earlier this week. In preschool they have begun to talk about numbers and are creating a number book at school. Her teacher has started to send home number sheets for the kids to trace the number they studied and then practice writing it. Sanaa was very proud of herself for writing and then finished by coloring in the picture. She doesn't have to return the paper to school since it's just for practice but she still enjoys showing her teacher what she's done.

This is the bird feeder that my dad made for us for Christmas. Isn't it cool? I'll hang it up eventually but for now it sits on our outdoor table and the birds quite enjoy it. We typically get a lot of chickadee's at the feeder so when this guy showed up Sanaa got very excited.

Pushed to the edge

I've been playing with the Rose City Flute Choir since October. I had a great time playing with them in the fall and really enjoyed the music. It was challenging, but fun. We took a 3 week break and started back up the beginning of January with our spring season. The director had mentioned that our spring season would be a bit challenging since there were at least 2 songs that were quite difficult.

She wasn't kidding.

I've played the flute for 20+ years but after our first rehearsal in January I seriously wondered what in the world I was doing and if I was out of my league. One of the songs that we're playing this spring is called Over the Edge by Benjamin Boone and that song just might push me over the edge. You can hear the song at this link. The recording is the National Flute Choir playing Over the Edge with Benjamin Boone conducting. Our very own conductor (Phyllis) was one of three bass flutists that got to play this song when they recorded it.  It's a long piece (nearly 10 minutes) and the first time I heard it, my thought was, "Are we seriously going to play that?"

There have been several weeks (and Nate can attest to this) that I've come home from practice overwhelmed and ready to quit. During the first few practices I would get so frustrated as we played the music because we'd get to a part where I had to stop and count the lines above the regular staff just to figure out what note I was suppose to be playing (we're talking high A's, high B's that are 4-5 lines above the staff). I'm not use to playing that high, let alone know how to finger those notes. On top of that, the warm ups were killer. Our director likes to pick out the scales with 4-5 flats or sharps to warm up on and play them as 8th notes or 16th notes. I hate sharps. I really hate sharps.

But despite everything, last night was the first good practice I've had since the beginning of January. I did completely screw up the warm up since we did ascending arpeggios that were in the major, minor, diminished, and augmented keys. What?!?!? I'm not a music major!!!!

I think I'm going to have to start practicing the warm ups now..... But I am becoming a better flute player and getting the challenge I probably needed. I definitely don't enjoy being challenged so much, but I think I will stick with it for now. Plus, several of the flute members have commented that this is definitely the hardest season of music they've played so far and that makes me feel a little better.

If you're in Oregon in May, you'll need to come listen to the flute choir perform. I do hope to get a recording (or two) of our performance in May to have on hand for people to hear.

Growing independence and a copy cat

My days around the house are tiring, long, but amusing. Sanaa is becoming more and more independent every day. This week she has shown a great deal of interest in dressing herself, although she gets frustrated easily. There has been a couple of days she has gotten most of her clothes on all by herself. Getting her shirt on is by far the hardest part. One evening after bath she even put on her pjs and brushed her hair all by herself. I cringed a lot as she brushed her hair because she insisted on brushing it upward instead of downwards creating a nice big knot. But at least she tried.

Sanaa has also started to insist on making her own food at times. She has managed to make her very own pb&j sandwich. She had a hard time getting the jam out of the jar but she did all the spreading, put the two pieces of bread together, and even cut her sandwich in half. 

The final thing Sanaa has insisted on doing lately is tying my shoes. She spent about 5 minutes tying one of my shoes and it took me about 5 minutes to get it undone. But at least she's practicing!

The finished product.

And then their is Layla.... little miss copy cat. She has to do everything her big sister does. If Sanaa is dancing, Layla will dance. If Sanaa is reading a book, Layla will look at a book. If I set lunch or dinner on the table and Sanaa refuses to eat any of it, Layla refuses to eat any of it. Ugh.

Layla has also witnessed her sister draw on herself and copied that as well. One day Layla decorated her leg with green marker and the next day she used a pen to decorate her tummy. Layla also used the pen to decorate our couch, which I still need to clean.

Layla was upset that I made her stand next to the tub to take her picture because she really wanted in the tub. She loves bath time!

Chalk drawing

Can anyone guess what Sanaa's chalk drawing is? 

She's turning into quite the little artist.

Answer: Sanaa drew me (or in her words, "It's mommy.") Yep, belly and all. I apparently have a very funky hair-do too. What you can't really see from the picture is that she used multiple chalk colors for my hair and belly. I'm quite impressed with her drawing.

Homemade bath paints

I had one of those, "why didn't I think of that sooner" thoughts this afternoon. Sanaa loves to paint and do anything artsy. Layla would love to join in, but there are days I just don't want to clean up the mess after Layla. So I looked up how to make bath paints and found a recipe with 3 ingredients on another blog. So cool! I only mixed up two colors since I wanted to see how it went and it went well. The girls, especially Layla, loved it. This is by far the best way to let Layla paint. At least until the weather is warmer and I can hose her down outside.

They painted a good portion of the tub, but also had a great time wiping the paint off! I didn't have to do any cleaning after their bath since they wiped down all the walls for me.

Next I plan to try making bath crayons. I've found several recipes for that as well and I hope that the crayons last longer than just one bath. The girls emptied the small amount of paint I made, which I fully expected them to do and it would be nice to have something for them to draw with/paint with that lasts longer.

Malakai's room

Yesterday I put together most of the crib that Sanaa used to sleep in. The girls "helped" by playing in the room and saying, "Uh-oh" whenever I dropped a screw. I ended up putting it together as a daybed for now because the girls were very excited about using it. I figure Malakai won't be using it for quite some time, so why not let the girls enjoy the room as a playroom until Malakai arrives. Besides it'll only take a couple of minutes to put the fourth side of the crib on and raise the mattress.

The car rug was a gift last year to our girls and I figured that would work well in Malakai's room. It's always nice to be able to use something you already have!

I still have a ways to go with the room. I want to move the curtains in the girls room (they are white with blue stripes) into Malakai's room, but that means finding some new curtains for the girls. I need something kind of heavy since a lot of light comes in through their window and will wake Sanaa up. I also would like to get a crib skirt for Malakai's crib. I've been tossing the idea around of making one and looked up several tutorials on the internet. It doesn't look hard (just a bunch of straight line sewing) but it's a matter of finding fabric and time to actually sew. So we'll see if I actually complete that project or cave in and buy something!

Malakai's room is also a yellowish color which I'm not fond of, so I'd like to repaint the room as well. But that is one project I refuse to tackle when it's just me and the girls. I think the girls would be a little too helpful and get paint all over. I know Sanaa could help since she helped paint Nate's study in our old house, but I'm not sure Layla would that helpful.