Creative Activities for Family Home Evening

I told the girls we would be having Family Home Evening tonight. A bit later I saw Elise drawing a picture and she asked me for some scissors. She said she was making a game for our family home evening activity and it was going to be a puzzle that we all had to put it together. She is so cute and creative. I showed her how to hold the scissors and she actually learned how to cut for the first time. She cut her picture up in so many little pieces.  At family home evening last night we all tried to put it together, which we couldn’t really but she was so happy about her game. She even wanted to put it in a special puzzle box after we had finished. Good job Elise!

Anna also decided she was going to make up a game for us to play at family home evening. She wrote a whole bunch of made up words on a paper earlier in the day and during activity time 

we had to sound them out and try to say them. It was pretty fun.

They are at a really fun age right now and get so into and excited about the little things in life. They make life fun.

Dolls and girls and different cognitive levels.

Elise: My Rose (the name of her doll) talks.

Anna: No, she doesn’t; dolls do not talk.

Elise: Well my Rose does talk. Hummph.

Anna: Dolls are not real so they don’t talk.

Elise: She talks to me at nighttime when she is going to sleep.

Me: I think Rose talks.

Anna just looks at me not knowing what to say. I take her aside, out of hearing range of Elise, and explain to her that she is right but little children like Elise like to imagine that their dolls are real so we should let them.

Later that morning the girls both want to bring their dolls to the kitchen table for breakfast.  I notice Anna is pretend feeding her dolls some of her breakfast. I don't know why I thought Elise would do the same, just pretend to feed her doll, after having the previous conversation earlier that same morning; but I did. Then I looked over at Elise I see Cream of Wheat dripping all over Elise’s lap and down her dolls face. Oh great!

Cookies for Breakfast?

This morning Dayna exclaimed in an elated tone "Who wants cookies for breakfast?" This question was met with squeals of delight from the girls. Only then did she realize her mistake, "I mean, who wants cereal for breakfast?" We all had a good laugh. Right when Dayna was about to say "cereal" she caught a glance of the cookie jar and it just came out "cookies." So, the girls were able to have a cookie for breakfast along with their cereal.

First Steps

Trying to keep up with her sisters.

Follow the Leader, Dancin' and Jumpin' Style

The girls decided to play a little follow the leader this evening, and Grace was the leader. When Grace dances, the girls dance. When Grace jumps, the girls jump. You can't get much more fun than this.

Fun Feats

Anna, Elise, and Kent went to a birthday pool party. At this pool, there was a short diving board. After a lot of coaxing, Anna decided to jump off the diving board. After that first time off the board, I was barely able to convince her to stop jumping off the diving board so we could eat some dinner.
Once we arrived home, there was another surprise. Grace learned how to stand up. In the video below, she

Anna and Papa play Chinese Checkers

Recently, I (Kent) taught Anna how to play Chinese Checkers. I was amazed at how quickly she learned. After she and I had played a game or two, she decided (with a little encouragement) to challenge Papa.
It was amazing to see how quickly she learned and adapted. In the game I played with her before this video was shot, she would focus on moving one marble at a time to the other side of the board. If possible, she would jump it, but it was always moving one marble the entire way and then going back to get the next marble available. It was neat to see that she watched how I played and adapter her play style based on what she saw me do. The result was a somewhat close game between her and Papa.