Tea Party

Yesterday while the kids were at school I set up a tea party. Piper loves to have her stuffed animals at the breakfast table and feed them, so I invited a few of their favorite friends.

 I made PB and honey sandwiches cut up like butterflies. We also had cheese, crackers, grapes, and a cake for dessert. Asher really likes to pour the tea (apple juice) into the cups.

 Dexter had to be contained in the bumbo seat so he didn't destroy the party. He was fine as long as Piper kept feeding him crackers.

Dex Mex

I know I talk a lot about Asher and Piper and the things they are up to. Faithful readers I know you need some Dexter updates as well.

 I don't know what to say other than Dexter is a joy to have. He is so laid back and easy. I can put him down and he'll play on the floor for hours. He is highly content just watching the craziness of his brother and sister. He is a master of the army crawl and has followed his siblings in their love of dog food.

 He still has just the two bottom teeth, which he loves to use on my face. If you get to close he grabs your face and tries to bite your chin. Sometimes if I'm at the table he'll crawl under it and bite my toes.

This is what I refer to as his Sexy Dexy pose. He saves it for all his lady friends.

Heart Bookmarks

This morning has not been going so well. Nate was in New Mexico all weekend and got back last night. He was here a bit this morning before he left for work. The kids have been missing him and there is no school today. That combination really puts Asher in a foul mood. He has been really mean, so I decided to do a craft about love. 

 While I set some things up the kids colored.

 I broke out some stickers which is always a crowd pleaser in this house.

 We made heart book marks today!

Have I mentioned how much I love Valentine's Day. I think it may be my favorite holiday. I love all the crafts you can make.

Book marks

 Yesterday while Dexter was napping and Piper was doing quiet time in her room (not napping) Asher and I made snowmen bookmarks. We used craft foam and cut out some circles.

 Asher loves to uses scissors. He cuts with one pair in each hand.

 We decided to make a pink snowman and a blue one as well.

 I think they look pretty good.

This is what happens when Piper wakes up early, plays hard all day, and doesn't take a nap. She falls asleep while eating dinner with food in her mouth.

Cake Baking

Yesterday Asher had a bad day at school. He was hitting some of his friends and had a hard time listening. My first reaction is to really get on him and demand a reason why he acts this way. In the bible study I'm in we are reading Grace Based Parenting. I'm trying to understand grace better and show my kids the grace that they need. I put the little two to bed and Asher and I decided to make a cake. While I was doing part of it he played in the sink. It was a really nice afternoon with him.

 He enjoyed some alone time with me and we had some good talks.

He got a little too wet by the end, so I put him in one of Nate's shirts. He had fun putting sprinkles on the cake.

Paper Airplanes

 Today for our craft we made different types of paper airplanes. Asher and I colored some yesterday and today we flew some outside. We wanted to see which one would go the furthest.

 Unfortunately I am not the world's best paper airplane maker so none of them went very far.

We all just enjoyed being outside. It has been in the 60's outside and the kids love it.

Snowman Socks

Today Asher's friend Brody came over to play for a few hours. I wanted to do another craft, but I waited until Piper took a nap. We made snowmen out of old white socks. The boys started off by putting rice in the bottoms.

 After we filled the bottom of them we used small hair ties to make the bottom layer. We repeated the step for two more layers until we had our snowmen shapes.

 After a quick snack break I hot glued the eyes, nose, and buttons on. I think they look super cute and they were very easy to make.

Asher's tough guy face.

I folded the top parts of the socks down to make a hat.

Puzzle Making

 Last year I bought a book off Amazon titled Make and Takes. It has four kid crafts for every month. The first one I chose to do was puzzle making. I cut up some cereal boxes to start with. I wanted to paint them white.

 Piper decided she didn't want to paint hers white.

 Dexter enjoyed watching the artistic process of his siblings.

 Asher stuck with white, but the paint we used wasn't the best. I had to do about 4 coats on both of mine to completely cover them.

 I let the white ones dry and then painted snowmen on them.

 We let them dry overnight and then today I cut the pink one out.

 It was an ok project. The kids enjoyed painting, but couldn't do any of the cutting.

New Year!

I have never made a New Years Resolution and this year I'm going a bit crazy. I'll be talking about a lot of them over the next few days, but want to address a few now. Some of the blogs I follow are doing a $0 budget for January and the Niphakis clan is jumping on board. We can pay for our bills, gas, and very basic groceries (milk, eggs, etc.). We will not eat out at all, or buy anything for the house. I'm pretty excited to see how this goes.


Nate and I want to have a goal together so we decided we are going to learn to play the piano. Nate received some gift cards for Christmas and we bought a nice keyboard.


One of my personal goals is to be much better with how I spend my time in the afternoons. I tend to waste time perusing blogs and pinterest. I also feel that Asher spends too much time with electronics. I want to do more crafting and science with him. I put together a list of all the craft projects I'd like to do this year (good thing I bought most of the supplies last month). My goal is to do two every week. My faithful readers will need to keep me accountable.


How about you guys? Are you setting goals? Any fun ones?