Saturday Snapshots

I'm linking up with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera! for her Saturday Snapshots linky party. Love it!

I mentioned in one of my prior posts that I spent Monday-Thursday, learning more about the Common Core, specifically English Language Arts. As a culminating activity, we worked in teams to create mind maps.

Does your brain spin when you look at this, too? Yikes!

Last weekend, Princess A helped me make the most amazing coffee cake (find the recipe here!). 

As any good baker knows, the best part of baking is licking the spatula!

My kiddos are pretty good about helping out around the house (cleaning up their toys, putting their dishes in the sink after a meal, etc.), but they were getting too accustomed to receiving little toys and treats for no reason. So, I started using chore jars with them. Every time they do something helpful, they get a gem (thank you, Hobby Lobby!) for their chore jars. When they have 25 gems, they can buy a toy for $5 or less. They can choose to save their gems, and when they have 50 gems, they can buy a toy that is $10 or less.

It's very motivating, apparently!

Deedle and Princess A challenged KShaf to a game of UNO the other evening.

KShaf didn't stand a chance against these two.

Deedle had a really tough time settling down for bed the other evening, so I did something I haven't done since he was a little tyke: I snuggled up with him in the recliner, and sang some of his favorite songs to him.

I will take as many of this little guy's smooches as I can get!

Yesterday, KShaf took Princess A to her riding lesson, much to her delight. While they were gone, Deedle and I went to Starbucks for a breakfast date.

KShaf bought me a new desk chair today...it is awesome, and I am in heaven! He also bought the kiddos a tent (we aspire to go camping some day, but in the meantime, the tent is set up under the maple tree in our backyard); why do I get the feeling that we'll be sleeping on the ground tonight?