What did You do on Easter?

Still in the Spirit of the celebration, I'm wishing you all a warm hearted HAPPY EASTER. Our day started with a Church Service and after that we headed to a small but nice family friendly restaurant for launch. We celebrated with some family friends and the weather was so friendly too.
Here are some pictures of our day:

Versatile Blogger Award

Speechless, that's the only word I can use for now. I received three Blog Awards (all Versatile Blogger Awards). Three awards under 24 hrs, are you kidding me? I'm so happy and thankful.
The awards came from Cindy of Yankee Texan Mom , Joy of CATHARSIS and Char of The Epic Adventure of a Modern Mom.

There are rules for these awards:
1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2. Share seven facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 new-found blogging buddies.
4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them.

So, here are 7 facts about me.
1. I'm a bible believing Christian.
2. I have a Bachelors Degree in Economics.
3. I'm left handed.
4. I like planning and planning big. Even if it doesn't work out, it's always worth to try.
5. I love reading. I can exchange my food for a nice book,story, article,just name it. Reading is also my sleeping dose.
6. I am family oriented.
7. I am NAPPY. I love my Kinky Natural Afro Hair. I can't give it up for nothing.

I'm giving the Versatile blog awards to:

1. May of ONEMOMENTINTIME
2. Cynthia of InSeason Mom
3. CJ of Killing SuperWoman
4. Dagmar of Dagmar's Momsense
5. Cynthia of AKA homeschool mom
6. Katrina of My Epic Stories and Writing
7. Mohammad of My SRI LANKA
8. JTWisdom of Bubbling with Elegance and Grace
8. Lindy of News From Italy
9. Jessy of Mummies2ks
10. Kristen of Curious Cora
11. Shelly of My Life as I see It
12. Jennilee of True Life: I'm a Stay at Home Mom
13. Joy of Confessions from a Southern Socialite
14. Barbara of Espanol para Ninos (Spanish for Kids)
15. Hippie_Mom of Hippie Mom's Frugal Way of Gluten Free Living

Please, check out these blogs, you will love them.

Always Nekky.

What Lessons has Motherhood taught You.

Did motherhood take me by surprise? The answer is No with capital N. I planned having my children. I longed to become a mother. I started reading some parenting books when I was pregnant. I didn't expect to be a perfect mother or to have perfect children and neither was I expecting a stress free life while raising up my children, but when the reality of motherhood hit me, it was as if I was taken by surprise. In parenting, so many things are easier said than done. What works perfectly well for one may be a joke for the other. In all things, I've always counted myself blessed. Motherhood has taught me and will still be teaching me a lot. Just as parents want to shape their children, I will admit that my children have shaped me. I have grown up, I think differently, talk differently,act differently, all thanks to motherhood and my wonderful children.
These are some lessons motherhood has taught me:

1. PATIENCE, PATIENCE, and more PATIENCE: Tell me where they sell this virtue and I'll order a truck load of it. With children, you will be dishing out dozens of patience daily and it's never enough. We all know how it is with meltdowns, tantrums and the rest of them. Only patience will make you overcome such stages and still keep your mind intact.

2. NEVER SAY NEVER: I could remember blaming parents for not doing enough when their children throw tantrums in the public places. I always watch as some toddlers throw themselves on the floor and cry (in public). I believed that would never happen to me. My children will know how to behave themselves in public. Now, with all my attempts to model good behaviour and teach good manners to my kids, public tantrums have become a way of life.

3. FORMING FAMILIES IS SERIOUS BUSINESS: You have to be committed, you need to plan thoughtfully ( even thinking of the right menu to put on the dinner table is not that easy). Some parents have emotionally abandoned their children to fame, work, personal pleasure, money etc. I have given a higher preference to my family over my career.

4. THERE IS NO PERFECT MOTHER: Super Woman simply died of exhaustion. One mom blogger wrote "show me a perfect mom and I'll show you a broken nose". In my struggle to have everything done right, I've learnt to compromise. At times, I forget about preaching table manners and let the kids sit down on the floor and eat their launch. I'm lenient at times when they come out from their rooms in the middle of the night to join us in our bed. We break some rules once in a while and they are not taking advantages of that. I'm not perfect and it doesn't disturb me and I'm very happy my children accepted me the way I am.

I want to hear from other mothers, What Lessons has Motherhood Thought You? Please share with us.

Always Nekky.

Easy Easter Craft for Small Toddlers.

We have done lots of Easter crafts this season and my kids had fun doing them. They painted the windows, Easter Eggs, made some Easter cards. When it comes to painting (especially with water colours), I always have problems with little brother (2yrs). He ends up making a lot of messes which gives me extra clean up job. Because of this, I found out a way to make an easy but fun Easter craft with him. We did these crafts while big sister was in Kindergarten and he was so proud.

Here are the things we used:

This is the background picture. All we did was to paste transparent coloured papers, grasses and cotton wools to the pictures.

These are the transparent coloured papers. All we did was to tear them into pieces and glue them on the picture. Little brother likes anything 'tearing'.

Some Easter grasses. I got them for less than 1 Euro, in Müller.

We also used some cotton wools for the cloud and the sheep.

These are what he came up with. Free of messes. I would like to do things like this with him over and over again.

Praise that Child!!!

Children thrive off praises, who doesn't anyway. I found out that I have gotten lots of positive behaviours out of my kids through praises. You can raise your child's self esteem and confidence with positive words. Praise helps to encourage good behaviour in children.
I always look out for opportunities to praise my children and I'm seeing the results.
When I commend them for greeting and saying "Hello" to people, they tend to greet more and loudly too.
If I tell them how nice it was for tidying up their toys alone, they go on and tidy the whole house (as much as their little hands could).
Telling them how happy I am for dressing up the dinner table, they clear up their plates after eating. These are to mention but a few.
Praising them doesn't have to be a pretence and I think kids have this instinct that tells them when you are real or fake. I mean it when I praise them. I look into their eyes with a big smile from my heart. They know it and I think they feel it too and that's why they respond to it.
Kids are easily bored and that's why I wouldn't want to bore them with a repetition of some words of praise. I goggled something on-line. It is called 101 WAYS TO PRAISE A CHILD.
It's amazing and I love it. I printed it out and pasted it where I can always see it. With this, you don't have to use the same old one again and again. There are so many versions of it (101 Ways to Praise a Child) if you go to goggle. Print which ever one you like and start PRAISING.
I wish you good luck.

Always nekky.

Paint-it-up

The weather is getting better, thank God it's spring again. Today, I told the kids it's time to do some of our indoor activities outside. They decided to do some paintings, I told them to look around and paint whatever they see around them.
This is what they came up with:

THINGS WE USED
1. Water colour paints
2. Paint brushes
3. Some old carton papers

Some of the things we used

This water colour was cheap and I always make sure I buy the one with (Stiftungs Warentest), which means that it does not contain any harmful substance.

I'm teaching my kids to be environmentally friendly. We hardly throw old carton papers away because they are reusable. They come in handy in things like these and lots of other crafts we do.

We made use of their front sides

There are nice gardens of spring flowers downstairs. I wanted them to look and paints some flowers but they decided to be creative in their own ways

Although the sun was shinning, big sister was busy a painting a blue sky, rainbows, rain drops, sun and ?

This is her finished work and she was very proud of it. Younger brother threw his own downstairs before the end of the whole thing.

What do you think of big sisters painting (she is 4yrs)? Send your comments and I will definitely pass it on to her?

A visit to MONREPOS (Monrepos Palace)

When my daughter's music teacher told us a short story about SEESCHLOSS MONREPOS, we were all excited to visit the place.
Monrepos (German: Seeschloss Monrepos) is a lakeside palace in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Via narrow pedestrian paths, the little palace is connected to the Favorite Palace, formerly used by the royal family of Württemberg as a hunting lodge, and the Ludwigsburg Palace (Residenzschloss).
It's always fun to discover new places or things to do with the kids since they are easily bored with repeated activities. The Palace is about 5 minutes drive from our house and I didn't know what a fun place it is. It was a beautiful sunny spring Sunday afternoon and the place was almost crowded with visitors. People came for sight seeing, horse riding, boat rides, pick-nicks, wedding ceremony, etc.
Here are some pictures of what we did.

Front view of the Palace

It was along walk from where we parked, we let the kids to ride with their bicycles.

This lake was the highlight for the kids and with did enjoyed some boat rides.

Rent-a-boat

Big sister enjoyed being in front of the boat.

Since I was inside the boat myself, it was easier for me to capture other people in their boats.

Swans are cool, I love them.

A better view.

A cave by the lake.

Back view.