Green Eggs and Ham

Last Minute Valentines

2012-02-13T17:33:00.002-07:00

I told myself that I was going to be proactive this year and get Valentine's cards done early. Did I? NOPE. It's the day before and the girls VERY nicely asked when we were going to do it. Let's just say that I work well under last minute deadlines. This is a total knock off of Lily's card from last year, but why reinvent the wheel?! I will be staying up tonight and adding the lollipop that gets inserted through their hand. (Jack asked why their hands looked weird)

Useful Stuff

2012-02-10T12:43:00.005-07:00

I know we're addicted to another certain website that has taken over the world. Yes, I'm referring to Pinterest! Hours have been lost, opps, utilized wisely for the betterment of our homes and humor. Oh, the humor.

I saw a "tip" the other day on how to fix scratches on your wood chairs. Well, the scratched chairs didn't apply to me, but I have some awesomely scratched banisters. The tip was; rub a walnut over the scratch. How simple can that be?! I happened to have a can of mixed nuts in my pantry and promptly picked out a few walnuts. I did try and wipe off all the salt before I started rubbing on the wood.

I'm not naming any names (Emma!) may have etched her name and a few Xs in the wood quite a few YEARS ago. They were mostly out of the way and I thought trying the walnut couldn't hurt.

The before:

The after:

It didn't remove the scratches completely, but what a difference! Thank you Pinterest.

Winter Advisory

2012-02-02T11:18:00.002-07:00

Michael has been on a trip for work, this week, in balmy California. He's suppose to get back tonight. Unfortunately there is a forecast for "blizzard-like conditions" this evening. Yikes! I'm really hoping he gets home before the storm gets bad.

Of course, what does he have planned for Friday night? A Scout camp out! (Shaking my head, thankful I don't have to go!)

2012

2012-01-31T20:40:00.002-07:00

Yes, it's been a while...ok, a LONG time. I'd really like to get back on the blogwagon. Here's my attempt to start again.

So, 2012. New Year, new goals. I was reading various blogs/forums and there was an interesting thread about trying to choose ONE word to describe the kind of year you'd like to have. I decided that my word for the year is going to be Positive. I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily a negative person, but I know that I would like to have a more cheerful attitude.

What would your word for the year be if you could only choose ONE word?

Fall Leaves

2011-10-25T21:45:00.000-06:00

The weatherman said there was snow in the forecast and I waited until the last second to get some "Fall" pictures of the kids. We took the pictures and ran home because the temperature was dropping and the snow clouds were rolling in.

Jack in 6th grade. Age 11

Emma in 4th grade. Age 10

Lily in 1st grade. Age 6

First Day of School

2011-08-18T18:57:00.000-06:00

It's a monumental year at our house. All three kids in all day school...at the same school. YEAH!

Tallest to shortest, the cousins are excited to start school. Jack and Ana are entering 6th grade together and Cameron and Lily are sharing the playground as big 1st graders. The outliers are are Emma and Brady as Fourth and Eighth graders.

Lemonade Stand

2011-06-23T16:33:00.005-06:00

A successful lemonade stand happens on a hot day with a captive audience. We combined forces with our friends and sold lemonade at a library concert. It wasn't as hot as we thought it was going to be, I may have some leftover lemonade in my fridge (we'll be drinking it for the next three days). All the money that we made (about $30) will be donated to the library. The kids had fun...we'll have to do it again.

Lily gets to sample some of the lemonade.

Keeping Kids Busy

2011-06-21T16:07:00.001-06:00

A friend came up with the idea for a service scavenger hunt. The kids actually seemed excited about doing it. We had a group of four families and then after the first house we split into two teams of two. The time frame was two hours which flew by. Of course the kids were getting tired by the end and the weeding wasn't as enthusiastic as in the beginning. Did we keep points? No. Did the kids have fun? Mostly. Do my kids want to do it again? Yes!

Summer Practice

2011-06-15T15:42:00.000-06:00

I am determined to get more familiar with my camera. My kids are so over me and a camera. I have to pick and choose when to bug them. Of course I swing back and forth between taking too many and not enough pictures.

I tried a lensbaby which has the following effect;
This picture is all in the post production;

Boat

2011-05-30T11:19:00.003-06:00

The "river" by our house has enough water to put the canoe in. With record rains and snow runoff the river is brimming. We dusted off the oars and spent the day shuttling the canoe between put in and take out points. It's nice to drive five minutes to put in, we just need to find a better spot to take out. Carrying the canoe with a kink in my neck is not so fun.

Graduation

2011-05-25T14:54:00.000-06:00

Well, it's that time of year. The end of school. Graduation time. Thankfully we didn't have to buy the tassels or rent the robes. It was a short and sweet presentation of the kids singing a song, reciting a poem, a slideshow of the kids throughout the year, and candy awards. Lily received the "Lifesaver" award for helping save the day when her teacher needed a helper. Lily had great teachers this year!

5x5 (day six) A Happy Closet

2011-05-21T15:30:00.003-06:00

I did start this project earlier in the week, but I didn't do the bulk of it until today. Remember all that stuff that I took out of Emma's closet? Well it had to go somewhere and the hall closet seems the best option. The good news is that I went through the totes and emptied three out of five. That's not bad. The rest of the shelves got reorganized and stuff got shuffled around to fit better. Tada.... a closet.

5x5 (day 5) Ummm....

2011-05-20T19:22:00.003-06:00

I got nuttin'. It's Friday and I'm pooped. Here's my list of excuses;

I french braided Emma's hair for school, that never happens. She wore an "explorer" Indian costume that I made in November for Lily (that she never got to wear). A friend called at 7:01 AM to ask if I could watch her son at 7:30. I babysat her son until noon. Lily had Park Day for Kindergarten which meant I got to hang out in the park for a couple hours. By then it was almost time to pick up the older two from school, wherein I also picked up a couple extra neighbor kids to carpool home.

Whew. It's our last Friday before school lets out next Thursday. I'm happy/tired that school is almost done. By the time we get through all the tests/projects/field trips of May I'm almost ready for Summer to start.

Tomorrow I will do a 5x6 project. I promise!

5x5 (day 4) Piles of Piles

2011-05-19T12:40:00.005-06:00

I make piles. There I've said it. My piles are procreating and making more piles. That's not good! I am (patting self on back) pretty good about keeping up with my laundry. I get clothes in and out and out the door pretty quickly. However, the dryer is the first flat surface once you walk in from the garage or the last surface as you walk out the door. I have a problem with putting things on the dryer to go out the door or putting stuff down as I walk in the door. Let's see how long I can keep this up.

The piles before:

A clean surface:

5x5 (day 3) If You Move A Bookcase

2011-05-18T17:00:00.001-06:00

If nothing else, this challenge has me looking around my house for stuff that I would like to do, but never have the motivation to actually get done.

So far I've moved a bookcase from the basement to Lily's room. For those of you counting that's two sets of stairs.
Then books got moved from a hall closet to the bookshelf which opened up a shelf in the closet. (The bottom shelf had all kid books.) Yes, the others shelves are in need of help as well, but that's another day. Several baskets have now migrated from the basement to Lily's room, including one that needed the liner sewed up. I'm going to head back to the basement and go through toys. It's a thankless job that I'm dreading. Frankly I'll get more done if my kids aren't involved, but this might be a task where in I will lose myself and never find my way out of the basement. If you don't hear from me in two days assume I'm under the piles in the basement.

The good news is that I've filled 4 grocery bags and tossed them. I'm still not done though. I'm close but it's the last 10% that takes the longest. This is the before;
This is the "in progress";
I'll be honest. I haven't finished. But it is so much better than it was that I may be motivated to finish tomorrow. I keep finding things to move to different parts of the house; clothes that need to go to the repair pile, toys that have been misplaced, books that need to get donated, ...you get the picture.

Today is been really productive, but it's tough to see. I'd post a picture of my trash can that is now half full, but that's a little gross.

5x5 (day 2) Hooks and Buttons

2011-05-17T19:28:00.007-06:00

I did wake up with a plan. A very small plan. I just needed to get some hooks for Emma's closet and put them up. Not as easy as it should be. Thankfully Michael was able to lend a hand. As Michael finished, I thought "hey, it looks like an octopus!" Michael noticed the same thing.
This is Emma's closet a little more organized. The bins above need some tags so that I don't forget what's in them. The basket, well let's hope Emma knows how to use it.
One more small item on my never ending to-do list. This jacket has been without two of it's buttons for close to two years. It's a small miracle that I didn't lose them. I finally sewed them back on today.
Please notice the unfuzzy pictures. I did take the time to break out the "real" camera and put away my phone camera.

5x5 Challenge (day 1)

2011-05-16T14:45:00.005-06:00

The challenge for the week of doing 5 awesome things for 5 days was thrown out late last week. It seemed like such a great idea until I forgot about it over the weekend. Admittedly I was a deer in the headlights as I fast and furiously tried to think of something to do. Emma's closet has been begging for an overhaul and thus the first "makeover" for the week.

(Don't ask where the stuff went!)

Amusing

2011-04-25T16:41:00.008-06:00

Lily is my little shadow these days. She's in half day kindergarten and is quick to point out that she is almost in first grade. (be still my heart)

She's my little helper...when she wants to be. I needed to dust off my camera and she became my amusing muse running around the park.

Easter

2011-04-24T16:31:00.000-06:00

We did a neighborhood Easter egg hunt the day before Easter. Lily knocked on our bedroom door at 7 am informing us that it was snowing. I start emailing the other moms trying to come up with plan b. By 10 am the snow had melted and by 3 pm it was dry enough to have the egg hunt. We had about 30 kids show up prepared to find lots of eggs.

Could I get my kids to look at the camera?! They were too busy counting eggs.

Birthdays

2011-04-06T16:28:00.001-06:00

I'm not one to freak out or make a big deal over my birthday, but it made my day when my neighbor brought by these lovely bits of fluffy cakes. The red velvet had to be by favorite.

Under Pressure

2011-03-25T10:06:00.008-06:00

I am motivated by deadlines. Especially when they are REALLY close. I'm not saying that I pull everything off without a hitch, but sometimes if you spend TOO much time on a project, it gets to be overwhelming.

This year has been the year of costumes at school. I don't have a large costume closest to pull from (something about kids destroying everything), but I've been really lucky with finding items and getting very friendly with my sewing machine and hot glue gun. Thanks to fearless sisters' encouragement, I too have become less fearful with "whipping" up a costume.

Lily is having a Fairy Tale ball at school and initially wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I tried to talk her into being Grumpy from Snow White, surprisingly she declined. When I decided to go look for fabric, there was not a yellow fabric in sight that would work...then we found a pink prom dress.

me: Hey Lily, how do you feel about pink?
Lily: Oh yeah, I like it. There's a pink princess I'm sure.
me: Excellent. Off to work we go.

This is what we started with;

Best curtsy.

Looking like a princess.

Strep

2011-03-23T18:27:00.005-06:00

This is Emma. Last year she did not miss a single day of school. She was VERY proud of her perfect attendance award.

This year she had a fever and they frown heavily on kids being sick at school, so they asked if I would come get her. I got her into the doctor's office that day and she tested positive for Strep. She was NOT very happy that I had to keep her home one more day.

Two weeks later, she's not feeling well, so I take her in to see our very nice doctor. He seems doubtful she has strep again. He does the rapid test and she tests positive.

At this point the word "carrier" is thrown out and I get a little concerned (I've watched too many zombie shows lately). I am supposed to bring her back in after she finished the antibiotics and when she is "healthy". No problem, except the appointment where I'm supposed to bring her in healthy...she has another sore throat.

Another rapid test is done, this time it's negative. Hmmm.

Fast forward two days. I just got a call from the doctor's office saying that the longer test is now positive. Awesome. When Emma decides to get sick, she does it spectacularly.

Yum

2011-03-06T17:49:00.002-07:00

I did it. I got sucked into the world of ebelskivers. My first attempt was pretty good, the kids gave them two thumbs up.

I might try mixing it up and putting some filling in them, I suspect that we're classic and will like them mostly plain. I didn't have many options for toppings, the butterjam was so so with my critics. Any suggestions?

Valentine's

2011-02-14T22:23:00.001-07:00

This was an odd year with Valentine's Day being a Monday. Emma's class decided to party on Friday...makes sense to end the week with a party, but kinda a bummer when everyone else in the school did parties on Monday. This is Jacks last year for a class party. He really didn't care about what he took for Valentine's, but he was bummed that I didn't let him decorate a box right before school. I did give him a nice bag he could put his name and stickers on.

Lily had a couple hours before school and that worked to Lily's advantage. We had enough time to pull off this cute card. I saw this a few years ago and filed this in a mental "oh, that'd be cute to do" file and promptly forgot it.

She took a picture for me and we stuck a lollipop through it to give to her class. This is the before picture.

The after picture. I forgot to take a picture with an actual lollipop. To insert a real lollipop, use an exacto knife and cut slits in the photo above and below the hand.

Character Day

2011-02-11T11:34:00.005-07:00

It's Literacy Month and the school decided to gave the kids a pass on uniforms for a day. I put the kids back in uniform and called it "Hogwart's Uniform". I'm kinda tricky like that. Jack has been fast and furiously reading the last book of the Harry Potter series in hopes that we let him see the movie. Emma got a bunch of her friends to be HP characters and she decided to be Ginny Weasley. (No comments on the Harry/Ginny relationship) I don't know what motivated me to get all this done yesterday, but the kids were super excited that I was able to pull it off.
Lily is "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. She could be any character and last minute she wanted to be a dog. Well, I compromised and said she could be a dog IN THE MITTEN. Happy as a clam.

Christmas Break

2010-12-20T11:16:00.004-07:00

It's Christmas break...er, Winter break and the kids are in crazy holiday mode. Lily has decided to dress up any and all outfits with the candy cane choker necklace. Yup, I'm the apathetic mom this week.

Eleven

2010-12-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

How do kids do it?! Another year and another birthday.

Jack is my easy going kid. He is happy most of the time, except when his sisters are conspiring against him. He still loves Legos, although Nerf guns and Video games are starting to creep higher on the playability list.

Happy Birthday Jack!!

Doll House

2010-12-10T10:03:00.003-07:00

For some reason both of the girls put a doll house on their Christmas list. I had mentally crossed that off because I know they are way expensive and then you need to get the furniture. A friend of a friend gave me a phone number of a lady that wanted to give the doll house to a "good home". I'm sure Emma and Lily will love this.

The Day of Candy

2010-10-31T21:53:00.000-06:00

I weighed Jack's bag after all the parties/parades and his grand total was 6 lbs. Holy cow, that's a lot of candy. He managed to get the most, I didn't want to start a competition so I chose not to weigh the girl's candy. He was VERY mature to not rub it in. Of course, his is the "community" bag, er, I mean Mom's chocolate fix.

Hot Glue Halloween

2010-10-30T18:40:00.000-06:00

I finally got motivated/inspired to work on Lily's Mummy costume. I had a general idea, but I needed to let the idea sit for a couple days to really put myself under pressure to complete it.

First we cut off the feet on an old pair of cream tights. I had parts of a leftover sheet that had previously served time in the Greek Olympics for school. The sheet was torn into strips and I broke out the hot glue gun. Nothing says Halloween like hot glue. Next we cut strips of netting and started gluing and turning.

The good news is that I didn't burn Lily. I did scorch a fingertip or two of mine though. I ran out of glue sticks at one point, I guesstimate the total sticks used somewhere around 10. Not bad for one costume.

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-29T21:27:00.000-06:00

We have a tradition of carving pumpkins at the barn in our neighborhood. It's fun to see what everyone decides to carve. Michael and Jack working on "Mario".
Emma pulled out all the stops and tried to include all things Halloween.

Week of Parties

2010-10-27T18:53:00.005-06:00

Last night was Jack's Scout Pack meeting. I, of course, was running around trying to get costumes ready because it was Halloween themed. Somehow, Halloween always manages to sneak up on me. Well, maybe I'm ignoring it until it practically sitting on me. I have a love/hate relationship with this holiday. Who doesn't love the excess of chocolate ripe for the taking? I'll be a little sad when Lily can read and know which chocolate bars actually have nuts. For now, all I have to say is "Honey, you can't eat that, it has nuts." As for the dislike? Costumes are a mystery to me. Being creative sounds great in theory, but I am not at all creative in this realm. Luckily, the kids helped out this year.

I was throwing out random ideas and Emma latched onto the Ipod idea as soon as I threw it out there as a possibility. I had seen this done and it looked SUPER easy. We started working on the costume over the weekend. Of course I was able to leverage a clean room out of her before we started the project. We got mostly done and had to stop for a creative break. We weren't sure what to make the screen out of. We found some shiny black paper and made it work.Jack's costume evolved out of several ideas. He wanted to be a zombie vampire, or a zampire. No problem. That sounds like some fake teeth and a t-shirt stained with blood. Easy peasy.

Lily went as a vampire Tinkerbell, but she really wanted to be a Mummy. I wasn't as motivated to get that costume done by the first "party".

Happy Birthday Emma

2010-10-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

We tried to tell Emma we were going to skip her birthday this year. She could stay 8 for another year. Unfortunately, she didn't take us up on that offer. We also tried to tell her since she was born @ 10 at night, we would have to wait to have cake until then. Once again, she didn't go for it. I guess she's getting smarter in her "old" age.

Denver Zoo

2010-10-08T18:39:00.001-06:00

We had no school today, something about teachers and "prep time". The kids and I went to the Denver Zoo with a friend and her three kids. We were able to fit in one car and it was surprisingly not as crazy as I thought it would be. I guess my kids haven't been to the zoo in a while because they had a great time. I was sure they'd be bored, but the animals really entertained.

Flying By

2010-10-04T10:48:00.004-06:00

I have good intention, but no follow though these days. I must have written a dozen posts..in my head. I'm a little disappointed that they never made it to the computer.

I'm also a little in awe that it's that time of year again. I LOVE fall, but September was so warm that it felt like Summer still. Lily was just asking if we could decorate our house "spooky". I think that I may go look for the fake spider webs and let the kids go crazy. Yup, that's the kind of decorating that interests me right now. Throw it up and call it good. Apathy, isn't it great?!

Published

2010-09-10T13:20:00.003-06:00

I took photos a couple weeks ago and the realtor indicated that she would like to use the photos for an ad. I was more than a little happy when I picked up the newspaper and saw that she had used the picture.

Hilarity; Part Duex

2010-09-08T06:34:00.001-06:00

Feels Like A Monday

2010-09-07T11:49:00.002-06:00

Just because I needed a laugh today.

First Day of School

2010-08-18T17:55:00.001-06:00

As is tradition, I try to take the pictures as the kids are headed off to their first day of school. This is a momentous occasion as I have all three kids in the same school. Jack is starting 5th grade, Emma is entering 3rd, and Lily is doing afternoon Kindergarten. The school is starting 15 minutes earlier which is going to make mornings a little crazy, but I'm not complaining.

It's Great to Be Five

2010-08-15T20:41:00.000-06:00

Lily is at the great age where she can use all her fingers on one hand to show how old she is. She is also of the age to attend Kindergarten. (YEAH!!!!) We celebrated her birthday at the crack of dawn, actually she was so excited because I told her that she could open her birthday cards first thing in the morning. She knocked on our door at 6:20 AM with all the enthusiasm of a new five year old.

She had some grandiose plans that didn't account for a Sunday birthday. I'm not sure who and how many people she invited, but we ended up having a few neighbor friends over to help her celebrate.

More Power

2010-08-13T20:31:00.001-06:00

So, Michael came home from work today with a power washer. It seems he traded his line testers for a weekend with a power washer. I knew that our back patio was dirty, but I didn't realize how dirty it was. Using a power washer is a little addicting, I'm sure there are plenty of things that need to get hosed down. It's a little funny to have been in this house long enough to notice the "newness" wear off.

How many days until school?

2010-08-12T16:30:00.005-06:00

Emma must have heard me chanting today. Six more days, six more days!

Steamboat Vacation

2010-08-09T19:39:00.006-06:00

We just came back from a quick vacation to Steamboat. Our friends invited us to go with them and we had a great time together. The kids were a little crazy the first night which resulted in a little sleep deprivation the second day. The key to making it through the days were the endless activities. Alpine sledding, trips to the pool, hikes, canoeing, and hot springs made the days fly by.

The hot springs are right in town and were a lot of fun for the kids. We were there less then an hour and we had to leave due to a storm that blew in. Guess they don't want people in the pool if they see lightening. We were able to go back a few hours later once the storm passed. These are the kids in the hot springs;

The bummer of the trip was Emma breaking her front tooth on the edge of the pool. Luckily, it must of missed the nerve as she wasn't in pain.
I was able to get her into the dentist today and they fixed the tooth. I'll have to keep an eye on it, but so far so good.

No Pressure

2010-08-01T16:16:00.005-06:00

A friend asked if I would help her take pictures at a reception last night. I had a lot of fun just blending in and taking pictures. The family is in our ward and the reception took place in the next town over. Apparently the church building has "picnic" facilities. Nice alternative to the typical gym reception.

I love that they used books on the tables and buffet.

Red shoes, love them!

Kids Say The Darndest Things

2010-07-23T20:02:00.000-06:00

Emma was having a day. You know what kind of day I'm talking about. By 5 o'clock I was desperate to get out of the house in hopes that I would be a better parent in public. Thankfully my neighbor knocked on my door and offered to go on a walk. We proceed to go on the walk and I have to reprimand said child for fighting with the four year olds. It's never good when you have to reason with an eight year old about the futility of arguing with younger children.

A little bit later, Michael gets home from work and rides his bike to where we have stopped to play. Emma is still being a pill and I have put her in time out. Michael asks if she's had a good day. Her reply; "I was until you came."

Oh SNAP. I saw my future right then. Emma the teenager, quips cutting remarks in the blink of an eye. I'm not sure that taking away her Nintendo DS is going to work when she's 15.

Mysteries of Life

2010-07-21T16:20:00.003-06:00

Ahhh, Jack. We went to the doctor this morning for a mysterious rash on his legs and on his arm. Thankfully the rash is NOT contagious, but it could take up to 8 weeks to clear up. He gets the weirdest ailments.

Happy Anniversary

2010-07-19T11:26:00.003-06:00

Eleven Years! We are not ones to make a big deal, but we did get a sitter and go canoeing for a few hours by ourselves. Michael went all out and got a slice of ice cream cake and had the name Skip put on it. (You'll have to ask him)

Limited Attention

2010-07-14T11:48:00.003-06:00

Emma was gung ho about "helping" me make a skirt. Help lasted until about the middle of the project, then she got sucked into some tv show. This is her watching tv as I looked to see if it fit. I think she no longer cares, but "we" did make a skirt together. (Thank you Keira for the tutorial)
Rotten child. She wasn't happy about any of her clothes choices and wanted to wear a pink skirt of Lily's. Umm, Lily barely fits in the skirt, Emma was certainly not going to fit. She was willing to wear jeans under the skirt to make it modest, but it's going to be in the 90s today. I had to explain that layering in hot weather is not a good idea. If you look closely at the fabric, the owls are wearing hats and scarves. Not exactly "Summer" fabric, but the pink met Emma's criteria (which is a little weird, she doesn't normally push for pink).

Crazy for Climbing

2010-07-12T20:23:00.002-06:00

I finally remembered to take a camera when I took the kids to the climbing wall. Lily is tenacious enough to keep trying and make it to the top of the "easy" wall.
Emma decided to go right for the hard stuff today and made it up as well.
Jack practically runs up the wall. He is awfully quick and enjoys figuring how to get to the top.

Exploring contains scary pictures

2010-07-07T20:20:00.000-06:00

I happened to be at one of my favorite parks and the kids found a small snake. I didn't know what kind it was, all I knew was that it didn't have a rattle. Never the less, I didn't let the kids too close.
After we saw the small snake, I kept taking pictures and even got a couple cute ones. Then on the way back to the car I saw a BIG snake.
I may or may not have freaked out when I saw this one. It was at least 4 feet long, in my head it was much larger more like 10 feet.
I think I'm not going to head over to that park for a little while. It may take a little while to recover from that.

As American As...

2010-07-06T10:03:00.002-06:00

I asked Michael what he wanted for dessert on the 4th. He said, "What is more American than apple pie?" I'm not great with pies but I figured that Google is my friend and this pie turned out great.

Easy Apple Pie

Ingredients

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup water
8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes.

July Fourth

2010-07-04T23:42:00.001-06:00

We keep our 4th activities pretty simple. We planned on meeting up with our neighbors for a potluck dinner and then head to another neighbors for dessert and fireworks. Right about the time that we started dinner, a storm blew in.

Thinking that the rain would blow through, we continued with dinner inside instead of out. Fireworks kinda happened, the dads put in raincoats and the kids ran in and out of the garage watching. Everyone was drenched by the end of the night, but it was a lot of fun hanging out with neighbors.

Entertaining Cousins

2010-06-29T09:19:00.002-06:00

It's crazy how quickly times flies when you're having fun. We had a great visit with Gabrielle and Quinn (cousins) they are welcome to come back anytime!!
We went to the Rec Center to go rock climbing and swimming, the Butterfly Pavillion, and canoeing. Michael took the older kids on a ghost tour up in Estes Park as well.

This is at Union Reservoir, Michael did take the kids to the river a couple times.

Papillion

2010-06-19T19:19:00.004-06:00

"Mom, what's the French word for butterfly?"

Emma, my Parisian tomboy, caught a butterfly and wanted to keep it as a pet. Thankfully she decided to release it into the wild, aka, my neighbor's yard.

The Law Of Murphy

2010-06-16T08:27:00.002-06:00

Why is it that smoke detectors never go off in the middle of the day (unless there really is a fire)?

At approximately 4:19 AM the alarm went off and I flew out of bed. Had Michael been home I'm sure I would have rolled over to let him deal with the situation. Immediately I think that the gas has been left on and I'll need to belly crawl down the stairs to check the stove. Speed won out and I run down the stairs to check the appliances and smell for smoke/gas. Nope nothing.

(A friend recently has a house fire and I'm a bit paranoid about it happening. I do not want to spend three weeks in a hotel with three kids. Shudder.)

As suddenly as the alarm goes on, it goes off. Well, I'm walking around checking the detectors and finally decide to go back to bed. No sooner has my head hit the pillow then the blasted alarm goes off again. I swear that I had check Jack's room alarm, apparently the battery was bad and causing all the alarms to go off.

Getting a chair and ripping the detector off the ceiling was a little more than stressful and I'm been up since hopped up on adrenaline.

Again, why is it that detectors go off in the middle of the night?!

Old Barn

2010-06-15T08:04:00.001-06:00

We went to a park/ranch last night to scope out the area for a photo shoot. We'd been to the playground area of this place, but I never knew this area existed. It's just over the hill from the playground. Apparently Jack had been there on a Scout field trip. He kept pointing out snake holes, or as I like to think, gopher holes. Here's a couple of the outtakes.

Gently Wake Them

2010-06-14T08:09:00.002-06:00

Sleeping in doesn't occur a lot in our house. The kids used to wake up at the crack of down, but times have changed. I think getting to stay up later, the benefit is sleeping in later. Yesterday we woke up before dawn to drop Michael off at the airport. He'll be in Pennsylvania this ENTIRE week for a training session.

This morning, the kids are still asleep as I type. Yes, I'm typing softly as not to wake them prematurely. Opps, Emma woke up.

Rough and Ready Park

2010-06-11T15:01:00.007-06:00

Yes, that's really the name of the park. Emma loves the water and can't stay away from it.Jack humors me as I take his picture.

Proof of Life

2010-06-09T14:03:00.004-06:00

They're still alive.

We've been running around going to the library, swimming, canoeing, free movies, bike rides, playdates, and other awesome things I think of. In between all the activities we drive each other crazy. It's starting to settle down, but it's always an adjustment switching into "Summer" mode.

Last Day of School

2010-05-26T21:24:00.000-06:00

When I picture the last day of school, it would be me sitting on the couch enjoying the last sounds of quietness. With Lily already done with school, it's not exactly quiet all the time.

Somehow on the last day of school, I got sucked into staying the entire day. The Fourth grade put on their Medieval Times extravaganza. Jack did his oral presentation for his report on Medieval Tournaments. I asked what he needed for this and he said a sword. Easy Peasy mac n' cheesy. Some of the other presentation were miniature replicas of castles, playing an instrument, displaying fashion of the day, how to bake bread, and information on the Black Plague. Jack totally lucked out and got to "demonstrate" how to joust/fight. What better project for a 10 year old?!

Emma's class had a party at the end of the day and I promised to bring ice cream for the Rootbeer floats. Since it's always a little tricky transporting and delivering cold items, I just waited until the last minute to run to the store and get popsicles. I made an executive decision to get popsicles since I knew there'd be kids that wouldn't want rootbeer floats. Turned out to be a good choice.

As if that wasn't enough, the Scouts also held a fundraiser at Wendy's. In a way it was nice to not have to make dinner.

Whew. Exhausted before Summer even begins.

Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes

2010-05-21T17:19:00.001-06:00

For Emma's teacher gift, all the kids in the class put together a scrapbook/recipe book. We had to "research" and decide what recipe to include. Luckily the high altitude wasn't too much of an issue with this and they turned out marvelously. Yes, this is in our family cook book, but here it is again.
Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes

Bowl #1:
1 8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
6 oz. chocolate chips (regular or mini)

Cream first four ingredients, then
add chips. Set aside.

Bowl #2:
1 1/2 cup flour (+1 tbsp for high alt.)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Bowl #3:
1 cup water
1 Tbsp vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine bowls #2 &#3. Grease tins
very well or use papers. Fill cupcake
tins 1/2 full with batter, then lump in
a spoonful of cream cheese mixture.
Bake @ 350’ for 25-30 minutes.
For mini cupcakes decrease cooking
time to 8-10 minutes.

Review: Emma loved them, Lily didn't, and Jack was diplomatic. The mini ones are better than the full size.

End Of School Projects

2010-05-21T08:22:00.007-06:00

Projects have been rolling in left and right. Field trips and field days have come and gone. Teacher appreciation week and end of year gifts are nearly done. We now have less than a week of school left. The kids and I are going to let out a sigh of relief when we don't have homework to get done and places to be in the mornings.

Jack finished up his paper on Medieval Tournaments last night (yes, it's due today). Emma helped make chocolate cheesecake cupcakes in the interest of "research" and a recipe to give to her teacher (end of year gift).

Lily has already finished school and is relieved that she doesn't have school until August.

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T21:35:00.000-06:00

We had a nice family day. The kids gave me spectacular cards and we went for a hike. This is us at the end of the hike. Not exactly sure what I was thinking with my "serene" look, but Lily was not in her happy place.

End Of School Blues

2010-05-07T15:05:00.003-06:00

Spring Break has been over for a while, I'm just trying to get to the end of school at this point. We're down to two and a half weeks of school until Summer Break. I'm looking forward to Summer but I'm dreading those long hot days where the kids will drive me crazy.

Things to do to get ready for Summer;
Look into the Summer Reading program at the library. Guaranteed activity per week.
Check the tires on all the bikes. Change any flat tires.
Plant the rest of the garden. Don't kill what comes up.
Evaluate Summer clothes for the kids. Who needs a new swimsuit?
Stock up on Icee Pops. Just buy the big box, the kids will eat what you have.

What is on your "get ready for Summer" list?

Spring Break

2010-03-29T17:48:00.002-06:00

My goal is to clean the house and not tear my hair out this week. That can be achieved simultaneously, right? I did myself a favor and created a list, afterall, what are goals without lists?
Essentially the list is what I can get the kids involved in to keep them busy and not fighting.

This morning we cleaned the basement. I really wish I had a before, during, and after picture. The before and after might not look much different, but we were able to fill up a trash bag (small) and a donation bag (big).

It did cost me a dollar a kid, but that was cheap at the price. They are HIGHLY motivated by the thought of earning big bucks this week. Maybe I should price my jobs accordingly. I wonder how much Spring Break is going to cost me.

Pinewood Derby

2010-03-20T14:22:00.003-06:00

After many an hour spent on a block of wood, Jack is the proud winner of not one, but two trophies. He won second place for his den and second overall for the pack. AND he did most of the work.
Jack's design, the blue truck. It was almost dayglow orange, but a paint malfunction resulted in a last minute color change.

Art by Lily

2010-03-12T16:36:00.002-07:00

Lily and I have lots of time to ourselves when the big kids go to school. Lately we've been playing ALOT of "Guess Who" and "Guess what I'm drawing". She is getting really good about staying in the lines and switching to more than one color per picture. Here she is perfecting the rainbow.

Blue And Gold

2010-02-23T17:07:00.005-07:00

If you have a scout, were a scout, or ever hoped to be a scout, you know what Blue and Gold means. Yes, it's that time of year again, the Blue and Gold Banquet. All the families attending were asked to bring a "scout" themed dessert. I think ours qualifies. There will be judging, I'll have to post later with the results.

Emma's Baptism

2010-02-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

Emma was so excited to get baptized today that even with the power outage and the slightly cold water, we were able to get her baptized and confirmed.

Spectacularly Bad

2010-02-17T17:55:00.004-07:00

I've determined that I should NEVER be my own child's teacher. They are never well behaved in a group setting. They've got you in a game of Survivor; outwit, outlast, and outplay. Today was the day that I lost all three.

What should have been a simple hour of Activity Days turned into the "Survive Emma's Antics" hour. There was boredom in the first five minutes, mouthiness the next ten, pouting for five, crying for fifteenish, and sulking for twenty. There may have been a few good minutes mixed in there, but I'm not sure. She was so SPECTACULARLY bad that she's sitting in time out until I'm not frustrated with her. She may be the until she's 18.

The Spare Oom

2010-02-15T13:44:00.005-07:00

What was once the spare oom upstairs is now Emma's room. I've been thinking about putting the room to use, but was disinclined to actually move Emma's stuff in there. We've gone through a great shuffle of stuff lately and it was time to get motivated. Nothing like a day off from school to get me motivated to put the kids to work. I know that Spring is a ways off, but it felt like a Spring clean with all the stuff we cleaned. Now I just need some designers to come "finish" the rooms.

Olympics

2010-02-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

I have a love for watching the Olympics. I have a fuzzy memory of Mom talking Dad into getting a tv "to watch the Summer Olympics". I can't remember how long we were without a tv, but I do remember watching track and field crowded around a small tv. There is such a great spirit that comes with the Olympics.

I missed the lighting of the torch on Friday, but I did catch part of the "parade of nations". Without knowing the back story to the death of the Georgian athlete, I was nearly in tears watching the team enter the stadium. While I like watching the sports events themselves, it's usually the back story of the athletes that does me in.

So far, I've watched speed skating, moguls (mens and womens), ice skating, and part of the biathlon. Can't wait to see more!

Pretty Things

2010-02-10T08:56:00.002-07:00

I like to pretend I can sew, but I'd like to be better. When someone offered to teach a class on sewing book covers, I jumped at the chance. Someone to walk me through a project?! Sign me up.

Fabric is like pretty paper to me. If I had any sewing ability, I'd buy more fabric then I'd know what to do with. I've seen what can happen if you have too much fabric, and it's kinda scary. The good news is that this little project was only 1/2 yard, with plenty to spare. Emma has already claimed one for herself.

A Closet is a Beautiful Thing

2010-02-09T07:27:00.003-07:00

Well, it's project time here at our house again. Wait, what?! Yes, we're doing projects. By we, I mean, Michael starts them, we muddle through the middle, and sometimes we finish. Actually that's not true, we always finish, it just depends on how completed the project is. For instance, I finished painting six months ago. Is there more painting? Yes, but I was finished.

On to the project at hand. A few months ago, ok, more like 10, we decided that Emma and Lily need a closet organizer. Well, we got as far as tearing out the single hanging rod and shelf. Michael did build a VERY nice shoes organizer, but we sorta got distracted with getting the basement finished. Now that some time has passed and the piles of clothes have gotten larger we really needed to buckle down and just get it done.

Here we are two days later and we are 98% though the closet completion project, instead of 2% completed. Yeah!!!

Missing Tooth

2010-02-01T16:45:00.006-07:00

Emma lost a tooth last month and I totally forgot to share the hilarity that followed. The front tooth was hanging on for it's dear life for over a week. I almost expected it to stay in for a while longer, but Emma was determined to get that sucker out, she needed the money!

So the tooth fell out one night (after the kids were already in bed) and the tooth fairy didn't visit that night. Well how could she find the tooth if it wasn't under the pillow?! So, I told Emma to place the tooth under her pillow and cross her fingers that the Tooth Fairy would come the next night.

Fast forward to the next night. Kids are in bed, I'm exhausted, tooth is forgotten. Emma wakes up in a grouchy mood. I can't quite place where this pent up hostility is coming from. Then about mid day I go and check under her pillow and find a scathing note to the Tooth Fairy. It reads;

Dear tooth fairy
or shood I call you mom
you biter be the tooth fairy.

Well, the Tooth Fairy left a note in response. Written in tiny gold sparkly ink.

Dear Emma,
Sorry I was late last night, I ran out of fairy dust in China. Thanks for the tooth.
-The Tooth Fairy

Basketball

2010-01-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

Emma wanted to sign up for basketball before Thanksgiving. I looked into getting her signed up and made it a part of her Christmas presents. She was thrilled when she found out that she "made" a team. (She was a little concerned that she would need to "try out" for the team.)
It was a long and tedious waiting period between Christmas and her first practice. Three weeks of; "How many more days?!"

She had one practice and then she had a game. You know, a real game with a ref and whistles. The team lost, but they had a lot of fun.

Breakfast

2010-01-07T18:55:00.003-07:00

The nice thing about the mornings that Michael drives the kids to school is having a little extra time. You know, time for that "most important" meal of the day. I try to give my kids a hot meal...a few times a week. I am not above cold cereal, but my kids LOVE such culinary delights as french toast, pancakes, Dutch Babies,...sensing a theme? My kids like warm stuff.
So far, I think I've managed to make all of their favorites this week. (In hopes that it leads to better attitudes at school) My kids are fairly forgiving if their pancakes don't come out exactly as they plan. In fact, I usually make some random shapes and then ask them what it is. Sometimes all they get are full moons. Depends on the morning.

Belated Christmas

2010-01-05T12:56:00.004-07:00

Michael ordered something from Amazon that was "supposed" to arrive Christmas Eve. I didn't know what it was, just that it was a "family gift". It took until yesterday to get here and it came in the nick of time. Just yesterday afternoon, I was cursing our lack of usable pencil sharpeners. I made a promise to myself to go find a pencil sharpener this week. Michael must have been listening REALLY good even before Christmas to order one. I no longer need to go shopping (never fun when you have to).

Back to School

2010-01-04T16:33:00.006-07:00

I was ELATED when Michael drove off to school with
Jack and Emma this morning. I got my groove going and had two loads of laundry done by noon. I redoubled my Christmas take down efforts (no comments on how long it took). Lily agreed to go grocery shopping with me, she held the list.

At 1:30 I heard the doorbell ring. A little odd in the middle of the day, but not totally unexpected. I opened the door to find a couple neighborhood boys. One of them goes to the same school as Jack. I had a moment of panic, thinking I sent my kids to school and there was no school. Since I knew that wasn't the case, I had to gently tell the truant boy that he was missing school. He had a look of panic/embarrassment on his face. I only laughed a bit, and then I laughed a little harder when I remembered that his mom is a teacher in the school district. We (the charter school) went back today, the rest of the district returns on Thursday.

A New Year

2010-01-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

We managed to get our cold weather gear together and head up to the local ski area on New Year's Day. That was no small feat equipping everyone with all the must haves. Jack and Emma were in desperate need of new coats. Jack almost got three years out of his coat, yes, I bought big. Emma's old coat was a fancy pink and brown coat with a shell and liner. Well, she lost the shell and the pink liner had turned grayish pink. I promised myself that I wouldn't let her go pink again. Note to self, pink is hard to steer away from in her age bracket.

After a long and arduous day of gear shopping and then renting skis, I was nearly too tired to go skiing. But skiing we went.

I mentally put myself in a "happy" place and didn't let myself get stressed out when the lines got long and my feet got cold. It was a pretty good day (no tears!), although I still hate the rope tow.
Luckily I only had to use it three times. This was Lily's first time on the slopes, she had a blast, but can't stop to save her life!

Last

2009-12-27T19:01:00.001-07:00

It was the last Sunday of the year, for those of you that haven't looked at a calendar in a while. I wrapped up my Primary class with a trip down memory lane and we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. I brought my Target popcorn buckets and we watched the movie on the laptop. For the last lesson of the year, it was a nice one to end with.

I did find out that I will have 9-11 girls this next year. I know that may not seem like many (no comment Sherri, Debbie, Tia) but that's double, nearly triple the numbers I had this year. I will have to be more creative with birthdays, handouts, and treats (known allergies). AND....we're studying the Old Testament! Admittedly, that's at the bottom of my favorites list.

So, what do I have going through my head lately?

Begin as you mean to go on.

Aim high.

Be the best you can be.

Think of all your motivational quotes and share.

Day After

2009-12-26T19:14:00.002-07:00

Saturday is a good day to have after Christmas. I was able to get some stuff done, but I know that I have a "day of rest" tomorrow. I guess that means that the Christmas decorations are going to stay up until Monday.

I dropped Jack off at a friends house for a couple hours and headed to Target to get a few things for my lesson tomorrow. Target wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be, although the Christmas area was a bit crowded with most of the stuff @ 50%. I wonder how much stuff will make it to 75% off. That's my favorite kind of shopping.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

It's 6 AM. I wonder how long until we can all take Christmas naps?

Wedding Bells

2009-12-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

I just took a whirlwind of a trip to Seattle to enjoy the nuptials of Nathan (my nephew) and Rebekah. I was just a tad bit nervous that I'd been asked to take pictures, but I think that we got some beautiful shots. Shockingly, the weather DID NOT cooperate and we had a cold drizzly day. Rebekah was so in love that she didn't mind the rain. I think all the kissing kept them warm in the rain.

Gold shoes...brilliant choice!

A Nathan among Nathans. (there were four Nathans)

Nathan was a trooper and held this very heavy mirror to get this shot.

Will not forget the date!

Such a fun wedding and reception. I promise to edit and share as quick as possible, Christmas seems to be taking up this week.

10

2009-12-12T20:26:00.003-07:00

Jack turns 10 today. That's totally like a whole decade old. I'm in awe at how fast and how slow that time has flown by. So For Jack, I honor him with his own Top Ten List;

Ten things to do on your 10th Birthday
10. Eat donuts for breakfast
9. Lounge around in pjs until noon
8. Watch as many cartoons as possible
7. Play on the computer as long as possible
6. Pick out your first snowboard
5. Invite a friend over for sleepover
4. Eat favorite fast food burgers for dinner
3. Blow out 10(ish) candles on lemon cake
2. Open presents
1. Play with Legos

Phone Sewing

2009-12-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

I should know better than to try and sew and talk on the phone. I sewed myself into a corner, forgetting to leave an opening to turn the baby blanket right side out. Of course I couldn't find my seam ripper, I'm sure it's in the "to be found when not needed" pile. Luckily, I've done this before and know how to fix a rookie mistake like that. In the end the blanket turned out cute. I was making it for our Relief Society Humanitarian newborn kits. If only I could get motivated to sew something for my girls.

Brrrr

2009-12-02T09:25:00.003-07:00

When I woke up this morning it was a bit chilly in the house. The heater is SUPPOSED to turn on about 6 am and warm up the house. Well, the upstairs heater was on and running but it couldn't quite warm up the downstairs. It was 58 degrees downstairs. I'd like to say that my blood was gotten a little thicker while living in a cold climate, but I'm not sure that's true. After a bit of futzing around with the thermostat, we determined that the problem was the heater itself. I'm starting to envisage a call to a repair place, an exorbitant fix it bill,...you know where this is headed.

Michael takes a look at the heater. Flips a switch, flips it back. Presto, we have heat. Thank goodness we got that sorted out, tonight we're expected to get down to single digit temperatures.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2009-11-26T10:27:00.002-07:00

I'm still in my pjs, watching the Macy's parade, and dinner is shaping up. This is going to be a GREAT day. I hope everyone else has a healthy happy Thanksgiving.

Pie

2009-11-25T18:51:00.002-07:00

I like Thanksgiving just fine. Dinner is pretty good if you eat at a reasonable hour to ensure that there will be room for dessert. And maybe even dessert after dessert. Tomorrow we'll hopefully eat around 2 pm. I'm saving room for pie.

Ice Ice Baby

2009-11-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Out of desperation for entertainment, I took the kids ice skating. Last year we went once and it was opening day. I vowed not to go back, especially since I went around the rink once with Lily screaming her head off. We took a chance that it wouldn't be crowded today and we lucked out. Lily found her friend and actually made it around the rink MULTIPLE times without crying. She did get tired and hungry by the time we left and there were tears and threats, BUT it wasn't on the ice.

Lily and Rowan take on the ice.

Jack trying to dodge a picture.

Future Olympic Skater.

Insanity

2009-11-19T20:22:00.002-07:00

I went shoe shopping and swimming with the kids in one day. The days that Michael has class at night tend to be long days with the kids. I figured that since it was already going to be a long day, why not go all the way over the edge of insanity and take the kids swimming.

The good news is that I think I exhausted the kids and they put themselves to bed. The phone rang just as I was about to herd them upstairs and about 20 minutes later it dawned on me that it was awfully quiet. Lily had fallen asleep with Emma reading to her. Jack and Emma were quietly reading. When does that ever happen?!

X Marks The Spot

2009-11-18T17:52:00.004-07:00

Have you ever taught something that you know NOTHING about? I tried to assist 7 eight and nine year old girls how to cross stitch. Not really a craft that I want to pick up, but we (the other leader and myself) figured that it would be a good activity for the girls.

We thought ahead at the last activity and had an "expert" come and teach the girls. It works out well when you get to sit back and watch the expert. When it came time for the girls to try their hand at cross stitch, there were lots of tears and a bit of frustration..on the girl's part. We decided to try again this week and "hope" that it would be a better experience.

It did turn out better. There were no tears. That's a win in my book.

Goal Oriented

2009-11-17T17:07:00.005-07:00

I seem to have missed the first half of this month and it's seriously bumming me out. I made a ridiculous goal of trying to blog more than I did last year. Ok, not ridiculous, but I wanted "be better". I looked at my post count and realized that I needed to write a post EVERYDAY plus some until the end of the year to meet my goal. That kinda overwhelmed me and I went the other direction. You know, not posting AT ALL! Well, that certainly didn't help any. I have failed to look at what I have accomplished and focused on what I haven't.

So, enough of the whining, I'm pulling up my bootstraps, grabbing the horse by the tail, well you get the picture. Add whatever motivating saying you can think of.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:11:00.000-06:00

We had a really low key Halloween in our neighborhood. Jack invited a friend over, we went over a neighbors house for pizza, and trick or treated for about an hour. Since I didn't want to stay home, we put the bowl on the porch with a sign "Happy Halloween. Please take one." Surprisingly, there was still candy in the bowl an hour later.
I pretty much let the kids gorge themselves on candy. This is Lily saying; "One more?" She had just informed me that her tummy hurt a little bit. I said, "Maybe you shouldn't eat anymore candy."

Harvest Party

2009-10-30T22:04:00.004-06:00

Since we had a "snow" day this week, I've been a little off. I'm glad the kids are having school the day before Halloween, but man!, the kids are wound up.

Lily has a "Harvest" party that she gets to wear a costume to. Not sure how that fits in with the "Harvest" theme, but she was excited to wear her Tinkerbell costume. She even let me do her hair! It's been a tab bit chilly and I had to convince her that Tinkerbell wears long sleeves in cold weather.

Snow Day

2009-10-29T13:01:00.000-06:00

After snowing all day Wednesday, the kids had Thursday off from school. It didn't snow hardly anymore (we got about 12 inches in total) and the snow was melting most of the day. The kids had a ball playing in all the snow and freezing their noses off.

A Paying Gig

2009-10-24T11:25:00.002-06:00

It seems like I've been taking more and more pictures lately. That's a really good thing, it actually turned into a paying gig. A friend of a friend emailed me and asked if I'd take pictures of a 8/9 year old football game. I said sure and then started thinking about what I said yes to. I took sports pictures when I was on the school newspaper...eons ago. I ended up getting excited for the team, they were behind and then ended up winning the game. At half time one of the teammates came up to me and asked if I was "Jack's mom". Small town.

Conferences

2009-10-23T21:50:00.001-06:00

Can you believe that we've already made it to the end of the first quarter for the school year?! We had parent/teacher conferences today and I managed to mess up the times. I thought that Emma's was first so we waited outside her classroom. I kept trying to make eye contact and hurry the teacher along but Michael and I decided to divide and conquer. He'd go to Emma's and I'd go to Jack's conference. Well, I walked over to Jack's classroom and I noticed that his conference was supposed to start ten minutes earlier. Opps. His teacher was running 15 minutes late, so I ended up getting there just in time.

Michael might have gotten the better end of the deal. Emma is doing great so far this year. Jack...well, we have a few things to work on. Baby steps.

Belated Birthday

2009-10-22T14:39:00.000-06:00

Since Emma's birthday was on a Sunday and I happened to be traveling that day, she had a belated friend birthday party. She choose a pottery painting place and invited a few friends. Because it was a party, they had a large table set up for all of us and we got to choose between a few specific pieces.
The dragon was a big hit, I think 4/5 kids picked that one. Lily went with the fairy box, hopefully it will survive. I picked up the fired pieces today, but I forgot to take a picture. Even though we had four dragons, they all turned out quite unique.

Evolving Activities

2009-10-21T21:12:00.000-06:00

So, the last post with the Filo figures was just an idea for future activities to do with the girls for Activity Days. I was in charge of the activity for this week and I didn't want to spend any money but I wanted to have a "fun". Not that it's impossible to be frugal and fun, but I find that it does take a bit of creativity to make both happen.

Initially I thought about doing an engineering project involving playdough, straws, dixie cups and pennies. While the idea may have sounded fun to me, I had to put myself in the mind of a 8/9 year old girl...ok, I asked Emma and she didn't seem too interested. Probably because I didn't sell it hard enough. She was interested in the playdough and was pleased as punch that she got to help me make a batch.

The engineering activity turned into a Library Appreciation activity. I checked out a bunch of fun books and integrated "how to make playdough" as a way to use your local library. I also checked out some riddle/joke books and had the girls read them to each other. That might have filled up the entire time, but the girls did want to make their own bookmarks and play with the homemade playdough. Easy peasy Parcheesi.

Green Eggs and Ham

Last Minute Valentines

Useful Stuff

Winter Advisory

2012

Fall Leaves

First Day of School

Lemonade Stand

Keeping Kids Busy

Summer Practice

Boat

Graduation

5x5 (day six) A Happy Closet

5x5 (day 5) Ummm....

5x5 (day 4) Piles of Piles

5x5 (day 3) If You Move A Bookcase

5x5 (day 2) Hooks and Buttons

5x5 Challenge (day 1)

Amusing

Easter

Birthdays

Under Pressure

Strep

Yum

Valentine's

Character Day

Christmas Break

Eleven

Doll House

The Day of Candy

Hot Glue Halloween

Pumpkin Carving

Week of Parties

Happy Birthday Emma

Denver Zoo

Flying By

Published

Hilarity; Part Duex

Feels Like A Monday

First Day of School

It's Great to Be Five

More Power

How many days until school?

Steamboat Vacation

No Pressure

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Mysteries of Life

Happy Anniversary

Limited Attention

Crazy for Climbing

Exploring *contains scary pictures*

As American As...

July Fourth

Entertaining Cousins

Papillion

The Law Of Murphy

Old Barn

Gently Wake Them

Rough and Ready Park

Proof of Life

Last Day of School

Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes

End Of School Projects

Mother's Day

End Of School Blues

Spring Break

Pinewood Derby

Art by Lily

Blue And Gold

Emma's Baptism

Spectacularly Bad

The Spare Oom

Olympics

Pretty Things

A Closet is a Beautiful Thing

Missing Tooth

Basketball

Breakfast

Belated Christmas

Back to School

Exploring contains scary pictures