Rock Menagerie

I played the role of good mom today and we finally painted the rocks we found in the creek a while back. It's a super muggy hot day today and everyone's been a tad grouchy so I thought it would be a good tension breaker as well as some weekend fun. The drawback of having school Monday through Thursday is that the kids have an extra day to fight with each other so I was glad that I still had that project up my sleeves to occupy them. They are usually pretty good but on days like today even I feel like kicking the dog. They had so much fun and I did to. Do you know how long it's been since I painted a rock- too long!

Here's their finished masterpieces-

Jimvinci painted a one of a kind rare tortoise and faux log with lady bug that he calls simply "Orange stripe"

Ashmonet captured an impressionistic look at a panda and a rock with a few painted pebbles that she calls "Rainbow"

Mackcoso painted an abstract view of a sea lion on the beach called "Fonzie"

And I couldn't resist and had to paint a pig, a panda, and a lady bug that I call "trying to recapture my youth in 45 min."

2 down, 2 to go

We successfully sent 2 kids to school today, hooray! Now for Mary and Kaci to gain a few years and we can ship them off too ;0) . My kids were so ready for school and not so much excited about going in general but relieved that they actually got out of the house and away from me I think. Mary had a hard time letting Jeremy go this morning. Her go to guy, chef, playmate, and go-fer is gone. Now she's going to have to do things for herself which will be a big change for her. I don't know how she'll do when she finds out Ashy will be gone starting next week.

I asked Jeremy how his day went and he was so excited about the bug hunt they went on and that they had chicken sandwiches for lunch. He's a little fuzzy about the educational details but I know they did learn. Last year every time I asked how his day went and what he learned he would give me the run down on what they had for lunch so I didn't expect too much.

.

.

Today was the Kindergarten orientation and next week is testing so Ashlyn's first official school day isn't until she tests on the 7th. We treated it like the first day of school though so she wore her first day outfit and packed her backpack even though she didn't bring it. I asked her if she would like some pictures of her teacher and classroom so I gave her the camera and let her take a few. It's fun to see photos from her perspective. I do have a "chest" shot of her teacher that I assume she meant to be a portrait so we'll be deleting that one. Her teacher was Jeremy's kindergarten teacher so Ashlyn was very comfortable there. Once again I'll be the one who secretly wants them to cry and miss me so much that they want me to sit with them the entire time, but thankfully they've both just embraced school and been so happy to finally be old enough to go.

Mrs. Pearl E. White

The tooth fairy visited Jeremy last night and he was super excited when he woke up. He was laughing as he told me about the note she left him and the bundle of quarters she must have packed on her back because it was tied up with dental floss. Jeremy's tooth is apparently her new mailbox.

It's not as exciting as the visit of 2000 where the tooth fairy got in a rough and tumble match with my little sister Brittany while she was sleeping and had such a hard time getting her tooth out from under her pillow that she lost her wand and left it behind. I wonder if Brittany still has it? Who knows, Ashlyn is a very wiggly sleeper so the tooth fairy better prepare and make an extra wand or two just in case. I have a feeling she'll be losing another wand in the great scuffle of 08'. I love this age!

A little recap and marshmallow madness

I feel like I should throw on a Faith Hill wig circa early 90's and sing "Just Breathe" at the top of my lungs and then flop in a nice big comfy chair and veg my life away. I'm home now and I can finally take a big deep breath and just relax for the rest of the year. Wish full thinking I know.

I've successfully reunited with all my family on every side and it's been a fun summer. It's nice to be home and settled though.

The kids and I had a great time at Bully Creek and it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. The only dirty yuck that was there were the mosquitoes and the flip-flop paste, oh and the bull frogs that came out at dusk. Jeremy loved the entire weekend and came home with at least 9 skeeter bites on each leg after being sprayed and several war wounds. One thing I've learned since having a boy and a husband is that it's not fun until you or someone else loses some flesh. So not a girl thing at all!

Ashlyn had a blast playing with Brittany so I didn't see very much of her all weekend. Mary was all about the dogs and followed every dog she saw which led to her disappearance after dark one night. I called Cody and joked that I lost her but still had the other 3 and 75% is still a "passing" grade. Wasn't funny when we were yelling her name and looking for her with flashlights for 20 min. though. Kaci was just a little bundle of go and more go. She ran and ran until she got distracted by the "dog dog" and then she chased them for a while. It was really exhausting doing it by myself. I'm convinced that's why it takes two to make a baby, because it takes two to chase them down all day at a family reunion later on as well. It was so good to see my family again and see how well everyone is doing. I only wish more people would have shown up, I missed seeing the rest of them too!

Last night I got a hankering (is that still a word??) for homemade marshmallows so that's what I made. I finished after 11 last night but they are so good they were well worth it. I made strawberry and peppermint. I'll have to make my drink of choice- a "blue lady" for the peppermint ones, yum! Ashlyn was such a great helper. We have marshmallow dust and jars of marshmallows everywhere! I got the recipe here, brownie points, very good.

Jeremy lost his first big front tooth today and is super excited. He had worked on getting it out all weekend until his gums were literally purple so he could get the $5 that Aunt Val promised him if he could pull it out on Saturday. It looked extremely loose then and was sticking out like mater. He didn't have any luck after trying all day so Val gave him the $ anyway for all his effort. It was so loose today all he had to do was push it to one side and it fell out. I don't know what it is about loose teeth but they gross me out so I just let him take care of all the wiggling and pulling. I'm in no hurry and I'm definitely not going to touch it. Well that's the recap and believe it or not that's the condensed readers digest version.

Family time

The kids and I are headed down to Bully Creek Reservoir today for a family reunion that my dad helped to organize. I'm still not exactly sure what part of the family or how reunited we'll really be but it must be a bigger deal than I thought because people are flying in to be there. I didn't decide to go until yesterday afternoon so I have a ton of packing to do.

We are staying at my grandma's house (my dad's mom) with a few of my aunts and uncles that I haven't visited with in a while. We're only staying tonight and leaving Saturday evening. It feels like I'm packing for a year and we'll only be gone for 24 hrs. When you have a baby it feels like you're always packing to heavy and even then I always forget something. Wish me luck, it's another dirty stinky rattlesnake infested tick ridden fishy smelling mud on your flip flops fly in your food type of weekend, YUCKKK!

Back to School Giveaways

While surfing tonight I found a few giveaways that I thought were fun for back to school. Who doesn't love a good giveaway, and they are so girly and pink to boot, I wish everyone luck!

The first one is from Momagenda on Life from my laptop and they are giving away a Kitchen Folio and a Momagenda daily planner from their site. When you have four little kids with a couple in school any form of organization is a good thing and I definitely think these are good things. My biggest tip for back to school organization is to start the kids in their school routine at least a week before school starts. That way you won't have any trouble with tired kids or cranky kids on the first day (or cranky mom either). It also doesn't hurt to make a ton of waffles and freeze them ahead for quick breakfasts.

The second one is on the Two Moms in a Blog site from Koo Koo Bear Kids , here is your chance to send your little princess to school with a personally monogrammed Funky Plaid lunch box of her own - or keep it for yourself. This is just the cutest lunch box, I can totally see Ashlyn packing this to kindergarden! After checking out their site I also fell in love with the kids playroom kitchen. AAwwwhhhh, girly stuff!

Found treasures

I was going through my pictures earlier today and found some pictures from Joseph that I forgot to post. Before we left mom needed to pick-up something for grandma at Bi-Mart and I found this adorable little cricket appetizer tray for only $2.25! He looks so cute with my baguette bread all lined up ready for spinach dip. MMMmmm spinach dip- He has a good home here. I also nabbed this great pedestal bowl thingy (that's the technical term) at my great grandma's garage sale. It was only a $1 but she wouldn't let me pay her, she's so cute. I also got a cable knit sweater and I couldn't bring myself to tell her I'm going to cut it up to make baby booties. Maybe I should have so she would let me pay.

Here's a picture of Grandma and I right before we left. There's absolutely no family resemblance and I'm pretty sure she used to be a real strawberry blond (good thing she doesn't have a computer or she'd slap me for that one) but I swear we are related.

I told them that I wanted a picture of them before we left and they just had to keep nibbling on those junior mints so this is the picture I ended up getting. *Mom I swear they all look like this*
Too funny, good times, I'm glad I was the one behind the camera!

Detoxing

I'm home from my long weekend and it was fun. Grandma had a little different idea about a getaway than I did and was cracking me up all weekend. At about 11 she would say "Well girls, we better get to bed so we can get up in the morning". She was kind of missing the point but we ended up staying up until 3:30 or so anyway and she was a trooper and tried to stay up with us.

Grandma had quite a bit of get up and go this weekend so I ended up visiting more than sewing but it's been so long since I've stayed at Grandma's that I was totally fine with that to. I had a chance to really get to know my family on a totally relaxed level and we were being very relaxed, maybe a little too much LOL! We ate a bunch of junk food, I gained 8 pounds in 3 days if that tells you anything, I can't believe I'm admitting that!

I'm sure every one's getting tired of this Amy Butler fabric but I finally finished the real project I intended to use it for. When Ashlyn tried it on after I got home I realized how much adjusting I'm going to have to do but as soon as I tweak it she'll be ready to wear it to school. All I managed to finish was this outfit and a burp cloth but I'm so lucky to have the opportunity to visit with my family without the kids and just kick back and relax for 4 days. I'm VERY aware that I'm home now :o) .

I'm outa here!

It's getaway time and I'm leaving this afternoon-YEAHHH! No kids, no worries, and only one meal to fix all weekend. Just mom, grandma, and I crafting away in our p.j.'s and staying up until the crack of dawn doing girly stuff. I plan on sewing until I can't sew anymore and then we can take a break and head down town. There's a couple of really great shops that have the coolest stuff. I plan on making a run to Simply Sandy's to get some shabby cast iron handles. I'm not sure what I'm going to make with them yet but you can never have enough cast iron I say. I hoping to come back with several projects completed and a few things for the Etsy store I'm thinking about starting. I need an outlet for all the stuff I make. I'm running out of crannies for storing my creations!

Today is the last day for soccer and I'm a little sad I'm going to miss their last games so I helped the kids do a gumball project. I got the idea from Hilary Shirley's blog, she's so creative and this is such a cute idea. Jeremy got to hand his out last night and the kids loved them. For the coaches I filled cute midget mason jars with gumballs and tied a tag around the top. So fun, thanks Hilary! Ashlyn gets to pass hers out tonight and because Cody is the coach he's also planning root beer/orange/sprite floats.


Grandma doesn't have a computer so I'll be blog-less all weekend but I'm sure I'll have at least one juicy story and some pictures when I return on Monday. My grandma is soooo colorful so it should be a fun time (or funny at least).

I'm expecting!!

I am so excited- my friend and I are both expecting at the same time. Not like you think though, I just ordered a new toy today and so did she. I bought a Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter and it will be coming in the next 45 days! I've been eyeballing scrapbooking cutters for a few years now but couldn't commit to a single one because the ones that I could afford only used cartridges for fonts and you would have to spend over $50 on each font and the cutters that used your computer fonts were in a price range that I couldn't afford.

This cutter is in a much better price range and hooks up to my computer so I can use all my fonts and dingbats. It says it will cut patterned paper, cardstock, iron-on transfer paper, magnetic paper, vinyl, wood paper, vellum, and sticker paper. We shall see! I'm so excited about being able to cut my own vinyl. That alone makes it worth it's weight in gold not to mention all the church bulletin boards, scrapbooking, and everything else I will be able to do with it. Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas this year ;p !