Cinna-Bunnies

Riley had snack a few days before Easter so I decided to make cinna-bunnies.  He thought it was the best thing EVER.  And they were super easy since you just use canned cinnamon rolls.

 

**This blog post brought to you by the letter P for Pinterest...

Pinewood Derby

Cub Scouts are known for several things.  One of those is the Pinewood Derby.  And sometimes decorating your car is more fun than racing it.  Last year Owen did an Auburn National Champions Car.  This year he thought he'd be a little less controversial so he decided he wanted to make his car look tie-dyed.  I told him that would be difficult and that I didn't even know HOW we would do that.  He assured me that he could do it no problem with just regular paint.  So we got out the regular paint and he got to work.  About 2 minutes later he declared he didn't know how to do it and needed help.  That was on Wednesday.  Weigh in for the derby was less than 48 hours away!  But I had a plan.  I used my craftiness to come up with a way to do it.


First I found some images of tie-dye on google and let him pick the one he liked best.  Then I taped a piece of tissue paper onto a piece of regular copy paper and used that in the printer to print the tie-dye pattern onto the tissue paper.

Tissue paper taped to regular paper.

Here's tissue paper after going through the printer.  This isn't the pattern we ended up using, but I forgot to get a pic of the one we did use.  (That's his car on the left.  He painted it gold then tried to put green tie-dye pattern on it.)

 Since the tissue paper is so thin, it can easily be modge-podged into the wooden block.  After getting the tie-dye design on it, he painted a sun on it and the Arrow of Light (it's a scout thing...) and put the pack number on it.

I think it turned out awesome and we got lots of compliments and people asking HOW we got the tie-dye on there!

And of course, brother has to do one too.  Riley's came with some stickers so we did the same tie-dye method as with Owen's car but then he put the window stickers and such on.  Don't you love the outfit???  These are his after school clothes.  He LOVES to dress up.

 And here's Owen and Riley's cars from this year with Owen's car from last year in the middle.  We couldn't find the wheels for this year's car so we stole the wheels from last year's car...  Last year's car was also modge-podged with the AU logo and National Champs symbol.  It's a little beat up now!

Doughboys

So I'm hanging out on pinterest (of course) and see a pin of something familiar.  But when I click on it to read about it, I realize the way we do it is SO. MUCH. COOLER!  When we go camping, we like to have doughboys cooked over the fire for breakfast.  All you need is a dowel rod (about the diameter of your thumb), a can of biscuits, and a fire.  Oh, and whatever you want to go IN your doughboy.  The possibilities are endless.

We had our backyard fixed this past spring and it is soooo worth it.  We'd been here for YEARS and not been able to go in our yard and enjoy it.  Actually, Memorial Day weekend in 2006 Eric and Owen (who had JUST turned 2) decided to camp out back there.  And Eric ended up with the worst case of poison ivy I've ever seen.  We're talking about a big, huge blister the size of a golf ball on his arm.  If you get queasy easy, skip this part, but when he popped the blister there was a semi-solid glob of puss that came out of it.  It was so gross.  He ended up having to go to urgent care to get them to look at it and they brought all the doctors and nurses in to ogle at it!  When he went to work he had his arm wrapped in gauze and the guys ribbed him and basically called him a wuss.  So he unwrapped his arm and when they saw it, well they asked him to cover it back up!!!  Anyway, NOW our backyard is useable and we've been trying to use it as much as possible.  I'll try to do a whole update on that later (if I don't forget).

So we've had a couple campouts in our backyard.  The first one was with my mommy friends and all their kids.  Several moms weren't brave enough to give the camping a go ;-) so they came for the cookout and hanging out and went home to sleep in their comfy beds.  If I remember correctly we had 5 moms and 9 kids stay the night in our backyard.  So. Much. Fun.  Have I mentioned I <3 camping???

The view of our little camping compound from the deck.

Anyway, Eric was out of town for that experience so later in the summer we invited my good friend Lillie and her family to come camp with us.  We had a great time, as we always do with her family.  And for breakfast the next morning we made doughboys.  I've always made them with "whop biscuits" (that's the refrigerated canned biscuits you WHOP on the counter to open), but all I could find in the fridge was crescent roll dough so we improvised.  And it worked great!

Mmmmmm.  So yummy.  And Lillie was kind enough to bring us ANOTHER jar of her homemade peach preserves.  We made quick work of the first jar.  Those peach preserves were perfect inside these doughboys.  We also tried scrambled eggs and crumbled up sausage in them.  Also yum!  Butter, cinnamon, and sugar is also a must-try combo.

The trick is to make sure you do a good job wrapping it so you don't lose all your filling.  If using biscuits, stretch the biscuit out until it's about 6 inches long.  Start at the end of your dowel rod and coil the biscuit around.  Make sure to seal it up well at all the seams.  Hold it over the fire and rotate periodically to brown it on all sides.  Once it's cooked it should slide off the rod with a gentle twist.  If you twist too hard it will split open at the seams.  There's also a right and a wrong direction to twist it, but it depends on which way you coiled it.  Also, the first couple times you use the dowel rods for this it will stick more.  I've never tried using Pam or anything but I guess that might help.  After a few times though it will kind of get seasoned and will work better.

Update on Owen's wrist

The lump on Owen's wrist wasn't going away so we decided to go ahead and do the MRI. It was scheduled for last Monday and went pretty well. Owen was actually pretty excited about getting to go in "the tunnel" and he did FANTASTIC. It took about 40 minutes for them to get all the images and he was so still for the whole thing. I was very impressed. But then that afternoon after we got home, they called back and said they needed us to come back in for a couple more images. At that point she told me one of the images hadn't turned out clearly so they needed to retake it and then they were going to take one more just to make sure they got a good image. The whole thing would only take 10 minutes she said. When we got there Tuesday though she said all the images from Monday had come out fine but there were just a couple images she didn't get that the radiologist wanted. And of course it took an hour to get these two images, not 10 minutes like she said. And much of that hour, she was standing in the hallway talking to her pal. ANYWAY, we had to wait until Thursday for the results even though we asked if we could go ahead and talk to the radiologist Tuesday (since they made us drive all the way back down here), but it was no deal.

Of course, after the second round of images on Tuesday, my mind started spinning. Was there something suspicious on Monday's images that made him want more? Is it a bad sign that he couldn't determine anything conclusively with just the images from Monday? No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't find a way to make myself believe having to go back for more images was a good thing. By Thursday I was beginning to feel sick!

But on Thursday when we went to see the PA at the orthopedic clinic, the first thing he said when he came in the room was that it was good news! Hallelujah! I almost burst into tears of joy right then and there. It is a cyst. It is benign. It is filled with blood and there's some calcium crystals in it as well. He said there's no need to even discuss the "c-word" which made my heart jump for joy.

Other than the lump shrinking by about half in the first 24 hours after I noticed it, it didn't shrink any more in the next 3 weeks. We always took it as a good sign that it wasn't growing any larger, but we were still concerned that it wasn't shrinking. But that Tuesday of his second MRI, I thought it looked like it had shrunk just a bit. The next day it looked slightly smaller and by his appointment on Thursday we were certain it was shrinking. This is, of course, a GREAT sign. His PA was definitely glad to see this and it has continued to shrink and the bruised coloring has faded drastically. It's a small bump now and just slightly darker in color than the skin around it. His soccer practice Thursday and game Saturday were both rained out. He should be able to start practicing again this Thursday though! The PA just wants to see him again in about 6 weeks to make sure nothing changes, or if it does change it's for the better and he can basically return to normal activities.

The bump may not ever go away completely. It might be something he always has. Or it might go away and never be seen again. Only time will tell. Until then, we'll continue to wrap his wrist for soccer or anytime we know he'll be particularly active (and therefore likely to fall on it), but it's not necessary to keep it wrapped at school or while he's sleeping at night. And we don't need to keep giving the ibuprofen either. For all practical purposes, he'll be returning to life as a regular 5 year old boy. Praise God!

Ganglion Cyst???

So Tuesday afternoon I noticed this big lump on the inside of Owen's wrist. He had no idea how it got there or how long it's been there. He has no recollection of having hit it on anything, but it looked like he had a grape under his skin and we were concerned so I took him to Urgent Care to have it looked at. First we saw a Nurse Practitioner and she wasn't sure what it was but was thinking maybe a hematoma. So she went and got the doctor and he came in to look at it. He also seemed a bit unsure but thought it was probably a traumatic ganglion cyst but he's never seen one "that color" (it was a bruised purple color) and he's never seen "one like that on someone his age." So he referred us to an Orthopedic clinic and I got an appt for Owen for this afternoon.

Owen saw the Physicians Assistant for the orthopedist who specializes in the lower arm (elbow to fingers). He agreed that it's probably a traumatic ganglion cyst or a hematoma. He's encouraged by the fact that it has shrunk by about half since Tuesday and wants us to continue with what we've been doing (ice, wrap in Ace bandage, elevate, and anti-inflammatory) and come back on Monday to see how it's doing. Hopefully it will be greatly reduced by then. He did say no to soccer practice (the doc at urgent care had said it would be okay) and then tonight's practice got rained out anyway (yay!), so MAYBE Owen will be doing good enough Monday to return to practicing.

Still not sure what caused it. The PA said it almost had to have been from an injury and he especially liked the idea that maybe it happened at some point Monday night at soccer practice since he fell a few times. But then he also said Owen would have come to us crying/screaming in pain when it happened and he never did that. Owen still maintains that he has no recollection of anything happening that could have caused this.

So we're hoping for it to resolve itself on its own and hoping that will happen SOON. Not sure exactly what the next step will be if it doesn't get better on its own, but I think it will involve either using a needle to remove the fluid or surgery to remove the whole "lump." If I understood him correctly, we will have to determine whether it's a ganglion cyst (filled with joint fluid) or a hematoma (filled with blood) before deciding how to proceed.

So, we're waiting and seeing now. And hoping to see improvement everyday. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it tomorrow although it's not nearly as dramatic as it was. Or maybe, if we're lucky, there won't even be anything to take a picture of by the morning!

Thrift Shop Finds!

The conversion of Riley's room into a playroom and Owen's room into a bedroom (for both boys) is an ongoing process. We need a lot more storage options in the playroom and I want to set up a reading corner in their bedroom for all their books and such. Anyway, a little while back I found this great coffee table at the local thrift store. They were asking $20 and everything was 20% off that day, so I could have gotten it for $16, but I felt like I could wait and get it for 50% off. So I went back the next week only to discover furniture was only 25% off saving me only an extra dollar from the previous week. But then I discovered they'd marked it down to only $10!! So with 25% off I got it for $7.50. Needless to say, I was thrilled. It was a sturdy table with simple lines (making it easy to sand and paint). The only problem was the supports are partly chrome and they were quite tarnished. I used leftover paint from when we painted "the nursery" (now the playroom) so it's a very light blue to match the walls (I actually meant to paint it white and didn't realize I had the wrong color until later). And used a can of silver Rustoleum spray paint on the chrome part. I didn't think to take a "before" pic, but this is what it looks like now:
My beautiful model refused to move out of the way, so I just went with it!


I use it to store some of the larger toys that previously were taking up all our floor space. Some fit nicely underneath and others sit on top. See those toys piled up tot he right of it? Those are the ones that go on top. I haven't finished "decorating" it, but that will have to wait until next month when Riley starts to school. Owen has specifically requested it have sharks and fish and such on it.

I've been going back to the thrift store periodically and so far haven't found anything that was exactly what I was looking for AND at a price I was happy with (they like to price all the endtables and coffee tables at $20). I had 30-60 minutes to spare today so Riley and I headed down there. Got there around 11 am and saw that furniture was 50% off until noon! Found 2 tables I liked. The first is going to be used in the "reading corner" in their bedroom. I'm actually considering NOT painting it white like I'd planned because we're kind of going for a rustic look in there anyway. I do still need to get some chairs to go with it, but for now the Lil' Tot Spot will have to work. Again, it was sturdy with simple lines so if I do paint it, it will be fairly easy to sand down first. This one was marked $20 so I got it for $10.

The other table I bought was another end table. This one is also very sturdy but will require a little more time to get it sanded before painting because of all the little groves on it. Maybe I can just get a really good primer and not have to sand??? Anyway, it will probably eventually have fish or something on it too to tie it in to the coffee table turned storage shelf. You know the cute little fabric-covered, polka dotted bins on the table in the first pic? I got those at Michaels for 60% off (I think???) so they were $3-4 dollars each and I think they'll work perfectly on the little shelf of this table. Not sure when I'll have time to start working on this one, but hopefully next week! It was marked $15 (it's been there a while so I think they'd marked it down) so I got it for $7.50!


I'll post more pictures when I get it all finished or maybe even some "in progress" pics.

Gotta love a good deal... or three.

First homework assignment

I know ALL of my followers (yes, all 3 of you!) have been waiting on pins and needles for the promised pics of Owen's first homework assignment. It was a poster they were given at Open House to fill out and turn in at the end of the first week of school. I cannot put into words the amount of excitement surrounding this assignment. Owen kept begging and begging to do it. We actually worked on it 3 separate days and unfortunately I don't have a pic of the FINAL version (not sure why???), but it's basically done in the last pic.

This is the Saturday before school starts. He sat at the kitchen table to work on it while we were getting dinner ready.

Now, the little disk on our camera that lets us know what mode it is in is missing. I'm not sure what happened to all these pictures to make the poster so blurry, but I'm guessing it was on fireworks mode or something. I think I took 5 of these and only one has the poster semi-infocus but of course that's the only one where he's not grinning from ear to ear. So I'm including this blurry one on the left just to show you the level of excitement.

This is the almost finished version of the poster. He opted for drawing himself and his family but then decided he wanted to tape a picture of our (now deceased) dog on there. We put it in his book bag to turn in Thursday (a day early) but I guess his teacher didn't notice and he didn't say anything so it was still there Thursday night. We got it back out and he colored most of the stars and circles and decorated it up a little more before turning it in Friday so the final version was even more beautimous that this pic!

On a side note, I've been really impressed with his school so far. I was a little concerned before school started because all the lists we got from the school of things they should know listed things he's known for 1-2 years! And when looking through some homeschool materials for Kindergarten I realized he knew 95% of it so I was worried that he would be bored at school and might not learn much. I was wrong! He's loved everyday of it so far (well, one day was just "okay") and has learned something everyday. We have learned more recently that his teacher is gifted-certified so I think she incorporates a lot of that into their daily lessons.

I almost wish I hadn't seen this...

Remember the blog I mentioned a few days ago about cooking with food storage. I'm still looking through that blog and came across the cutest recipe. It makes a single-serving of cake in a coffee mug! I love it. Haven't had a chance to try it yet, but maybe tonight after the boys are in bed... And I have a feeling the boys' teachers will be seeing this come Christmas time. ;-)

Anyway, here's the recipe and you can go to her blog for a video showing her making it in case you have any questions. Note: She uses egg powder and powdered milk in hers but you can just use the regular stuff instead.

Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
1 coffee mug
4 T. flour
4 T. Sugar
2 T. baking cocoa
1 egg (1 T. dry egg powder and 2 T. of water)
3 T. milk (1/2 T. Dry Powdered Milk + 3 T. Water)
3 T. oil (or applesauce)
3 T. chocolate chips
small splash of vanilla
Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla. Mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug but don’t be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT!

Ready to Make Craft Kits

Owen's best friend, Emma, just turned 5. She's got plenty of toys and I was having a hard time coming up with something she'd really enjoy. She loves doing crafts at our house but her mom has told me they don't do them at home. So I decided to fix up some Craft Kits with directions and everything she needs to complete the craft all together in one spot. Owen loved this idea and helped me put them together and, of course, insisted on trying a couple of them out himself to make sure they work right. ;-) These are all crafts I found around the internet in various places because, let's face it, I'm just not creative enough to come up with these things on my own.

One of the crafts uses scrapbook paper, chenille stems (a.k.a. pipe cleaners), and buttons to make flowers. This is one of the ones we "tested." I put everything she could need to make 4 of these into a bag and added a little topper to it. I wanted to do the toppers on the computer like I did for the boys' birthday favor bags, but we were at the lake all week and I just didn't have time to design it, so I printed out the name of each craft on card stock and quickly (VERY quickly) decorated them by hand. By the time I got to the tenth craft kit, I ran out of creative ideas for the toppers.


Another one uses scrapbook paper and googly eyes to make a little bird. We also "tested" this one, and let me tell you my boys loved this. Riley, in particular, fell in love with this little paper bird and took it everywhere with him for a few days afterward. The sample in the picture is Owen's and he insisted on putting both googly eyes on one side, but both sides of the bird are done with the patterned paper so it's pretty all around.


Here's some of the other toppers. On several of them I sketched what the finished project looks like. The crafts included making crabs, jellyfish, mice, birds, zebras, giraffes, butterflies, submarines, caterpillars, and flowers and included materials such as felt, patterned scrapbook paper, chenille stems, buttons, beads, googly eyes, and clothespins. Mostly just stuff I already had at the house and I did alter most of them in some way to make it easier or prettier or to use materials I already had.

Then we decorated a little tote bag with ribbon and rhinestones. I had planned to put her initial on it too, but I forgot to pack the stuff for it to take to the lake with us, so we just kept it simple. > All the craft kits fit in this nicely and HOPEFULLY she'll use it to help keep everything organized so it's not spread all over the house.

Then we put the tote bag with the kits into a craft organizer along with markers, colored pencils, and glue so that she has everything she could need to complete the crafts! The tote bag fit perfectly into the large section of the organizer. The only hard part was figuring out how to wrap it!!!

Oh, and an added bonus is that many of the crafts came from a website of a homeschooling mom. At the bottom of each set of directions I put the website I got the craft from so they can go there for help if needed and the ones from the homeschooling mom all have tips on tying it into your school lessons. Emma is going to be homeschooled this fall so her mom can use the crafts as part of her homeschool lessons!

Valentine's

I helped Owen make his own Valentine's for his classmates this year. We did monster-tines and he got a little creative. I found the idea on familyfun.com but it only had one-eyed monsters. Owen couldn't stick to just one eye, so we did 3, 5 and even 7-eyed monsters. And I loved all the logic behind deciding who got which monster (the seven-eyed monster had the smallest eyes so it went to Blake "because he's little"). And for what it's worth, I tried to think of something a little more clever to put on the paper the monster's holding but I was tired and couldn't think so we just used the suggestion given with the instructions. :-/



Coming soon: The BE5K and this weekend's trip to Birmingham.

I'm Baaaaaaaccccckkkk! Again.

I swear this darn computer spends more time off getting fixed than it does here working. But it's here and working... for now. There's been a lot going, but I won't take the time now to fill you in on all of it. The most recent craziness has been eye surgeries for both Riley and me.

I had PRK laser surgery to correct my vision 4 weeks ago. It's kind of like LASIK but in PRK they don't cut a flap on your cornea but put a contact in to act as a bandage instead. They say the recovery is a little longer than with LASIK (supposed to be 4 days instead of just one day of discomfort), but my recovery was much longer. It took a full 2 weeks for me to reach the point where I could function anything close to normally. I'm not sure exactly why it took so long. I do think that on days when I'd start feeling better I might have over done it a little but who knows for sure. Luckily my mom was able to come down and stay for 10 days, then came back for a couple more days. I could not have made it through it without her! I'm doing fine now. My eyes are slightly sensitive to light, but other than that I'm doing great. My vision was 20/15 at my last check up! I guess it was worth it all.

Then fifteen days after my surgery, Riley had surgery. His was for his nystagmus. Nystagmus is a condition that makes his eyes wiggle side to side. Some people with nystagmus have a null point where their eyes wiggle less and therefore they can see better. Riley's null point was the extreme right corner of his eyes so when he wanted to see something clearly he would always turn his head to the left so he could look out of the right corner. So his doctor cut the four eye muscles on the sides of his eyes and shortened the left muscles while reattaching the right ones in a more relaxed position. The surgery went well and he was playing with Owen that very evening and the next day. But then, for some reason, he decided to keep his eyes closed for two and a half days! He finally decided playing would be more fun than sitting with his eyes closed and he opened them. He's been doing fine ever since. He does have what his doctor just referred to as a "raised area" on the sides of his eyes. I'm not sure exactly what is going on with that but she did say it's possible for a cyst to form at the suture site so we're still praying for continued recovery for him.

Here's a pic from the fall where you can see the way he looks out of the corner of his eye. Most of our pictures have his head turned like this. You have to kind of catch him by surprised to get a straight on shot of him.
Owen finally started back to school this week for second semester. I LOVE his school, but the one draw back is they don't go at all in January. The plus though this semester is that they're staying for a longer day. It's 8:30-1 now instead of 8:30-11:30. I have to pack his lunch each day, but I think it will make the transition to full days a little easier in the fall. Riley's not too keen on the longer days without his brother though and asks me a dozen times a day if it's time to go get Owen yet.

Hopefully, if my computer doesn't quit on me again, I will be on here more.

On a lighter note...

Woman on Lindor Truffles commercial: "Do you dream in chocolate?"
Riley: "Yeeaaaaaaahhhhhh."

Me too, buddy. Me too.

Halloween

I've got a lot of pics to post from recent activities, but I'll start with the most recent and work my way through them all.

Owen decided quite a while back that for Halloween he wanted to be "that thing that's wrapped in toilet paper." I couldn't see buying a mummy costume, so we made it ourselves. It was pretty easy really. I looked for some good ideas online and decided to learn from others' mistakes and NOT just wait and wrap him up each time he needed to wear his costume. I mean, he's good at holding it, but he's still going to need to use the little boys' room at some point. So I wrapped the gauze around his pants and a turtleneck and he was able to pull them on and off whenever needed. It worked really well and he loved it.

Riley still doesn't quite get the whole Halloween thing, so Eric and I picked his costume for him. He loves sharks right now, so that's what we went with. I couldn't find a shark costume though for less than about $40 (TOO MUCH!!!) so I made it for around $5. I think it turned out pretty good and he LOVED it, so that's all that matters, right?

Anyway, here's the pics...

First Owen had Trick or Treating at school and a little party there with his friends on Thursday. Riley and I came for the party and Ry had a great time.

On the way to school...

Party at school... (L-R: Will, Nolan, Jack, Blake, Owen, and Riley)

That afternoon was our MOMS Club Halloween party.

Shark Attacks Mummy...

Riley and Julia


Then Friday night we went to a friend's house for TorTing in their neighborhood. Let me say Owen LOVED it. Here's some pics of the boys with their friends.

(L-R: Will, Brady, Owen, Bowie, Riley)


(Will, Cloe, and Owen)

While out TorTing we ran into some other friends. Here we are with Jenni and her girls, Anna and Emma. BTW neither Jenni nor I live in the neighborhood we were TorTing in. I guess we're just a bunch of moochers.

Happy Birthday America!

We went to a friend's house after dinner for dessert and fireworks. We all had a great time and the boys all enjoyed the sparklers. Here's a few pictures...

First the firetrucks:

Then the sparklers:

And here's Owen and his pal, Will, watching the fireworks from their bikes:

More cuteness!

I just ran across these Sticky Notes Books (a.k.a. Post-It Notes Books) and thought they were neat. I just might have to give this a try myself.

And I like these Crayon-A-Longs. There's not a tutorial for it, but how hard can it be, right???

I'm sure I've posted these Crayon Rolls before, but I still haven't gotten around to making any of them, so here it is again.

And I know it's not Easter, but I think these Chalkboard Easter Eggs are a cute idea. Oh the possibilities with colored chalkboard paint!

And I know it's not even school time, but this little number will be great for Teacher Appreciation Week. Except that Owen usually has about 25 teachers all together!

And while I'm posting things for holidays that are far, far away, how about this cute little drum valentine. I hope none of Owen's classmates are reading this because we just might do it next year for his valentines.

And here's one for an obscure holiday (obscure int he US anyway). Apparently January 26th is Australia Day and these ANZAC cookies (or biscuits Down Under, I guess) are just the thing for celebrating it. The reason I'm so excited about this is because my mother-in-law was born in Australia and her mother served in the Army there making this the perfect thing to add to our family traditions. What a find!

Well, it's dinnertime, so I've got to go feed the critters!

Recent comments from my kids.

Riley:
"More again please. More again."
"Can I want some? Can I want some please?" instead of "Can I have some?"
"Can I hold you?" when he wants ME to hold HIM.

Then today Owen said (and I could tell he was a little perturbed by it),
"Every time I'm watching a show and they go fishing, they always catch a boot."

Vintage Children's Books Online

I came across this tonight and thought I'd post it here so I can find it easily again later! I have a thing for vintage children's books and viewing them online isn't the same as having them in my hands, but it's better than nothing!

If you're looking for things to do with your kids this summer...

...check out Let's Explore.

I specifically want to try this Sink or Float experiment with Owen. We did a miniature version of it at the pool the other day and he was haing some trouble with it, so we'll keep trying.

I also like these flowers from Plum Pudding. I've got buttons, pipe cleaners (a.k.a. chenille stems), toilet paper tubes, and I'll substitute green cardstock for the felt leaves. Might be a nice project for Owen this week.

School Days

Today was Owen's last day of school for the year. A sad day for sure although when I told him this morning that today's the last day he wasn't at all upset. I don't think he understands. But give him a week and I'm sure he'll get it. I can already hear the "What can we do today???" question being asked day after day after day.

So here he is on the first day of school:

And today, the last day of school (Can you see how much he's grown?):

Here he is getting his certificate of completion from his teacher. She was so sweet and said a little something special about each student. For Owen she was talking about how smart he is :-D and how one of the high school girls who teach the class said, "I think he might be smarter than me!" I also learned today that his favorite number is 105! Where did that come from?

And here's the whole class except for Nolan who was being camera shy. I guess I need to photoshop him in. Do you notice something about the students? There actually is a girl in the class but she didn't come very often and I haven't seen her there in weeks. Quick story about her...one day Owen told me he was going to marry Jenny "because she has pretty clothes." I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that she's the ONLY girl in class! L-R: Kelli Demott, Wyatt, Camden, Levi, Sammy, Owen, Will

Recent Scrappin'

I'm fortunate to have a few friends I can get together with once a month to scrapbook. The thing is the kids always want to be "helping" us, so we decided to have a kids' scrapbooking night. I let Owen scrap about the MOMS Club Easter Egg Hunt we'd had. He picked everything himself (some very interesting choices to be sure!) and did all the cutting and taping himself. The left page is the one he did, then I used the same "color scheme" to do a quick page about the night with a pic of all the kid scrappers.


Last week they had Field Day at Owen's school. All us moms went and watched (along with our little ones) and had a great time. My camera wasn't, um, working (It was NOT operator error. No, it wasn't!!! *blush*) so Rachelle was kind enough to take pics of Owen for me and she was even sweet enough to print them out for me too! So here's the spread on that.



And this last is a two page spread to go in Owen's First Year album. Yeah, he just turned 4 and I STILL haven't finished his first year. **blush again** I did stamp the date on this after I took the pic. It's from April '05 about 2 weeks before he turned 1.