Dying Easter Eggs

Here is a video slide show for you of us dying easter eggs. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Nobody loves me...

...everybody hates me. I think I'll go and eat some worms.

That is how I am feeling. I know some people read these silly little posts but no one except the rare occasion when my sister comments, I get no love. Come on people give me some love here.

Okay, okay, here is some bait for you:

Okay more later.....now leave me so love! Please don't make me beg for it.

Pinewood Derby Districts!

The first thing that happened is I spotted the family who cheated last year. They were working on their car and getting it all set to turn in. Graphiting the axles, etc. So they take their car over and for some reason I hit the record button. Oh, go ahead and see for yourself. You can't hear anything but you can see the man in the sweater vest (the dad) and the two officials inspecting the car. Notice what the officials do and their body language. Kenneth and Nicholas are checking in Kenneth's car for the Dad's race (in the background).

You saw that ,right? They gave the car back to them to work on some more. Something about the axles. The dad then went back out to their car and brought in more supplies. I suppose they were axles. They took the car apart and replaced the axles. We finally left that room and moved into the "race room".

Here are all the cars for the Weeblos I race. The car all the way in the back on the right is the cheaters' car. He must have passed the initial inspection finally. Nicholas's car is the third from the bottom on the right with all the little holes in it. They flip the cars upside down so they don't injure the axles or harm the car in any way before the race. It is interesting to look at the cars from the bottom because you can tell where they put the weights and what weights they use. So then the racing begins! Nicholas's car (green one) wins every race except two towards the end. The track had a fast lane (the one on the right) and it truly came down to which lane you were in at the end to determine the winner. We were lucky and got the faster lane on the last race and .....
Oh yeah, Kenneth came in third in the Dad's race!

He got a trophy and everything!!

Okay, back to Nicholas.......


Yup! He won FIRST PLACE!

They pulled the winners' cars apart and inspected them to make sure they weren't cheating. The cheaters came in 4th and they were anxious to see if anyone was disqualified. No one was and one inspector told Nicholas he could have polished his axles just a bit more, ha ha. But everything checked out just fine.

Here are the boys with their trophies:

Pinewood Derby

Here is his car this year. He named it "Stinger" for the hornet stickers he put on it.

Here he is with his car.

Here he is after he got his pin for winning against his den (which only consists of him and one other child.)

So after the den race he then races against his whole pack (the top two who win in their den move to the pack race). In past years, Nicholas has won or come in second in his den and then not done well in the pack race. He has NEVER placed first second or third in the pack races.

This is a picture of him about half way through the pack races and he is winning each race his car is in. He is starting to realize that he could win the whole thing this year. No other cars are coming close!
Nicholas won!! He won for his den and in the whole pack. He won the biggest trophy he has ever received too.

And here he is with his biggest trophy ever!

Yay! Nicholas!!! We are now off to District Finals where the top two kids from each den in each pack go to race against each other. In past years Nicholas's car has been about middle of the group. Last year he came in 5th and he received a certificate. The winner of the group was disqualified and there was a big mess with that. This year I think we could have a chance to get higher in the standings. We can't wait.

Few pictures from Christmas for you

Merry belated Christmas to all of you who venture to read this. Actually I am not really sure who reads this anymore. Leave me a comment if you do so I know who I am talking to.

Anyway, Disney was great again. We always have such a great time there. This year we got a great campsite just feet away from the boat to take you to the Magic Kingdom. We loved it and it was so convenient and cut down tremendously on our travel time to and from places. We didn't need a bus to get us back to our campsite this year. AND we didn't need to rent a golf cart either.

We returned just in time for Christmas and Christmas Eve and day were great. The kids were worn out by the end of it all and didn't complain one bit about going to bed. Santa was good to them and so was Mamaw and Grandpa. They gave them Nintendo DS games!!! All three learned quickly that you can "text" each other if you are close by. So that night I found them all in their beds in their own rooms giggling and texting each other. I think a new rule is coming....

I leave you with a few pictures of the day.

Hanging up the stockings:

Kenneth's Grandmother:

The Bean fashioning a boa fleece scarf made by your's truly!

Gotta love Mom's duck lips!

Thanks Aunt Jenn for the Webkinz! (Can I adopt them now, now,now???)

New sweater from Mom!

I just love gift sets! The man of the hour got a bread dipping set!

Ever have a day where you just can't get going?

Well, that is me today. I can't seem to get moving. I got up, had two cups of coffee, surfed the net, made and ate lunch, moved on to cold caffene, and ate a candy bar. All I have is blurry eyes and a tired butt from sitting. So what do I do, work on my chair adjustments so it is more comfortable. Oh yeah, I am at work supposed to be working.

Nothing is getting done.

On another note about midnight last night Caroline posed this question to me. "Mommy, did you know that sharks wiggle when they sleep? Why do you think they do that?"

Anyone know the answer? I told her in my tired state of half sleep I was in that it was because they didn't want any other sharks or other animals who might eat sharks to think that they were asleep so when they wiggle it makes them look like they are awake so no one will eat them.

But not that I think about it, what other animals eat sharks? Now I am getting a headache.

First day of vacation...

and I woke up at my usual 6:30 am!!! Not naturally, no, I had the alarm set and yes that was on purpose too! We had an 8:30 riding lesson and a 9:00 one too. This was the make up lesson for missing last Saturday's lesson. Both girls did well and Allie is already jumping. Caroline is still along for the ride but enjoys spending Allie's lesson time in the barn talking to the horses. I think that is her true calling. I can't keep her out of the barn. Today I went in there and she is talking to a horse and I asked if she wanted to see Allie jump. She came out for a minute and because Allie wasn't up first to jump Caroline went back in the barn. Allie called to her, "Aren't you going to watch me jump?" Caroline said, "No!" and skirted back in the barn. I had to come get her when we were ready to go.

Yesterday at the end of Horse Riding Camp the girls got to pick a "prize" from a basket when the went up to get their certificates. Caroline chose the riding crop and Allie got really mad at her because Allie wanted it. Well Caroline chose it and Allie couldn't get over her jealousy. By the time I got to mom's house to pick the girls up for speech, two hours later. Allie had convinced Caroline to trade prizes with her. But there was incentive. Allie promised Caroline that she would buy her 50 Webkinz for her birthday next year. Yes that is what the price of this $8 crop became. An average Webkinz cost between $12 and $17 each!! Yeah, do the math. That is how jealous Allie was. I put a stop to that and gave the crop back to Caroline. We go to riding this morning and Caroline uses it first for her lesson and lets Allie borrow it for her lesson. After the lesson, Allie asks if we can buy a crop for her for her lesson tomorrow. I caved and took her to the horse shop around the corner to end this argument. $15 later we now own a beautiful purple crop that will keep Allie's hands of Carolines pretty red one! That was the best $15 I have spent in a while.

This afternoon we are off to see Wall-e in the movie theatre. It is a Disney film so it should be good. Movie review to come later!

Nicholas and Caroline's Family Party

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Enjoy!!

Caroline's Party

It was a hot day so we were glad that we decided to have a pool party. Fun filled with the Limbo, a piniata, pizza, cake and ice cream, presents and of course the pool!!

The Limbo!

Cake and Ice Cream!!

Presents! (Check out the High School Musical Hat! She didn't take it off unless she was swimming!)

Pool Fun!!

Raingutter Regatta

For those of you who don't know us personally we end up being very very busy this time of year. So busy that half the time we don't know where we are going or what is next. So keep up with us here on the blog and check often so you don't miss a thing!



Raingutter Regatta!!! This is a final cub scout event for my son's cub scout pack. It is also the time that they move up a level in scouting.

Here he is with his sailboat he will be racing:


The Raingutter Regatta race!!

This is a picture of him getting his new neckerchief. He is a Webelos now.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "this is our life and we are loving it"!! Next episode is the pool party!!

Horseback Riding and more!!!

Here's the much promised but never before provided pictures of horseback riding with my middle child.

This photo is of her first getting on a "horse". Bobby is really a pony but no one was telling her!!

This next one is of her on Ishtar who is a REAL horse. She is posting here.This on is a better one of her working on her posting.

And now for something completely different!!

This is my son mowing our backyard. Before you all FREAK out, yes he is very safe and not only was I back there watching but my husband was too, following him very closely.

Webkinz Crazy

Can we talk? Since when do I have to fight my kids for use of the computer? Since when is their excuse to get on the computer "mom, I have to feed my Webkinz!"? Since we caved and bought them one, EACH! I don't know why we were in the mall a couple weeks ago. I haven't been in the mall, you know walking around checking out the stores, in over a year. But we were there as a family and we wandered into Limited Too. There they were WEBKINZ! These little animals were on sale buy one get one free and we figured we would buy one and get one free and well we bought them each one. They get home and want to put their codes in the computer. Little did my husband and I know what we were doing but he helped them set up their account and then it started. At first I thought "oh this is cute" but now (sigh) I am just over it.

The day starts with the Wheel of Yum or the Mega Wheel of Wow (yeah, you know what I am talking about) and then breakfast and school. They return home from school and immediately one asks to get on. We have to set the kitchen oven timer for 15 minutes and they rotate all evening. Every 15 minutes the alarm goes off and they switch. We have rooms (yes, mulitple), clothes, games, furniture, and Caroline has just recently sold everything to get an "outdoor room". This poor dog has no food and his food line is down in the 50's but she's got that outdoor room now!

The other day I couldn't get one of the kids to take a bath and finally I had to enforce punishment. "No Webkinz for two days!" Yup, I did it. You would have thought I had taken out a live pet and shot it in the backyard! Let me tell you, that was a torturous two days for me having to hear all about how this virtual dog was starving to death, lonely, needing to get put in a bed, etc, etc!

Oh, you ask how can I be on the computer posting this? I am on my husband's work computer. Shhh, don't tell!

Sorry People

for not updating the blog sooner. We have been plugging along here very nicely. Nothing major to talk about and I think that is just why I haven't updated in a while.

My older daughter is taking horseback riding lessons now. She is actually learning on a pony. So do we still call it horseback riding lessons or ponyback riding lessons? Anyway, she looks very cute in her black helmet and her paddock boots. It is giving her more confidence and something to do that her siblings aren't doing too, yet. Yes there is that yet there. You saw it too. The younger daughter will be taking lessons too as soon as she turns 6 and that is in 6 weeks!! She is very excited but that birthday just can't come quick enough.

On a crafty note, I have been working on scrapbooking our Disney trip. I think we took way too many pictures but you tell me what you think. On average we took between 135-200 pictures a day and we were there for 7 days. I developed over 800 pictures and so far have only weeded out about 40 and I am on the start of day 4. I just can't seem to leave out any cute smile. And since they are my kids' cute smiles and it is my album I am putting them all in there. God help the person who says, "can I look at your pictures from Disney?" LOL I will be bringing out three huge albums and plopping them on their lap.

Okay for all of you faithful readers, you are probably wondering about my garden. Well we have two rows of potatoes in the big garden and they are doing quite well. They have been there for about a month now and have nice little green leaves coming out. Thankfully the deer leave them alone. We are so distraught at the fact that all our hard work will go to the deer that we have been thinking up ways short of shooting the whole clan to keep them out of the garden, hence the garden hasn't really started yet. I did plant some peas a while back and they are about a foot tall but they are in our little garden here at the house and the deer don't know of this lovely place. I also planted a fe cabbage plants but they turned out to be broccoli and they all bolted (grew really tall really fast and have little yellow flowers on them). I sware the label on them said cabbage. Oh well.

Check back again soon as I will post some great pictures of ponyback riding and the garden.

Toodles!

Summer Camps

It is way past time to begin thinking of summer camps, however, I have just begun to think about it for the kids. I am not sure why I wasn't on top of things a few months ago but I have found that this summer the registration for camps have been slow around here which is in my favor.

So far here is the run down:

Son, sailing camp and then a craft camp maybe and a sailing camp revisit at the end of summer, reading tutoring all summer.
Daughter #1, horseback riding camp and craft camp
Daughter #2, bug camp, craft camp, and maybe horseback riding.

They will all be swimming on the swim team for our pool as well. We have opted out of the summer enrichment program at the school this year. It just seemed like too much and I didn't see any real benefit from it in the past couple years.

Did you notice the horseback riding? Yes, daughter #1 has been saying she wants to take lessons so my mother, bless her, took her up to check out the stables. Now this is the daughter who doesn't like dogs or other animals much. Before I signed her up for this expensive camp I wanted her to look at a live horse face to face, eye to eye and see a real horse. So my mother took her to the stables yesterday and daughter #1 was a bit timid (if that is the right word) with the oldest horse out there and while she touched the horse she used her sister's hand to pet it. Yes it was like hand over hand petting. Daughter #2 isn't scared. In fact she is mad because you have to be six to start lessons. Because of this timidness with the horse it was suggested that she start lessons right away and not wait until summer. So they signed her up for private lessons starting Saturday! No time like the present, right?

Why I don't go to the Mall anymore...

Not that there is anything wrong with this....

We went to the mall this evening to eat at our favorite restaurant Qdobas. The entrance to the restaurant is outside of the mall. So by going to this restaurant you are not technically 'going into the mall'. It is sort of like lurking on the outside. Anyway, while we are eating I tell my husband that I want to go in the mall and go to a store that is closing/moving and they are having a big sale. He agrees and after we finish eating we walk to the entrance of the mall and walk in. We aren't in there more than 50 steps and I see two young men(not teen agers more like early 20's) walking towards us both wearing khaki pants and pink polo shirts. They are holding hands and talking to each other as they walk by. I at first notice that they BOTH wearing pink shirts and then I notice that they are holding hands. Then the next thing that pops into my little pea brain is that it must be a blatent joke and that someone put them up to it. But then quickly realize that, no, they are a couple and just enjoying each others' company as they are shopping. They walk past us and my husband quickly gives me a knowing glance and I give him 'eyes' back letting him know that yes, I saw them too. Then my middle daughter says, "mommy, did you see those men?" (uh oh) "yes" I say and she says, "they must work at the same place because they were wearing the same uniform." (whew) "yeah, I guess they do", I reply.

I am NOT ready to have THAT conversation with her yet...

The People Who Make me Laugh

Today is.... National She's Funny That Way Day, a day to pay tribute to funny women by listing ways the women in our lives make us laugh (sponsored by Brenda Meridith of Winchendon, Massachusetts, 978-297-1820).

In honor of She's Funny That Way Day I will now list those who make me laugh...

But before I do that there are some that I laugh at and others that make me laugh because they are funny, girlfriend (said in a nice southern drawl). Please note the difference.

1. my sister, I totally laugh at her sometimes but most times she is just downright funny. Her blog cracks me up and the predicaments she gets herself into .... oh I just can't go on... somehow though she always comes out smelling like roses. I kid you not.
2. my youngest child, she doesn't need words to crack me up. It is her expressions that get me. All she has to do is flash those expressive eyes and it is all I can do not to laugh, particularly when I am trying to scold her. The night before Easter my husband was trying to get her to put her pajamas on and she wouldn't go and wouldn't go. So he threatened to call the Easter bunny and tell him not to come. Well, she took off like a bullet up the stairs. She gets halfway up and then comes back down and pops her head in the kitchen again and says, "you can't call him. You don't know his number!" And then runs back up the stairs.
3. Nicole. She is just so funny and well you just have to read her blog!
4. My old college roommate, Zebrafeet. She and I disagree on most things political and well, I just have to laugh. She is a great friend and I love her.
5. The "Yarn Harlet". There are times where I read her blog and laugh so hard I am crying and can't breathe. Even if you are not a knitter I think you will find her blog very entertaining.
6. Hilary Clinton. Yes, this one I laugh at! I just don't understand her sometimes, no, at all. There is just so much here, I don't know where to start. Why did she stay with Bill after the Lewinsky thing? (yes I am sure it was "political", but come one women, we would have kicked his you know what to the curb a long time ago) What was that crying thing in the pastry shop interview/speech a couple months ago? No one really believed it. Why ..... oh I just can't go on.
7. Rosie O'Donnell. I used to think she was funny and I laughed for entertainment, but in the last couple years she has just gotten weird.
8. my neighbor, she cracks me up. She is super anal about everything. Wants to be perfect and ends up being controlling in the process. We all laugh at her in our women's group. And she takes it in jest. She just can't stop and we love her for it.
9. I would be remiss if I didn't include myself in this list. ME! I make me laugh. I crack myself up in the most inopertune times. Usually it is a thought, other times it is because of something I have done or said. And...

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be
amused. - Anonymous

So who makes you laugh?

didja miss me?

Well, I took a well deserved week and packed up the kids and headed to the beach. The man of the house stayed at home and worked until the weekend and then met us down there. It was nice, windy, chilly most days, but nice all in all. We spent two afternoons at the beach but the other days we just hung around the house, perfecting the inline skating skills (no not me, my sillies, the kids!) We played putt-putt one day and spent an afternoon at our favorite aquarium petting the stingrays. I will post a video soon of my youngest getting some good rubbing in. She was soaking wet when we finished but that is her favorite thing to do at the beach.

Yesterday, my son met me in the laundry room and asked,

"are you doing laundry again?"

I said "yup, that is what I do around here, laundry, cooking and
cleaning."

"What do you do around here?," I asked.

He thinks for a minute and then says, "play, watch TV and sleep."

'nuf said...

My girl...

Playing piano...

Nope no formal training...

Letter to the Easter Bunny

This is from my older daughter. I found it today on the front porch. I think she was trying to mail it.

It says "Dear Easter Bunny, will you bring me food bunnys and chick food [Peeps] and can you make it stop raining."

Random Thoughts, Book Reviews and a Picture

If you haven't been to my cooking blog recently you may want to mosey on over there. Whitney's Cooking! I just put up a super great broccoli salad recipe and below that is an entry on my husband and I cooking at our church last Sunday. I think it is worth reading!! Comment away over there also. I never get any comments!

If you haven't been to my Idle Hands blog I also suggest you find a half a second and venture that way too. I have been busy with sewing and have posted a bunch of pictures of the projects that I have finished recently (in the pat two weeks).

Now for the book reviews. I have been totally in to Debbie Macomber recently. She writes series novels but you don't have to read the series from start to finish. You can pick up any book and start reading. But if you want the whole story and not just little snippets of the back stories of some of the characters it is worth it to start from the beginning. She has a lovely website with recipes, knitting patterns, and information about her books and a monthly contest.

Her Cedar Cove series starts with 16 Lighthouse Road and continues on to 74 Seaside Avenue. It is a great series about a small seaside town in Washington state just outside of Seattle. It is filled with romance (not the smutty stuff) and great stories of women and their lives, friendships, and the men they love. I started reading this series two summers ago and in one month had read all up to the end of the series. They are quick reads and I think anyone can relate to the characters.

Macomber's Dakota series is being republished now and they are cute novels about a small dying town in North Dakota called Buffalo Valley. This town actually is mentioned in the Cedar Cove series too, as one of the characters moves out to Buffalo Valley and falls in love with a man there. The series begins with Dakota Born and then Dakota Home. Always Dakota will be republished in June,2008. It is a wonderful little story about a small town and their plight to bring it back to life, of course along with love, relationships and women's friendships.

Navy Husband is a cute story about a woman who decides her relationship with a man is going nowhere. She breaks up with him and moves to Seattle where she buys a pizza and ice cream parlor. Her sister is a recent widow and has a young child. She is enlisted in the Navy and gets deployed to a ship in the middle of the Pacific. The child must go to live with the pizza parlor owner. In the midst of life changing events, both women find love and companionship in places where they least expect. This novel is part of a series but it is great on its own. I haven't read the others in the series yet.

Okay here is the picture of the day:

Caroline finding a bit of quiet in her shoe cubby to play her Game Boy!