So Funny!

Jared was just standing there staring at the ground with a stumped expression on his face and it made me laugh!

PS I've had to enable word verification in order to try to reduce spam comments. I spent this morning going through and deleting at least 50 comments that were left, which had NOTHING to do with my posts. One even threatened my life if I didn't view the link they posted... I know it's a pain to have to type in the code in order to leave a comment, but I'm sure you all understand why I don't want to deal with spam on my blog!!

5 Little Ladybugs

Five little ladybugs climbing on some plants,
Eating the aphids, but not the ants.
The first one said, "Save some aphids for me."
The second one said, "They're as tasty as can be."
The third one said, "Oh, they're almost gone."
The fourth one said, "Then we'd better move on."
The fifth one said, "Come on, let's fly!"
So they opened up their wings and flew off toward the sky.


Jared had a ladybug land on him last weekend while we were at the beach. I was in the middle of taking a picture of it on Jared's hand when it decided to fly away. I think it's neat how it opens up the way it does!!

Connor's Special Day

Because not all the kids celebrate their birthdays during the school year, Connor's preschool teacher has set it up that each child gets a "special day" instead. It's not tied into any sort of birthday celebration, but gives every child the opportunity to have a day where they get some extra focus and attention, and get to bring in a treat, a favorite book from home to share with the class, do a little show-and-tell deal if they choose, etc. Connor had his special day Tuesday and he was soooo excited! He decorated his crown by himself (covering up his entire name in the process...LOL!), then got to talk about his poster to his friends. He refused to let me put very many pictures on his poster because he wanted to DRAW pictures instead. Worked for me, because it was less work having to hunt up pictures and glue them on. woo hoo! ha!

I think I must have had a smudged lense, because every single picture I took of him on his special day was BLURRY! wahhh! Had to share this one anyway:


We brought in chocolate chip cookies for the special treat, and then string cheese and graham crackers for the regular snack. He also brought in his favorite book, Toby, Who are you?, which has been his favorite book for a long time. His friends seemed to really enjoy hearing it when the teacher read it to them at the end of class.

Funny story: On his poster, he had a picture of each of our four pets (turtle, lab, tabby cat, yorkie), a picture of our family, a picture of himself as a baby, and his school picture from this year. He did a drawing of a monkey, a two-wheel bike (which he is bound and determined to learn to ride by this summer, and isn't doing too bad of a job of it either!), his teacher, and his three pretend sisters!!!! I'm pretty sure I've mentioned his three pretend sisters before (one's name is Olivia--which is how the turtle got her name--and he doesn't know the other two pretend sisters' names). I haven't heard much about them for the past few weeks, but as he was telling his class about his poster, he pointed out all the photographs and named the pets and his family members, then got into explaining the drawings. "This is my monkey, and this is my two wheel bike, and this is my sister, and this is my other sister, and this is my other sister, and this is my teacher!!!" His teacher asked him how come he drew so many pictures of Emily, and Connor said, "Those are my 'tend sisters, not my sister Emily." LOL!!!!!

A little of this, a little of that

It's a good thing we regularly do THIS:


because we've been dealing with a room full of THIS:


And while not all of them were ours for keeps, a few of them were. And we've enjoyed them. And maybe we should visit the dentist again soon?

***Shout out to Auntie, who cleaned CJ's teeth for him and gave him rave reviews!!***

Did you know?

As late as 1920, Tug-of-War was still an Olympic sport?

That the 2004 summer games had the most participants of any other Olympics, including the most women participants?

Oh, the things you can learn from reading chapter books to your children!!

Am I CRAZY??

I started taking an adult jazz class at the beginning of January. A few moms from the dance studio Emily attends approached me about doing it, suggesting that it would be nice to have a better understanding of the time/energy our daughters put into dancing, as well as being something fun and different for ourselves, and a great work-out. One of the moms said that for her, she wanted to set the example for her daughter that you're never too old to try something new, and you always just have to try your best. She had me sold right there! When push came to shove, only two of us ended up being able to join, but there is another class at the "sister" studio in another town with four more people taking adult jazz (all of whom have at least five years experience--even more intimidating!).

I was extremely nervous the first class, having ZERO dance experience, but it's really been a lot of fun! After only 5 classes, the instructor approached us about performing in the June recital with her other class. My gut response was NO FLIPPIN' WAY! People show up to the recital to see their CHILDREN dance. And the self-conscious part of me wanted no part of performing onstage when the little girls with more experience than me could do a better job!!!!!! OR performing with women who actually know what they are doing (since we'll be combined with the class from the sister studio)!

The instructor asked the two of us newbies to keep an open mind for a few more weeks, practice the routine with the other four ladies a few times, and give her our final decision later. Emily is BEGGING me to include myself, while my husband is pretty adament that I shouldn't. Part of me wants no part of it, while the other part of me thinks that the whole reason I started this class was to be an example for my kids, to step outside my comfort zone and push myself, and I SHOULD perform.

Decisions, decisions!!

We had our first nearly-full group practice (one person couldn't come) and I had a great time! With 5 of the 6 of us all together, I didn't feel as much like the spotlight was on me... LOL Also, the instructor has choreographed the routine in such a way that there are three different parts happening pretty much all at once, and the part for the two of us who are brand new just isn't as complicated, yet still ties in and looks good. So I don't feel intimidated that I'm trying to keep up with much more advanced dancers on-stage; I just have to keep up with the other new dancer!!

Agreeing to perform in the recital would be extra incentive to work-out and tone this body of mine, plus, besides making me a nervous wreck, I think it would be really fun in the end, and would MOST DEFINATELY be stepping outside my comfort zone (for those of you that know me personally, you know what a creature of habit I am, and what a big STEP this would be! LOL)

If you're interested, THIS is the song we'll be performing to if I agree to participate (though we're cutting the long instrumental part out so it's not a five minute song!!)

Let's take a vote: Do I agree to perform, or no?

Brotherly Love

You thought I was going to post a picture of Jared and Connor, didn't you? ha ha!

Here's Charlie (left) and his brother Sparky (right). This is a terrible picture of them, but it was the best of the ones I took (they were too fast!)



Sparky apparently dug out of his fenced in backyard the other day, and high-tailed it three houses up to our house to play with Charlie! I was in the dining-room and could hear Charlie barking and scratching at the sliding glass door that leads to our own (unfenced) backyard, and I could hear a faint echo. When I got up to investigate, there was Sparky on the outside, barking and scratching to get IN, while Charlie was barking and scratching to get OUT. These little dogs LOOOOOOOOOOVE getting to play with each other, and it had been a few weeks. They were a BLUR as they ran/tumbled/etc and enjoyed each other's company. Sparky's family came home from running errands about an hour later and came to collect him.

You can see Charlie's "new" haircut (about two weeks ago), too. I spent the first week HATING it. It looked very choppy and uneven, and I still have some issues (I doubt we'll go back to Pets n' Pals ever again!), but I can finally look at him and not be startled by how different he looks. LOL I wish I'd thought to try for a good "before" picture. He looked a bit like he had a lion's mane before! ha ha!

Recent Crafts

As promised, here is some of the stuff that has been keeping me busy these past few weeks!!

Here is a sweater/hat/mittie set I knit for my niece-to-be, Eva, as part of the gift I gave at the baby shower my SIL's sisters threw:


I wish the lighting were more cooperative! There's a very pretty shimmer to the yarn, as well as the buttons, while still being really soft (soft to touch, but also isn't stiff and bulky)

close-up of the hat:


This is a sweater/hat set my cousin Heather ordered to gift her sister, Heidi (who is due with a baby girl, Gracie, at the end of March)


These are larger sized, double-sided flannel receiving blankets and coordinating burp rags that I made my SIL and cousin, Heidi (they each got a set of what is pictured below):


I made them because I remember being really frustrated with the TINY, THIN store-bought receiving blankets. These should be big enough to actually swaddle a new baby, but are a good size to lay down as a play-mat or tummy-time mat as baby gets older. The coordinating burp rags were just something fun to throw in as an "extra". The gifts were a hit at the double shower my mom and I hostessed for my SIL and cousin Heidi, and another cousin of mine put in an order for boy-themed ones! yay!

Here is a gift bag and coordinating card set I made to gift the pink sweater set (crappy lighting, yet again): (I did go back after I'd taken the picture and add a raised square with the little shoe image to the gift bag as well. It just felt like it was lacking something without it)


some baby cards:






some birthday cards:








Of course there are a number of cards I totally forgot to take pictures of!!

As you can see, I've been pretty busy! Thanks for looking!

DID YOU MISS ME????

I've had my computer back for a week and a half now, but have been SWAMPED with... well, LIFE. In the past two weeks, I have spent countless hours working on a preschool newsletter (which fell victim to the computer crash and is no longer with us... cry!), helped plan and co-hostess and double baby shower, knit an infant sweater/hat set, made 30 cards, sewed 6 large double-sided flannel baby blankets and made 6 coordinating burp rags (3 blankets and 3 burp rags for each of the two mommies-to-be), loaded countless programs back onto my computer, helped three kids fill out Valentines for their classmates, spent HOURS on end at Em and J's Elementary School volunteering my time (most of it in Jared's class, helping do assessments for upcoming report cards), shopped for supplies at JoAnn Fabrics to fill another blanket/burp rag order, shopped for Valentine gifts for the kids, attended a board meeting, babysat, attended a ballet (Sleeping Beauty with Emily and some of our good friends), and tried desperately to keep up with the housework, failing miserably at the attempt, among other random little errands and appointments and activities.

I spent the ENTIRE DAY Sunday shoveling us out from under the filth and disaster that had become the normal state of our home. Beds have clean bedding, all the clean laundry is folded AND PUT AWAY (we've been living out of laundry baskets for WEEKS now!), dishes are done, dishwasher emptied, hard floors are vacuumed and mopped, bathrooms are SCRUBBED, doorknobs/lightswitches/remotes/phones/etc are all sanitized with Lysol spray, playroom is picked up and decently organized. There's still dejunking/organizing work to be done, but it's a MAJOR improvement! WHAT A RELIEF!

Now that I'm mostly done with current craft orders, mostly caught up with household chores, and the kids are out of school for a week (meaning no volunteering for me! Not that I don't enjoy it, but it was just a little much with everything else going on at the same time), I can FINALLY sit down and justify time at the computer blogging. That, and I was threatened with a good spanking if I didn't update my blog and give it a facelift SOON.

Auntie, I think my buns are safe. I'm back! *grin*

Pics of some of the recently completed craft projects tomorrow, and updates (including pictures!) of the kids and what we've all been up to will post later in the week. Tune in tomorrow!