It finally happened!!

My "baby" lost his first baby tooth. It had been loose for a bit and came out today. He wasn't to happy about it until he remembered his older brother being visited by the tooth fairy. Came to find out that he hid the tooth from the fairy because he wanted to keep the tooth. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Basket of Yarn

Miscellaneous Musings

It's been a bit since I've blogged about very random things. Life's been busy with school, chores, snow, church, birthdays, Legos, Pinewood Derby, on and on it goes. So, here is my life in pictures and musing over the past few days.

PINE WOOD DERBY DAY
It seemed hard to believe this was our third Pine wood Derby. Thing One still enjoys this event even when his car doesn't win. He's got two more years to figure out how to do that and then go to Districts. His car is below, far right, mostly blue with white where someone would sit.

Thing Two seems to have more fun each year too. He actually has a few scout friends now, as a result of swim team this past summer, and a neighbor friend (whose older brother is a Web 2 in our Pack) came along that Saturday. Nothing like two wound up 6 year olds along with a bunch of other boys of varying ages. Thing Two's car, below, is the one being placed on the track. It is suppose to be a Star Wars fighter with R2D2 (the blue thing behind the brown window). No surprise if you know my son.

WINTER WEATHER MUSING

We finally got snow and more than just a dusting. Here's the view, early in the day, through the front screen door. The boys have been excited by the snow today and it sure has been an interesting one. Have you ever tried to Home School two boys who are totally stoked by the snow? It became more interesting when we noticed about 6 deer running through the woods behind our house. We went to the front window, thinking they might come up the pipe steam, but they stayed in the woods.

I was impressed with the contrast, here, of the daffodils growing in glass mason jars, that I had placed in my potted hydrangea, with the snow accumulating on the deck. To have such Spring flowers growing, albeit indoors, and to have snow falling outdoors. It was interesting to me.

Oh, and I am sure my cat's vet would appreciate the daffodils, hydrangea, and fern (not visible in this photo). All can be toxic to a cat, but Gremlin seems to leave them alone. She's more interested in playing with the legos and math manipulatives the boys leave laying around.

RECENT ATTEMPTS AT DECLUTTERING & REORGANIZING

I suppose we're becoming a book family. This small corner of the house is not for Kevin and me, but the boys collection. I worked today on combining the two different stashes of books, made room in a nook for both book cases, going through the books, and general reorganizing of their stuff. Didn't come close to finishing today (definitely a two day project), but got the big thing done - books.

The other reorganizing I did, was actually from yesterday. I spent time rearranging furniture so that all the boys games could be in one spot. It actually turned out better than I had hoped. Yeah!! They even helped with putting the toys back on the shelves and were happy to have a spot to display their new Star Wars Lego ships.

So, it has taken me about an hour and half to do all the uploading of photo's and dialoging for this post. Still haven't figured out an easy way for doing the photos. My way just seems backwards, but it works. Time to save one last time and post.

LEGOs LEGOs LEGOs

We have been living in Star Wars Legoville this week. Monday was the day we went to Toys R U so the boys could buy the long awaited Star Wars ships.









The red and white ship, The Republic Cruiser, with 919 pieces, has been on the mind of my youngest for months. It took awhile to build.










The half built white ship, Republic Attack Gun Ship, was not the first choice for our oldest.
from what is available. However, when you have $85.00 in gift cards to Toys R Us, you buy from that place and he's enjoying in none the less.














Lego's ALL over the floor. Will be glad when the second is finished. Hopefully today or tomorrow.

Six years ago

today, our second son, Thing Two was born. He's been a great joy to have around, just like his older brother. Through him, I see an intensity for those things that matter, a desire to master things, and still a very tender spirit. It is our desire to help him learn to love God above all things and trust in Him.
So, Thing Two was mentioning all day "I hope I get a green frame white board". Thing One got one in blue last week and Thing Two loved it. He wasn't to happy about the Clone book though. Oh well!!

The plan butter cake, with chocolate frosting was a hit.

I'm finding, over the last couple years, that I keep setting myself up with Thing One's birthday, and manage to forget by Thing Two's, a week later. Two things come to mind. First, last week I wrote a note on the boys bathroom mirror. Totally forgot for Thing Two, but Kevin sent me an e-mail to remind me. Secondly, last week I brought the camera when we went out to dinner and forgot tonight. Oh well!

Thing One wanted his photo taken too!!

What was I thinking?!?!

I took the boys to Toys - R - Us today, to use the gift cards and cash they had been earning or received for either their birthday or Christmas. Each of them bought a large Star Wars Lego set. How large you ask? Good question as I hadn't even thought to look until we were home, boxes opened about 50 bags fell out of each box (okay, maybe not that many, but a lot). There are over 1,000 pieces per ship. Ugh!! I know the boys will be happy with these, it's all they have been talking about for MONTHS. May be a few days before they are totally finished.

School today

started by reading Mailing May by Micheal O. Tunnel (I linked the title to Amazon, should you want to see more of the book). Of course, the boys picked up on tunnel and related it to a train tunnel. They found the book exciting and kind of cool.

In Volume 4 of Five in a Row, there are recipes with each story. For Mailing May, there are three recipes: Chicken Pot Pie, Apple Sauce, and Oatmeal Cookies. As I had a lot of apples, I thought today might be a good day to make the sauce. The boys loved the smell and looking at it as the apples cooked. When it was finished, I surprised them by letting them try it, warm, and with vanilla ice cream. A totally cool snack.

Of course, as I hadn't planned dinner yet, we'll be trying the Chicken Pot Pie. Gosh, now to figure out lunch?!?!

Wordless Wednesday

Not so Wordless Wednesday

If I had followers for Wordless Wednesday, I've probably long since lost them. Christmas and New Years threw my schedule out of whack. Then, being sick for a week and half. AAAwwk!!! Or should I say "COUGH, COUGH, COUGH!!!!!!" Today is probably the first day that I actually feel like I am getting better. It's my hope that after school, I'll be able to take a few photo's of my new shelves for Wordless Wednesday and post them a bit later today.

Birthday Wishes

My birthday wishes go out to my now 9 year old. It seems hard to believe that, at this time in 2000, he was just over 5 hours old and hubby had finally gotten his dinner. So many milestones have been reached in those years. Sleeping through the night, eating regular food, walking, swimming, potty training, zippers, talking, tying shoes, t-ball, soccer, scouts, school. On and on it goes. Today was spent celebrating in many ways. It began with a note on the boys bathroom mirror wishing him a Happy 9th Birthday. We baked cup cakes to take to his class while I was in Ladies Bible Study. He got to open a couple presents before going to dinner. (One came early and their BIG presents will be given in between their birthdays).

To encourage more reading, we gave he a Star Wars Clone book. One in a series, I'm sure will get read a lot.



We try to take the boys out for dinner on their birthday's to a favorite restaurant. Thing One's choice, Silver Diner. We'd signed them up, a few years ago, for the birthday club and thankfully had gotten a post card coupon for the meal and a kid sized shake free. We used each of the boys coupons (Thing Two's b-day is in one week) and the overall bill wasn't to bad.


Tuesday nights at Silver Diner also happens to be kids night, which means there are balloons, face painting and all diners showing up with kids sit in the same section. Thing One had a fire engine and flames painted onto his face.













Thing Two, of course, had to have Star Wars and light sabors.




On the way home from dinner, we took time to tell Thing One what we liked about him. So, he heard that he's funny, fun to play lego's with, proud of how he likes to learn about the bible, the best brother in the WHOLE world, clever, and several variations of this. Thing one went to bed this evening feeling loved.

Happy New Year etc.

My first blog post of 2009 is long overdue!! Eleven days to be exact. The first part of those days, Kevin was still off and we did a lot of reorganizing around the house. I had gotten book shelves (yes, bookshelves) for Christmas and was busy rearranging a room around those said shelves. What's odd, is that since I started blogging, I take pictures of just about everything so that I can post them too. I've even started a post, paused so I could take pictures, come back and upload said photo's. This time, nope, no pictures. Maybe if I get back into Wordless Wednesday.

Last week we began school again. It was difficult for all us to get back into the routine of school, bedtimes, library, Scouts, church events, bible studies, winter swim, yada, yada, yada. On top of that, I managed to come down with bronchitis. I've been on a few meds for three days now, feel a bit better, but no where close to 100%. So, blogging in 2009, will be off to a slow start.

More to come, though, in the tales of a homeschooling family. Ours boys will be celebrating their 9th and 6th birthdays in coming days.