That boy makes me laugh...

Discussing the daily text with the kids today (about Timothy), I asked them what they needed to do.  Ethylwolf {This is what I am now calling Buddy...after I thought about what I wanted to call my son on my blog, I thought it would be funny to use the name that the husband first suggested we name him, hah!}...So, Ethylwolf thought for a long time, wrinkling up his face and then said ...

"I need to control my brain."  

"How do you control your brain?" I ask. 

"Well, one time I was thinking that I wanted to punch my sister..."  

"Did you punch her?" 

"Well, I thought about if for a long time, but then I didn't punch her."  

{shrugs shoulders} 

"But I don't remember if I wanted to punch her, or kick her, or push her, or hit her, but I didn't do it.  That's how you control your brain."

So, the next time you want to punch or kick or push or hit someone, remember to control YOUR brain, and don't do it.

Kids make me smile :)

My Little Painter

The other week Buddy discovered a blank canvas that I had been saving for something wonderful.  He asked if he could paint on it and I said "Of course!"  I was especially thrilled when he decided to paint a picture of the 2 of us hugging while working in the garden.  He has been working on it for over a week now, just a little here and there to let the picture unfold.  Even though he's still not finished (he wants to add clouds and flowers) I love it just the way it is.  I can't wait to hang this new piece of artwork.  I love my buddy :)

If you are looking for a new material to inspire your kids, I would suggest buying a canvas for them to try.  They are cheap at Michaels and ACMoore and if you use a 50% off coupon they are even cheaper.  Watercolor, acrylics, modpodge, etc, everything goes.  I can't wait to try this project in my head involving family photos and canvas medium.  I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful spring day!

Late Night Tea

KennaKat and I found ourselves up late last night while the boys were sleeping.  We felt that a nice cuppa would hit the spot quite nicely while we cuddled in our pj's.

Pinkies Out

The Cats Cradle

I'm super excited about 2 shows coming to the Cradle.

First to come is Eisley on Wednesday, April 27.  Eisley is a very talented sibling band that's been around for a few years.  I like the idea of touring siblings and I love that they have clean music.

Second is Sondre Lerche.  He's a very talented musician and you may remember him from the movie Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell.  Sondre wrote all of the songs for that film.  I love his music and he's coming to the cradle, and I'm stoked!  He's performing on Thursday, June 9th.  Those tickets will be selling like hotcakes I'm sure.

So who wants to join me for a night out?  If you don't know of their music, that's ok, you'll still have fun.  Let me know and purchase your ticket asap :)

Saturday Afternoon flower making & Date Night

We are sooo stuffed from
dinner, tired,and yes,
I forgot to wear makeup...

Yes, you heard right, We had a Date Night!  Woohoo!  We haven't had a date night since....our Anniversary...which is in September...


A sad acknowledgement, but true nevertheless.  It's pathetic, but will you believe that several other friends are in the same boat?  So, we joined forces to do something about it.  Once a month, one of us will tackle kid night, meaning, watch all of the crazy kids and have one night of chaos so that the other 2 couples can have a night to themselves, kid free, and without having to pay someone to watch them.  They can go out or stay in or as one friend said, "sleep 5 hours!". (It's a 5 hour time slot by the way).  It will work out so that in a 3 month period, we will have each had 2 date nights!  Beats once every 6 months any day!!


Our joined forces hasn't officially begun.  When we went out Saturday night, I was finally cashing in on something Amy offered in April 2010.  Yeah...I'm kinda slow about cashing in on gift cards and offers....so offer away, because who knows how long it will take me to cash in on your offer, hee hee!  We went to an early movie (cashed in on a movie gift card that Nani gave us in 2009) and used the gift card to a Restaurant that Amy gave us last April.  We had a very nice time, though I must admit that we were so tired, it was a nice quiet evening.  I read on another blog how this couple each wrote down 10 things they like to do individually, hobbies, activities, etc or things they wanted to try and then each date night, they draw an idea out of the hat and do it together (even though they aren't both good at it).  So I think I just may try to incorporate that into our newly established date night routine.  I think it will be fun.

Rockin the newly vamped
shirt on date night!

 After service on Saturday, I got into craft mode and started making tons of fabric flowers.  I have a lot of plain t-shirts that need jazzin' up.  I've had this plan for a long time, and finally decided to get busy.  Once I learn how to use my sewing machine, my t-shirts will get much more love and funkiness but for now, this is what I'm doing.  I enjoyed making them so much that I made a few hair accessories for KennaKat and a few for our girly friends.  I can't wait to pass them out tomorrow!

Shirt #1

Shirt #2

Barrettes for KennaKat

The best part about making things for myself is it's cheap and I can do what I want.  All items were from my stash so this project was free!  If you'd like to learn how to make these, bring over a bottle of wine, wait, scratch that, Sour Apple Martini mix and we'll make a night of it.

Tea Party

This past weekend KennaKat, Nani, and myself travelled out of town to a Tea Party/Baby shower.  Kelly is having a boy and so Bri and her friends put together a "mommy shower".  It was very cute and just confirms the fact that if Bri ever fails at her current business, she should really go into party planning.  She puts everything together so beautifully down to the last detail.

The only pictures I snapped were of KennaKat all decked out in Tea Party Attire.

A New Look

I decided to change things up on this here blog page.  What do you think?

Is the font too difficult to read?

Are things too crazy?

Feedback is appreciated.

Muchas Gracias!

An Accomplished Day

Today was a beautiful day.  Buddy is on his Spring Break so I have been trying to keep him busy with this and that.  Yesterday, I promised we would go on an Adventure through the woods across the street.  After breakfast this morning we grabbed our backpacks filled with adventure necessities like binoculars and sticks and little toy animals, water bottles, and a camera.  We put on our hiking shoes and headed out the door.  As we stepped outside, who shows up, home early from work?  None other than Hubby!  Hooray!  He decided to join us on our Adventure.  Hooray!  He also chooses this time to bring the dog and do a little leash training...probably not the best idea, but it was noble :)  Away we go on our Adventure, through the woods, gathering twigs, rocks, nuts on our way for Buddy to use for making habitats.... I forgot to mention that he is very much into making habitats since he made one for his snake at school.  In a day or two we will make clay animals and daddy will bring home boxes for his habitats to go in.  We spent a nice amount of time on our Adventure and headed home nice and tired.  After sitting down inside, tired, hubby and I decided to go ahead and start working some more on the front yard, weeding and planting bulbs....yes, we were tired, and yes it was lunch time, sounds like the perfect time for yard work...right?

Our front yard has been a disaster for quite a while.  The problem being that the previous owners did a terrible job with "landscaping" and we did a terrible job at watering and trimming so some things died other things are over grown etc etc.  Then not to mention the fact that we randomly added fruit plants to the front.  Our cat died 2 Octobers ago, so make the healing process easier for the kids we decided to buy a plant to put in his spot.  Well, once at home depot, we could not decide on what to get that would last, then we saw the blueberry bush and also a blackberry bush and couldn't decide on 1 so we went with both.  Those got planted too close together as they HAD to be on top of Marlow, then we planted the peach tree that we were given several months before that in a random spot.  A few months later, we got an apple tree, 2 cherry trees and some bamboo and planted all of that.  I must admit that I don't have a landscaping eye, and things were planted kind of oddly around the front yard.  Then there's the part right in front of our house.  It just looks retarded.  There was a rosemary bush on one end that I loved but died this past winter.  3 random bushes planted too closely together and untrimmed, then a span of about double that area that had nothing but weeds growing and then a magnolia bush at the very end of the house.  Yes, I will be the first to admit that the front of our house looked RETARDED!  Why haven't we done anything about it?  Well, the final plan for our house will take many many years to come to a realization.  I want a nice covered front porch to stretch the length of the house.  Then I want steps to come from the middle of the porch into the front yard.  Then I want the entire front yard to be an overgrown garden oasis, with paths, cute little sitting areas, a little bridge going over the ditch to the mailbox.  Tons of plants, and flowers, random art, birdbaths, etc, etc etc.  So the problem is, why plant things when they will have to be taken up when we build this???  So we were stuck, what do we do?  Well, B noticed lots of bulbs at costco that were cheap, and grew in the shade and would hopefully be good land cover to keep away the weeds.

Friday, the bulbs were purchased, now the motivation to do something was in need.  So, as I said earlier, the perfect time was after we were tired from our Adventure.  We headed outside with the kids and started pulling weeds...TONS-OF-WEEDS.  After getting all of the weeds pulled, as well as massive crazy random huge roots and the bushes, we started planting.  Lots of holes were dug and lots of bulbs were planted.  We did elephant ears up against the house and then some tall growing red flowers in front of that.  More bulbs will need to be purchased...(does anyone ever buy enough bulbs the first time??)  I need to do more research on good shade loving plants to put there.  Hopefully it will get to the point where pretty plants will sprout up through out the year.  Anything grow in winter?  The bushes that were still alive were planted along the side of the driveway, because we can't kill plants that don't die from lack of love and attention...those are needed by people like us.  Finishing with all of that and time moving into the middle of the afternoon, I prepared a nice picnic lunch and we all sat in the front lawn relaxing and enjoying the fruits of our labor, tired and hungry.  We spent quite a while laying out and the kids picked tons of flowers.  B took a nice nap.

After dinner, I went back out and removed the massive piles of weeds that had formed in the yard.  I was going to compost them, but that would require opening the gate to the back yard and keeping the crazy dog contained...not on my to do list for this year.  So I opted for filling in the random huge holes that had formed on the side of the house.

I can't wait till the bulbs start growing!  We still need more bulbs and mulch.  But we are well on our way. Yay!  The best thing about bulbs is they are easy to relocate when the time comes :)

How was your day?  Did you get to enjoy this beautiful weather?  It was just what a spring day is supposed to feel like.

Not Your Usual FlashCards

{Not Your Usual FlashCards}

I've been trying to think of 'different' ways to make learning fun for my son.

He's a "full body learner" meaning he learns best when he can see and touch what he learns.

At the end of the last quarter, he was showing signs that he was still struggling with letters and numbers so his teacher suggested that he is possibly a full body learner and that we should practice at home with things he can touch.  She suggested writing letters and numbers in sand and also making them with playdough.  He has really enjoyed those things.  After just doing her suggestion 2 or 3 times he showed significant improvement.  But doing playdough and sugar (we opted for sweet rather than salty) a lot I'm kind of tired of them.  

I had been meaning to make flashcards for a while now and today I got an idea.  Not your normal flashcards.  I gathered all of my scrap items and got to work.  I cut lots of scrap cardstock into 4x6 and made number cards.  1-30. I then glued on various items for different quantities.  They are things he can touch while counting.  I wrote the numbers on the back so that he can check his answers afterwards.  I plan to use them in many different ways.  One way would be to just let him count on his own.  Another way would be for me to show him the number and he can draw on paper that many objects.  Another way is for him to count the pieces and then write his number on another paper.  I still plan to use the other effective ways, but thought this would be fun too.

It had been a struggle in the past to motivate him to practice learning at home -once he started school, he felt that he should only do "learning things" at school, NOT at home.  So getting him to practice was like pulling teeth.  So, how do I get him to do it? You ask.  Bribery my friend.  Yep, I said it.  Bribery.  For every time he practices numbers, letters, or reads a book to me or B, he gets a check.  After 7 checks in a row he gets a buckerooney.  Those categories were added to his chore chart and I must confess, I currently owe him money.....

He loves the cards and so does kenna, who is already counting to 30 splendidly.

His teacher told me a few weeks ago how impressed she was with his progress and how well he is reading and remembering how to write all of his numbers...YES!  He went from struggling with the basics to doing excellently in just a handful of weeks!...and no, we still don't practice every day.  His break starts next week and I plan on doing lots of practice every. single. day...I need to start saving my pennies I guess.... 

Here's what our colorful textured unusual flashcards look like:

1-5

6-10

11-15

16-20

21-25

26-30

Presentation and Anniversary Party

 This past Saturday I went to dinner with my family, my dad and step mom just celebrated their 10 year wedding anniversary.  They chose to eat at Piazza Italia.  An Italian Restaurant in Bright Leaf Square.  I was thrilled that they chose that place because I had been wanting to eat there for a while now.  The restaurant makes their own pasta and sauces and sells them to go for you to make an home, they also have a nice Gelato bar.  Before I purchased their to-go yummies I wanted to try them out.  I had the squid ink linguine with Alfredo sauce.  Yumm!  It was a very nice evening, it looked like everyone had a good time.  If I had been a little less broke that night, I would have loved to try what my step sister in law Ari (that's what I like to call her -she's my step sister S's best friend who also happened to marry the brother of the guy S married just a few weeks apart) had and that was a yummy linguine dish with large shrimp, scallops, lobster, crab, in a creamy lobster sauce, I was sitting next to her and I wanted to drool, it smelled so yummy!  So yeah, if my husband happened to take me back to this place sometime to eat that dish, I would not mind one bit!  I had a good time and I'm glad they included me :)  And they loved the address plaque that I made for them, yay!




This is a shot of S....she's a professional photographer and so is Ari...they are much better at that than me so I left the picture taking to them :)

Today, Buddy went back to school.  I'm happy to have him back in school (he and Kittycat fought...a lot), but I miss B.  Monday he was sick, yesterday I cleaned like a mad woman (thanks to him for entertaining the kids so I could do so), and today, the house is clean and he's not here to hang out with me.  Fortunately he'll be home in an hour :)  -an added bonus of him getting home early :)  This morning, Buddy's class invited family to come and be taught by them.  They have been working on Reptiles for a while, and wanted to share what they have learned.  His teacher will be posting a video of their habitat presentation in a few days, I will share when she does.  Yes, my Kindergarten son made a habitat of a snake! How awesome is that?!?  They made paper mache snakes, a snake of their choice, Buddy chose a copperhead probably because he has learned so much about them from his Papa who has taught him a lot about nature during their many walks.  He's a very good Papa!  Buddy asks me questions about nature and sometimes I have to admit to him "I don't know" and he asks...."Why don't you know as much as papa does?  Papa knows A LOT about nature."....*sigh* "Because papa is smarter than me, older than me, and has read up a lot more on nature than I have. ok?".  This picture of the turtle on the wall is part of what they have been working on.  Last month, they made this HUGE paper mache turtle.  It's around 4 or 5 feet.  They even painted it to look like a yellow bellied slider, their class pet.  I love his school!  And I love his teacher for being into paper mache, I LOVE paper mache :)  I didn't get lots of pictures of this morning, while Buddy was talking about his habitat, I  made a video, and blogspot doesn't let me upload my videos.  So I'll find another way to share it, another day.

Here is a shot of Buddy, Kittycat, and Miguel (Buddy's bud at school...also his symbiotic friend, hehe) from this morning.

Progress and waiting

B and Buddy woke up feeling much better this morning.  I'm happy that buddy will be returning to school tomorrow and B to work....love them, but having a full house makes it hard to make cleaning progress and relax.

Kittycat woke up at 3 am puking....yep, I don't know what it is with 3 am and puke in this house, but there it is!  I slept on the couch last night to get away from my germy husband......

{Quick side note:  I'm a major germ-a-phobe/messy person/organization freak/clutter-a-holic/easy going don't care if that picture hangs crooked for a month or their's a thick coat of dust on that thing/everything must be in a certain spot and things completely even/etc/etc retard.  My body and mind is severely confused about what personality she wants manifested and therefore has multiple swings of caring and not caring about certain things.}

continuing on....

So yeah, sleeping in a bed with a germy person grosses me out, sometimes, and yesterday was one of those days.  I walked around with my bleach bottle trying to de-sanitize everything my husband and son touched.  I didn't make much progress in cleaning my house yesterday, only did tons of loads of laundry.

So getting back to what happened this morning...Kittycat woke up around midnight and came in to cuddle with me on the couch. (I was still awake watching hitchcock films).  We finally drifted off around 1ish.  And then in the 3 am time slot designated for puking children, she starts barfing.  Now, this is where I conflict myself because I hate germs but I will always hold my kids puke in my hands while trying to find a bowl or usher them into the bathroom.  I will hold their hair, wash their body, pick up nasty blankets, empty the puke bucket, wipe their butts and their noses, etc etc without even dry heaving, but yet, doing something like touching an animal makes my skin crawl (even though I love them) I have to instantly wash my hands the first chance I get.

Fortunately Kittycat had only a bad hour and I cuddled her on the couch the rest of the night.

She woke up this morning feeling fine, so I am very happy that her "torchure" was short lived.

I am still waiting for my turn.  I refused to be sick in a dirty house (there goes my conflicting myself again, because my house is always a night mare of dirt and laundry, etc, but yet, the thought of such things make my skin crawl...sometimes.)  So today, getting a much needed burst of energy, I have almost completed my extended innumerable loads of laundry, Bathroom is degermed...again, livingroom, kitchen, toy room all clean.  Fresh germ free bedding on all beds.  Windows opened for a few hours today to allow fresh air in and germ air out.  I'm ready to go.  All that's left is to bring in the portable dvd player and I'll be ready to go for my turn in the loo.

If that day must come, I wish it come sooner rather than later, if I have to miss my meeting Thursday because of being sick, I will be incredibly LIVID!

I even had a few spare minutes to make kittycat 3 flower hairbows.  I'm on a roll today.  I feel like a pregnant person about to go into labor, getting the house and everything on the list ready and checked off before heading off to the hospital.  No I'm not pregnant, there are no labor pains, but I do anticipate running off to the loo at any given moment.

Enough about such disgusting things, how was your day?!?! :)  I noticed our Irises coming up in the back today.  I can't wait for them to bloom!  I really hope that Bailey doesn't destroy them.

Am thinking about how much I would love a work day on my house some day soon.  Where all of our friends and loved ones come over with plants/flowers/tools in tow and help make our yard beautiful....that'd be SO nice! :)

Yep

Yep

It's true, sickness doth enter this house once more.

At 3am Buddy calls out to me "Mommy!". "Yes?" I reply.  "I threw up in my bed." {Noooooo!} "Ok I'm coming, go to the bathroom...."

I don't know why it always happens at 3am or why it's always on a night that I stay up way later than usual but there it is.

Since 3am he and I have been hanging out on the couch making frequent runs to the bathroom.  Puke bowl in tow.

B came home from work early with the same thing.  He wasn't feeling well when he left at 4 this morning but figured it was just from hearing Buddy.  So 2 down, 2 to go.  yay.  Kittycat is complaining that her tummy is hurting too, so now I'm counting down the minutes.

Today, I had the goal of getting my house in order, now it's just me trying to sanitize things they touch and clean the bedding and linen that has been contaminated.

I have the goal of turning my bathroom into a nice oasis by the time it's my turn.  The last time I got the bug, I was fully prepared.  I had 'de-contaminated' the bathroom from when the rest of the family was sick.  Put down fresh thick towels for me to lay on.  Put out nice candles.  Clean puke bowl.  I also brought in the portable dvd player and my stack of chick flicks.  Locked the door, pulled back the hair, left the hubby to watch the kids and spent the next 8- ish hours in my tiny bathroom, as comfortable as possible during this my uncomfortable time.

Hope this blog finds you sick free and enjoying the chilly but beautiful day!

E Farm

Tuesday, Heather got up a group to tour E Farm.  E Farm is a little goat farm in Bahama/Rougemont.  The owner of the farm actually hosts dinners a Saturday a month on his farm house porch during the warm season.  They get a different local chef to come out and cook up some tasty local foods.  I would looove to try it some time.  

The owner also hosts tours of the farm to groups that are interested.  The fee is $5 per person.  After hearing about the ages in our group, he changed it to just charging the adults, and after giving us the young child friendly, crazy run free tour, he didn't charge any of us anything.  A very kind man.

The tour started off in the cheese house.  He was in the process of making Goat Cheddar Cheese.  I was REALLY hoping to buy some, but I don't think any was ready as of yet.  Guess I'll just have to visit his stand at the Farmers Market in a few months.

He then showed the kids the chicken eggs from that morning

Next came the goats, they were excited!

We all brought crackers and the kids fed the goats

 Jen even got to hold a baby goat!  It was only 3 days old!!

{She recommended the name Jennifer, I think it's the perfect fit}

 Kittycat and Biscuit were the most into wanting to hold and touch each 

and every furry cuddly animal on the farm

One of the sweet old dogs they have on the farm.  Kittycat loves little dogs, and this doggy was a sweety!

Biscuit loved her too!

 Going to visit the chickens

Run chickens RUN!

Kittycat was trying SO hard to pick up a chicken

Run chicken!

Done with the chickens now off to the bunny house.

----Didn't get any good shots in the bunny house.----

Last stop, DUCKS!

"Little teeny tiny baby duckies" -as Kittycat called them

Boy was looking really cute playing with the metal goats, but when I got ready for a shot, he moved.

I asked him to pose and he was most obliging.

Sawman on the stump

Kittycat on the stump.

It was such a pretty day, we picnic'ed on the farm.

Here are T and L after lunch getting in their tummy time.

More pictures were taken of all the kiddies, but these are the least fuzzy.

I really need to clean the lens --lots of tiny finger prints live there.

Can't wait to see the shots the other mommies got!

Thank you E Farm for entertaining our crazy kids on a beautiful early spring day!

I hope to return some day soon :)