VOLCANO

Tonight for dinner we tried something new and made these Cheesy Volcano Meatballs that I found on the Kraft Foods website. They were fun for the kids to make and they loved eating them too. We didn't eat ours in a bun like on the site but made spaghetti and meatballs out of them.
*recipe is at the link*

Rodeo Day at Preschool

They have been talking about Rodeo this week at Evan's preschool. Tuesday was R day, you know R for Rodeo and they brought in some little chicks and a goat for them to pet. Today they had a cowboy day and wore their cowboy hats and ate a cowboy lunch (you know hot dogs and pretzels) and read a cowboy story (something about an armadillo is what I got from him). He had a great time, he made a cowbell and pasted in the correct spot on his cow and got a sheriff's badge for sitting nicely during story time. He loves going to school.

Here is a picture I snapped of him before school this morning. He looked so cute!!
And yes we are wearing shorts here, it was 90 today!!

((in other news, Ian had his first practice of the soccer season but I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off and totally forgot my camera. look for pictures next practice.))

If you couldn't tell...

HE'S NOT TIRED.  NOT AT ALL.

(think all that being a big boy and having lunch at school with big brother and then playing at recess with big brother and his friends didn't make him tired at all)

We've been sick

Sorry for not posting much lately.  We have been hit with the bug and been fighting off illnesses.  both of the boys are fighting ear infections but I think they are getting much better.  Ian actually came bounding out of his room this morning saying "MOM I can hear out of both of my ears!"  And Evan's cough is almost completely gone.  Mine too, both of us still cough a little if we get to running around too much but we are all pretty much on the mend.

The big tell will be tomorrow at swimming lessons, we will see if Evan is better and will actually go into the water without screaming bloody murder.

So anyways, sorry we haven't done anything exciting around here lately, just been treading water and trying to stay afloat!

Marvin the Loofa King

You know how when kids talk sometimes you have no clue what they are talking about and they just keep saying the same thing over and over, louder and louder like that will actually make you understand faster?

Well last night at dinner (which we had out at a little mexican restaurant not at home mind you) Ian was telling us a story about Marvin the Loofa King.  At least that is what dHubby and I kept hearing.  We kept asking him WHO, WHAT?  Is that on a cartoon?  And he kept saying it "You know Marvin the Loofa King".  Still no clue, I am racking my brain of all the cartoon characters, book characters, people in his school and can't think of anything that would resemble this.

Finally Ian says "Come on MOM remember we had a day named after him?"

And I say "Do you mean Martin Luther King?"

Ian, "Yeah, Marvin Loofa King"

OH thank goodness, we finally figured it out.  Now to get him some medicine to get his nose unstuffed up so he can talk!!!

We had this whole conversation because his placemat was all about the presidents and he was telling about what he had learned about Presidents Day and that just (naturally in the mind of a 6 year old) led to talking about all days that were special and a day off from school.

Class Picture 2008/2009

Ian's class picture.  Doesn't he look super sad about something?  Or maybe he is just practicing his military smile.

My Valentine

This is the Valentine that Ian wrote for me by himself at school.  It says:

Dear Mom, I would buy you a ring and help you cook.  Happy Valentine's Day.  Love, Ian

I couldn't as for a better gift.

Force and Motion

So most kids are bringing home fun books to read from the library each week that have a plot and fun characters that get in trouble and figure it all out at the end. My kid, not so much... This is the book that he brought home this week from the library. Let me just tell you we pulled it out of his book bag and it brought back so many bad memories of college physics classes that I almost couldn't open it.

So tonight we are tackling some Dr Suess books from upstairs. Maybe tomorrow while he is at school I will check out the Force and Motion book and see if it will throw me into a panic attack. Heck maybe it will answer some questions that I have had for a long time!! And maybe it means we will have another engineer in the family. :)

Sunday Scraps

Just a couple of layouts that I did today while the boys played with Darren in the garage.  This first one is based on an ad challenge at ScrapAttack.  I am not wild about the stamping but it is done.

This second one is a challenge over at ScrapAttack for their {SAS}sy Member Fun Month.  The challenge was to use old supplies.  I chose old PP (Around the Block pink paper on the left), eyelets, tab, Making Memories rub ons.  This layout also is for this week's Color Combos Galore challenge.  I wasn't wild about having to use pink because pink is a hard color for me to use.  This layout looks a lot better in person than it does in the scan, those letters are cut out with my Quickutz from this cool Making Memories glitter paper and they didn't scan well at all.

Happy Valentine's Day

Let the Valentine's Day partying begin!!  Evan has his party today with his preschool and Ian's party is tomorrow with his 1st grade class.  I (with the help of the boys) made all these big tissue paper flowers for their teachers.  I hope they like them.  We gave a bouquet to their swimming instructor yesterday and she acted so surprised like no one had ever given her flowers before.  It was the kind of reaction that totally makes it worth giving!!  Plus she was also quite happy about the card because she loves Krispy Kreme donuts as much as the rest of us.  The boys wanted to give Krispy Kreme donut valentines (I took one for the team and bought 3 dozen donuts last weekend so we would have enough valentines for all their friends).

HAPPY VALENTINE'S TO EVERYONE!!!

Messy Eater

I've been talking about Evan a lot lately since he started school and stuff but I didn't want to play favorites so I had to take a picture of Ian this morning after breakfast.  Now first off let me say, I am VERY lucky.  My kids will eat almost everything, they aren't picky eaters.  BUT normally when they are done it looks like bears have been feeding.  They are very messy eaters.  Not just crumbs on the table but they normally need a shirt change (because you know shirts are just as good as napkins) and faces are covered in whatever they were eating.  This morning it was Krispy Kreme strawberry filled donuts.

At least he cleans up nicely!!

Puppet Show

Evan made this puppet today at preschool today.  Isn't it cute as a button?  He has little fishes stamped on his hands and he even wrote his name on the back of it.  The puppet's name is Evan too by the way.  

Maybe this one will have some artsy side like me!!

Sunday will be Layout Day

I did scrapbook some this week.  Got some layouts done inspired by different challenges this week that I found online.  I have been doing really good using up my old supplies and you will see a lot of old papers and other misc stuff here.

This first one is based on a sketch by Kim at the ScrapShanty.  It is Ian holding some of the biggest juiciest blackberries I have ever seen.

Ice Cream is based on an ad challenge at ScrapAttack and a color challenge #96 at Color Combos Galore.  After coming back from picking blackberries we made homemade ice cream.  Ian was sitting on it because it gets hard to crank (yes it isn't electric) when the ice cream gets thick.  I think we were making strawberry cheesecake this time.
Big Tonka Trucks is based on an ad from ScrapAttack and also based on Color Combos Galore #108.  Just pictures of Evan playing with his Tonka trucks over at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  He loves playing in the mulch by this tree still with these trucks!
And one more berry picking layout.  Based on a sketch by Janelle Richmond at Sketch This!  Look at the juice from the blackberries he was eating running down his arms!!
Those are the layouts that I have gotten done this last week. 

Let's Rodeo

So we took Ian out of school a couple of hours early to take him and Evan to the Rodeo.  It was a beautiful day and the rodeo wasn't too crowded.  At first we were a little disappointed because there wasn't that many animals but the day quickly picked up.

We checked out the Animal Adventure first and the kids all loved getting to touch and see the animals.  Ian loved the little chicks and Evan didn't want any of the animals to lick him, especially the big cow that you could tell was a very sloppy kisser.  Here is a picture of all the kids outside by the big chicken statue. And also a picture of the boys in the pig.

Next after checking out barrel racing for a little while we went on our own pony ride (all the kids definitely liked pony rides more than they wanted to try barrel racing).

After riding on the animals we walked over to check out the petting zoo.  We bought some food to feed the animals and of course Evan didn't want to help with that.  I helped Ian and was basically followed around by a very large llama the entire time.  He was cute though, I would have brought him home.  The deer in there were annoying, they kept trying to eat my coat.  Ian really liked the little pigs and he and his friend tried to catch the wallaby that bouncing around inside.  Ian liked all the little animals, including the tiny little black goat.



Next we went to watch a demonstration of how to milk a cow.  It was really interesting and best we got to have a seat for a couple of minutes and enjoy the best chocolate milk shake I have ever tasted.  Then we walked back over to the midway and checked out this display place.  Luckily we did because guess what, more free ice cream!!

Then it was time, we bought some tickets and went on some rides.  First was the merry go round, which was a lot faster than the pony ride and then on to the bumper cars.  Ian and Evan were so cute in the bumper cars together.

I took Ian on a fast ride.  He was undecided about how he liked it, as we went it was awesome and then it was scary and then it was awesome and then it was scary, but when we got off he said it was awesome and would ride it again with me.

Couple more ride pictures.

They actually rode on that bear ride twice they all liked it so much.  After the rides we waited a little bit and then watched the pig races which was so cute.  Ian told me he wants a little pig, he is just like my sister Sally.  I remember her growing up she always wanted a pig.  I wonder how pigs are as guard dogs?

All in all, it was a perfect day at the Rodeo!  :)  Oh and as we walked out we walked through a different cattle barn and saw some of the biggest bulls and cows I have ever seen.  Definitely an interesting day!!

Bumper Cars

Pony Rides

{SAS}sy Fun Month 2/15-3/15

February 15th and running through March 15th Scrap Attack Scrapbooking will be having a {SAS}sy Fun Month! So if you like challenges, chatting and prizes you won’t want to miss out on all the fun!

Carnivals are always a {fun} place with so much going on. So keeping along those lines, we’ve put together a small “midway” of activities for you to complete during our {SAS}sy Fun Month.

For each activity you complete, you will receive a ticket! The tickets will be entered into a drawing for some fun prizes courtesy of SAS! At the end of the {SAS}sy Fun Month, we’ll total the tickets, enter them into a drawing and pull 7 random winners! The more you play, the better your chances are to win some fun stuff courtesy of Scrap Attack Scrapbooking!

First Day of Preschool

My baby went to school for the first time today.  He was all excited to start school and he is even more excited because he is in the ladybug class at school.  He has his camouflaged backpack and his Star Wars lunch box.  According to his teachers he couldn't wait to eat lunch.

They learned all about the letter O at school too.  He made a bracelet that was shaped like an O and had an orange bead on it because orange starts with O too.  And on the rest of his bracelet he picked out all the soccer balls because he likes soccer.

The only super bowl picture I took....

We had the Baker's over for the super bowl and Elise made these yummy brownies.  The kids were all quite happy with them as you can tell.  :)  Where is Ian, well he was busy playing with his toys.  He can't be my child since he was too busy playing to eat chocolate!!  LOL!!

Congrats Steelers and Cardinals, at least it was a good close game.  There weren't really any great commercials that I can remember off the top of my head.  The Sobe one with the dancing football players was neat but it wasn't like OOOOO what a funny commercial.

Now I can't wait to watch Chuck in 3D tonight!!