2012 Blue Jeans Week 13

Spring is definitely here, and I was kind of worried that summer was already coming because we had two days in a row where the high was 90~  Way too early for that.  We survived the pink eye of last week.  I had kids home 4 of the 5 days last week with it, but all is clear now.  It is not fun, but if I had to choose between stomach flu and pink eye, I would choose pink eye :)  Soccer and track are in full swing now, and this month is going to be crazy!  People say that December is the craziest and busiest month of the year, but I think April/May top it easily.  Here is what we have been up to this past week. . .

Sunday:  3 of my kids stayed with my younger sister and her husband for part of spring break last week.  They had a wonderful time!!!  We met them and got the kids back today.  It was nice to have everyone home again.  The house had been too quiet :) 

Monday:  Lawn mowing season--let it begin.  I mowed the lawn for the first time this season.  I think this is the earliest I have ever started to mow.  My 6 year old took this picture for me :)

Tuesday:  Ben gave me some beautiful roses for my birthday last week, and they are so gorgeous!

Wednesday:  The youth in our church at practicing for a big regional cultural event with singing and dancing for the dedication of a new temple 2 hours from us.  Miss A and Miss O have been practicing a lot for it.  Tonight the local youth were practicing the dancing.  Miss A and her cute partner :) make sure they get the steps right.

Thursday:  Miss O and Ben practice their duet for their piano recital coming up in a few weeks.

Friday:  Miss E helped me decorate for Easter today and hang our Easter eggs in the front entry.

Saturday:  Soccer!  Miss E is the only one playing this year.  She had her first game today and did really well.  #10 is our girl!

Hope all is well with you!  Thanks for stopping by!

Blue Jeans Week 15

A week behind but better late than never :)

Easter Sunday:  Love the new dresses and how they each have their own style--long gone are the days they would all wear the same dress :)

Monday:  Mr J didn't have school today, so he got extra lucky and got to go have lunch with Grandpa!  My dad is retiring this month after many, many years as the art teacher at our local junior college.  It is sad to see his office slowly being emptied, but I am excited for him to start a new phase in life.  Way to go Dad!

Tuesday:  Kind of blurry, but the girl was running fast!  Miss E's last soccer game today!  Yeah!

Wednesday:  Had lunch with some girlfriends today, and we went to this place that had the biggest and best hot chocolate I have ever had--all the whipped cream on top--oh my!

Thursday:  Beautiful day, and the crew went on a bike ride while I had some quiet time :)  so nice

Friday:  Two pictures for today.  Each April our county hosts a Young Author's conference/competition.  The school children write books and the best book winners get to attend a conference with 2 visiting nationally known children's authors or illustrators.  My mom is the co-chairman of this thing, so we get to attend a dinner with the visiting authors the night before.  Above are my kiddos with children's book author Pamela Duncan Edwards.  If you have never read her stuff, please check it out--super fun picture books your kids will love!

This is the other visiting author--Dandi Daley MacKall, and she has written over 400 books for kids--picture books, novels, check her stuff out.  They were both awesome to listen to and meet.  Great people!!

Saturday:  Today was Miss O's 11th birthday!!  We took her friends bowling then back to our house for pizza and then the girls had an impromptu hair salon--cute, cute! 

Blue Jeans Week 14

Hope you all have had a good Easter weekend.  Here is what we have been up to. . .

Sunday:  Miss A took this picture.  It is definitely dandelion season here--achoo! 

Monday:  We played Bocce for family night.  That is a fun yard game if you haven't played it before. We would recommend it.  Any age can play, and that makes it even better.  Miss O tries to give Mr J some tips.

Tuesday:  Soccer--I am so glad we only have one more week left of soccer!  So glad it is a short season.  Mr J was killing some time between his games while we watched his sister play today.  Post-it notes and a pen are essential to have in my purse at all times--they are great entertainers! 

Wednesday:  In art at the kids' school for earth week the kids did "recycled" projects.  These "flowers" are what Miss O did with her partner and are called the "Plants of Doom" made with pop can tabs, feathers, scrap paper, paper straws, a can, wire hangers, and a CD.  Awesome.  Love Earth Day projects.

Thursday:  Kindergarten Field Trip day!  See previous post for more details and pictures.  We went to a farmstead about 2 hours from our town.  Had so much fun with Mr. J and his class!

Friday:  When we moved to the country about 6 years ago we started having an annual Easter Egg hung and potluck because we had the space, and I'd always wanted to do it.  This year was our 6th annual.  We eat in our summer house, then either moms or dads hide the eggs while the kids play "Bunny, Bunny, Hop" (our Easter version of "Duck,Duck, Goose") and then they are off to egg hunt, and Ben usually runs over a few unfound eggs with the mower the week after :)  It was beautiful weather this year and so fun!

Saturday:  Easter egg dyeing day.  We are so not fans of hard boiled eggs, only Ben likes them, and we usually just end up throwing away the eggs because we dye so many that Ben can't eat them all, so this year Ben suggested we just dye them without hard boiling them.  Mr J and Miss E were not sure if Dad was correct about this theory that non-hard boiled eggs would work, but it did.  So, now our morning scrambled eggs have very colorful shells :)

Hope you all have a good week.  We have had so much rain.  I am glad we got our garden in so our plants should be sprouting soon!  Love spring!

 

Blue Jeans Week 13

A little late posting because I got to go on the kindergarten field trip yesterday--so fun, and kind of sad--my last kindergartner and his last kindergarten field trip--sigh, but it was a good week.

Sunday:  Mr J was checking out the Easter stuff.  He was filling eggs for me for our egg hunt.

Monday:  Went to the park for family night activity this evening.  This is one of our favorite pieces of equipment at the park.  It is way old, but they just don't make playground equipment like they used to :)

Tuesday:  Everyone enjoying the beautiful spring weather and playing "double crack the egg" on the trampoline.

Wednesday:  One of Miss E's art projects she brought home today.  They were to design the "perfect snack," and she came up with the doozie above--love the description--talk about a sugar high.  

Thursday:  Soccer!  Mr J patiently waiting on the sideline for his turn to go in and run after that ball!

Friday:  Had to go to the big city today.  Not a pretty day to go, but we did find everyone cute Easter dresses, but I told my kids as we hit the traffic, "This is why I live in a small town."

Saturday:  Took our yearly trip to a University about an hour and a half away for the girls to perform in the Mid America Music Festival for piano.  They all did awesome.  Miss O not only did her solo, but a duet.  They were great! 

Hope you all have had a good week!

 

Blue Jeans Week 12

I thought this week that spring finally arrived, so I turned off the heater at the beginning of the week, and by the end I had to turn the A/C on!  I want spring, not summer already!  Thankfully we only had the A/C on for 2 days, and now it just feels like spring!

Sunday:  Twice a year our Church has a world-wide General Conference where our services are transmitted world-wide via satellite, the Internet, TV, etc, and talks are by our world leaders and prophet.  We watch the meetings at home over the Internet.  It is a great spiritual feast and boost which is just what we need!  Miss O is watching General Conference Sunday afternoon.

Monday:  Update on our art wall.  In one of the hallways on the first floor we created an "Art" wall.  We put up the kids' artwork, and I try to take pictures when we get new additions to our art collection. 

Tuesday:  Had some good friends from out of town visit.  Mr J got to play with one of his best-est friends, and they had a kool-aid tea party.  Always such a good time with good friends!

Wednesday:  A friend asked me about my treadmill the other day and if I used it a lot, "Oh yes," I replied, "I use it all the time" but I neglected to say that I don't necessarily use it for the purpose it was intended :)  It is in my craft room, and it makes a great sorting table, and when it finally gets cleared off it does get used for other things too--like actual walking--sometimes. . .

Thursday:  You may remember that one of our chickens died a few weeks ago?  Sadly, another died, and so we only have one lone chicken, so we went to the farm store today and bought 4 more chicks to replenish our chicken shortage.  We intended to get 6 chickens, but they were out of the green-egg laying chicks (these above are brown-egg layers), so we have to go back next week.  There is nothing better than fresh eggs!

Friday:  Spring is busting out all over!  Red bud trees are one of my absolute favorite things in the spring.  After school we went to the library, and they had this beauty blooming in the front.  Too bad they don't stay this color all summer.

Saturday:  Every Saturday in April means soccer at our house.  Had 3 games today and both our #10s did awesome!  It was a beautiful sunny day, and we are loving this soccer season!

Hope you all are seeing some spring or signs of it!  Have a good week!

 

Blue Jeans Week 11

You know with the time change and "spring forward" I think it put everything on fast forward.  Anyone else feel like that?  Hope your week wasn't too crazy!

Sunday:  Sunday afternoons are usually not too crazy, thank heavens.  Mr. J and I spread out the puzzles on the kitchen table and had some puzzle time together.  Mr. J has always been a big puzzle fan.  His Thomas the Train and the US states puzzles are his favorite.

Monday:  For family night treats Ben helped the kids make "Magic in the middle" chocolate cookies.  You make the chocolate cookie dough and then you make a peanut butter dough that you wrap the chocolate dough around and bake.  When you bit into the chocolate cookie you get a smooth peanut butter center.  Oh yum!  I can't believe I have been married to this amazing man for over 15 years, and he has never made these for me before!  I am requesting them once a week now, they are so good!  Chocolate and peanut butter, is there a better combination?

Tuesday:  One new thing the girls--especially Miss E--got into over spring break is cross-stitching.  Miss E concentrates very hard on her latest cross stitch design--and she jumped to this task before she got dressed or combed her hair or anything :)

Wednesday:  I think Sunday afternoon Mr. J, Miss E and I started the game of Life.  We finally finished it this evening, so it has been out on our coffee table in the family room for the last 4 days.  I don't remember it taking that long to play when I was a kid, but my kids sure enjoyed it.  I always loved being the banker when I played, but Miss E insisted on being banker when we played this time--just something about controlling all the money--even when it is fake and pink, blue and orange.

Thursday:  Girls Lunch Out--went with my girlfriends to an awesome greenhouse about 45 minutes away and got some pretty flowers to plant, now if the weather would just co-operate so I could plant them!  Love my girlfriends! 

Friday:  April Fool's Day.  Miss A was so on the ball for jokes today.  My van and Ben's car were both covered in play food.  Each of the kids woke up with some kind of drawing or stickers on their face--Miss E had whiskers, Mr J had stars and Miss O had stickers.  She hid everyone's toothbrushes, and I couldn't find my toothbrush anywhere and considering calling the school to ask her where she had hid it, when I finally found it.  She made our day really fun.

Saturday:  Soccer--let it begin--games started today.  We had 4 this morning--ugh--Mr J had 2 and Miss E had 2.  So glad soccer is only a one month sport.  Mr J had two games, and after the first he told me he was done for the season.  It was really had to get him to go back for his second game.  How am I going to keep him going for 4 more weeks?  Funny kid.  He is number 10 on the A&W orange team.  Go orange!

 

A confession

Okay, I really hate to admit this, but it is 11:15 on a Monday morning, and I am still in my PJ's at the computer eating a yogurt.  Do you have days like that?  I could just stay in my PJ's all day--my kids could too if I would let them.  But I do sort of have an excuse for today--I was doing my taxes this morning--ugh!  But they are done, just a little later than usual.  I was looking at my last year's taxes, and I did those on Feb 15, but this year I am just a little late :)  It has been a crazy few months.  Soccer started these last few weeks, and I only have 2 kids playing, but we had 4 games Saturday morning--ugh--starting at 8:30 a.m.  Not able to stay in my PJ's long that morning.  Thankfully soccer only lasts a month--love short sport seasons, so wish us luck.  Okay, got to go get in the shower and presentable.  I am having lunch with my 13 year old, and I am sure she wouldn't appreciate her mom showing up to school in her PJ's--oh, can you imagine the horror?  ha, ha  :)  Hope you have a good day and can enjoy your PJ's!!