Just a day at home.

I have to brag and say: My kids are great! (I know I'm the mom, I suppose to feel that way! Well, I'm telling you I do!)

Awhile ago I picked up this super clearance item where you snap these little hexagon shapes together to make a picture of a dog. So, the kids did some chores and earned the craft. Jared ignored the picture instructions of the dog and made a boy instead. I'm so impressed! He thinks so differently than me. I mean I have some talents, but give me a bowl of hexagon pieces and I might make a flower with a yellow center or line them all up and make a snake. But, I would need a picture to prompt me to make a boy. Hmmmm...

Then, I just have to add the cute thing that Caitlin said. Earlier this week, I thought I was going to go insane. Monday, the first real day of Summer Vacation and the kids were arguing about EVERYTHING. It could be a very LONG summer. SIGH.....

Anyhow, each night, when I check on Caitlin after she's asleep, I write in a little journal she keeps on her desk. It's our Gratitude, Love, Praise journal. We write notes back and forth. You know, "You did a great job on your math test today!", "Thanks Mom for buying that pink shirt for me.", "I noticed you were a great friend to __________ at church.", etc...

I find it a great way for me to reach Caitlin. She thrives on encouragement and attention. She loves praise and it seems that I can never say "I love you" enough for her. So, I caught her being nice to her brother and I commented in the book about how that made me feel and that our home felt more peaceful. I did this two days in a row, and it has been much better... so I mentioned it again and her written reply was "It was no problem! I think I'm getting better at this!" It made me smile. I think I'm onto something. She will do anything to make me proud of her! Now, if only I could figure out her brother!

Personality switch while at the mall

I took the kids to see the Nancy Drew movie yesterday! We liked it! Good clean fun for the family, the kids liked the mystery. I thought it was cute. I think a girl named Emma Roberts was the actress that played Drew. She did a good job. I liked Nancy Drew's character, I got a kick out of her OCD, perfectionism.

Jared was a little miffed at me for forcing him to go into the girls bathroom a few times. I mean what else can I do??? Those family restrooms are always locked. Busy or just locked, I don't know. We don't always have the luxury to wait and see, KWIM?

We bought a few others things needed: shorts for the kids, shampoo for me. Then we went to the bookstore. Caitlin is into Discovery Girls and American Girl magazines so I bought those for her and Jared got a soft snowy owl: Hedwig!

He didn't STOP talking all night long about how he doesn't want an allowance anymore, or a trip to Chuck E Cheese, or anywhere else fun... he just wants me to order him a REAL Harry Potter wand. He also went on and on about how he plans to talk one of his friends into coloring their hair orange to be Ron. ROFL. Where does he come up with these ideas?? Finally, he fell asleep with Hedwig at his side and about 4 notes to dragons, Hermoine and Hagrid. He was in full character all night long. Man, he's fun to watch! The above picture is of him this past Halloween.

Caitlin wraps up 3rd Grade!

Okay, so it's hard to believe that I have a 4th grader now. While kindergarten seems like a little while ago, first grade seems sorta recent. (SIGH)

So, when asked about what her favorite thing about third grade was she said she liked jump roping during recess with her friend Priya. She also liked playing soccer and the kickball tournament. Her favorite subject is spelling (a natural, no need to study subject for her).

The move here to California and the switch of schools was very hard for Caitlin. I can't underline very enough. It has taken time to adjust but, she did (is doing) it! We are proud of her! I am really praying for a great teacher next year, one that can help her continue to adjust and realize her potential.

Highlights of her school year were the 3rd grade play about Tall Tale Heroes, her field trip to a Victorian mansion, the Art 'n Sole Walk-a-thon. She studied Victorian times in social studies and made an adorable journal in which she was a fictional girl in the Victorian times. She self-taught herself cursive in 2nd grade so she was very happy when that was finally covered and she could write her assignments in cursive. Math focused on division, multiplication and fractions. She learned about the solar system. She did her first science fair project and wrote a book. I think writing and illustrating her book showed off some of her talents and she had a great time completing that project.

She continues to take piano lessons and has recently decided not to continue on the swim team. She wants to try some team sports and take some art lessons. So, I guess we'll try to figure this all out. Every Wednesday she had activity days at church, she loves that... but, she is a socialite. :-)

Got to share.... AMAZING

Found this online today, LOVED it! I'm not a big follower of American Idol, but I do know how hard Simon Cowell is to please. This video is about a Welsh salesman who shows up to sing opera. Moved me to tears, gave me the goosebumps and put a big smile on my face!

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=646496&cache=1


Isn't it terrific???

Jared's Kindergarten Graduation

Here's our big boy "crossing the bridge" into first grade. He was the very first one in the kindergarten to cross the bridge so unfortunately I missed some of the things he did on camera. I didn't have the luxury of watching the other kids so, I did not know what to expect as photo opportunities. He also did fabulous in his speaking part at the ceremony. He was the one who welcomed all of the parents to the graduation and for their support.

I can't believe he's this big already! To me first grade seems like the last "little kid" age, WAHHH. This a picture of him with his teacher, Miss Chan. He has had a great year in kindergarten! He's a great reader, speller and writes cute stories. His classmates get so excited when he comes to school. He told me his favorite thing about kindergarten was learning about bugs. He LOVES math and is always asking for me to quiz him with addition and subtraction problems. He also likes the "red table" which is the science table. His favorite field trip was going to gymnasium where they learned how to keep fit and got to play on all sorts of gymnastic equipments (beams, rings, trampolines, etc...)

Next year in first grade he says he is looking forward to: Science.

Stay tuned for Caitlin's end of year spotlight....

Another BLOG????

Hey everyone! I've decided to have a separate blog for my stamping/papercraft stuff. Please follow the following link to see what I've been up to in my craft room!

http://astampedimage.blogspot.com/

Make sure you still visit me here though. I'll be posting more about life around our house!

Watching tv is not healthy, crazy dancing in front of the tv is...

Jared was not too happy to find me doing my walking video this morning in front of the tv. He complained that I do this to him everyday... which I was easily ignoring. You see, it matters to him because he wants to play a video game NOT watch his mom's sad attempts at jogging and waving her arms around at the beck and call of a crazy lady on tv.

Just when I thought that he had given up talking me out of relenquishing the television to him, he says to me: "I don't know why you do this anyways, watching tv is NOT healthy for you. You know that!" Bahaaaaa!!

Itsy, Bitsy Spider gets a lucky break!

Here's a picture of the kids with Aunt Meme (my sister Mirriam).

I bought Jared one of those little vacuums that suck up bugs and spiders. I thought it was a good idea since he's been picking spiders up with his fingers and one bit him the other day. We have found black widows here so it makes me a little nervous...

Anyhow the sneaky little guy took the bug vacuum to his sisters school play. I'm glad I noticed it before the play started and made him put it away. As soon as the play was over he went to work vacuuming up imaginary insects, as the self proclaimed "Spider Exterminator".

We moved towards the front of the multi-purpose room. It was crowded and hard to walk around. Would you believe that Jared found a spider innocently crawling along on the floor? Jared knew just what to do and sucked that poor thing up in his vacuum, securely locking it and trapping the spider inside. "You don't stand a chance with me!" he told the spider in his most scary "Spider Exterminator" voice.

Miriam and I were shocked! What a very strange thing for a spider to not have been stepped on in that tight crowd, only to meet his fate in the canister Jared's toy spider vacuum. Mirriam was grateful, as she is very afraid of spiders, and decided she will be buying her own spider vacuum in the near future since it has proven itself extremely useful.

So we are in the van, on our way home, Spider is still in the vacuum canister. Mirriam is carefully watching to make sure he stays there (LOL!). Next thing we know, Jared has given the spider a name. It's like George or Fred... He informs us that he doesn't intend to smash it, it's going to be his pet. WHAT?????? Mirriam is more than slightly uncomfortable. We compromise and stop about 1/2 mile from home. Jared crawls out of the van and frees "Fred" near the school bus stop. Mirriam and I are changing the "Exterminator's" name to "The Liberator".

Look closely and you will see the lucky little guy!

Vacationing with Aunt Meme

My sister Mirriam came to visit us last week. (She's from Boise) We had a great time with her! The kids adore her attention, I enjoy her company! We gave Mirriam a little "sampling" of the Bay area and neighboring coastal towns. We went to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. The kids and Scotty played on the roller coasters and rides. Actually Jared had to sit out a lot because he didn't meet the height requirements, but he was a good sport about it. It was cold and we ended up buying sweatshirt souvenirs out of necessity.

We also went to Monterey, just briefly. We went to Cannery Row and walked along the boardwalk and pier near the Monterey Aquarium. I took these photos of the kids there. Caitlin was being very cooperative, Jared was humoring me. Most of the photos of him he's wearing a scowl. I LOVE this top photo of Caitlin. This is her natural and most endearing smile. The smile that is hard to catch on film. The one that usually is accompanied with a giggle.

The next day we drove into San Francisco. We took some pictures from Coit Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove down the curviest street in America (Lombard Street) and went to a fantastic little pizza dive near China Town. The pizza was terrific. It took us 40 minutes to find a parking space though, and 20 for Scotty to hike back to the car and drive back to pick us up.

San Francisco is an interesting city, full of character. I am just so glad I don't live there. I like city, but not one where it takes 40 minutes to find a parking space. I'm not crazy about China Town either. Too busy, too dirty. Even San Jose' is too big for me. I like little cities that have all the conveniences with a small town feel.
Aunt Meme also got to see Caitlin perform in her American Tall Tale Heroes play at school (Caitlin was a square dancer). I did a horrible job filming the play without the tripod I carelessly left at home. And the still photos weren't much better.

Jared's Latest Mischief

Okay, here's the Living Room. He had the sofa pushed out, the sleeper was about 18" from the wall and he other part of the sectional was more towards the middle of the room. The chairs were all upside down, with the exception of one dining chair. Pillows and cushions thrown everywhere. He was in the process of tying the curtains together with my Stampin' Up! ribbon. I'm not sure why he thought this was okay to do! (????) Especially since a few weeks back he decided to dismantle his bed. He had the mattress and bunkie board on the floor and a 4" gash across the headboard of his bed. I think I'm willing to go back to the days when I'd find him making sandwiches out of Aquafresh, or making strange experiments with water, sticks and random food. SIGH!

Finding Joy

I went to this women's conference at church today. The first class I attended was called "The Last Comic Standing". It was taught by a friend from church, Jill Juchau. She did an amazing job! It was fun and enlightening. She talked about how humor is a defense against adversity. I must have picked up on something because while I was making the above card, Jared decided to rearrange my living room furniture. He somehow managed to push a very heavy sectional sleeper sofa out several inches from the wall. The cushions were everywhere. The fabric covered chair was tipped over, as were three of the dinning room chairs. All because he wanted to "fix stuff". Instead of losing my mind (especially over the scraped dining room chair that left a big brown mark on the walls that were painted this fall)... believe it or not, instead of losing my mind I snapped a few photos to record the results of my son's very creative and determined mind! (Too bad I had all restored back to normal before realizing that the flash card was missing from my digital photo) Ah, well! I'll take a picture of the restored version so you can get some sort of idea.

On to more joyful things! I decided to join in a sketch challenge (SC126) on Splitcoast today. I am challenging myself to do at least one challenge a week. I'm having a great time and I can't wait to do another one! ENJOY!!

Directions for Card: I wanted to use The Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set by Stampin' Up! - I thought I'd make Jill a card. (Supplies used on card: CS: Bashful Blue, Ruby Red, So Saffron; MME Magnolia patterned paper; pink floral PP unknown; Martha Stewart Blue Ribbon; Bright Pink brad; Giga Scallop Punch for tab; Markers:ruby red, bashful blue, barely banana, positively pink; and Prima pink ribbon)