a few weeks ago, ike’s school had a giant fundraiser in the form of a spring carnival. there was also an auction to accompany the spring carnival and at that auction, we “won” a picnic lunch with isaac’s teacher, for a whopping $65.
flash forward to today. and the picnic lunch was taking place.
isaac got to pick a friend to go with him. naturally, he selected johnlee.
mrs. matthews, the $65 lunch date, crashed the picture.
anna waited patiently while i snapped away…
after a tasty lunch from chick fil a, a silly string fight was on tap. the boys took a moment to strategize.
the silly string lineup. 8 students vs. 4 teachers.
mrs. matthews did not follow the proper rules of silly string warfare.
the boys never saw it coming.
the battlefield was gruesome.
the boys stood strong against another foe, mrs. norman.
then, i’m not really sure what happened, but they apparently turned on each other and had a side battle between the two of them, while war raged on among the other participants.
the aftermath.
they went in for a post-war cupcake treat-y. (you see what i did there?). and anna and i headed out for our own chick fil a lunch.
we were a little late getting our garden rolling this year, but this weekend, we set out to get all of this planted:
anna was armed with her new gardening set that she got for her birthday from my parents and jake.
the gloves were a little big, but that didn’t slow down her helpful digging.
isaac came out to help for about 3 minutes and then he went back in the house. he’s a bum.
anna helped water after each plant was in it’s new home.
derek snapped a picture of our chaos. er, progress.
anna hung in there all the way to the end. and she only trampled a few plants along the way. she’s a proud little gardener.
then her dress got wet and she stripped and decided to catch chickens in her underwear.
we are also trying a lettuce garden this year on the deck (for easy salad access).
anyhow. that’s the garden story. it’s fenced off with some chicken wire to keep our poultry out. they circled it and circled it, pausing now and then to look in at me, probably trying to make me feel guilty for taking away their favorite digging spot in the yard. it didn’t work.
i gave my kids each a roll of washi tape. here’s what anna did:
and what ike did:
wednesday, the 8th, was anna’s actual birthday, so we went out for a delicious breakfast. it’s her favorite meal. bacon, sausage, eggs over easy, toast, pancakes. she’s a little ron swanson.
anna also dressed up as rapunzel and we went out for mexican for dinner. her favorite. well, besides chick fil a. the waiters all came to sing to her and she freaked out.
isaac was totally willing to wear the sombrero.
blue tongue.
last thursday was my last day with both extra kiddos…
and friday was the last day with john. i picked isaac up early from school and we went to chick fil a for lunch.
and played in sprinkler. it was so nice out!
my mom got the kids this weird bath goo stuff for christmas. or maybe easter. i can’t remember. anyhoooo. we busted it out friday night. it was super fun. and weird. it’s kind of like the stuff inside baby diapers. it soaks up the water and turns into a slimy mess. the kids played for an hour.
(we had read online that some people had trouble with clogged drains. the stuff that makes the goo “turn magically back into water” was just salt, so we dumped a bunch more of our own salt in and it washed down just fine).
we have started “operation pacifier detox” with anna. she’s only allowed to use it for bedtime and in the car. she’s found a loophole in the system. she runs into the bedroom and bundles up and claims she’s taking a nap. she gets her “fix” and then gets back to playing. she’s been quite cooperative about the whole thing. and it’s nice to see her pleasant smile and understand what she’s saying.
yesterday was mother’s day. i got an iron and a mini rechargeable vacuum cleaner. the iron is for quilting, so it doesn’t count as a household appliance. and the rechargeable vac is awesome for all the sand and dirt and leaves and general yard waste that gets tracked into our house several times a day. oh. and we went to the park with derek’s family (parents and sister’s fam) for a quick and easy mother’s day lunch and playtime. we all brought our own lunch. it was low maintenance. i brought taco bell, which just opened nearby. in case you were wondering. anyhoooo… our dessert was watermelon.
this morning was “muffins with moms” in isaac’s kindergarten class to celebrate mother’s day. he was so so so excited. and super cute while he tried to be patient.
while we waited for muffins, we got to look at our card. i’m the best sower. and that’s him and anna hugging me. and me holding up a quilt.
after we ate, we opened our present… a super cute laminate book that the kids all made for their moms.
my blond hair and so blue eyes. (i’ll pretend that in real life my hair isn’t blah-nd. and my eyes not a gray color). i AM amazing though.
i like to sew. so true. he even included his little art table that’s set up in my sewing dungeon.
i don’t think you have to be smart to drive. and i don’t own a purple jump suit.
i am the world’s best mom:
while i do LOVE my current sewing machine, i would not balk at a newer, fancier, blue-er one.
at first glance, I thought I was just lounging on the couch. but Ike must have made this during the time that I hurt my back, because he pointed out the heating pad under me. I’m thankful he doesn’t think I lay on the couch all day.
and finally. a picture of us playing hide and seek.
it was super cute. he was so proud.
it was a little sad. there were a couple of kiddos who didn’t have moms come in. or substitute moms (dads, grammas, etc). they looked sad and grumpy. and it made me sad.
anna’s birthday falls on a stupid wednesday this year. so, we celebrated sunday. which might not have been the best plan because derek was at a meeting all afternoon and our house has been in a perpetual state of disaster since i started keeping extra people and then especially when i got pregnant.
anyhow. i managed to get the cakes baked and the frosting made, even with the “help” of some little people.
(that’s not really part of the party story, but it was a cute picture, so i’m making it work).
the guests arrived and the kiddos ate at the coffee table in the living room, while zombie-ing out with curious george on the television. oh. and the birthday girl? that’s her lying on the floor in the background.
singing happy birthday caused anna to curl up into the tiniest possible ball she could.
she got a little help from gramma blowing out her candle.
grae and daniel and maya and cake.
isaac and livy and cake.
we knocked out a little less than half the massive cake and i sent the rest to derek’s work yesterday morning.
anna got some sweet gifts. a baby rapunzel doll and a book from gramma. some math counter toys from ike (“so she can get smarter”). some giant sticker pads and princess hair accessories from grae and daniel. and a super sweet playdoh ice cream shop from maya and livy.
we will still have a special day for the girl tomorrow. which according to the weather does not include the park. boo.
anna’s birthday is around the corner. wednesday to be exact.
but, her grandparents will be out of town. and the middle of the week is tough.
so, we had a little party time for her on sunday night. last night.
she’s been waffling back and forth between a curious george cake, another yo gabba gabba cake and a rapunzel cake. but, at the very least, i knew i would stuff the inside of the cake with rainbowy layers…
when it was time to frost, her cake of the hour was curious george, so i went with it. i didn’t have much time, so i picked an easy picture. my own kids so often get the cake decorating shaft.
she was happy with it, though. so that’s all that matters.
it was perfect timing that anna decided she liked princesses, because she was set to attend a princess party for the fifth birthday of our pal kaylin. we borrowed a dress from heather and her girls and instantly anna was transformed into a disney princess enthusiast.
so, naturally, we gave in. and for anna’s birthday, we gave her a rapunzel dress a bit early. so she could wear it to the party. (note: the dress in this pic is ginormous and we returned it for a different, smaller version).
the party was super fun. and so busy. we began by decorating sugar cookies.
some temporary glitter tattoos were applied and then there was some coloring.
we made pixie stick sand art castle necklaces.
the birthday girl. happy birthday to you time.
kaylin’s mom and dad had the garage all decked out in princess-y glitter and lights.
it should come as no surprise that we don’t own princess shoes, so chucks had to do.
anna was the youngest party goer and is naturally a bit apprehensive, so she did a lot of standing back and observing the older, wiser crowd.
all of the princesses lined up for a pic. anna ruined it.
when we got home, i made sure to get a pic in the natural light, because i was unsure of how the garage/twinkle lighting was going to be for all the pictures i took at the party.
after returning from sew south in march, still feeling the emotional sewing high, an online swap was quickly organized, and we all got to work making fun stuff for each other.
i made this pillow for my partner.
i used interfacing that was marked with a grid, which was a bit tedious but made for perfectly matched corners.
anyhooo… i hope she likes it. and i hope to ship it soon. i’m slack.
last friday (as in, two fridays ago) (as in, over a week ago) isaac’s school held their annual spring carnival. it’s pretty much a giant fundraiser for the school’s “specials” teachers. i guess other schools have to share their PE, art, and music teachers, but thanks to the money they raise at the carnival, they are able to hoard the teachers all for themselves.
there’s a gazillion little kids games, with delicious candy prizes. like bowling. (that’s ike’s grampa on the far right, helping set up the pins.)
there was a dunking booth and photo booth and tons of other games that i didn’t take pictures of. a cake walk. plinko. duck pond. and so on.
mr. noftle, the music teacher, and one of ike’s favorite people on the planet was making balloon animals and such. anna scored a flower. isaac got a white dog. neither of them made it all the way through the night with us.
there was a little petting zoo. snakes, goats, pigs, bunnies, a hedge hog. and a bunch of unsupervised kids poking them with sticks and picking them up and carrying them around. i am not a fan of unsupervised packs of elementary school kids. anna and ike observed from afar.
we waited in a long line to take a spin in the giant hamster ball. anna wanted to try it too. she only went about 20 feet before deciding she’d had enough.
i didn’t get a close up of ike, because he was down and back almost before i even had anna loaded in her hamster ball.
we filled up on some cici’s pizza and chips and pop for dinner. in the cafeteria.
before heading off to the silent auction in the media center. and before the complete meltdowns….
a lot of the teachers were up for auction. if you “won” mr. davis, the gym teacher, you could pick 5 friends for a pizza party and some playtime in the gym. mr. noftle offered lunch and a free music lesson or magic lesson. ike’s teachers would have a picnic lunch, with some chick fil a and a silly string fight. isaac so badly wanted to win mr. davis. we tried, but when the bidding went into the 100′s of dollars, we backed out. and he burst into tears. unconsolable tears. we did, however, win the silly string lunch with mrs. matthews, for the steep price of $65.
the quilt that i made brought in a whopping (#sarcasm) $90. it cost $60 to make. the good news is that johnlee’s family are the winners, so at least there’s that. anyhooo….
then anna fell. and banged up her chin pretty good. so, my two screaming children and i headed home for the night.
we’ve had quite a time with our chickens lately. first, we came home from a weekend trip to find four hatched babies. well, two slipped under the fence and were quickly gobbled up by the neighbor’s dog. sad. this picture is obviously before that:
now she’s only got two. here’s a cute picture of the surviving siblings and the mom.
we kept waiting and waiting for another chicken (flo jo) to hatch some eggs. but she was spacey and we would come home to some of her eggs pushed out and five more new eggs under her. so, we decided to get her some babies before she killed herself trying to hatch them. we bought some hatched chicks from calvary day school and sneaked them under her, one at a time, stealing an egg each time. the next morning, she was a proud mama…
we checked all the eggs and only two looked close to hatching, so we incubated them and kept a close eye on them. the night we took them out, they started poking out.
we even managed to get a sweet video of them hatching.
(with commentary from anna).
turns out, flo jo is a very aggressive mom. we don’t mess with her chicks too much. but, at night, she’s prone to settling in for the night and leaving her babies behind to rough it in the cool night. before we realized this was a problem, we had let lucy out late one night and she picked one off, so she’s down to seven. and now, we go out every night and rustle them up and put them in the coop. can’t wait until they get some sense and figure out where to sleep.
and now. some kid pictures. anna and lucy cuddling in bed.
at simply tart. after school.
isaac had a playdate with his buddy johnlee after school one day. they held hands all the way to the car.
isaac gave a little nerf gun safety class for anna and john. they were not amused.
the two lid kids being sweet for a brief moment.
my kids and our afternoon pals and ice cream at alex’s.
we had some other exciting times in our backyard. while doing yardwork a couple of weekends ago, we found this perfect robin’s next behind derek’s shop. it is on a ladder and is about waist high, so we’ve been keeping a close eye on the development. (and the mama keeps a close eye on our keeping a close eye).
a couple of days ago, we found some very very newly hatched birds. i can’t believe they fit in the eggs. i haven’t been back to see if the fourth egg hatched.
and finally. the anna baby has found a new love. a forbidden love. princesses. i did all i could to avoid it, but somehow she figured it out and decided she loves them. heather handed down this dress to her and she would like to never take it off.
see?
her birthday is around the corner and her favorite princess is rapunzel, so she will be getting a rapunzel dress (a little early, since we coincidentally have a princess party to attend tomorrow). can’t wait to see her excitement. and then the ensuing fight to get her to wear something else. :/
