Huh

Wierd question.... How is it possible that one rose bush can create 2 different color roses on one bush?   (actually I think it must have been a grafted rose bush, but it is pretty cool.)

Keychain

In my continued craft creations lately, this is another one.  This is Scrabble tiles that spell out my initials on the other side and on this side they say "MOM" "Love" "Laugh" "Always"   It turned out pretty good except it was a challenge to construct with jewelry wire.  It works, but may not last very long due to it's construction.  I will have to see.  It is not a great picture, but it is the best I have for right now.

Cool Treats

I am not beyond stealing some ideas from other moms, I love this idea and think it would be cool.   One of Buddy's classmates had a birthday this week and instead of sending in the typical cupcakes to share with the class he got these.  They are ice cream cones filled with rice krispie treats made with colorful fruity pebbles.  They looked really cool, and were amazingly pretty mess free.  The little girl even shared one with munchkin.

Climbing

Someone else really wants to figure out how to climb trees.  She is trying REALLY hard, but is so cute in the process.

Camouflage

Can you see him?  He's all camouflage and likes to tell me about it. He is very proud of himself.  His favorite activity is to climb the apple tree.

Flowers

I love having flowers in my house, and my husband is pretty good about giving them to me pretty regularly.  However, I am not usually happy with just throwing them in a vase, they never look quite right.  I am hoping to improve on that.  We had a wonderful woman, who came to our MOPS meeting and taught us how to preserve our flowers better, how to pick fresh flowers and how to arrange them artistically, so they look better.  I already gave away one of the arrangements I made, but it was great to try out a few different things and learn by doing.
It was wonderful, and now I am hoping that the next time I get flowers, I can make them look fantastic.  These are the flowers that she bought at the grocery store and arranged for us with the additions of some greenery.  Don't they look great. 

Then I tried with a smaller arrangement, they look pretty good, but I am hoping to improve on them.

Then these were just some leftover greens that I liked, and I thought looked cool all by themselved in a bud vase.  They also make a cool shadow on the wall when the sun shines. 

Yard sales

I have a love/hate relationships with yard sales.  It seems that I keep going to them and all I find is junk, broken toys my children beg for, lots of stuff I don't need and I get sick of going to them.  Then I have a day like today.  I decided to stop by and check one out after I dropped Princess off at school.  It did not have a single kids toy, but the two little kids liked poking around and didn't complain.  In all I spent $17 dollars but got lots of cool stuff.  Maybe I will have to start going to yard sales on a regular basis again. Here is my load of stuff.

I got 3 camera's $1 each,they look great arranged on my mantle, but I may end up giving at least one if not all away as gifts.

A hand crank food mill to use for making jam $1

A cool pie server for $1

A really cool old shoe shine box $1

A cool Coke box for $7 for my sister.

A mixer for the kids (they played with it and a bowl of soapy water for 2 hours this morning) $1, I think it is the best dollar I spent.

All this AND a boring extension cord for $2

Fruit

I often get asked how I get my kids to eat fruit and the answer is simple.  I leave it on the counter.  The majority of the fruit in our house is left in a bowl on the counter in easy reach.  This is the normal amount of fruit we eat in a week. The grapes are washed and put in a bowl.  The grapes are usually gone within 2 days.  

Hats

I have been busy at the sewing machine this week again.  This week I promised a hat to a little girl whose hair is thinning due to some medical issues.  Why do I do that to myself?

I have never made a hat in my life, but off I go to the fabric store and I find a pattern, and I make a hat.  It is probably the hardest thing I have ever made.  Ususally I stick to things with straight lines, curtains and bags.   But I made a promise, the first one I made.  This is it before I "decorated" it.  (Front and back)  

This is it after I "decorated" it.   I really don't like but every little girl I show it to loves it, so she will get that one.  I think it looks like a shower cap with a princess crown. 

But then Buddy wanted one, and then Princess wanted one and so they each got one.  Then I made another one for our friend.  This one turned out a LOT better, I guess by that point this was the fifth one, so it didn't have the puckers and challenges of the first few. I also made the little flower that is a pin, so it can be taken off and the hat can be thrown in the wash. Now they are not so hard to make. I just hope she likes both of them, or at least she likes the same on that I like.  If she hates the shower cap one, then I am fine with that.

HOT APRIL

What do you do when you have weather in the 90's in the first week of April?  Turn on the sprinkler and let the kids go wild.  Munchkin is finally old enough to enjoy the fun and is not scared.   She loved it as much as the other kids.

Easter part -2

Of course we had aour own egg hunt around the house. Daddy had the joy of hiding the eggs and it actually took a long time for the kids to find them all.  The ones where the kids had to climb the trees to get the eggs made the kids happy.  The eggs each had about 2-3 jelly beans in them, so now we have lots of jelly beans.

Happy Easter

The kids had a great weekend. We had an Easter Egg hunt at church and then we were able to enjoy Easter services together .  The big kids loved to check out the hiding spots before they were allowed to pick any up.  Munchkin girl was all about finding eggs and filling her basket, she loved it.

Creativity

I have been working on a lot of craft/sewing projects lately and the kids love seeing all the cool stuff.  They like to help me with the sewing machine.

Buddy has been into a camoflage lately and so he wears his jacket and his sweatshirt and begs to wear clothes that are too big for him just because they are camo.  So he specifically asked for me to sew him a pair of shorts.  This is the result.  They are not perfect, I didn't have a pattern, but I used what I had in the house and did not spend any money for them.  He LOVES them. 

Bedtime Reading

Princess loves to read to her little sister, it is great that they entertain each other when the boy of the family is having fun in the tub.

Knights in Shining Armor

How could I ever worry when I have some wonderful knights in shining armor around our house.