Lookee What I Made

I'm tired.  I have good reason.  Jeremy spent three days building huge sculptures at Thanksgiving Point.  Since he had another show on Saturday that he didn't have time to build a big sculpture for, guess who got the job.  That's right.  Little ol' me.  Jeremy has a lot more experience with these big sculptures which means I'm a lot slower.  So I gave myself plenty of time and I was still burned out at the end.  The more I do it, though, the better I'll get and the less burned out I'll get.

My wonderful husband helped me by building the hands, the stick part of the shovel that the hand is holding (because it went with the hand) and the hat (and belt).  I probably could have done it myself, but I was burned out and those parts didn't take him very long and he was home at the time.

Jeremy, of course, has reason to be very very tired.  At church today, two different people brought the newspaper article that was in Saturday's Daily Herald about him and his project at Thanksgiving Point.

And now it's all done.  I can be tired.  Too tired to blog.  Just in time to start Turnoff Week (a.k.a. Screen Free Week) tomorrow.  So don't expect any blog posts from me this coming week, April 29-May 5.  I'm going to rest and start to get my home back in order from the neglect of this past week.

Happy Hunting!

Nichole lost another tooth today... twice.  This afternoon, her loose tooth came out.  Yay! 

She put it in her tooth pillow to be ready for when the tooth fairy came.  This evening she checked her tooth pillow before she put her pajamas on and the tooth was there.  When she was ready to go to sleep, she checked it again and it wasn't there.  Ack.  So we went on a tooth hunt.  Jeremy checked on Nichole's bed.  I checked on Nichole's bed.  I looked on the side of her bunk, pulling up the mattress enough to check on the slats that hold her mattress.  We checked on Jr.'s bed.  We checked on the side of his bunk, pulling up the mattress enough to check on the slats that hold his mattress.  We looked under the bed.  Jeremy shined a flashlight from the edge.  I crawled a little way under, though not too far since my shape has changed a bit over the years and I was afraid of getting stuck. 

But Jr. and Jr. Jr. both crawled under the bed to look while I shined a flashlight.  We just could not find that tooth.  Nichole knew the tooth fairy would understand.  The tooth did come out, it just came out of her tooth pillow, too.  We told her to write a note to the tooth fairy explaining what happened.

Then Jeremy asked, "Has anyone said a prayer?"  Nope.  None of us had thought to.  Silly us.  So Nichole said a prayer and as she and I talked about it again, Jeremy went in to the kids' room to do some more searching.  In a little bit I went in there to check on him.  He had Nichole's mattress pulled up and was looking at the slats on the bunk.  He pointed something out to me and I reached for it from underneath.  It was Nichole's tooth... in a spot I had looked several times but didn't see it.  But as soon as Nichole said that prayer, there it was.  She said a prayer of thanks and we of course were grateful.

She still wanted to write a note to the tooth fairy so she did, put her note and the tooth back in her tooth pillow, and went to bed.

 "Dear tooth fairy,
I have wrote this to tell you I lost my tooth.  Happy Hunting!
I think you're great.
Love, 
Nichole"



 

Quite the hunt and a good reminder to pray always.

Daddy-Daughter Time

This afternoon, Jeremy and Nichole went hiking at Big Springs.  They got see a whole lot during this trip.  They saw several different types of birds, several different types of trees, and a whole lot of animal tracks.  They saw hoof and paw prints, nests, holes in trees from woodpeckers, and more.

At one point, Jeremy got a little too close to take pictures of a squirrel in a tree.  It began chittering at him angrily.

Nichole found a rock that had ridges on it like the ribs of her stegosaurus skeleton toy she got earlier today when the older kids went to a birthday party at Nickel City.

I'm glad Jeremy and Nichole got this time together today.  The kids need this getting out time with a parent every once in a while, and the parents do, too.

National Garlic Day 2013

Today was a good day.  Some highlights-
Jr. Jr. and I went for a walk around Manila Creek Pond.  We went to see the ducks and we saw ducks, swallows, fish jumping, Canadian geese, a killdeer, deer, a type of hawk, and another bird flying around that we didn't get the best look at.  We also saw some people fishing.  But it was cold so we could only make it once around the pond before we had to get back to the car to warm up and go home.

For dinner we had spaghetti and garlic bread since April 19th is National Garlic Day.  The kids helped make the garlic bread.  Jr. Jr. put the bread on the cookie sheet, Jr. spread the butter, and Nichole sprinkled the garlic salt.

We had Family Home Evening tonight and for the treat and activity, we opened a package of Bubblicious to teach the older kids how to blow bubbles.  It took a while, but by the end both kids were able to sort of blow a few bubbles.  We let them know it will take practice.  We'll get another of those good bubble blowing bubble gums sometime and do it again.  This one was strawberry flavored, but my husband and I both have fond memories of our childhood chewing grape flavored bubble gum.  Unfortunately, I cannot find any anywhere.  I can find strawberry, watermelon, and bubble gum flavors, but not grape.  Ack.  Does anybody know where I can find grape flavored Bubblicous/Bubble Yum/any of those good bubble blowing bubble gums?

Oh well.  It was a good day.

National Animal Crackers Day 2013

April 18th, National Animal Crackers Day.  Great chance to have animal crackers dipped in yogurt for after school snack.

The kids sure had fun guessing what animals they were eating.  Every time they came across one they couldn't identify, they figured it must be a rabbit.  So the kids ate plenty of rabbits.

Catch of the Day

Our Little Builder

We had some plastic glasses to use for sparkling cider at Chinese New Year (we had some bottles left over from December/January New Year).  Jr. Jr. decided to stack them up all by himself.  Not bad for the two year old. 

I love that "pleased with himself" look.