LENS Photo Challenge - RED

The LENS photo challenge this time is RED. This picture came to mind pretty quickly. It was taken a few years ago by one of my girls. The Man and I got new phones and gave our old ones to the girls to play with, they immediately went to work taking pictures of everything around them. I LOVED seeing the world through their eyes, and seeing what things they considered important enough to photograph. The pictures ranged anywhere from self portraits, to My Little Pony toys, to items at the store they wanted to buy! This particular picture was taken during a trip to Target, from inside the basket.

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures taken by the girls...





L.E.N.S. Photo Challenge- Physical Education

This post is for a Photo Challenge, but it's also a great topic for homeschooling families. Making sure the kids stay moving is important! We have our share of running around the house, and our share of backyard fun, and if the girls aren't dancing from room to room then something is terribly wrong. But in addition to our at home "P.E.", we also like to put the kids in different sports. Our goal is to help them find the one they like best (if any) and stick with it! They did gymnastics last spring, T-ball in the fall, and will do soccer this spring. Out of all the great shots of them participating, I still think my favorite is of PP not participating in T-ball. In her defense, it can get pretty boring in outfield, especially in T-ball! This pose she has here screams "Prissy Pants", and she doesn't think the title fits her!

Here are some other T-ball pics. Their absolute favorite was hitting the ball and running. Z would be happy running all day. That's why I think they'll enjoy soccer! I'm so excited to start next month!







It was impossible to get good pictures of the girls in gymnastics because of the gym lighting, I tried and tried for weeks, and since parents had to stay in the bleachers I just couldn't get any good shots. Sadness. Here are the girls getting their medals at the end of the semester!

I can't wait until FB is old enough to join in, she hates having to sit on the side with me and watch the big girls have all the fun!

So what do you homeschoolers do for "P.E."? Head over to Home is Where You Start From and see what others are doing!



Death by Chocolate and a Half Birthday

If we had a choice in the way we left this world behind, mine would definitely be death by chocolate - if there were such a thing. Yesterday evening the girls helped me make the greatest chocolate cupcakes in the history of cupcakes (at least at our house). We added chocolate pudding to the mix to make them extra moist, sprinkled mini chocolate chips on top, then iced them in chocolate icing! Mmmmmm! You can't see the chocolate chips in the picture, but they are most definitely there! When Intelligent Man took his first bite I think he choked on the richness. He said it was chocolate overload. PULEEEEASE! Men just can't hang when it comes to chocolate.

A bit before that, while icing them, The Man walked up behind me and asked what the occasion was. "Ummmm..." I replied. I was quickly scanning my brain for an appropriate answer, I never stopped to think that I needed a reason for indulging myself, but to justify the baking I searched for an answer. I blurted out, "It's the boy's half birthday tomorrow!" and then smiled. And it's ok that he can't enjoy the sweets, because this celebration is actually mine! I'm the one who (completely naturally) hiked a 10 1/2 lb mass of chunky little boy from my gut, so I deserve all the celebration I can handle! I'll have my cupcake and eat it too! I may even inhale one while no one is looking so I can eat another one later, without getting the "Are you seriously having another one?" look, piercing my face. Mwahahaha! So all you health nuts go ahead and scoff - meanwhile I'll be sitting on a cloud in sweet tooth heaven! Mmm, chocolate bliss!

Oh, yes, and happy HALF birthday to my son! I can't believe it's already that time, the girls first 6 months didn't go by nearly this quickly! Here's a yummy treat for you - feast your eyes on this hunk of a beautiful male, all 19lbs 10.5oz of him!



A week away

I decided to take a week away from Facebook last week and direct my attention elsewhere. I have some big plans in the works involving our home life and needed to give myself a big kick in the right direction. First off, organization (or RE-organization in some cases). There are way too many "hot spots" in this house, you know, the places where all the junk without a home ends up. Those places needed to be cleared of clutter and the inhabitants relocated to a real place of their own. I made plans to join in the 21 day organizing challenge over at A Bowl Full of Lemons, and I did - I just didn't do it in the same way. I am by no means finished with this quest, I have more boxes, bins, baskets, and shelves to buy to finish up the other half of this mountain of a project. And some of the things on the challenge list didn't exactly apply to me so I varied slightly. I also have a lot of things already in some sort of order and just needed to give it a facelift. So, just to show you what I have done so far, here is the first half of what I've accomplished! I think I'll list them by rooms instead of in the order they were done.


KITCHEN:

First up, the junk drawer (or the one in the kitchen anyway). This drawer is barely big enough for all that we need in it so I could only organize it so much, but you gotta admit, it looks way better than it did before!

Then, under the kitchen sink. I have no idea why, but there were empty cleaning bottles under here. Can you say lazy? Ugh!

The pantry! In all of these places, the rules were to take EVERYTHING out, clean the space then refill in a more organized manner. And obviously when it comes to food, throw away what's expired!

The refrigerator - I think I was looking forward to this one the LEAST, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Yay!

 

The freezer. This was easier than the fridge, perhaps because it's only a fraction of the space!

The spice cabinet. Embarrassingly there was a lot to throw away in here too. I really had to fight with that shelf to get it in there, but I was determined and I won! Much better, right?

SCHOOL ROOM:

The computer desk is in our school room. Most of what is piled here is school stuff (which I have yet to get to, I need another shelf first), so I cleared off all the school related things and will try to keep this desk just for computer related things. It won't be easy to do since it shares a room with our school, but I WILL try! Hopefully I can get that shelf and get to the school stuff very, very soon!!

MASTER STUFF:

Heading into my bedroom we come to the dresser and chest of drawers. On the challenge she cleaned and organized the clothes inside, my clothes are already separated and folded so I tackled the craziness on top!

And the last thing on the list for today is the laundry room, which is right next to our bedroom. This space just needed a good wipe down, and it got it! Now everything looks white again!

So like I said before, I need more bins, and boxes to finish up the other things on my list, and it will be coming soon! Here are a few of the spaces I plan on conquering this week: under our bathroom sink, the master closet (scary!), the mail, the medicine cabinet, and my pots, pans, mixing bowls etc. Here is the list of things I will get to after that, as long as I can get the tools I need: keepsakes, pictures, the play room, the school room, and my sewing closet. There, so now that you all know what's coming you can keep me accountable!

Sneak Peek Revealed!

I know I'm super late with this, but FINALLY, here are the homemade Christmas gifts I made this year. They all turned out really well, I'm so proud! First up are the crayon rolls I made for some little ones. I ended up using a different set of fabric than what I posted in the sneak peek because I just really loved these girly glittery ones!

Rolled Up



Open



I will be making a much bigger version of these for the girls to use in school, I think it will help keep crayon spillage to a minimum. I love our cute little buckets that house them right now, but having a crayon roll will encourage getting out one at a time and putting it back before getting another.

Here is a big kid version with markers, pens, and pencils.



Rolled Up



Open

I also made a matching taggie football for the baby brother!



The gifts I was most proud of were these silhouettes I made for the kids grandma's and the one for my girlfriend (of her kids).

For Grammy


 

For Nana

 

For Tootie

I had originally planned on doing the traditional look of the silhouette being in an oval frame but I had a very hard time finding an oval frame that didn't cost an arm and a leg, especially since I had to make 11 silhouettes! I settled on a large frame for my kids and just put them all together. For my friend I found a longer rectangle frame and lined the kids up. I couldn't fit oval backgrounds inside the frames without the silhouettes being awfully small and I didn't want to have to squint to see that these were our kids, so I used my off white cardstock to make two layers of outlines around the black silhouette for an almost 3D look, and I gotta say, I LOVE the way it turned out! I would have liked to put my four in the same type of frame as I did my friends, but I couldn't find one big enough. I plan on making a much larger one of each kid in its own oval frame for my living room very soon! I can't wait!

So there ya go, my most recent projects! Thanks for looking!