At Home with the Knights

Sep. 12, 2008

Aug. 29, 2008

Yes We Can!

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Aug. 27, 2008

I am a Disney freak.

Or maybe just a freak?  Once again, we headed off for a night at Disney (thank goodness for Florida Resident Rates!).  We stayed at All Star Sports this time.  It's amazing what you can do over there that's fairly cheap or even free.  Though I will say, going past the entrance to The Magic Kingdom again nearly drove me to drink.  I sooooooo wanted to go in! I took 250 pictures, though I promise not to put them all up here!  However, there are a bunch I'd like to share, so sit back, get a snack, and enjoy.  Here's the huge football at All Star Sports.  Hey - college football starts this weekend!!!  Go Gators! We ate lunch (I brought all of our food - go me!) and then headed off to Downtown Disney.  The girls had money burning a hole in their pockets.  Well, Mary vowed not to spend a dime, but the other two were itchin' to buy something with their money. I thought this picture was hysterical.  She's not disgusted, she's just trying to eat her cupcake!  We, of course, stopped at Goofy's candy store.  We had to eat this inside since it was about 92 degrees outside and their cupcakes would have melted.  Then we headed back to the hotel to do some swimming.  There are no pictures of us in the pool since I was enjoying the heck out of the cool water with the girls.  And trust me, you don't want to see me in a bathing suit anyways.  After we were done swimming, we ate dinner and then started making our way to the Polynesian Hotel. Of course, going to the Polynesian means you have to stop at The Magic Kingdom first, and then  hop on the monorail.  I'm telling you, this is torture.  Somday I hope to have Disney passes so I can get my fix often. But we finally made it to the beach of the Polynesian.  Oh.My.God.  Can I tell you I was blissfully thrilled to be sitting on a lounge chair, on the beach, of the Poly, looking out at Cinderella's Castle!  Dang.  Free stuff doesn't get any better than this! Even the girls were having lots of fun.  Kali was making huge sand sculptures and Hannah was running all over the place.  Mary, of course, was on the phone.  I just kept staring at the water - and the castle. Oh yeah.   Can I go back now? Then the water parade started.  I hadn't seen it in years! Cute, aren't they? A bit blurry, but you get the idea. And then the fireworks started.  Oooooooh......Ahhhhhhhhh The reflection off of the water made it extra cool to watch. Finally we headed back to the hotel around 10:45.  We were all wiped out and Kali fell asleep on the bus.  We got up the next morning, and I snuck out around 7:30 to get a cup of coffee.  Everyone else finally woke up, we ate breakfast, and headed down to the pool around 9:00.  The pool was empty - that was so nice!  Again, no pictures of us swimming since I was in the pool, too.  And I really am saving you all from seeing me in a bathing suit.  It's not a pretty sight.  After we loaded up the van, we headed over to The Boardwalk.  Holy hell; it had to be at least 90 in the shade by then.  We were all melted little puddles. We stopped off in the General Store and loaded up on some drinks.  Goofy me underestimated and we ran out of stuff!  We got some ice cream, too.  Can you say melt-in-a-minute?! Yep! I think Mary was wearing hers.  ;) Alex was dumping ice on the kids to cool them off.  Thank goodness for ice!!! We got back in the van, cranked up the a/c, and headed over to The Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Or, as Kali calls it, The Animal Kingdom Large.  That place was gorgeous!! The decor was fabulous. Hey, Look!  An Animal in it's Kingdom.  Alex was a little puddle, too.  Time for a break!  But noooo...mama wanted to drag them all outside to see if we could see some animals.  They were less than thrilled with my idea. But we found the animals! And more animals. And best of all - we found the mister!!!!  Well, they did.  I had the camera and didn't want to sacrifice it for some mist.  Though I did think about it - heavily. Of course, Alex was talking to the man that worked there.  That's what he does best.  Kali said it was like having her own shower outside.  Cute, huh? We cooled off, dried off, shopped a bit more, and then loaded ourselves back up in the van.  I had a bit o' cash left from our curriculum shopping, so we all headed off to Giordano's.  Hey, deep dish pizza is educational, right?!   We had a blast, and hope to go back soon. Hope y'all enjoyed the pictures!

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Aug. 19, 2008

Fay

Aug. 18, 2008

Auntie 'Em! Auntie 'Em!!

See what we have aiming our way?  I guess I can't complain though.  We haven't had a hurricane hit us (directly) in over 3 years and this one is small.  Of course, the path could change in a New York Minute and this picture will be worthless.  We have all of our batteries charged, extra ice in the freezer, candles, water, food, etc., etc.  We're just watching and waiting and going on with life as normal! On to other things...... Hannah and Kali planted some root veggies for science.  They're in these cute little test tubes so they can see everything growing. Daddy helped so I could take pictures.  We ended up doing this at night; hey, learning happens all day long over here!  Planting seeds.  I think it went something like this........ "And then Hannah tried to choke me!!" Okay, this one was too cute not to put in here. She's just.....ahhhhh....we're in trouble. Here's 2 of the 3.  I think Hannah was working on the last one when I took this picture.  You can see on the bottom that there's a carrot, a green onion, and the last one is a.......uh oh.......a radish, I think! Writing about it in their nature journals.  :) The best hamburger buns.....evah!!!!! Okay, I know I've put these in here before, but this time they turned out even better!  Here they are complete with egg wash and sesame seeds. and.... You know you want one!!! They really are awesome. I must say, the first week of school was great, even with our little 'bumps in the road.'  Hopefully this week will go along just as well. I'll keep y'all posted on our fierce winds!

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Aug. 11, 2008

Many Happenings Monday!!!

Today was our first day of school for the year.  I can tell you that I am thoroughly exhausted at the moment.  But let me back up a bit before I tell y'all about our day. On Saturday, Alex took Hannah and Kali to Lowe's for their "Build and Grow" clinic.  They made mini school lockers. They were quite pleased with their building abilities.  Alex said they both used the hammers very well; no fingers were smashed in the process.  :)  Kali wanted nothing to do with the apron or certificate that she got.  Can you tell?? Of course, telling her that she didn't have to worry about it caused her to melt down even more.  Oh my.  She did say that she wanted to go back to the next one.  Mary thought that they were refrigerators.  Dear lord.  On to the first day of school!!!!  I asked the girls what they wanted for breakfast for the first day........cinnamon rolls.  Now, I don't make them very often; only for birthdays or holidays.  It's a good thing I was feeling festive.  I made them the night before and put them in the fridge overnight to rise.  I took them out of the fridge around 6:30 this morning so they could come to room temp. before I put them in the oven.  I let them cool off enough so the frosting wouldn't completely melt when I put it on.  These cinnamon rolls ROCK. You know you want one! But first I had to wake sleeping children.  See how happy she is when she first wakes up?!  Kali went to go check out the stuff I left on the school table for them.  And daddy got a good morning kiss from Hannah. And a snuggle from Kali. I even managed to get a comatose Mary out of bed for cinnamon rolls!  After breakfast they did their chores and met me at the table.  They were eager little beavers this morning. I thought I'd wake up their brains with some mindless things.  Since it's time for the Olympics, I had them coloring the rings and talking about their favorite sports. Well, I had Hannah coloring and talking.  Kali.......ahhhh......Kali.  I am, after many years of "quirks" and "issues," convinced that she is somewhere on the autism spectrum.  I will assume that it's aspergers.  And I will say assume since I have no intention of taking her from doctor to doctor so they can tell me 10,000 different things.  I don't want her to think that there's something 'wrong' with her, or that she is, in any way, not "normal."  None of us are normal; we all have things that we do differently and handle differently.  I just need to figure out how to work with her.  She will not write anything other than her name and will only draw hearts.  Sometimes the hearts have faces, sometimes they don't.  I tried to get her to draw her favorite foods this morning.  That ended up in a complete meltdown and then she hid under the table for about a 1/2 hour.  But I digress..... I kept working with Hannah.  We started with Story of the World; I must say, it's quite interesting! She's working on her family's history this week. We took a lunch break and watched an episode of Home Improvement.  It seems to be their show of choice during lunch.  And I crossed my fingers........ And I started math with Kali.  Turns out that she LOVES math.  Which explains a lot.  She did 4 pages in her math book; 3 of them all by herself.  She was smiling the entire time. Math blocks!!! Look at my girl doing her math work! I did a grammar lesson with Hannah and then we made a spelling list from some of the words from today's lesson. I bought a spelling game program and entered her list into it.  She had a blast playing the games. After she finished with that, I called it a day.  We managed to get a lot done on our first day - history, math, grammar, and spelling.  Tomorrow we will toss in a little science and *gasp* an attempt at handwriting without tears (for those not in the know, it's really called Handwriting Without Tears) for Kali.  Hopefully there will be no tears.  I hope that I can find a way to work with her that doesn't cause her to feel so bad.  Watching her melt down like that is heartbreaking.  But wait - there's MORE......!!!!! I ran to FedEx to ship out a box and then stopped at Walgreens.  Yes, grocery gamers, I headed off to Walgreens for my weekly fix.  So, for those of you keeping score..... Shelf price 37.50.  OOP 8.95.  Savings  75%!!!  I bought...... 1 Bic Soleil Razor 2 bottles of Lysol toilet bowl cleaner 2 bottles of Lysol bathroom cleaner 1 bottle of St. Ives face scrub and 1 bottle of St. Ives face wash. Alex and I went grocery shopping together yesterday and stocked up.  I did great at Publix (figures coming from memory - I'm too lazy to get up and get my binder.)  We spent $75 and saved $38! We also got a few things at Sams, Sweetbay, and our favorite produce guy.  I'm eager to see what my total for the month will be and how low I can get it after all my stocking up this month. Okay, I'm done.  I swear. I'm exhausted after today and am hoping that tomorrow goes a bit more smoothly.  If anyone reading this is homeschooling kids on the spectrum, drop me a line.  Maybe you can give me some "help her to not lose her mind and meltdown" pointers.

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Aug. 8, 2008

Friday night at The Knights!

Ahhhh....Friday night at our house.  Alex and I are watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics now.  The little ones were watching earlier, but they just went to bed.  They were in awe of everything that was going on.  I'm taping the rest of it per Kali's request.  Maybe they'll watch some more of it tomorrow. Before I entice you with food pictures, let me give you my latest grocery game shopping update.  I stopped back at Walgreens yesterday for more cereal.  Seems as though Alex has already attacked most of it, so I needed to get more.  He must have a cereal addiction or something.  Here's my shopping report..... Walgreens - Shelf price $19.04.  OOP - $9.04.  Saved 53% plus I'll get another 3.79 back on a rebate and I got another $5.00 coupon for my next purchase.  Which would then make my total spent - coupons/rebate = 0.25.  Dang! Then I headed back to CVS..... Shelf price $21.43.  OOP 6.93  Savings 68%.  Plus I got another 6.50 coupon for my next purchase, which would make my total spent - coupons = 0.43! I now have plenty of toothpaste, about 6 toothbrushes, a few more bottles of shampoo/conditioner, and a few other things that  I can't remember right at this moment.   I'd love to stock up on some more laundry detergent, chicken, and anything else I use on a regular basis.  Hopefully Sunday's lists will have lots of good stuff on there for us.  Okay, since I've been talking about food, let's move on to some food pictures! Tonight's dinner was pasta and garlic/herb bread. This bread is oh-so very good. Here's my pasta sauce simmering on the stove.  It was bubbling away at this point.  I made sure I stood back far enough so my poor camera didn't get spit on. And here's some fabulous basil that I picked from my basil plants.  You can almost smell it, can't you? It was wonderful in the sauce.  Really, really yummy.  Who needs pasta!  All I wanted was sauce and bread. And for those of you who can't believe I haven't killed the basil, here it is.  It's getting a bit thick at the bottom; I better go prune it down in the morning. Okay, I'm going back to watching the Olympics and figuring out my grocery list.  I need lots of fruits and veggies this week - and coffee!!!!

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Aug. 4, 2008

The Grocery Game!

Aug. 3, 2008

Bowling for Buzzards.

Ha ha ha.  That always reminds me of The Lion King.  Hannah and Kali went to a friend's birthday party this weekend at a bowling alley.  My girls have not been bowling before and they had a blast!  Kali's ball was moving slower than a snail;  I was hoping the force of the a/c would help move it along.  Daddy helping Kali.  Excuse the graininess of the pictures.  It was soooo very dark in there.  They had those cool disco lights going and some really loud music that had the girls (and Alex and I) dancing for a few hours. Our friend was helping Hannah while I was attempting to get at least one good picture of her. This doesn't quite win 'best picture' award, does it? Cute, huh? First time bowling, and Hannah got a spare.  Her final score was an 81.  :)  Okay, and now for something equally as exciting.  Well, at least for me it is!  I've discovered The Grocery Game.  The Grocery Game  Groceries keep going up and up, and my bank account keeps going down and down.    I decided I had to do something about the ever-growing grocery bill.  I'm only on my first trial week (it's $1 for 4 weeks) but tomorrow's shopping trip should prove to be worth it!  I've got my coupons, my lists (oh how I am loving The List) and I'm ready to go.  I'll report back tomorrow on how much I spent and how much I saved.  There are things that are not on 'the list' that I need to get.  Since we really don't eat a whole lot of processed/boxed foods (except for crackers and some snacks) I have to buy stuff that isn't on the lists.  Though I think I still save more money; it's cheaper to cook from scratch (in my opinion) and much healthier for you, too.  My goal is to reduce our grocery bill by at least 25%, though I'd love to aim for 50%.  We'll see what happens.  But you heard it here - Alex said that if I can save the amount equal to my much sought-after clothesline, he will put one in for me.  I guarantee you I'll have one in a month.  ;) So check out the grocery game and let me know what you think.  The message boards are full of wonderful information, so even if you don't do the list subscription, you can still benefit greatly from the info you get from the boards.  I spent a lovely 4 hours at HellMart today as a teacher-representative from Crayola.  Hey, I'll end up with a $100 gift card from doing that, so it was worth it.  It was fairly fun, though standing in 5 little aisles in HellMart for 4 hours is really, really tiring.  Alex was here with the girls and made dinner tonight; that was nice!  Only 8 more days until our school year begins.  Hopefully I'll tie up any loose ends this week so we can start the new year off right!

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Jul. 27, 2008

The Weekend

Soon enough this blog will go back to school stuff; we only have 15 days until the start of our new school year.  But until then, it's all about food and what's going on over here.  Okay, it may always be about food, and some school stuff thrown in. Daddy decided to challenge the girls to a game of Chutes and Ladders on Saturday.  He was beaten by Kali.  I promise she wasn't mad; she had a mouth full of Pirate Booty.  After Saturday's game time, they all climbed up on the couch to watch Star Wars (don't know which one).  Shortly after this picture was taken, Alex was snoring loudly.  Mary was at work and missed all the fun. Sunday morning - I told them all to smile and this is what I got.  Goofballs.  I forgot what they were watching. Today's menu was BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and Salad.  I thought I'd go all out and make the bbq sauce and the buns.  What the heck, right?  I stuck a bunch of chicken breasts in the crock pot.  I did 6, and I made wayyyyyyy too much.  Three would have been fine; 6 has given me enough for tomorrow.  Hmmm.....maybe it wasn't too much! Here are the buns on their final rise.  They're nearly as pale as me! This is the best picture of the bbq sauce I could get.  It was after I cooked it and cooled it off.  Sorry about the shadow.  Want a bun?  Want 8 buns?! Check out my cute hubby - singing and tearing up some lettuce.  I realized that I was going to need some more bbq sauce, so I whipped up a little extra.  Good choice.  I stuck it in a squeeze bottle and used it to squirt some extra sauce on top of the sandwiches.  Just a small public service advisory from me, when putting the shredded chicken swimming in bbq sauce on to a half of a bun, be careful not to pour scalding hot sauce directly upon your hand.  Yeah.  Ask me how I know this.  Last picture of the buns.  Sorry - I totally forgot to get a picture of the shredded up chicken.  I will say that those buns are the BEST hamburger/sandwich buns I have EVER tasted.  Seriously.  They were like little pillows of deliciousness.  Click here for the recipe:  Best Ever Hamburger/Sandwich Buns Recipe They were easy, well worth it, and there were no weird ingredients that will cause any of us to glow in the dark.  Tonight is the finale of the Next Food Network Star; you know I'll be watching it!  Hope you enjoyed a little bit of our weekend.  It was one of those weekends where I realized just how lucky I am to have these crazy people as my family.  Nothing special happened, nothing earth shattering, just nice, peaceful, full-of-laughter times.

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Jul. 21, 2008

What's for dinner?

Jul. 19, 2008

My baby and other Saturday ramblings

I've been having a really hard time lately realizing that all of my kids are growing up in warp speed.  Time is whizzing by and I'm wishing like hell to slow it down.  Of course, not only does time not slow down, but things happen to make you realize it's picking up speed again......... My baby lost her first tooth!  She was thrilled, we were thrilled, and silently I was a bit sad. Could she possibly be any happier?! Daddy helped her rinse her moth out.  Dear goodness, who put all that sutff on the bathroom counter!?!?  Just look past that, please.  ;) To celebrate such a momentous occasion, daddy and Kali made oatmeal raisin cookies.  Okay, things seem to be multiplying on all of my counters today!  What's up with that?! The cookies are very, very, very good.  Alex made a double batch of them since they seem to disappear in an instant around here. While daddy and Kali were working on cookies, I had to make something to put her tooth in!  I had made Hannah a pillow when she lost her first tooth, but I was out of pillow stuffing.  It's not something I keep around here all the time!  So I made a "pocket."  It's more like a pillow without stuffing.  She didn't want anything small, and it had to have a horse on it.  I figured this would work well, and knowing Kali, she'll have other stuff stuffed in there later on.  I finally got a few designs that I've had my eye on for quite a while.  Thank goodness for a $10 off coupon; my designs were only $0.97!  This one is Durga. Yes, school starts (for us) in 23 days.  I just finished boxing up Mary's portfolio for the year and shipping it out and now I have 23 days to start the next year!  I have all of their curriculum, so now I just need to go over everything and attempt to get it organized.  I can't believe I'll have one in kindergarten, one in 2nd grade, and a senior in high school.  Dear lord, send me a margarita.  Want a cookie!!!!

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Jul. 14, 2008

What day is it?

That's what Hannah asked me earlier today.  Of course, it was one of those moments where I said "hmmm....holy cow, I don't know if it's Monday or Tuesday!!!"  I love days like that, don't you?  Of course, we quickly figured out that it was Monday.  Here's a picture of what Alex and the little ones made me on Saturday..... Yummmmmmmmm.  Now, this is the 2nd one they made.  Unfortunately, the first one met an untimely demise when Alex somehow added 2x's the amount of water it called for.  This one was perfect. Today I ran across a recipe for rosemary bread.  It was supposed to be like the stuff you get at Olive Garden, I think.  Since I was making pasta, I thought I'd give it a whirl.  Let me tell you, this was, by far, the EASIEST bread recipe I have ever tried.  It's even easier than the whole-wheat bread I make all the time.  Baking in the oven.  The loaves were a little flatter and stickier than I thought they should be.  I was wrong.  Oh-so very wrong.  Fresh out of the oven.  Don't you wish you had a scratch-n-sniff monitor?! Mmmmm.......yummy. It was really good.  I mixed a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a few spices together so we could dip our bread in it.  I think it needed more spices, but it was still good.  There's one loaf left; I think it would make some awesome sandwiches.  I swear I'm going to get fat again if I keep eating this way!  Yesterday I did a little experiment in the kitchen and I made some fried chicken.  I'm not sure if I've ever made fried chicken before; if I have, it's been at least 10 years.  I was trying to see if I could do a decent enough job so that I could make it the next time we head out to Orlando.  This way we wouldn't have to buy it; it's my way of trying to save more money and not feeling guilty that we're out doing something.  I will say that it's messy, messy, messy and slightly time consuming.  However, if you're doing more than 10 pieces, it's not so bad and worth the time.  I measured the girls today - holy cow!  Hannah is 4'9 1/4"!!!  She's only 7!!  Kali's still little at 47 inches tall, though that's still taller than your average 5 year old.  To me she's tiny since Hannah is so much bigger.  Okay, Mary's bigger, too, but she's 17.   My teeny Kali; I wish that things weren't so hard for her at times and that she didn't have any "issues," but then I realized that she wouldn't be who she is and I wouldn't have her any other way.  Alright, I've rambled on enough tonight.  My lovely husband is watching some sci-fi stuff and I was attempting to avoid actually paying attention to it while I sit here.  I may have to steal the remote from him and change the channel.  Thank goodness Project Runway starts again on Wednesday!!

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Jul. 12, 2008

Happy Saturday!

It's time for peaches!  Well, more accurately, it's time for some peach jam.  I was down to one lonely jar of dutch apple pie jam and needed to replenish the vacant spot in the pantry.  Now, while I love the end result of making jam, it sure is a mess!  So I figured I'd do it on a day when I can get Alex to clean up my big mess.  I've succeeded.  Here's some of the mess I managed to make this morning.  Mmmm.......yummy.  This is my excuse for making toast.  Lots and lots of toast. Here's some more of my mess. All the little jars swimming in the processing pot.  Finished!!!  Cooling off on the counter. Labeled and resting.  They're now in the pantry enjoying some shelf time.  I did have a little left over that didn't make a full jar, so it's in the fridge waiting to be used in the morning. Mmmmm........yummy. So I sort of figured it out.........4 pounds of peaches at $2 a pound = $8.  1 box of pectin - hmmmmm - best guess is $2.  5 cups of sugar (or thereabouts) probably another $1.50.  Guesstimated total - $11.50 for 6 jars (and a 1/2 jar leftover in the fridge.) = $1.91 per jar.  Smuckers peach jam is $3 a jar by me.  So I've saved at least $1 a jar, I know what's in it, and it's really really really good (and chemical free!).  Plus I didn't have to clean up the mess.  I should make some more strawberry jam, too.  Maybe next weekend.  Maybe.  Not sure I can have Alex clean up that mess again.

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Jul. 9, 2008

Hannah's Evaluation

Today was Hannah's first yearly evaluation.  Gotta make sure I'm edumacating the poor girl, right?!  Seems as though she's doing very well with her readin', writin', and 'rithmatic.    Seriously though, I was very proud of her.  Her handwriting is beautiful, her work is great, and she's doing just what she's supposed to be doing - learning and being a kid.  She was very happy that she wasn't asked 10,000 questions and that she only had to read a paragraph out loud.  Now all I have to do is send in the form to the school district.  I'm still working on putting all of Mary's work together from the past year.  I've got piles of books to go through, paperwork to fill out, and then I've got to send it off.  Can a girl catch a break around here!?!?    I still need to get next year's stuff together!  I need a vacation. After her evaluation we stopped off for lunch at a deli that some friends of ours owns.  That was fun.  Then we stopped off at Target to get Hannah some shorts.  Seems as though my "little" girl is going through yet another growth spurt.  She's only 7, yet she looks like she's 12.  I'm in trouble.

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Jul. 7, 2008

4th of July

We had a fabulous 4th of July this year.  We decided to drive over to Downtown Disney to spend the day and watch the fireworks.  Mary and Jordan came with us, but went over to Typhoon Lagoon for the day.  We got there around 10:00 so they could have the day at the water park, which mean that we had over 12 hours to kill before the fireworks started.  Oh my.  Thankfully you can have tons of free fun at Disney that can suck up that much time.  So here is our relatively cheap day in pictures (hey, you knew I'd have lots of 'em!) Our first stop of the day - Downtown Disney It was super sunny and the girls couldn't find their sunglasses, so we bought them some new ones.  We walked over to Pleasure Island, where I think Hannah was contemplating throwing Kali in the water..... She was NOT happy about that. We ate lunch (brought sandwiches) and then hopped a bus over to the Contemporary Resort.    This was a monorail that was just leaving the building.  Hey, maybe Elvis was in it?! Who are these goofy people?! After buying me some much-needed batteries (so much for thinking they were actually charged!) we hopped a monorail over to the Polynesian.  Cute, aren't they?! Then we hopped on the monorail again and checked out the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.  Oh my.  Okay, can I tell you I nearly had a heart attack when I saw this - The CASTLE - while strolling along the Grand Floridian.  I couldn't believe how close I was.  Seriously. And then I looked over and saw Space Mountain!!  Be Still My Heart!  So we thought, heck, lets hop on the boat that takes you right to the Magic Kingdom. I swear I nearly cried - being so dang close and unable to get in.  AHhhhh......torture I tell you!  I guess this is my version of crack, right?!  ;) We hopped a bus and went over to Pop Century for some ice cream.  I was not stuffing my face with a bowl of cookie dough - I swear.  We stopped back at the van, popped in a movie, and had some dinner around 5:30.  We brought some fried chicken and I made some pasta salad.  Mmmmmmmm....yummy!  By the time we went back to Downtown Disney (about 7:30) the sun was starting to set over the lake.  Pretty, isn't it? At first we found a spot on the wall, but got super lucky and scored a table.  We were all very happy. Someone was wayyyyy too tired to stay up for fireworks.  Of course, that was probably a good thing since they freak her out.  Ahhhh.....sleeping Peetie bliss. Then we saw a great fireworks show around 10:30.  It was a really nice day.  It was so dang crowded, that it took us nearly 2 hours to leave the parking lot.  We just hung out in the van, turned on another movie, and snoozed until we could leave.  We didn't get home until nearly 3am, but it was sooooo worth it.

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Jun. 29, 2008

Well, that was interesting!

Alex had to go up to Atlanta for a day and he said he was going to take Hannah and Kali with him.  Wow, I thought, this will give me tons of time to do 'whatever.'  They were going to leave on Friday morning and come back Saturday night.  They were so excited to be going with daddy that they started packing up every toy they could find and most of their clothes.  Um, girls, it's only one night! Remind me to never again wish for so much time without them.  Seriously.  That was crazy!  Mary had to work on Friday night, so she didn't get home until 10:00, and then she worked on Saturday, so I didn't see her all day until she got home around 9:00!  Now, while I enjoyed some peace and quiet, there is only so much one can do for so long without going crazy.  Really.  I can only sing off-key for a little bit before that gets really boring.  ;)  And then I got to thinking.......what the heck do people do all day long?!  Not the people that go to work; I remember that all too well.  I'm talking about people that are home, with no kids or no kids during the day.  Really now, there was only so much cleaning, cooking, bad singing, and boring tv watching I could do.  Sure, I could sew, read, cook, clean, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah - but I can do all that with my kids here!  Okay, can't quite do that during the school year since I'm edumacatin' them.    But it's not like that's an all-day process.  I nearly lost my mind.  Okay, if I had cash, I would have gone shopping.  That could have filled up my day (y'all send me lots of cash and I'll find out and report back, okay?!).  I could have washed the car; oh wait - Mary had it and I was trapped here.  I could have.......hmmmmm......I don't know!  What I'm saying is, I went nuts without having my little arguing kids around here!  They keep me busy, and that's a good thing.  The next time I start complaining that I need a break, remind me of this!  However, they had a blast with daddy and were more than happy to not be here.  They stayed up late, ate some (okay, lots) of junk food, and enjoyed being with daddy.   I'm certain the next time he has to go up there, they'll be begging to go with him again.  If they do, I'll have to find something to eat up my time.  I'm just glad they're back - arguing and all.

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Jun. 26, 2008

Yin and Yang

Jun. 25, 2008

Wonder Woman goes on IR.

Jun. 21, 2008

Notebooks

I've been reading alot about notebooking lately, and it seems like something Hannah and Kali would enjoy.  Okay, I'd enjoy helping them with it, too.  Basically it's like scrapbooking your school stuff throughout the year.  Well, sort of.  Anyway, I though "gee, I'll make some notebooks for the girls."  It was easy, and we'll be able to add in pages as we need throughout the year.  At first I had the girl making their own covers, but I found some 2 pocket portfolios on clearance and thought I'd give those a try.  Turns out the girls liked those better, so I used them, and some file folders that I found, too.  This could become addicting. Here's what we've done so far: Here's a few of them.  I have a few more, but they didn't make it into the pictures.  If you can't read it, it says "Kali's Nature Journal." That's the inside.  Okay, so she can't read or really write yet, but we're going to work on that next year!  She's only 5 (only?!) so I figure she has time to learn.  That's one of Hannah's.  Thankfully she can read and write.  Though sometimes it makes reading my e-mail hard, since she likes to stand behind me and read it, too.  Booger. Cute, huh?  It's a file folder!  This one is my favorite.  It's also Hannah's Nature Journal.  And this is the inside of Hannah's science notebook.  We'll tweak them as we go along.  I have no idea if the pages I put in there will work well or not; we'll have to wait and see!  Hopefully they'll be just fine.  What?  No food pictures?  Okay........ Dried apples anyone?  I think I scarfed them down in about 2.5 seconds.  Dang they were good. That's the lastest update so far.  I think we have everything we need for next year already; now I just have to organize it all.  Hopefully Hannah will have her eval. done soon, so I can send in the paperwork to the county.  Have a great weekend!

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