Basket Auction

I am not a big spender but when it comes to basket auctions and fundraisers, I can get a little out of control. It is for a good cause and I can get a lot of gifts in 1 quick raise of the paddle. I hate to shop so I feel like I hit the jackpot with these 2 baskets I bought from Millie's school spring carnival last week. I actually had to leave before it was even half over because I had 2 baskets and there were lots more to go I would have liked to have. I had to remove myself from the temptation!

Millie's Art Work

I love this little book Millie brought home from school today. Parents be warned, when your little critter goes to school, it's projects like this that will open your eyes to how your kids see you. I was presently relieved...this time!

This is me. I am reading a book, that's a pretty good call on her part.

What cracked me up is she put a title on it and I did read a book called Ghost Story a few weeks ago. She notices EVERYTHING!

I loved Rick's page. Wipeout! He is holding a pillow, the main requirement for our evening Wipeout games.

Reed does like to play trains. Trains, cars and baseball; he is all boy.

Millie claims Perrie as her cat. Perrie used to be my cat but in our move to TN, she ended up at my mom and dad's house and now Dad won't let me have her back. I explained this to Millie so she tells everyone she has a cat, but it lives in Indiana.

All 4 of her Grandparents. The one saying "I will tickle you" would be Grandpa Alan.

And I asked her what she was holding...it looked like a witch finger to me but she said she is holding her Leapster Game.

I Smell Sumpin'

Reed has a radar nose. He is always sniffing around telling us he smells sumpin'. Whether it's good or bad, he has to let us know. Well tonight, being the fantastic and wonderful wife that I am, I was making Rick a fudge cake (from scratch). He gave up sweets for Lent but on Sundays we are given the option to break our fast and he really wanted something sweet so I was making it while he was getting the kids ready for bed. It came out of the oven right about the time they were ready for bed and I hear Reed upstairs say "I smell sumpin'."

I came up and took him in his room to read a book and he then tells me, "I smell sumpin'. I smell sumpin' good. It smell like brownies." I pretended to ignore him and act like he was crazy but that boy can sniff out food like it's his job. I am sure he will call me on it in the morning when he sees it in the kitchen. He is big on "I told you so!" so I am sure I will get one of those tomorrow when he figures it all out.

Weekly Photo Challenge - Week 10 - Windows

Windows was the photography theme for this week. I wasn't really sure where to go for this one. I didn't think just taking a picture of the living room window would cut it. During our trip to the zoo, I was on the lookout for possible window photos.

Critters in a animal cage...possibility.

Haha, my little monkeys looking through windows. I never could get them to both look at me.

Critters next to the chimp window. Baby George was having a blast playing with all the balls and trying to hold all 4 of them at once. And he sure has grown since we saw him last. He is getting to be a big boy. If I remember right, George and Reed are pretty close to the same age.

As cute as my monkeys and Baby George are, I will probably go with this one. I had about given up on the window shot for the day when the kids were playing at the play area at the zoo. I noticed this window in the upstairs of the play cabin and figured I couldn't do much better than this.

Reed's Words

These are some phrases that Reed says all the time. He speaks in complete sentences, can carry on a lengthy conversation but he sometimes uses words the wrong way and that's what makes him so darn cute. Well, that and how adorably snuggly he is, but it is just one of many things I guess.

"Take these shoes off...I can't top stamping!" This means...'Take these shoes off, I can't stop tapping.' This is in reference to a Mickey Mouse episode where Mickey has a pair of tap shoes on and he can't stop tapping because of magic tap shoes.

"Let's go play in the pig muddles!" Translation...'Let's go play in the [big] water puddles." So cute!

"I just can't guess." Translation...'I don't know' or 'I don't remember' or 'I have no idea what you are talking about.'

"I can't mean it!" Translation...(I think) 'I can't help it' or 'I don't mean to'. I'm not really sure but it always follows me saying "Reed, get your fingers our of your mouth." It is accompanied by him making a fist and just slightly touching me. I guess this is his way of hitting me but I have decided to let it go because he really is not hitting me. I was back and forth but when picking my battles, I decided this small defiance was not worth making it an issue and I am sure it will go away shortly by simply ignoring it.

This isn't really that funny but I am amazed by how much he learns from just watching and listening to Millie. On the way back from the bus stop this morning, he spotted the moon and said "I see the moon, it's a half." When I saw it I was surprised to see he was right, it was a half moon. How did he know that?

Also, my mom had a video at her house about a year ago from the library on the states and capitals. It had songs to remember them all and although we didn't learn them all, Millie and I did learn the song for the Southern Border States. Millie sings it sometimes while she plays or works and the other day, Reed busted out singing it. I was very impressed and it was pretty funny because he couldn't say most of the states right but he was pretty close.

It's good to be reminded that if they are picking up all these things so easily, it means they are really watching everything we do and we need to remember to always be a good example!

Zoo Trip

I love taking the kids to the zoo, especially in the spring because they have beautiful flowers. But somehow, we were too late this spring and nearly all the spring flowers were finished blooming. It was a beautiful day anyway and the kids enjoyed spending some zoo time with Grandma Lucy.

Reed's Smiley Eyes

I love Reed's smile, it's full face. But I have discovered that he can't keep his eyes open when he smiles and I think it's because his cheeks are so chubby that there is no room left for his eyes to be open when he gives me a big smile.

So today at the zoo, Rick's mom was trying to get him to open his eyes and this is the look that would always follow when she said "Reed, open your eyes." Apparently it throws Millie off too so I have decided that we are just going to have to live without seeing Reed's eyes when he smiles. He can't help it, he's just too chubby!

Baseball

Reed is still obsessed with baseball and the movie The Sandlot. He wears his blue baseball hat every where and he says he's Bennie (from the movie) when he has it on. This weekend we had beautiful weather and while Grandma Lucy was here, we had a little baseball game. Reed can hit the ball great but we just started teaching him about running the bases. That needs a little work, he was everywhere! So funny!

Weekly Photo Challenge - Week 9 - Bottles

For those of you paying really close attention, I missed Week 8 because of...well, just because. It was eggs. Oh well.

Week 9 was Bottles so I decided jars were close enough since I made 12 Jazzy Jars for Millie's school carnival that's next weekend. Jazzy Jars are, in case you don't know, any kind of clear container filled with colorful junk, candy or anything you can find around the house. Well, when I discovered the $1 aisle at Walmart, I decided to just buy the fillers without scrounging through my kids' old toys.

I actually had a lot of fun making them and only ended up spending about $24 and that included buying the jars. Not too bad considering I had a $25 gift card for Walmart which is the only reason I went there in the first place.

Since I have never actually seen a Jazzy Jar I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do with them. So I "Jazzed" them up by adding decorative sparkle paper to the lids, adding ribbon and tags that said what was inside.

I tried to have something fun for the boys too and I thought the Flarp Noise Foam and Whoopi Cushions would be a big hit along with finger bowling and stretchy snakes.

Hopefully when I get to the carnival and see all the other Jazzy Jars, I won't realize that I totally missed the entire concept of what a Jazzy Jar is SUPPOSED to look like.

AAA Club

Millie has been doing very well since she started taking piano lessons in January. She knows all the notes on the piano and can sit down and play a song by reading sheet music. I am very proud of her and she really enjoys it. A few weeks ago, she earned a spot in her teacher's AAA club by being able to play a piece of music without looking at the music. AAA stand for Anytime, Anywhere for Anybody. That way, if she finds herself somewhere with a piano, she will be able to play with out needing her music. She knows about 5 songs by heart including Old McDonald, Ode To Joy, Oh How I Love Jesus and Rocky Top.

Her spring piano recital is April 15th and she is planning to play Oh, How I Love Jesus.

Here is a link to her teacher's blog where she is listed in the AAA Club.

Weekly Photo Challenge - Week 7 - Rocks

This week's theme was Rocks but since we had floods nearly every day, there wasn't a lot of opportunity to get out and find a nice scene. So at the 11th hour of the week, Reed and Millie were rocking out to Trans Siberian Orchestra on PBS so I figured that was my "Rock" photo for the week.

Photos at night with wild moving kids isn't the best shooting conditions so I had to use the flash. Not my best stuff but I didn't want to miss a week so I had to go with it.

Reed's Words

"I being good, I go to Kindergarten, I am George. I 5 years old. I need 2 pencils...and my backpack on...oh, and my food. Oh, I need my baseball hat, okay READY! I being good, I ride the school bus. I mean it! Bye mom, see you next time."

Not Ever Again

I just yelled at Reed for putting a toy in his mouth. He walked away from me and when he was down the hall, he turned around and said "I not snuggle you ever again. Not Ever Again." And then he went to his room.

He has been threatening this for a while now, every time he thinks he's in trouble, he threatens to never snuggle me ever again. He knows how to pack a punch, that's for sure - stinker.

Just in case any of you are worried, he's already back and snuggling me. It never lasts long, he has no will power.

I think he just remembered he was mad at me and he told me "I not talking to you. I just talking to my own self." He's cute.

Millie The Artist

Millie has been reading for almost 2 years now but her spelling has been quite interesting. I am not one to talk but I am happy to see her spelling has been improving quickly over the past few months. She is also sticking to the goal that she wants to be an artist when she grows up.

I found this little story when I was going through her backpack today. I think she wants to make sure I never leave her but I could be wrong. I guess she ran out of time there at the end.

This was a picture she drew this weekend at home. She said the stars were there because the man playing the music was making star lights and the people on the left side were dancing but he could not pick the other person up because he was too heavy. I love the looks on their faces! And the one who looks like he has evil eyebrows (that's what I thought anyway) is wearing glasses. My bad.