Snowmachine Sleepover

Did you ever have one of those?

I am pretty sure Scott and I ROCKED the kool parents of the weekend!

The girls decided they wanted to have friends over this weekend. Cassi invited Ashley and Kailey and Cori had Emily and Alli over. Wren also came to spend the night, which was wonderful as it seems like its been a while since he's been around.

Everyone showed up Saturday afternoon, and they all immediately went out to snowmachine on the track that Scott completed this past Summer. There are whoop-ti-doos and bumps galore which they all seem to Luuuuv.



That night they played until they could play no more. I finally got them to lie down and watch a Christmas movie around 11:00. There were 4 girls strewn across the living room floor and one growing boy on the couch. Two girls were in the bunk beds upstairs. Cassi wanted to be near Mom too so I climbed in that top bunk like I was 10. My body felt like it was 80 come 9:00 am but well...Cassi was happy!

After a big breakfast of eggs, bacon and biscuits with honey they headed out again. Scott was super Dad and hung out with them. Everyone came in with frozen grins and numb fingers looking for hot chocolate. The laughter made the room quite cozy and I couldn't help but be grateful for the moment.





I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was filled with laughter and blessings as well.

UPDATES

Because of a few of you have been asking...
* I decided to not hang the antlers in front of the painting. I felt like it was stashing on thing in front of another for lack of anywhere else to put it. It didn't work for me.

There was about a 50/50 split on opinions as to whether or not it looked good there. I was shocked that people thought there was a 3-D effort going on. I don't think that was the original thought when it was placed there but many thought it was and agreed with the plan.

* As for a full shoulder mount in the kitchen looking over the dining table, again there was around a 50/50 split of opinions. There were many people who didn't understand my question clearly. The view of the red wall in the photo below is from my dining table. So, imagine if you can, looking up at a large elk head from your seat while eating that same elk in a burger! :)

This really doesn't bother me. I've skinned enough and truthfully used to think I'd make a darn fine taxidermist. My concern was and is having friends and family over to visit and having them see Bambi's Dad looking down on them.

We really haven't come to a decision at this time as the Elk is at the taxidermist and will be there for a while. At some point however we will have to come to an agreement. I come from the side of the fence that says we have 4 shoulder mounts- which means the head is included, 3 European mounts- which means the skull is there but no eyes or fur, and about 6- several small antlers only. Oh, and also, two bear rugs and a couple fox and wolf furs. I would like to turn the master bedroom into the cabin-look. I could move some mounts around; put the best of them downstairs and some of the others upstairs.




This poses a bit of a problem for Scott as he says if they are hidden in the bedroom, he essentially loses his braggin' rights. Unless we plan to invite folks to our bedroom each time someone new visits.

So, for now, things are the way they were, except there is one lonely European mount in the crawl space, waiting to be moved upstairs.

~Happy Thanksgiving To Everyone~

I am and will always be thankful for my family; each and everyone of you. Even if you aren't actually related, in my heart you mean just as much to me.

And to those of you whom I've only just begun to get to know via the internet; you give me so many reasons to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Does Anyone Know What This Is?

Can anyone tell me if they know what this may have been for. When I got it I thought it was a little stool but after realizing it opens and has this little bar in there I am sure it was made for something specific. Anyone know?

Operation Nice

Ok, Go check this site out. It is called Operation Nice. And I love it. It is pretty simple; stories about people doing nice things. How great is that? Go check it out. Read a few stories and you are sure to feel better for it.

I Need Your Help

Please help me by responding to me via email or leaving a comment here. Most of you who know me or who have been to my home know we don't do a lot of decorating here. We are not professionals or even talented. If you were to describe the decor of our home it would be considered a cabin type look. There are a lot of animal mounts, rugs and skulls.

Here is my question to you; How does this look? The painting is by Vicki. I simply want to know if you like the elk antlers in front of the painting or not.

Next, would you hang a full mount (head and antlers) not bare skull and antlers on a red wall, in the kitchen, over looking your dining table?

Please take a minute to answer these questions. I need some decorative help here. Thanks.

~READ THIS~

The post below was posted at SNAPSHOTS today. I love to read Shawn's blog and this cute post made me smile.

VOTE and DRINK!

I think the fine print says "Free coffee only available if you vote Republican." Yep, that's what it says.

To all my Dem friends, I still love you. I think you're kind of crazy, but I love you.

For those of you who know me, you know I think a lot like this gal. :)
Thanks Shawn, for letting me borrow your post!

What is a 'multiple' you ask....

...listen for it. (And watch the little one starting in the left hand corner-around the 30 second mark-followed by the "pray, I hope she gets it, oh my, YEAHHHH!")

That my friends, is one back-handspringing and handspringing AGAIN little 9 year old! Who hoo!
And here she is again. SO PROUD OF THAT GIRL!

*Future Blogger*

*Those beautiful roses were from her favorite(4 year old) guy-Joey! For her birthday. I'm jealous!

Hay Maze

We went to the Hay Maze after Cali's McD's dinner. We have been going to this since my oldest two girls were in preschool. I can't believe it's been that long but it has. It is always a ton of fun.

Now that Cori and Cassi are older they slip on their headlamps and head for the tunnel.

Every year I wait for Grandpa or Scott to go through a time or two and then someone leads me down the path. Since Scott was gone this year, Grandpa had the great pleasure.

Before taking me he took Rocky through.

This was his first time. I think he is glad he did it but was not keen on doing it twice. In his defense, he is a big guy.
At some places in the tunnel, where I kind of turn around to go feet first, his only option was to go head first.

I am sure this changes the experience a bit.

I didn't think to take a pocket camera and couldn't really carry mine through the tunnel so I didn't get any pictures deep inside the twists and turns. It takes a good 5 minutes or so to get through if you know where you are going and you are 40 or over. :) I can't imagine going through with out a light(which many others do) or leading the way the first time. No way, not me. That being said, I always feel like I've kind of accomplished something when the night is done and I've made it through at least once. So, another year down. Who Hoo!

Here is Amber coming out.

Cassi and Grandpa at the fireman's pole.

Cori getting ready to go down the pole.

Cori and friends after going through, re-fueling for the next trip.


Don't you want to come out and play?

Who needs fine food when there's McD's

Cali's McD's party was great. She was happy which means everyone is happy.
I ordered her a little cake from the grocery. She heard me talking to them and changed the order. She was clear that she wanted a flat cake with Dora, Boots AND Swiper. She has been meandering through the bakery a lot lately; now I know why.
I also told them to make it primarily red and yellow. It turned out super cute.

Rocky and Wren came by as did Grandpa, GiGi, A.J. and Amber. Cori brought Grace.

Cali was given lots of great presents; girly makeup, a great purse with lots of pockets, a cool Dora lunchbox to take goodies in when we go on trips, some candy from Scotland and a MAILBOX. She fell in love with the mailbox and has been playing with it ever since. I am a little disappointed in it as the backside of the key broke and so did the back door. I am thinking about taking it back to the home school store and seeing what they say. Otherwise I guess Super Daddy is going to have to work some magic with the wood glue.

All the girls played in the kid zone.



After that we left for the Hay Maze; way much fun and a little scary too.

Kaleidoscope Love Stems

We held a Family Fun Night at our school last week. I thought it was important for the kids to do something that benefited others only, rather than focusing on projects and events there were entirely for themselves.



We made LOVE-STEMS. It was the perfect community project to get kids involved in. I learned about them this past summer. My own children worked with me to make a batch of our own for a friend. It was good for them and I expected it to be the same for our students.




We had about 50 or so people show up. I was limited to an hour so I pre-painted many toilet paper rolls to get the evening started. I also had an after school get together with a few parents to pre-fill the pots with plaster-a-paris and set our skewers. Our older students will be visiting a nursing home in November so we decided we would make sure we had enough to give each resident a flower pot. Any over and above that we will give to the senior center or another nursing home facility here in town.



I think we completed nearly enough that night for the planned trip in November. They currently line the tops of the shelves in our library. I have this many more to make plaster-a-paris pots for. Anyone want to come help?


If you are in need of a community service project or just interested in doing something nice for someone else with you own children or a community group of your own, consider trying this. Not only are they bright and cheerful which a lot of people could use these days, they contribute to recycling which is never a bad thing.

Here are the steps we use.

*paint your toilet paper roll one color inside then one color outside (prior to cutting). Let them complety dry.

*Poke one hole at the bottom of your roll and slide your skewer through to the top. Don't push your skewer through the top too far as the rolls will then slide down you skewer. In other words the bottom hole will be larger like the diameter of the skewer but the top hol will only allow the pointed end of the skewer through. I use a knife tip to start my bottom hole then slide the skewer through.

*Once you have a hole at both ends of the toilet paper roll, decide if your flower will have stems on each side or one. I personally think they look best with both sides cut. Cut your petals. I have learned if you make the petals very thin, they look darling although they offer less oppurtunity for design on the petals.

* Fill each cup with plaster-a-paris about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way.

* I pre-paint my skewers and put them in the cups prior to having the flowers made.
*Paint your designs on the petals, inside and out. I think they look better with dots, stripes and/or blocks of colors. Let these dry well.

*Slide your rolls on the skewers. Put some grass in the pot. Cut and tie on a tag. I think they look far better with a tag. I've done it both ways. Plus it's nice to have a note where as to where they came from. Our tags say Love-Stems on one side and Created with Love by a Kaleidoscope student on the other.

*Lastly, if you decide to do this, I think you should contact them and let them know what your doing. I think it is a fabulous idea and I know they'd like to see their idea growing!

The BIRTHDAY FAIRY Flies Again

And away she goes. It was a long night. The girls were up late. We had no school yesterday so they were a bit lazy and thereby not feeling all that tired all that early. :(

Finally I got them all to lie down and eventually the sand man made his rounds to bring sleep to these Birthday Fairy expecting children.

This morning my ears tingled hearing the floor creak as Cassi and Cori crept down the stairs to take a gander at the fanciful things that winged imp left behind while the stars were doing their twinkle dance.


After a few minutes they tiptoed their way back to bed, trying so very hard to wake, I mean not to wake the birthday girl.

We walked downstairs while talking to Daddy in hopes the he could sense her delight in the gifts of the day. I am not sure he felt her smiles but I SO wished it for him.

She loved the blow-up cake which miraculously made its way out of the depths of storage just for her special day.

She received lots of wonderful and OSM gifts.

I am not certain which she loved most. Cori and Cassi immediately got her going on playing store with her cash drawer.

They set up a sushi bar with her wooden sushi set.

Shortly after that, she had a quick tea party with her tiny tea set. The bummer is, there are only two tea cups.

After she started waking up a bit, she decided some of the balloons left by that fairy were almost as fun as they presents she got. They make for a great game of catch.

It's going to be happy day!
And we are wishing the same for all of you. I wish you could be with us for dinner tonight as we celebrate at McD's since we couldn't think of a restaurant that sold hot dogs which was her only other acceptable choice.
(Daddy, this SMILE is just for you. We MISS you terribly and LOVE YOU EVEN MORE!)