A Daily Dose...of Cali

Not really awe-inspiring or very cool, but maybe a little whimsical.

Cali decided she might stowaway on Daddy's snowmachine trip today. Do you think he noticed?

We're Having a Ball

I completely 'scooped' this idea from This Girl Loves to Talk. She does a LOT of fun stuff with her girls and after she does, I do them with mine! :)

Last week's unplugged idea was ball for which she made these. I in turn showed them to Cori and told her what I was thinking. Here is what we ended up with. I had a very hard time taking a good picture and not including the mess of her room.

I had them all hung up when she got home from school yesterday. Now Cali wants red and yellow ones for her play cubby under the stairs. I think these would look great in the kitchen in red, pink, and white for Valentine's day.

Do you Know...

I am looking for anyone who has had some experience with cancer, specifically radiation treatment.

I have a wonderful friend who had small cell lung cancer. Early on she had very low sodium which led the doctors to the cancer. She has been through chemo. Recently they found that the cancer had spread to her brain and she went through 10 rounds of radiation.

The newest struggle is her weakness and lack of balance. Much like the symptoms of low sodium which is resurfacing a little.

What we can't seem to determine is why she is so weak; is it possible it is from the radiation 3 weeks ago?

If any one has any experience or advice, I would gratefully listen. Email me at cheer4soccer (at) gci.net
Thanks.

This looks COLD

Scott got to go ice fishing today with Cassi. She didn't catch anything but came really close. I think we may have to try it again sometime. But we will take firewood and hot chocolate. She went with her class and they didn't get the fixin's that Mom would bring. :(

Doesn't it look kinda crazy? And doesn't she look cold!

Doing Without

I really do have two other children. I didn't hide them in a closet. And I love them dearly. They are gone a lot these days, busier than ever. I will get pictures of them up here soon!

In the meantime-Here is a funny Cali moment.

The poor girl has no good toys, she has even had to make her own rocking horse. If you find one, garage sale, thrift store where ever...

...because all she's got is this laundry basket...and this elephant...and this ear muff.





NOT!! The kid has every toy ever made and this is what she decided to play with today.
When I asked her about it, she said it was her rocking horse, because she doesn't have one. (And a true lady will always offer a ride to her best elephant.)

We Did it! Unplugged-Color

We haven't been doing the unplugged projects for a while. :( Well actually we have done a lot of things that would probably have fit with in the scope of the theme but the holidays kicked my bum and I didn't do much posting throughout November and December.

I was looking at the newest theme or idea which was color and was desperate for an idea. Cali is still a little under the weather but needed something to do.

I had some old magazines lying around so I decided to let her make a color collage book. I took a pretty blue file folder and cut the tab off of it. I found construction paper in the colors of the rainbow and trimmed them down to fit.
We punched holes in both and tied them with a bright orange ribbon.

While we were getting our supplies together and assembled we talked about the colors in the rainbow, in preschool terms. Then I handed her a pair of scissors, a glue stick and some magazines. She cut out pictures from the magazines that had the colors of her book pages.

In case I haven't mentioned it, she's been sick so this project was touch and go. She really wanted a lot of help which really meant "Can't I just sit on your lap and do this project". I really thought it would turn into a "5 minutes for mom" thing but not today.

She did enjoy it and I suppose I am glad that just sitting on my lap can still make everything all better! She didn't fill her pages but told me she would be adding more to it later. I figure until those pages are full, I can always yank it out for a quick activity to pass the time. As long as she is feeling good!

*Go Wild*

The other day Cassi had a little half-time performance at a local HS basketball game. She decided Cali could wear her mini's uniform for the occasion. Cassi started when she was 7. Can you believe Cali is wearing the stinkin' thing? It's Going TOO FAST! For the record, we did have to pin it in the back...but still!

"C" is for Caterpillar (and Cali)

Cali is stuck in the house today. She isn't feeling well and I am afraid she is coming down with fifth disease. :( It seems everyone has it around here at the moment. I guess its just our turn.

When I glanced over at No Time For Flashcards earlier today I saw this post. I asked Cali about it and whether or not she wanted to do it. She did! So here you go.

I had her color it first, just to drag it out a little. Plus I wasn't sure she would really cover it with the pom poms. She colored the whole thing. The she covered nearly the whole thing with pom poms. I guess she really needed something to do today!


When she finished she wanted to write the word 'caterpillar' on her paper. She couldn't quite fit it all in so she curved around the paper a bit. Whatever works. Writing makes her very happy these days which in turn makes everyone happy.

Here she wanted to take her own photo of her finished work.

And of course, one of them together is a must.
l
Hope every one of you are feeling well.

Think Good Thoughts for ME

I know it is selfish...forgive me.

If you know me well, you know I have a stroller obsession. I Never Grew Up is having a giveaway and I need to win! Check out this post. It is ORANGE! (Really the color is called spice- but it is the closest I will ever get to an orange stroller) Now you get it right??? Favorite. colored. stroller. DROOL!!!!

Think good thoughts, please.

When the Sisters are Away...

Mommy and Cali play.

My turn is coming for our preschool group. I've been thinking about having a snowman party for our day. I needed to try out a few things and figured Cali could help me get started.

We made snowman dough tonight. We often make playdough and it's always a hit. We usually make it with Kool-Aid as it smells so good and is great for color. This time we left it out. I was wondering if I could find some sort of essential oil that had a woodsy scent. I thought it might remind me of the outdoors, where snowman should be built.

I let Cali do most everything other than cook it. Our dough is a little oily as it was tricky for her to pour the oil into the tablespoon. And it is very glittery; she just kept adding and adding!


After we made the dough, we needed to test it so we set forth making snowmen. I probably shouldn't have let her do this part as it was something I intended to do with our group. I am hoping over the next few days she will come up with more ideas of things we can use for embellishments. We used pipe cleaners, some craft foam scraps, and buttons.

Cali's snowman has a lot of stuff going on but what I love the most is the jump rope.

My snowman is rather boring next to her creativity but it was fun to make just the same.
Cali took this lovely photo. (It was a looong day- hence the reason I look sooo tired)


After we made our snowmen I told Cali to build whatever she wanted. She made this.

I'll give you 3 guesses.
1. It's not a spider.
2. It's not a sun
3. It's not a ...(fill in anything you can possibly think of here)

It is a...







Trampoline for the snowmen!
I thought it was so great I told her I wanted another picture. While I was trying to take this picture, Cali said (and I quote) "Mom, kids make art, and I am a kid who makes great art!"

And I agree!

I am thinking "Mother's Day" gifts made by the kids

Isn't this the cutest.
I saw this post at Zakka Life a while back. (I thought I'd been led there via How About Orange and this post but I don't see a link there now so God only knows how I got there.) Anyhow, when I did, I immediately thought they would make nice Valentine decorations or even a cute gift Mother's Day if I could incorporate some color. I was thinking along the lines of doing them with Cori's and Cassi's classes.

I finally made one yesterday. I didn't have the paper cutter out so my cuts aren't perfect. :( Such is life. After I was finished, I still kept thinking it needed a little color. So I grabbed a tiny spray paint can and gave it a quick dust of yellow. The I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw some of these flowers in a vase on the counter, popped one off and viola!, now I LOVE it.

I won't bother with re-writing how to go about it since I've linked you above, but they are super easy. And I still think they will be perfect for reusing an old magazine around the house and make a cute decoration/gift for Mom in her favorite color, whether it be for Valentine's day or Mother's day.

We are off to make several in pink, purple and teal for Princess Cassi's room.

Have a fun day!

This is so AWESOME

OK, so maybe I am her MOM, but still I think it's cool! Cali made her name with pipe cleaners today. She and her sisters were making all sorts of things last night with these; like flowers and butterflies. She would not let me put them away this morning. Now I know why; she had a plan. Here it is.

PS. She had peanut butter and jelly for lunch. :)

Another Daily Dose.

This is the most wonderful story. Enjoy.

A Daily Dose

Here is your first dose today (maybe) of something awe-inspiring, whimsical and just plain old cool.
Go here to read about it. I read it about it first, here.

Cheers!

Here is it...

THE FIRST PICTURE OF THE NEW YEAR!

OK, not really. I took a lot of photos as the clock struck 12 however since this is tradition and it's what I choose to call it, so we shall.

And in case you aren't aware, this Holmes family has a tradition that started Cori's first New Year's Eve. Actually, just before we went to bed that New Year 11 years ago, we held out a camera at arm's length and took a photo of the three of us.

Every year thereafter we did the same thing. Just before going to sleep we held out the camera and took a photo. When Cassi came along we piled in a little closer and by the time Cali came we had added a few family members that are always with us that night and have even had some visiting family every now and then.

As our numbers grew it became harder to hold the camera at arms length and get a photo that included every one. And although we always try to take it that way we have often had to have a friend take the photo before they leave the house.

Since Amber was with us this year, as was Wren, and we are all getting a little bigger, it was almost impossible to get a good photo that we all fit in. To be sure we had some thing to keep forever and always Veon stayed long enough to take a few photos for us.

Here is wishing you the best for 2009. My wish is that we all be happy, healthy and grateful.

Happy New Year

Can you believe it is 2009?

2008 was quite a memorable year: My children each one year older, Scott and I married 1 year longer, and we've had visits from Great Aunts, Grandma's and Nana's and even Great-Grandma's.

All 5 of us are looking forward to all the New Year brings. Ahead of us, we have performances in "Oliver", dance recitals, cheer competitions, and lots of soccer.

As the weather begins to warm (and trust me even 0 will be warm compared to the 20-30 degrees below that we've seen lately) we will spend more time at the beach collecting rocks, playing in the sand and making fires to cook out by, getting ourselves in-gear running and practicing some footwork with a soccer ball and just being busy! It's what we do and we love it.

The Eve of the New Year was filled with silliness and belly laughs, and all around good fun. Here are a few highlights, moments that make my heart swell and things that make me smile. (And you too, I hope)


FAMILY WHO'S FUN



GOOD FRIENDS


AND MORE GOOD FRIENDS



AND EVEN MORE GOOD FRIENDS


FOOD A'PLENTY


GIFTS FROM FRIENDS



GOOD HANDS




YOUTH & ENERGY



BANANA SPLITS TO REMEMBER THOSE WHO LEFT US TOO SOON



WINTER FRECKLES




SILLY STRING



SILLY STRING ON GOOD FRIENDS


NEW YEAR'S LOVE FOR MOM & DAD




BOOBY-TRAPS



SLUMBER OF WISHFUL DREAMS FOR THE COMING YEAR