Find Beauty Where Ever You Go

It's a good message that I often forget. You too?

Well, here is what I found the other day hanging in my front door. My very own Charlotte.

She was still there yesterday near the bottom of the door. I know most people don't, but I like spiders. Do You?

11 Extremely fast years go by...

...And my oldest child is now on the road to 12. I can't talk about this too much because I get rather melancholy about the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I am happy my girl is growing up and that we've had such a wonderful experience getting here. It's simply, thinking about it makes me realize how fast she will be leaving me.

I talked to Scott about it the other day and all he can say is "See, now you know why I don't want her to leave the state to go to college!" I want her to do all that she wants to do but my heart yearns just a bit, for her to stay small a little longer. And...That's all I got to say 'bout that.

On that note (that she is growing up so fast and all), the birthday fairy came to visit again. But before that, I saw this banner here and decided I really wanted to make one for Cori. I spotted some sticky backed letters in Anchorage last weekend and thought they would work out perfect. Cori is really into lime neon green and orange right now so I figured that was the direction I'd go.

Here it is.

I recycled newspaper to make it. And for some reason we all think using the blue with lime green polka dot ribbon helps make it pop. I actually made it the day before her birthday and hung it up that afternoon before she came home from school. She and Cassi both thought it was awesome. I see another tradition coming on. I hung her name over her door.

Cali, seeing me work on this banner, got a little excited about Cori's upcoming celebration and went on a hunt amongst her things to find something she was sure Cori just couldn't live with out. She came up with a lovely little PINK and fluffy box she used to store some tiny tea cups in. And even though Cori DOESN'T do pink or fluffy, she LOVED it.


In fact she giggled the whole time, reading the card and opening the gift. I think it was her first foray into loving another person so much you just want them to feel all the happiness they are searching for inside. Cali was thrilled(just look at that face) that Cori loved her gifts and it was really special for this 'ole mom to watch.

Cori opened Cali's gift and Cassi's too, the night before her birthday. (Cassi got her a memory card for her phone because a girl has to have room for LOTS of songs you know.)


Since Cori has to be to school so early for band, it makes the whole waking up to the birthday fairy thing a little challenging.
What ever, Cori was ready and woke us up early because the fairy had come and she wanted to open presents!!!


Daddy and I ended up getting her the camera she really wanted.

She wants to do more blogging but insisted she needed her own camera to make it easier. I am hoping it turns into another form of art expression for her. She seems rather creative so far and I am hoping to keep her interests in art alive by adding new things all the time.

She got lots of other do-dads too, all of which I think she liked. I bought her a book we'd seen not so long ago. It's called My Feet Aren't Ugly-A Girl's Guide to Loving Yourself from the Inside Out. I think she has so much more confidence than I remember having at her age but just in case, I hope to surround her with positive thoughts. I pray for the best for her; for all of my girls.

I overheard to ladies talking in the grocery store the other day and decided to look into the restaurant they were talking about. Saint Elias Brewery. Strange choice for an 11 year old's birthday, I know, but it is new and that doesn't happen too often around here. It turned out it was a great choice. They cook the pizza in a brick fire oven.

Cali and GiGi were talking with the girl flippin' the pizza and learning all about how to make a pizza.


We took Cori's best friend Alli with us and they and Cassi sat at a table by themselves. See growin' up too fast!


Grandpa came and told Cassi what he got Cori for her birthday so Cori had to get opening.


Have you ever smelled a vanilla scented pillow. Nice really.

We had ice cream cake (don't worry-Cake decorating Daddy will be doing his thing on Saturday when we go play laser tag with her school friends). Cori took a while blowing out her candles one by one. I am thinking she was trying not to spit on it.

We headed home after dinner, it was school night. And now we are looking forward to playing laser tag with friends on Saturday. I am glad she still agrees to invite boys and girls. She has several close friends of both.

Wish you all could be here.
Here is the invite her Dad(I helped just a little) just made for her to pass out tomorrow. What do you think;
will she love it or hate it?

I'll keep you posted. :)

In case anybody is wondering...

This is what I want for Christmas (and birthday, anniversary and any other day I can include to help get the point across).

I read this blog fairly regularly; I go there to look for family fun ideas and activities.

They are giving one away. If I post about it I get extra entries into the contest. And even if I didn't, it's still nice to show you different kinds of things (besides the beach) that make me smile.

The thing is a tote lovers dream, in one tidy little box. If you know me well, you know I should have taken stock in Rubbermaid a long time ago. If you don't know me well, suffice it to say, I own a lot of Rubbermaid.

What do you think? Would it help tidy my crafts or give me reason for more. :)

Check out this craftiness (unplugged-soft)

OK, so I am totally cheating, well maybe. We did at least do a project but it wasn't really original or anything. That's OK, right? :-) I have been perusing blogs of late and going through old posts in search of new ideas for gifts the kids might make for Christmas for their friends.

In my search I ended up at this blog which I adore and loved the cute idea for the easily made pillow. I told my girls all about it and the next day we were off looking for a placemat. That is what it started out as, a $3.99 placemat! Don't you love it!

Again this week, I didn't get pictures of us in the process (stuffing away) but mostly because we were laying in bed around 11:00 at night and I didn't feel like heading downstairs to find my camera. I didn't know about this tip previously but we followed the advice in the post and stuffed it with small bits instead of large clumps. What a difference it made. Our first attempt came out so darn cute that we are saving it to give to one of the girls' teachers for Christmas. Our plan is to add some holiday tea and a book to go with it.

We don't have a lot of choices for places to locate placemats but but we are headed to the big city soon and we will spend some time looking there. If we can find some tweeny looking ones we will give these to friends too.

I also read about this cute little pom-pom letter book over at Teaching Tiny Tots at Mommy School.

It was actually the Pom-Pom Number Cards link that I followed but it basically lead me to this wonderful site. Cali has enjoyed her new book with the brightly colored soft pom-poms so much. I laminated each page, put a Velcro dot on each spot and the corresponding Velcro half on many pom poms. The only things she has asked of me is to STOP taking her picture and make her more pom-poms. She likes the letters to have all the same color pom-poms.

I am struggling, thinking about next week's sand theme; can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with.

Catching up- The Alaska State Fair

I haven't been able to catch my breath really since school started. I am trying hard but life is just a little busier than I'm used to at the moment. Summer was pretty busy but more by choice than necessity. School time is a little harder for me to accept.

When we were in Anchorage last weekend we made a quick jaunt to the Alaska State Fair. We only make it there every couple years. I think that is enough to tide us over. We went with Alli and her family. Wren went with us too.

After the soccer tournament we stopped by Wren's house so the girls could change out of their soccer clothes and Scott could put on a shirt that would assure we could find him anywhere in the place. There was a glow all around him. It was a warm afternoon/evening with bright sun so he made sure to bring along his hillbilly hat which made finding him all the easier. We just had to listen for the laughter.

We went straight to the farm animals which was a BIG hit with Cali. The big girls thought it was a little stinky. Cali checked out the little chicks. She told me all about them in a very high-pitched voice. It made the story so much clearer.

We found a little bitty goat that made her giggle out loud-repeatedly. I had more fun watching her than I did the goat! She wanted me to buy him! : ) And honestly I would have done it!

After seeing all the cows (all of being meat eaters) we made our way to the FOOD! Man, the stuff is pure garbage but it is so worth it. Maybe that's also why we only allow ourselves to go every other year or so.

Following the heart attack on a stick we made our way to the rides; makes sense right? We stuck to some fairly simple stuff since my girls aren't real daredevils and neither is Wren!

They wanted to ride this kite ride that is much like a hang glider that travels in a circle going up and down. Cori and Wren were a little uncertain however so I told them I'd ride with them. The line was long so that made it longer to think about and more time to get nervous. And that is what happened.

As we were standing there Wren says to me, "Hey, what is that thing people do" and he motions his hand across his chest. I grew up catholic so...it didn't take me long to figure out what he was talking about. I asked him if he meant The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. He did! When it was our turn, I looked over at him and sure enough, he wasn't taking any chances. : ) Man, That boy makes me smile every time we are together!

I don't have any photos of us on the ride since I was on it and Scott didn't think to take any but it was fun. Wren got a little adrenaline in his system because he was ready to stand in that 45 minute line all over again. He said, "that was awesome! Let's go again!"

The kids rode the Jerk-you-to-heck-and-back roller coaster too. Michelle (Alli's mom) rode with the kids this time. That is her in the front with Wren, Cori is with Alli two seats behind them and Cassi and Cait are behind Alli and Cori.


All the kids also went on the big slide.


Scott took Cali up. She started out walking up the stairs on her own but the higher she got the slower she walked. About the last third of the way Scott had t carry her. She insisted they should just walk back down. He forced her to go down the slide because there was now way to force themselves past the other riders. She survived it and by the time she got to the bottom she even had a smile on her face.



Here is one crummy little scenery photo. I just wanted you to see the back drop of our fair. Nice huh?

We didn't leave until nearly 11:00 and we were all exhausted but it was a grand 'ole time!

Unplugged-Insects

We had a lot of fun with this weeks unplugged theme. Insects. We do our fair share of insecty things around here on a regular basis but it was fun thinking about sharing some of our world with others.

We have an aquarium-full of walking sticks at any given time.

We are often asked to take care of miscellaneous buggy things during school holidays. We have had a millipede(we are looking for a new one of these) and beetles(these seem to escape easily). And we just recently adopted 3 (4 actually-but one died) hermit crabs. Not exactly insects, but creepy crawly just the same.

By the time school ended for summer we were down to 2 adults. I knew we should have little guys by the end of summer if I took care of our soil well. I was a bit concerned after leaving for a soccer tournament and coming home to only one living adult. Around mid August, I had only 4 babies. I made Grandpa keep them for the next tournament and came back to 7 babies. Now we are up to about 25 or more.

I am for some reason especially fond of them. I love to study them. The big one comes up to the screen top when I spray them and I can watch him drinking the water. It is also very interesting to watch them eat. The kids really like them when they are small but are nervous of squishing them. Once they are as big as our oldest one, they will no longer hold them. I tried to photograph the girls holding the babies but I am not having much luck because they are tiny and thin, barely visible to my lens.

We feed them romaine lettuce when raspberry leaves aren't available or I can't get to Grandpa's to get them. Here they are a bit camouflaged but if you enlarge the photo they are much easier to see,

When they get raspberry leaves I can actually see their growth from one day to the next. I am not sure why but they flourish on raspberry leaves. If you want a very gentle insect pet, this is the way to go.

They are fairly easy to handle. Not jumpy or slimy. And you can walk around with them on your shirt. :)

Don't change your soil and continue to spray your soil even if your adults all die. Babies will arrive!
The dark spot is where I spilled water changing out the lettuce for the leaves. They are everywhere.

I am curious if anyone else raises these. I was thinking about trying to create a larger habitat and wondered if anything else can live amongst these with out eating them.

We also did a caterpillar egg carton this week and a stained glass butterfly. Cali really enjoyed the butterfly project and of course she will paint until their is none left. I don't have the photo of the caterpillar,yet. It was on a different card which I've currently misplaced but here is her butterfly. I gave her a black construction paper template and she glued her choice of tissue paper on it. Then we glued another butterfly on and tada, our own stain glass window art.

The Last Summer Soccer HooRah

This weekend was our last summer soccer tournament this season. Because we live in such a small town we don't have an indoor facility. It has become a mission for Scott to change that but it will be a slow process. Even if it ever happens, it will likely only benefit Cali because of the length of time it takes to push these sorts of things through.

The tournament we attended this weekend is a 3 v. 3 variety. Cori has played for 3 years, Cassi for two. This year, since we could, we decided to have the girls play on their own individual teams. Cori played in the U-11 bracket while Cassi played U-10. They could make this all about winning and set their teams up with the best players but instead they choose to play with their closest friends and worry less about the all important WIN. The tournament is open to anyone; you don't have to be a part of a comp team to play.

Cori and her best friend Alli decided they wanted to play together and invited a girl from their comp soccer team whom they really enjoyed playing with this summer; Alyssa. Then they chose Alyssa's best friend Reagan, to be fair.

Cassi asked Abi to play. She's known her for a couple years but got to know her better this summer on the comp team. They also invited Elena from comp whom they enjoy and a friend of Abi's from school with no comp experience.

We drug Wren along with us for the weekend since we knew we were headed to the state fair while we were up in Anchorage.

He didn't play in the tournament however I think I will really encourage him to do so next year. I think he missed playing. Since he stayed in Anchorage with us, we stayed at his new Anchorage house rather than a hotel. Holly headed south to the old house for the holiday weekend so Barry could visit with friends.

It was a beautiful weekend, we couldn't have asked for better weather. Since Scott was coaching both teams we pretty much ran from game to game however we did take time to tailgate a little.

The girls had a great time having lunch and relaxing a bit. By the way, we discovered champagne grapes this weekend; what a treat they are. The girls(and Wren) all thought they were incredibly fun.

It was so warm we found ourselves looking for shade a couple of times.


When the wind picked up a bit and cooled things off, everyone got a little sillier.

This picture of Cali made me laugh a bit, she looks so tough doesn't she?

In the event I we haven't mentioned it before, the girls' team name this year was the Rowdies. Can you believe that? For the tournament we called them the Rowdie Girls and the Lil' Rowdie Girls. Have you also heard the Tampa bay Rowdies are gearing up again! Very exciting news for these old die-hard Rowdie fans!

Anyway,The Lil' Rowdies ended up taking first place in their age bracket. My camera died just before Scott passed out their medals so sadly I have no pictures of them. Regardless, I think Cassi was pretty darn excited.

Cori's Rowdie girls team didn't fare as well but had a great time just the same. It's been a hard year for her. I am hoping she has a better year next year. Her frustration is apparent and sometimes I wonder how to help her. She loves the game so much but losing so often gets real old.

She did win first place in this tournament two years ago when she was in the same age bracket Cassi was in this year. And amazingly, I took this sort of photo of her team back then and it continues to be one of my favorites. I think this one of Cassi's team(3 of them anyway) will be also. How cute is this?!


I was really grateful for such a wonderful day. I am hopeful we continue to get such beautiful weather. Keep you fingers crossed.