Snuggle time

This morning, Patrick and I were snuggling. Isn't he adorable?

Me turn

Brenda gave us a golf set a couple of months ago. Patrick loves it. He doesn't try to hit people with the clubs very often. Why do clubs automatically turn into weapons, by the way?

Patrick quickly wanted to trade his plastic ball for a real ball.

Here he is concentrating on his form.

Daddy showing him how to hit the golf ball.

Patrick wanted to use Steven's club. He would say "me turn" over and over again.

Daddy showing him how to hit the ball.

The club is taller than Patrick.

Steven and Patrick had a great time in the backyard today.

Dora part 2

This morning, Katelyn came over early before school started, since her mom was subbing. It's pajama day at school and the level of excitement was just too much. Katelyn asked if they could make a new video about Dora.

If you recall, they made a video about Dora and that she is a weirdo.

In case you are wondering, Katelyn is wearing a travel pillow on her head to look like Dora's hair!

So, for your viewing pleasure......Dora part 2

Airplane

Yesterday morning, Patrick found this book and backed up to my lap for me to read it to him. It always kind of surprises me when he wants to read. He is such a busy boy and reading doesn't seem to be his personality. I mean, it involves sitting and being still for a few minutes. But, he asks me to read to him at least once a day.

He's also not a big fan of "little einsteins". I think this was one of Maggie's books.

I read it to him complete with "pat,pat, pat" and he loved it. He loved the big jet in it and the rocket ship.

After we read it, it was time for him to ride with Steven to the babysitter's house. In his limited words, he asked if they could ride in a jet instead of Daddy's truck.

He mimicked flying and said "pwane" over and over. He was a little disappointed to get in Daddy's truck instead of a pwane, but was appeased by Daddy bringing the book along with him in the car.

Picture winner

Good morning.

The resounding winner was smile #1 with teeth showing.

However, we went with Miss Beth Townsend's advice this morning. Do whatever feels natural when the photographer says "cheese".

We practiced some more this morning and she was totally at ease about it all.

She hopped up this morning so I could fix her nails that got messed up after we painted them last night. She put on her clothes and shoes and we fixed her hair. I love picture day. Everyday should be picture day!

We went out to the car to go to school and lots of kids were walking to school already. Maggie said, "everyone looks so nice today". We both smiled as we commented on the new clothes and combed hair. Everyone was kinda putting forth their best efforts today. It was sweet.

So, as soon as the pictures come back, I will be sure to post them. I love rituals like this.

What was your favorite school picture? Yours or your kids?

What do you think?

Maggie has been practicing her smile for picture day tomorrow. I keep finding her in front of the mirror practicing the way she is going to smile for the camera. She kept asking for our opinions. We couldn't decide.


So....we are coming to you, dear internet friends.




Which smile would you pick?




This is smile #1:









This is smile #2:

Which smile would you pick?




She wants your opinions before tomorrow's picture day. I need all votes by tonight at 9:00 pm PST. She thought it would be a great idea to get your opinions.

***NOTE: Maggie is a very fickle person. She could change her mind dramatically tomorrow morning!******

the funk fog cleared

Because of a series of weird events, I have been in a funk this morning. Several things happened and I've just been kind of in a weird mood this morning.

One (kinda) funny thing was that I dreamed all night that rats had invaded our house. I guess this is because Maggie and I watched the pixar short film about rats and the plague last night and Christine told me about a rat yesterday. These all became a giant rat infested dream in my head last night. Dog the bounty hunter came to my house in my dream and threw all the rats out on the lawn, where Mickey and Sparky finished them off. This was a very intense and disgusting dream. When I woke up (30 minutes late), I was in a weird mood.

In addition to that, some strange things have happened in the last two days and I can just kind of feel myself in a funky mood.

I was wallowing in my funk.

Until I logged onto pinterest. My mom tagged me on this pin.



This just made me really laugh out loud. Can you imagine? What if I really wrote this down as my address? Could my mail man find me here? Cause it's true.

Then, I looked up and Steven was walking towards me in his galaga tshirt that I bought him at Kohl's. It made me smile.

Then, magically, my funk fog cleared. I was happy and things were looking better.

Facebook, what would I do without ya?

My mom has this update on her facebook status from 2009. (Patrick came to our house on Labor Day weekend 2009)

Maggie looked at her new little (foster) brother today and said: "I didn't even know he was missing from our family!"

I don't even remember her saying that, so I'm writing it down so I never forget it. Thanks, facebook.

Homework Center

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this idea on Family Fun. I immediately pinned it to my pinterest board (cause I'm obsessed) and thought that I would do it "someday".

http://familyfun.go.com/magazine/familyfun-magazine-archive/familyfun-september-2009/homework-central-787551/2/

Doesn't this make homework look fun?

The more I thought about it, I decided that I needed to go ahead and make it. And by that I meant, my mom needed to help me tackle this project.

I bought a trifold board from Wal*Mart for about 8 dollars.


I found some sticky dry erase posters there too. I think they were about 4 dollars. They weren't necessary for this project, but it added some color and who doesn't love a dry erase marker? Especially if you are 7?

We used sticky double tape to put down cardstock pages. Then on some of those pages, we hotglued clothes pins. Then she could clip important papers onto the board.

My mom printed out a number line. I wrote down the alphabet to help with pesky alphabetizing homework sheets.

We hot glued some post it notes onto the board.

We also hot glued another dry erase board. Just for fun.

The last thing on the front side was clothes pins with a pencil holder. We put crayons, pencils, a pencil sharpener, tape, glue sticks and a pair of scissors. This was to eliminate the mad search for pencils when she started her homework.

On the back, we glued down a folder. This holds a world map that is laminated and her homework folder from school. She keeps it with her during the week and returns it on Friday.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

She loved it. She plays school with it a lot.

I can't say that it has revolutionized the way that homework is tackled at our house. But, it was a fun project. It keeps all of her stuff together, too.

I would say overall this project was around $15-$20. I used a lot of stuff that we already had at home to complete this.