these are the days

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Moving!

Please follow this link to my new blog and bookmark!

Thank you for being my blog supporter and I look forward to seeing you in my new venue!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

I have been ready to post about Ian's Kindergarten week.....and I have reached my photo/video limit, to where I cannot upload anymore. So I am trying to figure out my next blog move.

Anyway, stay tuned and hopefully I will get this resolved this weekend!

We had a garage sale this morning......didn't make a lot of money, but we can see the floor of our garage! We might set up one more time in the morning, if not we will sell the bigger items on craigslist, donate and bring books to the used bookstore.

Ian, still trying to earn his Lego Death Star, has reached $100.00 in coins in his jar. So, I am going to bring him to the coin machine and put his money into his savings account. Three more jars to go for the Death Star. He should have it by the time he is 8 years old, at the rate he is saving.

We are dog-sitting with Connor ordering the pups around and dangling lots of tasty morsels in front of them.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Kindergarten Checklist

-"Lego" Batman backpack-check
-Camo lunch box with water bottle-check
-pencil box with new pencils, erasers, sharpener-check
-name on all aforementioned items-check
-lunch decided by Ian and packed by him into his new lunch box-check
(fare includes saltines, cheese slices, applesauce, grapes, granola bar, water and juice box.)
-clothes picked out to wear-check
-bath for both Connor and Ian-check
-phone call from Aunt Soooz-check
-secret note to Ian in lunch box from Mommy-check
-heart attack over cost of after school care-check
-last penguin nose kiss before becoming an official kindergartener-check
-sub plans done so I can pick him up after school tomorrow-check
-camera batteries charged (on both cameras)

Ian went to bed without any fuss and hasn't come out of his room to discuss bears, school, Connor or Wii. I am crossing my fingers for a smooth start. I do worry that Connor might be sad to have to stay home. His day comes on Thursday.

Deep breaths.....

Monday, August 10, 2009

Calling All Kindergarteners

WARNING: My first child is entering Kindergarten on Wednesday. Emotions are going to run high, because I have a soft heart and so does Ian. Expect to read nostalgic "where did the time go?" posts over the next several days.

Tonight was Meet the Teacher for both boys. Ian got to meet his new teacher and explore his classroom. There were several hands-on activities out for the students (and little brothers) to try. Ian gravitated to a kaleidoscope shape puzzle, Legos and this wooden puzzle above. Connor walked around introducing himself. ("Hi. I Connor.") Ian only talked to other kids if prompted.

What did impress me was the number of parents who have enrolled all of their siblings in her classroom over the years. Several former students were tagging along with younger siblings who are just beginning. I think Ian will acclimate smoothly, given the freedom of the classroom and being able to work by himself when he wants.

We also stopped at Connor's classroom with his teacher, Miss Shellie. Their conversation went along these lines:

Connor: Where Miss Shellie?
Miss Shellie: I'm right here.
Connor: No, where Miss Shellie?
Miss Shellie: Connor, I'm Miss Shellie.
Connor: Where is she? I can't find her.
Miss Shellie: Are you looking for Miss Tina?
Connor: No, I looking Miss Shellie.
Miss Shellie: Not sure how much more I can tell you that I'm Miss Shellie.
Connor: Yeah. She gone.

I offered to teach music to both of their classes over my October break, since Connor's class doesn't get music and Ian's class will have music, but not by the school music teacher. (imagine that- as music teachers....we send him to a school where he doesn't get music from a certified music teacher such as ourselves....horrors! )

In other puzzle table news......

We, meaning I, worked on the 750 cat puzzle entitled "100 Cats and One Fish". It should have been called "100 Cats, One Fish and One Piece Missing."
(yikes, look at the dust on my lamp-yick!)

Wall-E lent a hand to our puzzling. Actually Connor just used Wall-E to mow over the pieces, trying to "clean them up".

Julie and I opened up the 2000 piece NYC puzzle and worked on the border. My sitter worked on part of it today too. I would have worked on it tonight, but I had to practice some 12 bar blues on guitar---Tom and I actually practiced together! (Rick-we need a guitar jam session now) Hopefully I can rock some 12 bar blues chords for the high school group tomorrow, while jumping in and out of a hula hoop. You want a video of that one, right? No way, but that is my lesson plan.

Grandma Sheila, we opened your gift and it is waaaaay cool......I'll post that tomorrow!

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Sweet Birthday Surprise

I realized that I didn't post my birthday present from the boys. I had been telling Tom all week that I wanted Cold Stone ice cream cupcakes, which Ian picked up on and used as a catalyst for his birthday present to me.

Here it is!

A very girly cupcake maker!

Last Saturday, I opened it up and we made cupcakes. In the microwave. The machine "decorates" the frosting onto the cupcake.

We had a lot of issues with consistency.

The boys did not care.

The picture on the box was much more impressive than ours.

It was a lot of angst-filled fun trying to get the contraption to work right and get the mixes right.

But it's the thought that counts and my son was so proud of this gift.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Introducing..........

our new puzzle table! Now, I was admonished for not taking photos of the entire process, but I was probably busy doing one of the five or six runs to Home Depot.

Tom measured the plywood, had Home Depot trim it twice for us and then we decided to use our existing folding table instead of buying sawhorses. He created some wooden braces on either side and then we added a foam core and felt.

We power-stapled the felt onto the table.

And as Connor would say, "Ta-da!" It was finished last night! I got out a puzzle to test it out and the felt makes it a little tricky to slide a bunch of pieces around, but they don't slide off either. Of course, I realized that I had completed this puzzle before, so this puzzle is only for show.

I took out a cat puzzle that I bought Ian awhile back for him to work on while we were working today. But I am waiting for Julie (check her blog for cool photo)to start the super cool Brooklyn Bridge 2000 piece puzzle.

If you didn't read my husband's comment/timeline of this project, check the previous post for that. He puts an amusing spin on it all. I have to thank Julie for the germination of this project and Tom for the execution. I LOVE IT!!!

Next project.....headboard fabric for the bedroom. Still working on that.