Lucky #

The other side of the camera - Relaxing

I'm participating in what I think is a really smart weekly challenge hosted by Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans. It seems like mamas spend an awful lot of time behind the camera. The idea of this challenge is for mamas to get on the other side of the camera in at least one photo a week.

When my boys grow up they'll inherit hundreds of thousands of photos taken from their childhood, but how many of those will show their mama? At least for this year I can answer 52!

_______________________________________

These are definitely not the most flattering photos of myself but it was such a nice time with my boys that I wanted to get it on film and remember it forever. We had gone out in the morning and gotten home much earlier in the day than usual. With some time to waste we decided to ask Scott to pull out the hammock and enjoy the beautiful weather.

This is when Marley tried to get in the hammock with us!

Who's who?

Which little monkey:

• Asked, "Do you think Marley (our dog) is a secret agent?"
• Said, "I think my new underwear is making me (run) faster!"
• When asked if he'd like some smoked almonds replied, "No because I don't like it when smoke gets in my eyes"
  

Which little love bug:

• Asked me to rub his belly at bedtime and then as I did he said, "Mooooooskaaaaa. Mama, mooska means ahhhhhhhhhhh!"
• Greeted one of the girls in his class with "Hello, Gorgeous!"
• Takes his shirt off nearly everyday afterschool on the playground because he wants "to feel the sun and wind on his skin?"

Will you be my Valentine?

Last year, I wanted to hand-make Valentines with the boys for school. At the time, I even posted what I hoped I would do this year. I'm proud and even surprised to say that I stuck to it.

After giving the boys a few different choices of Valentines to make for their preschool classmates, Jack chose to make the heart crayons and Logan wanted to make Valentines using glow sticks. Here are the finished products with directions following for anyone interested in making their own:











You Color My World
I found various different "recipes" to make crayons. I mixed a few together to get this one.
Supplies:

• crayons (I used a brand new box of 64 crayons and some odds and ends that were around the house)
• cupcake wrappers
• silicon candy molds or silicon ice trays or cookie-cutters
• red card stock
• double-sided adhesive
  

First, preheat your oven to 275 degrees.

Use a sharp knife to score/slice the paper wrapper on the crayons. Have your kiddos unwrap the crayons and break them into small pieces. (Each crayon into 3 or 4 pieces worked pretty well for us.) Put the broken pieces in the cupcake wrappers and place them on a foil-covered (for protection) cookie sheet.

Place the cookie sheet in the hot oven and remove when the wax is melted (about 8-10 minutes). (I only placed 3 or 4 crayon filled cupcake wrappers in the oven at a time because once they come out of the oven they cool quickly and you need to work fast.)

From here there are two ways to finish the process. I used the first method.
1. Gently pick up the cupcake wrappers filled with melted wax and pour into the silicon molds or ice cube trays. (You can mix different colors or use a toothpick to swirl the melted wax into a design.) Let them cool (you can speed up the process by putting them in the freezer) before popping them out of the molds. (For the record, the melted wax stained my silicone ice cube trays.)

2. Let the wax cool in the papers before using a cookie-cutter to cut out different shapes.

After one of the above two steps, gently rub the crayon to smooth rough edges.

We then attached the crayons to pieces of red cardstock with one of two messages: "You color my world!" or "You make my heart melt!".


You Make My Heart Glow
Supplies:

• glow stick bracelets (pack of 12 at T@rget in the $1 bin)
• 2 colors of cardstock
• double-sided adhesive

Cut out medium size hearts (I used a cookie-cutter for a stencil) from the red card stock. Cut out smaller hearts form the blue paper. Gently fold (but don't crease) the medium hearts and use a hole punch at an angle to cut two holes. (I had to have a test heart to get the angle right.)

Write your message on the medium-sized hearts: "You Make My Heart Glow!" or "You Light Up My Life!". Insert a glow stick through the holes being careful not to snap/activate it. Using the double-stick adhesive, attach a small heart to each end of the glowstick so that it resembles cupid's arrow.


I wanted to get this posted sooner in case someone actually wanted to copy these ideas but in true procrastinator fashion, I just finished assembling the last of the Valentines...the night before the kids are to hand them out.

Going down...

Christmas in Photo Review...No, Really...

Every day that I don't do my Christmas recap it gets further from the holidays and more ridiculous that I still haven't posted a recap. It's a viscous cycle and I've just decided to put a stop to it. Better 6 weeks late than never, here is Christmas 2009 in a nutshell:

Every year we trade off Thanksgiving and Christmas between Scott's and my parents. This year, Christmas was at my parents' house which is about 5 hours away from where we live. My mom has two sisters and one of them (including her husband and my two cousins) live near my parents. This year, their other sister and her husband decided to come for a holiday visit so all three sisters were together for Christmas.


Busy beach boys:

Busy boys in the kitchen with Nana making cookies and a gingerbread village:

And the finished product:

Relaxing with Nana and Granddad and a holiday movie:

A bi-annual Christmas Eve tradition (Great Dona reads The Night Before Christmas):

Christmas morning:

Jack asked Santa for Bakugans

Logan asked Santa for cookies ;)

Jack would not put down his new Star Wars figures...and oh, the noises he constantly makes!

Logan building a race car out of pillows and "trash" that Mama gave him for Christmas

A little downtime:

The whole gang took an amazing water safari:

Our whole crew takes up half the boat!

After returning home several days later we headed out for our second Christmas at Scott's parents house:

The boys got beautiful shiny bikes from Grandma and Grandpa

And that finally concludes Christmas 2009!

Daybook Entry...

I recently found out about this weekly meme called The Simple Woman's Daybook. I've got to admit that I'm not loving the title of this meme but I do like the idea...to linger on the simple things and find beauty of the everyday moments. I could stand to simplify by life a bit but in the meantime, this meme will have to do!

For Sunday, February 7, 2010:

Outside my window...a blue cloudless sky over a very green yard (it poured yesterday!)

I am thinking...about what to do with the boys today, a playground and some errands probably

I am thankful for...how lucky I am to have a healthy family with a roof over our head and everything we need

I am wearing...my pajamas because I'm still in bed (at 9:46 which is extremely rare for us)

I am remembering...my brother and wishing we could be sharing in each others' lives

I am going...to have to take a shower soon because I stink

I am currently reading...I just finished My Fathers' Daughter (a great book about an adopted women from Eritrea) and just started Food Rules

I am hoping...to stay in bed for the rest of the day but there is no way my family will let me get away with that

On my mind...Having recently watched Food, Inc. I keep thinking about the food that we eat and specifically how it is made, what it is made of and where it comes from

Noticing that...while I thought we eat semi-healthy I'm noticing that we could be doing a lot better

From the kitchen...Scott just made crepes with a hint of chocolate (hmmm...case in point about eating better?)

Around the house...I need to declutter. I've always said that when something comes into the house something else should leave but I haven't acted upon it

One of my favorite things...day dreaming about my boys and future daughters

From my picture journal...The boys got filthy at the park today and I decided they should get their bath before we did anything else for the day. They were not happy with this plan until I turned on the bubblemaker.

The other side of the camera - Park play

I'm participating in what I think is a really smart weekly challenge hosted by Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans. It seems like mamas spend an awful lot of time behind the camera. The idea of this challenge is for mamas to get on the other side of the camera in at least one photo a week.

When my boys grow up they'll inherit hundreds of thousands of photos taken from their childhood, but how many of those will show their mama? At least for this year I can answer 52!

_______________________________________

Wow! It has been 3 months since I last posted a pic of the boys and I here. It's been so long that I wasn't even sure if the weekly meme was still happening...but luckily it is, though it goes by a different name now.
These pics were taken over the weekend at a park. We stopped to let the boys run off some energy before heading to a restaurant in Little Ethiopia for lunch.

A Farewell Tribute...to Naptime

Oh, dear sweet friend...I will miss you so.

You have been a daily companion and meant so much to all in our family. From the first day we met, I knew that I wanted to spend quality time each and every day with you. And now our time has been cut too short. I feel such loss that you were taken from us so soon. You were a bright spot in my day. You were my sanity, my hope, my sanctuary.

I will always remember you fondly. Rest in peace, old friend.

Take a trip down memory lane with my good dear friend, naptime. Enjoy!

October 2009

May 2009

April 2009

December 2008

July 2008

March 2008, Jack

February 2008, Logan

October 2007, Logan

July 2007, Jack

November 2006

September 2006, Logan

April 2005, Jack

Farewell sweet friend...