R's Dentist Visit

R had her first cleaning w/her dentist(Uncle N:) this week! She was a little nervous while there. Once we were home and since then she tells us she needs to keep her teeth clean and sparkly(a change from the little girl we used to have to force to brush her teeth)! She refused to let me take a picture in the office, so here she is in the car showing off her teeth...

Letter L

L is for...Lines
Two letters in one day, rain outside and antsy kids makes for 'lines' as our theme:)

Letter K

K is for...Kite!!!
After a very looong letter hiatus we are returning! My goal is to get two letters done a day so we are done w/capitals when school starts. Then we will start lower case letters...hopefully:)

Green Meadows Farm

RFC planned a trip to Green Meadows! We had a lot of fun getting up close to all the animals. Pony rides, hayride, free goat food to feed the goats...SO MUCH FUN!! Thanks for planning RFC!!!

Happy birthday Auntie M!

More rain here means more projects inside! Since Auntie M had a special day approaching we decided to make her some special cards. Now, I know we don't do this for everyone. Well, we don't get stuck inside for three days in a row in August to often! Can you tell what material we used for the cards?! I wish I had pictures of the finished product, they were super cute. I forgot to photograph them prior to mailing:(. R drew a picture of her and Auntie M together. The little ones went glitter, marker and stamp crazy!! Kb went a little marker crazy on himself too...

County Fair

We were supposed to go to a local fair with my friend, Karen, and all our kids this morning. With the icky weather, again, we had decided to skip it. Well, this afternoon I was feeling a little sad at the idea of not going. This is the county fair I grew up showing animals at and is the county I taught in where a lot of my former students show animals. Dh and I decided to take a trip when he got home from work. Rain, mud, muck and all we were there! The kids had fun and definately ate their way through!
Hmm, how do I get this open?R said this pig is a brother to her pig she bought at the last fair!

Halloween...in August

We were going through closets trying to see what fall clothes from last year will still fit this fall. In the process the kids came across their Halloween costumes from last year and wanted to wear them! We spent the afternoon dressed like this... R had to wear Kb's Mickey head and so he wore her Minnie ears...they had a lot of fun!

Rock Painting

We have had a rainy week and have gotten creative with inside fun! We had some 'front porch' time and painted rocks this week...

Tastefully Simple & Usborne

Two lines of products I am a huge fan of!
Tastefully Simple- my 'book party' ends Saturday! I'm having a party, online though! You order online and all the orders are shipped directly to you! If you order through my party you pay less for shipping! Summer products are coming to an end so order anything you need to stock up on! If you want to hold out and order fall products they are coming out very soon. If you need a representative my friend, Lauri, is wonderful and she knows her stuff:) Let me know and I will pass her contact info on to you. If you want to place an order, let me know and I will get that info to you too!

Usborne-These are some of my favorite books! There is a new sales gal out there who knows her stuff too! Sarah was a teacher prior to becoming a stay at home mom. She is having an EShow that ends Saturday! If you are looking for a sales representative or want to check out what they are all about let me know and I will get you her contact info too!

Keep in mind these are two great ideas for holiday presents(yes, I am thinking that far ahead already:)!!!

Dad's 60th Birthday Bash

Dad turned 60 this week. He had a party for his 50th and we talked of one for him turning 60. At first he said he didn't want a party and then changed his mind and agreed that it was a fun idea. Well, I think everyone had fun(or at least we hope so)!! I had great plans to take pictures of the pre-party when it was all set up, pictures throughout the night and the after the party pictures. Well, I didn't do so well with all that. Thankfully, Char took a lot of pictures and I can't wait to get those from her! When I do I will post some of her shots. This is what I do have to share...

Close to 150 people came out to celebrate Dad turning the big 6-0!! The weather was wonderful and everyone got to mingle outside and in...





We had fireworks....




Dancing...




and when the DJ stopped, some went swimming...

I have to say a big thank you to Spoon and Craig! They were the best DJ and bartender! We are thankful for such great friends.

The highlight of the evening were the 'gifts' everyone gave. Instead of presents for Dad he asked that everyone bring items for the local food pantry. We are all so happy to say that the donations everyone brought filled the back of Dad's pick up truck!!! Definately a very generous group of family and friends...
Thank you so much for all of your generosity everyone and for coming out to celebrate last night! We hope you all had as much fun as Dad did!

Random Birthday Bash Pictures

I am hoping to get some pictures from Char this week...she has wonderful family pictures on her camera! In the mean time here is what I have(not as professional, fun though)...

Dad enjoying his party!!!

What a nice picture of Dh and C!

A toast to the 'Birthday Boy' as Spoon put it. We actually meant to toast with him...just couldn't find him. Theres nothing like toasting w/jungle animal paper dixie cups!

Not sure what Dh and Uncle J are thinking here!

K, Auntie L, Me, Auntie M hanging out!

These guys love their boss!

Everyone has to hold the camera in front of themselves and take a picture, right? Well at least C, Auntie M and I do!

Pasta & Paper Collage

I saw this cute idea and thought we would give it a try today. The kids were restless today. We had a hectic week and today was our 'day off'. We played outside for quite a while and came in to cool off. I was trying to think of something crafty and not a lot of work for me(okay I was feeling a little lazy today). I just wasn't in the mood to work on scissor skills with the little ones so we decided to rip the paper instead. Kg, Kb and I made this one. We made a tree w/some green leaves and colored butterflies...

R knew what she wanted to do today and was not deviating from that. She did not want to make trees, she want to make branches. She also wanted to use water color paint, I said no we were coloring our butterflies w/markers. Since she didn't want to do that she left hers plain. She also made two...one for her cousin M and one for her cousin B(they are coming to visit tomorrow:)...

Pladoh Making, Outside Fun and a Not So Friendly Visitor

Today R's friend M came to play for a while. The older girls like doing some kind of crafty fun so I tried thinking of something I could easily do with two 5yr olds and two 2yr olds. The first thing that came to mind was making pladoh. If you are wondering how that was the first thing and you think I am crazy well you are right!
I tried this recipe:
1 c. flour
1 c. boiling water
2 tbsp. cream of tartar
1/2 c. salt
1 tbsp. oil
Food coloring In the future I will not use this recipe(yep I will do this again, I just don't learn). HOT water means HOT pladoh and little ones can't mush it with their hands then right away. It also was a little sticky. I have another recipe to try out next time. Other than that it went really well with the older girls. Kg didn't fully understand that we needed exact measurements of ingredients and she was spooning the dry ingredients out of her bowl. Kb realized this was wrong and got out the sugar to add to her bowl. Helpful and kind on his part(and messy too-my feet are still sticking to the kitchen floor). After we finished I let the kids take their fresh pladoh to the table to make masterpieces. We started with purple(R made), pink(M made), green(Kb and Kg made). The kids had fun mixing their colors and making new colors, which drives me crazy! As I was cleaning the kitchen mess I lost track of what the four were doing and found a slight mess. My solution was to take away the pladoh and give them stamps and paper to stamp away. Yep, not the perfect project to give them so I can clean up the other! Through all of this the older girls were wonderful...I just sometimes forget that two year olds are not so good at solo craft time while I clean up the former project!
Our mixed up colors!

After we crafted up the house I decided it was time to head outside to play. This is where the day went downhill, seriously. The kids asked if they could fill the pool and hook up the sprinkler. They had a lot of fun with this! When it was time walk M home I started across the yard. I looked back to make sure four little people were following along and saw a snake slithering across my patio!!! I am completely terrifiedslightly scared of snakes. As I ran away from the snake and yelled at the kids to follow(and yelled at the kids to go to M's house and get her dad since my dh wasn't home-someone had to come get the snake and take it to a new home). M said it perfectly when she stopped, looked at me and said, "R it is just a snake, why are you so scared? We found one in my yard this big(hands spread far apart) and that snake is only this big(hands close together)". Yep, made me feel a little silly. Not silly enough not to have her dad come over and try to get the snake though! As her dad tried to get the snake from his hiding place I stood across the yard watching. All four kids stood next to him staring. Kg, a girl after my heart, stood with a styrofoam sword in hand. She told me she had the sword so the snake wouldn't "chomp chomp" her toes!

My lesson of the day:I will take a house full of kids running around with glitter glue, pladoh AND purple juice just please keep the snakes out of my yard! I don't want them to chomp chomp my toes...

Milwaukee Zoo

We took a trip to the Milwaukee Zoo with some of the girls I used work with an all of our kids! We thought a rain storm was going to cancel our trip, thankfully it didn't! We tried for a picture with all the kids smiling and together, I got close! Kg is missing(she was off to the side trying to crawl in with the elephants looking at the elephants). It was a fun zoo visit(and we actually saw a lot of animals today)!!

Happy Birthday Papa

Papa turned 60 today!! We delivered some cupcakes(his favorite flavor:) for he and "the guys" at work to enjoy. The kids also picked out a card that had a self record message. The kids all said "Happy Birthday Papa Happy Birthday Papa Papa Happy Birthday Papa"...you get the jist. I will post more after his party this weekend... Happy Birthday Papa!!

Farmers Market

We made a visit to our favorite farmers market this week. We don't have a garden, yet, so it is nice to pick up local produce, bread, eggs, jam and we are trying some pumpkin butter this week...
The kids enjoy the ice cream and hot dogs too! Not a good picture of them...it was the end of our visit and they were all happily eating.

Playhouse Facelift

The playhouse got a facelift! We(well really me) wanted to make the colors more kid friendly and fun. I was thinking primary colors were perfect. Dh didn't like my yellow choice and convinced me that a toned down yellow is more appropriate(and less blinding for our neighbors). What do you think? Honestly tell me what you think!! If you are looking at it and wondering where I came up with these colors, look at the inspirations in our yard...