Sunday, April 29, 2012

Pavlov's Flavor of the Day.

Yes, I *get* that we chose to move to the land of perpetual sandals and sunshine...but I don't get why the icecream truck is scheduled to come through at least two days a week.  Seriously?  Are they that bored, or greedy?  My girls are getting old enough now where they are not too shy to make a sales transaction on their own, they are capable of counting the money, and they grab (and pretty much drain) their tooth fairy money.  They hear the song, and they just bolt.....classic cases of classical conditioning...pavlov's dog but with icecream lips, yup!

Our Weekly Review

My little bracelet business is booming; so much so, that I'm sort of procrastinating on bringing my little Etsy shop live (aka, I haven't listed any bracelets there yet), as I have enough projects going with my custom order requests.  This is my Packer Bracelet--I've sold a couple, plus a couple of friends who said they will be purchasing several in the months to come....I have a feeling these will be popular come football season:)  I even had a request to make a Bears Bracelet (Packers and Bears are rivals, since everybody I know in WI lives right inbetween Chicago and Green Bay).  I will happily make the bracelet, though my smart-arse hubby said that I'm not allowed to do that;D


I was going through some stuff in a box, and ran across this...thinking circa 1978?....created for me by my little brother (who's now 40:)  I'm still a HUGE Ziggy Fan:)

We had plans to go to the beach yesterday; however, I wound up in a HUGE organizational project that took two full days this week...daughter one's room and daughter two's room:/  Unfortunately, that didn't leave us enough time to hit the beach, so we had to settle for the pool...such sacrafices:D

Pictured here is the cutest biking partner ever!  don't you just love her kitty helmet....looks so cute riding behind her, as she sports her little skirt with those ears sticking up, her little legs with her little wheels rotating six turns for mommy's every one;).

and finally, poor piper....doesn't he look thrilled?  but we know he wants to look (and smell:) his bestest, for the arrival of ms. brie:D

Friday, April 27, 2012

Humorous Musical Moment

We were handed a piece of music last night, where the same parts were written for both clarinet and trumpet. After scanning through my part I saw: "trumpets only if possible." The sarcastic English Major in me, raised her hand to ask the director about the missing comma placement, as it could be read two ways: "trumpets only, if possible" or "trumpets, only if possible:D"

Monday, April 23, 2012

All The Excitement of Us This Week:)


I am THRILLED BEYOND THRILLED that my favorite little bagel shop from the town we resided in our first few month's down in SC, has opened a second location; right next to my grocery store, just a mile (or two, if you count driving through my neighborhood) by my house!  That is bike riding distance!  The other location, after we purchased our home, was now a 45 minute drive---ME HAPPY!  You don't think my favorite burnt oranges have anything to do with this, do you?:D

This is our little classroom.  It works for us!  Last weekend Ms. Organization spent about three days (off and on) reorganizing her mess.  I honestly hadn't done much since we moved in last year, and it was beginning to affect our schooling---just knowing what materials I have to work with.  Our creative juices have been resparked!  We've revamped our curriculum a bit.  After spending about 2.5 years with it, I've decided Saxon Math is not for us.  I don't regret using it, and I think it's given the girls a solid beginning (and the little teddy bear manipulatives are so darn cute:), but I felt it skipped around a lot, from topic to topic.  My goal is for them to have a VERY strong and solid math experience.  So, after doing a bit of research, we decided to switch to a program called Math U See...I feel this will give my girls a very strong and solid experience; it's VERY sequential; and the goal is not to move onto the next lesson until the girls have mastered each one...mastery means, they can teach it back!  There's a video "teacher" involved, which we LOVE...this actually gives me a bit of a "break" and seems to help them.  So far, after one week with this, we are pleased.  The program should take them through Algebra two---and then I feel they will be very well prepared for advanced math coursework.
While I was at band rehearsal last week, the girls made a batch of cookies, all by themselves, as a team!  (I'm not sure if I should be more impressed with the cookies or the teamwork:)  Granted, although I'm a "from scratch" kind of girl, this was a peanutbutter cookie mix, and gives my 6 and 8 year olds the ability to start working more independanty in the kitchen.


Ok, I confess, I'm the mean mama who doesn't let her little girls play dress-up with my clothes; so, they've had to adapt:D
J's garden is well-established!  We are looking forward to peppers, tomatoes, zucchini (and already a boatload of herbs), maybe cucumbers? (can't remember).  Looking forward to planting garlic and onions at some point!
We are studying the early Americas.  We did some brief overview of the various Native American tribes in the various regions of the country, and some of the different ways they lived.  Little Angel chose to depict her idea of living in the Pacific north west, where there was sure to be lots of fishing.  Fairy Girl (can't find artwork) created a piece describing those in the plain's state, who were very dependant on the buffalo (ok, yes, I know, North American Water Bison, since technically buffalo do not live here...I know that because we spent some time in the plain's states on our way to Glacier National Park in Montana...ok, I actually really learned that when I went to school at the University of Denver to become a Certified Tour Manager!  (little-known fact;)

Not pictured, this past weekend, we almost attended our regular Wine Walk (ahem I mean art walk:)...we've done this before with the kiddos--it's in the Old Towne section of our town...I personally get nervous with the girls walking around all the sculptures, etc.  Saturday we headed to the river front for Earth Day river clean up and festivities.  We went after the start time and Ms. Angel was so afraid there would be no garbage left for her to pick up.  Her daddy convinced her not to worry, as he would throw garbage on the ground for her (and I assured him he was sure to get caught and slapped with a $500 fine:D)

And Sunday, our favorite little icecream shop, which hosts Monday Movies in the Park (starting up again soon!), celebrated its one year birthday in business, offering free cake (yes, of course we bought icecream to go with it:)
And finally, my little ones aren't so little anymore...here is Ms. Angel reading us a bedtime story---a chapter from "Little House on The Prairie."

Sweet Dreams

Friday, April 13, 2012

Easter 2012

We had a fabulous Easter vacation; in Florida, of course:)  Now that we've shaved about 17.5 hours off our drive to Florida, we tend to go there, a lot;)  But, having all the snowbird grandparents there would of course be the big reason for all the trips down.


Saturday morning, we drove to Cleremont to hand-deliver three custom bracelet orders to an old friend.  It was great to see her, and she was thrilled with the bracelets (as are her daughters!)  
On Saturday afternoon we headed to Taveres, Florida, where there was a Planes, Trains, and Automobile Festival.  The automobiles were of course classic cars, the planes were seaplanes, that did some really cool acrobatics, and the train, as pictured above, was a woodburning steam train.  J and the girls took a ride on the train and got caught up in a train robbery:O
The conductor was held at gunpoint, begging for mercy that he was "too young to die."  I'm happy to report that everybody was ok, the passengers returned to safety, and the conductor did not die that day:)
Obviously, this is one of the sea planes.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch....I literally have to do a double-take to realize these photos are of Piper and Brie, not Cookie and Buddy:)
We celebrated a wonderful Easter Sunday at my parents' house.  The girls awoke and hurriedly put on their fabulous new Easter dresses....treasures found by grandma...two dresses only....in their exact sizes, and for the bargain price of $2 a piece!!   They then found their baskets, and hunted for Easter Eggs (Fairy Girl found the golden egg!)  Then they colored eggs!


Don't my little southern belles look sweet?

Little Ms. Angel wanted to make her very own dessert to contribute to our Easter dinner....she chose (a boxed mix, my suggestion to use a mix) of lemon squares---she did the work all by herself, and they were a hit!

She also insisted that the house be beautifully decorated in Easter Art, which she contributed herself as well!

We had a wonderful Easter with all the grandparents, cousins and friends (not everybody is pictured, we had 12 for dinner, plus two more friends in the evening for dessert).
We had so much fun in Taveres Saturday, that we decided to head back there on Monday, intead of going to Sea World (our passes are good through the fall, and I personally wasn't interested in competing with the spring break crowds).
 But the girls didn't mind at all, because they had a cute little lake-front splash park!
And a big beautiful wooden playground!  We brought the puppies and had a picnic as well!

We hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Last Week of March 2012




It's strawberry season; one of a couple of strawberry seaons.  We thought some strawberry picking was in order.  We headed down to The Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens in Savannah and picked ourselves some strawberries.....lots and lots of strawberries....10 pounds worth!  Of course there's no way we'll get through all those strawberries before they go bad, so J decided to try his hand at making jam....lots and lots of jam!  He actually made the jam in our breadmaker which has a jam cycle...wow is it good!

Then we took a drive over to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge; which is actually mostly in South Carolina, not Georgia.  It's a beautiful parkway preserve, not far from our house, yet this is the first time we've been there.  We saw lots of gators in action...including some walking briskly....I've personally not seen them move before, usually they are just sunning themselves.  I opted not to get out and take a picture of the moving gators, which weren't all that far from our Sienna:D  They offer classes for kids, and volunteer work for families; and we plan on becoming "friends" of this beautiful place!


My girls have a new hobby; I seriously don't believe children need toys!



 And, for the final big happening of the week; we'd like to introduce my new niece, Maya (isn't she adorable!)  My brother and sister in law are the proud parents!

Oh my
 gosh, I almost forgot, our resident owl decided to bless us with her presence in our very own backyard....Little Angle spotted her!