What I’ve been up to….

 

A trip to the Rio Grande Zoo.

Along with the Aquarium.

I decided to take my digital Rebel to the zoo and aquarium and I was very happy that I did (it is bulky so in the past I have not taken in such long outings).  

I had to share at least a couple pics with you all today….I was pretty delighted with a couple shots that I got.  I realize that the swan and flamingos are easy on the eyes…so I had balance it out with that shark.  Isn’t he a scary and homely sight?

It was fun…we just got back last night.  Now we are recovering from a week long trip…we also visited some other places.  Have a few more pics to share but that will have to wait. 

Right now…laundry and some yard work calls my name.

Wonderful Wednesday, #5 and egg decorating

Watch out world…I got my first scallop punch!

 I use my 2 inch circle punch a LOT…and I use my 2 inch square one quite a bit too.  I figured that if I am good about using those two, I probably will use a scallop punch or two quite a bit too.  So got one with my recent Stampin uporder.  We recently got a SU demo gal in our town… I haven’t bought anything SU in years and found their selection pretty fun and very much improved since that last time I looked.

This lady has some cute cards made with SU products.  I see the scallop punch begin used on several of her cards.  She does make a card mondays…where she shoes video of her making a demo card. 

Below is a soccer layout that I did the other day.  I happened to snap a pic just as my oldest shot the ball from mid-field for a goal.  Okay…so the field is not very long at all (soccer for 5 year olds you know?)…so mid-field embellishes the story a little.  🙂  He is a defense player, not terribly aggressive…but can kick the ball pretty well.  He was pretty happy with himself. 🙂  And his mom was pretty proud of him. 

Signing out for a few days.  There will be no fun Friday this week…since it is Good Friday.  I will also be busy most of next week as it is Spring break here and we will be traveling around!   

We did get our eggs dyed.  It was fun…they boys loved these cool vices I got them to hold their eggs while they drew on them, etc.  I got them at Walmart.

MOnday Mission

A few missions have been running through my mind lately. 

First off, Easter is so sneaking up on me.  If we are going to get any eggs dyed this year we had better get after it.  Wow…Easter certainly is coming early!

The idea of a Easter egg tree is a tradition of my husband’s family.  We have one right now.  The one above is from Martha’s site.  I usually use a branch rather than the sticks that are used above…this year it is off a mesquite bush…it has thorns…added charm and meaning for Easter.  I put it in my vases that I pictured in this post…using Easter grass around the outside and small plastic eggs to fill in around the branch.

I am also thinking of ways to organize my life better…I feel like I have been totally chasing my tail lately. This article has a good idea about the 10 minute clutter busting.  My boys would probably find it fun at this age…and if we got in the routine of doing it now, could really pay off in the future.   I am also working on our “mud room” …which is just where we hang our coats and backpacks, etc. because it is also my laundry room.  I think I am going to add pegs that are low enough for my boys to reach so that they can hang up and be responsible for their own stuff.  As of right now…they have to climb on a bench in order to get to their coats/backpacks which usually means that I end up doing it for them.  I will have to give up a little laundry space to add an area that is just for them, but I think it will be worth it.  So…looking into what to add to accomplish this.

I am thinking about this row of pegs.

And a bench, kinda like these…but I think I already own one that may work, just gotta see if it fits.

Saturday…a walk followed by some yard work

 

 So after a long walk…but not your normal leisurely walk I assure you.  It consisting of my 2 boys on scooters…followed at a pretty fast pace by myself and Morgan (our 12 year old Border Collie).  I was listening to an old ScrapHappy podcast in one ear and keeping the other ear free to hear cars/boys (yes one earphone in and one dangling by my side).  Morgan was  pulling like crazy annoyed that she was not in the lead (as usual).  If your think that 12 years of life has mellowed that border collie…you have another thing coming.

But after that…we got busy.  (And yes…most sane people would have called that outing enough for the day…however…being a mother of 2 boys I am not really allowed the luxury of sanity.) 🙂

I love yard work…and this was very quick and rewarding.  I had tons of help from my 6 year old and not so much from my 4 year old.  However, it is the 4 year old who found a play saw and started climbing the remaining limbs.  This can be seen in the picture above. 

So the usual for projects and  my 2 boys…one kid working hard and loving it.   The other kid making the most of our time…but trying to avoid the work involved.  They are funny boys…

Fun Friday, Yoga kids

Considering our windy weather lately…indoor exercise for kids is always needed.  My boys and many other children that have been over to play have loved these two DVDs that I picked up at my Target a few years ago.  Recently I looked for them at my Target and didn’t find them but Amazon has them here.

The teachers at my youngest’s preschool remember my oldest bringing these videos on nasty weather days and even asked for us to bring them recently so they could enjoy.   I was thinking about getting them a copy of it…and we may do just that now that I have found it at Amazon.

Some simple balancing, “poses” and relaxing…no weird yoga stuff if you are worried about that (as I was).

So the school years kit is back up…

They are taking pre-orders. 

So I pre-ordered 2…it is just my kind of scrapping.  And looking at the pile of stuff I already have saved from my 6 year olds very first year of school…I better get a system up and running otherwise we will be overrun with memorabilia before we know it.

Just FYI. 🙂

Wonderful Wednesday, #4

Hey all!

I have been listening to this neat bunch of scrapbooking podcasts on my shuffle when I go for walks.  So wanted to share with you so you can listen too.   They are called ScrapHappy.  The host is Lain Ehmann and she has a blog, where she alerts you when she has a new podcast and updates her blog pretty regularly.  I just have my itunes set up to automatically “get” all the new episodes.  And…it is free so check it out. 🙂

ETA:  I read back through the post about the pod casts and realized I didn’t give many specifics.  I really like her book reviews, kit reviews and LOVE her interviews.  So far, in  catching up on old pod casts she has interviewed Ali Edwards, Stacy Julian (actually recent fairly recent one), and Becky Higgins.  Enjoyed hearing what those ladies had to offer a lot and Lain asks some great interview questions.  Totally worth lending your ears to for a time.

I like birds (obviously…as my blog address indicates)…and they are “in” as far as the scrapbooking world is concerned so when I saw this

 in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine I knew I had to get the pattern.  I actually came across it in a BHG magazine that was reading while waiting for my appointment with my chiropractor.  I saw it moments before he walked in ready to work on me so I quickly committed the web addy of the free template to memory.  I am super surprised that I was actually able to remember it (usually I am terrible at remembering such things!) and now have the template to use.  A cute, fat little bird that belongs on a my Easter tree (which I will post a pic of soon) and in a scrapbook page or two.

And lastly…

Maya Roadhas some of the cutest chipboard peices…normally I just look at them I dream.  However, these were 60 cents at 2 peas today when I made an order.   So I thought I would try them out and see if I can do anything halfway cute with them.

That’s it for your wonderful Wednesday…sorry to be slow with this…it is nearly Thursday!  Kiddos have  been home sick some…but they haven’t felt terrible…the best kind of sick days.  Today we did some scooter riding, some craft painting and some organizing.  I actually have some Monday Mission things to share but haven’t had a chance.  Look for that over the next couple days.

Funny kid saying and the antelope you see above…

The header picture is of a herd of antelope that the boys and I see nearly daily.  Either on the way to take my oldest to school or on the the way home…there they are.  They are usually grazing and thinking about when they will cross the road to go hide in the pecan orchards that are nearby.  I always watch closely for them…first off I don’t want to run in to any of them and secondly I just love to see what they are up to.  I need to put my long range lens on my Rebel and just have it with me for a week…as I could get some really good shots.  I snapped the one on the header late last week on my way to pick up my 6 year old from half day kindergarten.

This morning, there the herd was…close as can be to the road.  I slowed down pointed them out to my 4 year old who was still in his pajamas and a little blurry eyed.  He said, “That antelope (the on that was right by the edge of the road) is eating, getting power so he can cross the road.” 

Yep…that is exactly what that antelope is doing. 

Ten pics tag…

Take 10 random, previously un-blogged photos from your computer and blog them with captions.  I was tagged by Sean again.

I figure that this will be fun. 😉

#1.  A cross on an overcast day at my oldest’s school.

#2. We had snow two mornings last week…it didn’t hang around for long but the moisture was nice.  Here is my oldest playing in it before school.

#3.  We have been going for walks with the boys on scooters lately.

#4.  My boys go to their fist livestock auction…just a week or so ago.  My oldest really liked it.

#5.  Birthday card I made the other day with scraps from a birthday LO.

#6.  Trying to take pics of my fish…hmmm…need do some reading up on getting a good shot of them.  Blood fin tetra and platy (I think).

#7.  Collie herding goats.  At an ag expo we got to take in some collie’s who actually work for a living…ours just hangs out in our backyard and takes us for walks.

#8.  This collie could not wait to get a turn.

#9.  Get well card I made for my cousin who was injured in Iraq. 

#10.  Part of my “uniform”…you will normally find me in my New Balance shoes and jeans.

I am tagging anyone who feels like doing this.  It was fun.

Fun Friday, #3 (memory games)

My oldest loves a good memory game.  For his 3rd birthday, he got his first memory game (which was a dinosaur one)  and he caught on quickly.  Within no time at all he was regularly beating me and my husband at it.  We played that game over and over.  When the cards started getting worn, I tried to find one just like it to replace it but they don’t make it anymore so we laminated (with a xyron) the cards and have continued to play it.

My youngest isn’t as interested in memory games…maybe because he doesn’t stand a chance of beating his brother at them…but he has a Thomas one that he plays with me from time to time.

We have played quite a few…we have Bob the Builder one and a few others…the important part is that you don’t have too many matches for a beginner player.  You can work your way up to more matches when the kiddo learns to match a few.  This is something I didn’t do real well with my youngest and he really doesn’t like to play them much probably because he remembers being frustrated the first couple times we played.

Here is one a memory game I picked up a few months back and it is fun because we are learning types of birds as we play:

Hmmm…well…I thought I could provide a link. 

It is called “Birds of America’s National parks” 100 piece matching game.  I actually got it from Current…as weird as that sounds and they appear not to have it anymore.  I got it in their sale section.  It appears that it is a hard game to find online as I came up with nothing on a google search.

Here are some cute playing cards from Current…on sale for 4 bucks: