Fun with Play-Doh

For Easter this year we got the kids some Play-doh. In the past I've tried making my own only to have David almost immediately try to eat it.

I felt he had matured some since so we decided to try it again. It was like love at first sight. Matt showed him how to make little worms by rolling a piece between his hands. He then spent the next half hour meticulously rolling little worms. It looked like my bed had been invaded! Ha!

Afterwards Matt (the husband) was playing with the play-doh and started applying it to the kids. The end result...Harry Potter kids!!

Matthew and David both donned their father's glasses to complete the Harry Potter look. Matthew found a stick and it instantly became a wand!!

Next up...wall art! This face thing was made by Matt and Matthew. Enough said.

David was inspired by the face thing and tried to make one himself.

This was the end result. I live with a bunch of goofballs!! But I love every second of it.

Quick product review: It's been a few years since I've bought Play-doh. I noticed that they changed the formula. Here's what I like.

~it doesn't become hard as a rock if you leave it out for 5 minutes.

~it doesn't meld with the other colors when you create.

~it doesn't stick to surfaces, or leave a color residue. (which is why I allowed the wall art. They cleaned it up afterwards and you can't tell it was ever there.)

Overall I am very pleased.

Invasion!!

The things we do to make our kids laugh...

The other night the electricity went out in our neighborhood. We had put the kids to bed about 30 minutes prior, so David was sound asleep when it happened.

Matt and I were busy lighting candles and finding flashlights when Matthew came down saying he couldn't sleep. The blackout had him a little freaked.

Matt, in an attempt to "lighten" the mood, started joking to Matthew that we were in the middle of an alien invasion. It started to make him feel better so I went ahead and took it a step further.

I whipped out the foil and fashioned some crude alien invasion hats for us. You know...so the aliens can't read our minds!!

We had fun sitting and posing on the bed. We sent him to bed about 10 minutes later. He felt much better and the electricity came on soon after that.

That was pretty Risky

Matthew recently discovered a record player and records that were in our attic, left by the previous owner. I don't recognize any of the songs, they're mostly old country songs.

He has become obsessed with them!

He starts up the record player as soon as he gets home from school. This morning he found one that had nursery rhymes. He put it on and told me "This is for David when he wakes up." and then left for school. Just now he was jammin to some records while I was in my room. Out of the corner of my eye I see him do this. (see video) I instisted he do it again so that I could record it and share it. It was just too funny to pass up. It was taken on my phone so I don't know how to flip it. Just...you know...turn your monitor on it's side.

Flippin My Wig

It's no secret that my mom will occasionally wear a wig when she doesn't feel like fixing her hair. Somehow last night I was talked into letting her put her wig on me. Hilarity ensued and I laughed till I couldn't breathe.

Of course, Adrienne was there to snap pictures with her phone. I love having my family around. There's never a dull moment.

Flirty Thirty Birthday!

Today was my birthday. Technically it still is, but most of the day is over. It was beautiful. I want to share all the wonderful things that I witnessed today on my birthday.

But first, let me tell you how much I've loathed this day coming. For weeks I would moan when I so much as glanced at the calender. Then when it came time for me to remove the Febuary page and mark in all the appointments in March I grimaced everytime I came across my birthday. I never did mark my birthday on the calander. There's a reason for all of this groaning and pouting. I've turned 30. Ok, so today hasn't been bad. But the days leading up to it just about drove me crazy. I went through all the thoughts of "ok, I'm 30. What have I done with my life?" I thank God I have such a wonderful, tell-it-like-it-is husband. First he told me to stop whining and pouting. It wasn't getting me anywhere. {that didn't exactly make me feel better} But then he proceeded to tell me the things I have accomplished. I'm a better cook. I can veggies and such. I can bake bread. Plus I make a mean eggplant parmesean. (Mmmm...)

He also informed me that he knows that I do all the laundry in the house and he really appreciates it. We joked that at one point I wasn't always the best at doing laundry. I didn't even seperate the colors. One time, when had been dating for about a year, I shrunk one of his favorite sweaters. It wasn't one of my proudest moments. But it's laughable now.

I can also crochet. I'm still building on that skill. But I love to do it when I'm feeling tense. Something about sitting in a chair {or bed} crocheting something makes all my worries go away.

I'm also a budding photographer. I'm still unconfident and shy about taking other peoples pictures. But I'm working at it.

So yesterday, Matt affirmed me that there are a lot of things that I have accomplished. He also said I just need to quit beating myself up. *sigh* He's right. It's just so easy to compare myself to other people. But I've come to realize, that I'm me. That's all who I'll ever be. And I'm ok with that.

Birthday:
We woke up to our toddler, David (2) climbing on top of us. {as is his normal routine} Saying "Hi!" and giving us both big cheesy smiles. It's a pretty good way to wake up if you ask me. Next Matthew (10) came in and gave me a hug and a kiss and told me Happy Birthday. After that it was time for him to go to school so we bid him farewell and sent him on his way.

It is well known in my family that I do not move very fast in the morning. I'm more categorized as being a night owl. So anyways, I laid in bed for a little bit, revelling in the fact that Matt was home for the morning. (he only gets Thursday mornings off) Matt popped out of bed and took David with him. I didn't really know what he was up to, all I knew was that I had the whole bed to myself. Does that sound selfish? Hmmm... Either way, it was lovely to just lay there in the quiet and sleep a little longer. A while later he comes in with a stack of pancakes and I get breakfast in bed. {insert ooey gooey love about my husband}

He left shortly after that to go take care of a job he is helping a friend with. So I just lounged in my bed until it was time to start getting ready.

I am the Activity Days Leader (8-11 yr. old girls) and Matthew is in Cub Scouts. They both meet at the same time. So Matt came rushing back to pick us up. We drove into town, dropped off the necessary people and I headed to the church. I was first greated by Auburn. She is turning 12 tomorrow which means she is moving on from Acitivity Days to Young Womens. She is a very sweet girl and she brought me a present! It was so adorable. A necklacke with the letter A and sparkly stud earrings, fuzzy socks and CHOCOLATE!!!

I was next greated by Lucy (age 8) she presented me with a sweet card and a bottle filled with sand. I was a bit confused at first but then she explained to me that it's called a "find it". Basically you have to turn the bottle all around and find all the things she has hidden in there. What a cute idea!

So after we had our little gift exchange I wanted to teach the girls how to play Yahtzee. It's by far one of my favorite games. I fully expected to not finish the game, I just wanted to make sure they understood the rules at the end. About 30 minutes before it's time to go we hear the door open and the girls start squeeling. All I can hear is "BALLOONS!! BALLOONS!! AND CAKE!!

My dear friend Amber Galbraith had brought roses, HUGE balloons, and a delicious chocolate turtle ice cream cake. Sooo good! I ran over and gave her a hug, That was the sweetest thing anyones ever done for me. The cake was gone lickity split and we all left soon after that.



Back at home:
When we got home Veronica (Matt's Mom) Megan, Talina, Alexis (Matt's sisters) were waiting for us. I sat down and let the cooking begin. Matt started grilling the meat. Megan made a vanilla cake from scratch and put it together and iced it. Talina and Alexis got the drinks ready. It was a family effort. I felt very loved.

As for my present, Matt got me the most amazing thing that he knew I would love. It's a one hour Swedish massage! I am constantly having back problems, so I will be making my appointment post haste!!

So after all that moping and pouting this day has been wonderful. I know that many more wonderful days will be coming. 30 isn't so bad. I feel more confident in myself at this point. I'm not just a 20-something, I'm now a 30 year old woman!! I've finally come to terms with that. Is it a bit silly or crazy? Maybe. But this is the path that I had to take to come to terms with my age.

Food Offering

Today something funny happened. And then I almost immediately forgot about it.

It wasn't until I was talking to my friend Gina and she brought it up that I remembered.

I think it's hard to focus on the small cute things our kids do with all the chaos that surrounds us on a daily basis. So I decided to share this cute, funny story.

It involves David, which is no big surprise considering he's currently phasing into the world of pretend and is a constant source of entertainment.

I went over to my friend Gina's house to chat and visit, we hadn't seen each other since before Christmas. As we were sitting and chatting David is wandering around and happens upon a box of Cherrios on the dining room table. He brings it over to me with a smile that reads "look at this amazing bounty of which I have stumbled upon!" I have him ask Gina who knows and always teases that refusing food to David will result in very dire consequences.

She very kindly led him into the kitchen and filled a sandwich baggie with Cherrios for him to enjoy on the ride home. As we were leaving we passed by some nativity scenes she had out. In front of them was a small empty glass bowl. David saw such bowl and deciding that no bowl should be left empty, placed a small handful of cherrios into the bowl. Gina started laughing and saying that he was very kind to leave a food offering to baby Jesus. He just went on his way, adorably stuffing Cherrios into his mouth like only a 2 year old can.

These are the little stories I need to remember when he's using me as a playground and I'm wanting to find the cloak of invisibility. Those things don't REALLY exist...do they?

Matthew's Christmas Concert

Matthew had his Christmas Concert at school this past Monday. He was really excited to go and sing which is unusual. He usually loathes going to these things and just kind of does it because he feels it's his duty. But you can see him up there, sighing and mouthing the words to the song. Never really singing and looking utterly bored.

That wasn't the case this year. It was a major turn around and I owe it all to a little thing called a BOW-TIE.

As he was getting dressed he asked if he could wear his Dad's bow-tie. (Matt got it when he was in the Choir one semester at college.)

When he got to the school and sat with his fellow classmates they all instantly complimented him on his "fancy tie". You could literally see his confidence explode.

When it was time for him to sing, he got up there and was the biggest ham. I wanna say he stole the show, but that may be a little biased.

He was all about holding onto his tie and wiggling his eyebrows and looking real smug as he sang. I had never seen him act like that...at least not during a performance. Now, if he was at home? Sure. All the time. Seriously. All...the...time.

It made me think that he would do great in theater when he gets older. But then again, my mom said the exact same thing about me. But unfortunately I couldn't get over my crippling stage fright. It still haunts me to this day. But he does have some of his father's personality, so we'll see. Either way, he always has a way of putting a smile on peoples faces.