Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend, we took a family trip back to the big BMT for Memorial Day weekend. Friday night, Nick & I went to Adventure Kingdom & played putt-putt, Saturday we went swimming at Wayne & Tracey's house & Sunday we went to visit my parents. When we left my parents' house, we headed home so that we could spend Memorial Day relaxing at home.

I didn't take a lot of pictures over the weekend, but here are a few that I did.

Putt Putt for the fun of it!

Addy has really been wanting to jump off the diving board at the Sienna pool but they won't let her with her floaties. So she was really excited to be able to jump off this one!

Excited to be able to, but she still didn't do it. Oh well!

Jules about to jump!


Goggles!

"Look Mom, I'm swimming!"

Grant

Why eat cookies one at a time when you could eat 3 at a time!

Alex playing in the birdseed at CiCi & PopPop's house.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Nature Walk

Last week Nick & I took the kids on a nature walk around the neighborhood.

I made up a picture chart for them to bring along & they checked off each item as we found it.

Heading out on our walk

Addy checking off her first find... Ducks in the pond

Alex needed a little help to check off his list.

Hurray for nature walks!

"Come on Mommy!"

My sweet girl

We found flowers.

We found rocks.

We found clovers.

We found leaves!

We found a bird & a tree!

We found dandelions (which weren't on our list but are lots of fun!)

We were almost home & still hadn't found a squirrel. Addy was not too happy about this. She's quite a perfectionist & had to have her list completed before we could go home.

Alex said he was "running out of walking power" so Nick carried him until his power was restored.

Once his power was restored, Alex & Addy ran along the fence dragging a stick. Daddy taught them this fun trick!

We made it home with everything checked off on our list. And even though we all had a great time, it'll probably be awhile before we go on another nature walk. It's already just way too hot in Texas!

Friday, May 25, 2012

End of year teacher gifts

A lot of you guys are already out of school for the summer, so I probably should have wrote this post last week. (But I'm a planner & a procrastinator at the same time, so I had all my ideas & materials together, but didn't get these projects finished until the morning of awards day!) But for those of you that still need an idea for this year (or maybe next), here's a cute & simple idea for an end of the year teacher gift.

Here's what we made for Addy's teachers...

I needed a summer door hanger & so here's what I came up with. Didn't it turn out cute!

I also made one for each of Addy's teachers for part of their end of the year gift.

And here's their main gift. Are you wondering what's inside? I know you are, lol! So let me tell you...

It's a summer gift card book!
Wondering what that is?? Well, keep reading & you'll find out!

I got the idea from here while searching on Google for end of the year gift ideas. This lady used premade chipboard books. I looked at Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, Micheals & even Amazon & I couldn't find any. So I bought the only pack of chipboard that I could find ($3.99 at Hobby Lobby & I used a 40% off coupon) & cut the pages of the books myself.

I have plenty of scrapbook paper so I just picked a couple of summerish looking sheets & cut them a little smaller than the chipboard pieces.

Then I glued the scrapbook paper to the chipboard.

Next I cut white copy paper a little smaller than the scrapbook paper. (I'm just saying a little smaller because I didn't actually measure any of this. I just cut one & then used it for a pattern to make the rest.) On each piece of copy paper, I had Addy write a specific phrase. Then I glued the copy paper to the scrapbook paper.

The hardest part (really, the only hard part) was holepunching the chipboard. The chipboard was too thick to fit in the 3 hole punch that I could just push down on, so instead I had to use the hand holepunch & squeeze. Man did my hands hurt after that! I used small binder rings to hold the books together.

And here's how they turned out...

What will Mrs. Cochran do this summer?

Eat ice cream cone ($5 gift card to Dairy Queen)

Read a book ($10 gift card to Amazon)

Drink a slushie ($5 gift card to Sonic)

Watch a movie ($10 gift card to Star Cineama Grill)

Each book was the exact same except for the teacher's name on the cover. They cost me $30 each to make. Not too expensive & they turned out super cute! And her teachers LOVED them! Mrs. Cardenas said that it was the cutest present she's ever received & Mrs. Berry said she could just see Addy sitting there writing everything out. And they both said they cried when they read them. Mrs. Cochran sent me the sweetest thank you note & said that she doesn't want to take the gift cards out of the book because it's just so cute! 

I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again... Addy's teachers are ABSOLUTELY THE BEST! They all love her so much & it really really shows!

And I even got an end of the year gift from Mrs. Cochran, Addy's regular ed teacher. As a thank you for helping her throughout the year with projects. I got a cute little reversible bag, a cup with an 'R' on it, candy (there was more but Alex ate it) and a gift card to Hobby Lobby (which will be spent in no time I'm sure!)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Slippery when butter....

This morning I made pancakes for Addy. I thought she might want a couple of more, so I left the butter on the kitchen island. I then went into my bedroom & watched TV for about 5 minutes. I popped back into the living room to check on the kids. Addy was sitting at the table, still eating her pancakes & this is what Alex was doing....






I don't know what I'm going to do with this kid!!!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Gardening

Last year I planted a potted garden (because of Pepper the dog.) It did pretty good. I got several peppers, tomatoes & strawberries.

Since we no longer have Pepper, this year I bought seeds & had plans for a great big garden in my backyard. But that didn't happen! I'm always so busy & I just didn't feel like putting that much effort into making a garden. So I didn't. But I did go ahead & plant the seeds. And we ended up with the saddest little garden that you've probably ever seen!

I started planting & Alex said that he wanted to help. He said he was going to go get a shovel & he came back with a spoon!

And yes, he did use the spoon as his shovel. (And I did too, lol!)

I dug a few trenches & Alex poured the seeds into them.


I told Addy to come help us. She came over, looked at what Alex & I were doing & then she ran off. I thought, ok, I guess she doesn't want to help... And then a couple minutes later, Addy comes back with these plant stakes that she had made.

Tomatoes

Corn

Beans

And so here's our little garden.

And look how much it's grown in just 2 weeks!

And since it has done so good, I'm planning on expanding it. I haven't exactly decided how though.

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Here's another gardening project that I did. This big bush was right by my front porch and it attracted BEES! Not a good combination.

Everyday when we would get home, I could hear the bees buzzing around. I asked a couple of people what I could do to get rid of the bees & it seemed like my best option was to cut the bush down.

So that's what I did! And here's what I planted in it's place. 2 boxwoods, 2 knockout roses, 2 salvias, & 1 blue daze. I'm still waiting on my yard guy to come mulch it though.

I also planted 2 confederate roses (compliments of Pat) in my bakyard.

And 7 more along my fenceline. I can't wait for these to bloom!