Fab Friday

Lunch at Burger King:

To signify the end of Basketball camp I asked the girls where they wanted to go for lunch. They chose Burger King. Here are snipits of our outing... I'm pretty sure they will have our faces on a do not serve sign if we ever dare to show our faces again!

They ordered everything in McDonald's vocabulary "chicken McNuggets and apple dippers please". Then, they saw crowns on a bunch of party goers. "Please Please Please can we have one too???" the poor lady had to search high and low to please my children, but each were crowned, and all was well in the land..... until they started shooting their transformers motorcycles off the table.

My most embarrassing moment was when the symbol for McDonald's came up on the Big Screen TV. They all shouted "Mom Look, It's McDonald's!" Not once but twice :)

For the record: We honestly don't do fast food more than once a month or so. McDonald's did not pay us to infiltrate Burger King. Finally, to the employees of our local Burger King: Thank you, and really we do like you :)

Why am I so tired???

So What did you do this week???

I think I had a busy week! Here are the highlights:

~~~

Home Depot! On the first Saturday of the month the home depot has

free workshops for the kids. On Saturday, we built a wheelbarrow plant holder for Mother's day.

Earlier that morning, our daisy troop gathered in the garden center where they taught us how to plant tomatoes and gave us each a tomato plant to grow... pot and all! Thank you Home Depot!!!!

~~~

Boston trip! My older girls scouts and I went on an overnight to the Boston museum of science.

It was an amazing experience...

even if we did sleep in a room with peeping chicks and a skeleton riding a bicycle!

~~~

Soccer anyone?? First game of the season!

~~~

Spring Concert... like my artistic take?? pics from the nosebleed section don't come out very well ;)

~~~

Special programs with daisies! Among many other things this night, they made this

great tic tac toe board. Very easy! Plywood, nails and balsa wood shapes. The girls sanded, pounded nails, and painted the pieces. They had a great time!

~~~
Cooking!!! This dreay week just called for snickerdoodles! We didn't stop there though!

This picture is of us making dog bones for the animal shelter.

~~~

A visit to the horses at the Maine sspca. What an amazing place!

~~~

An art lesson in good and bad behavior: Make 2 "feelings masks" out of paper plates. One mad and one happy. On the "happy plate" help the child write all the things they do well, things that make them happy. On outside of the "mad plate" help them write the things they do when they are mad, and what makes them mad. Discuss the items. Notice that there are a ton of good things that the child does!!! On the back of the "mad plate" write down things the child can do when they are mad. This is the stuff they can think about (inside themselves, thus the inside of the mask) to calm themselves down so they can think of a good way to change the situation. We even made them for mommy!!!! Paper plates are cheaper than therapy and easier than getting super nanny to come to my house!

Since this is only a fraction of what we did this week I guess I'm justified in being exhausted???
The sun is out today, finally!!! I'm going to eat lunch outside, put my feet up for a minute then take a nice walk. After that I'll get back to work... everyone needs a break right???

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's day!!!!!

Fab Fridays

TV Turn-off Week:

You will not hear from me next week. We are participating in National TV turn off week.

My kids have slipped into a TV coma more often than I like this winter. I have also logged a lot of hours of screen time. Mine is obviously on the computer! Spring is here and we are unplugging!

The girls have signed pledges at school saying they will not watch TV this week. I have also had a pledge given to me by my lovely Sunshine. She had a huge grin on her face. She's thrilled that I have to turn off the computer for a week. I haven't signed it yet. I see myself sneaking screen time when they are in bed. Who has the real problem here??? Oh yeah, that would be me. I need unplugging more than the kiddos.

This will be a fun week! We are going to have "Vacation Camp" all week. This is something we did this summer with the help of my beloved "Fly Lady". The girls act like they are at camp. They make camp vests, earn badges (stickers) for good behavior, have fun chores. Each day there are exciting activites such as:

Play Dates

Craft time

Nature hikes

Tour the playgrounds in the area

First bon fire and marshmallow roast of the season

Clean the house relays: Wash the floors iceskating competetions, who can pick up the most clutter races, dust a thons... etc...

At the end of the night we have an awards ceremony for the badges earned during the day.

How are you unplugging your kids next week?? Are you as nervous as I am?? LOL!!

Fab Fridays

A quick little note:

Happy Easter to those who celebrate! We are getting ready for a wonderful weekend of blessings, family, and food!!!

Life is good. Today is busy!!!! We had our first picnic and we flew the kites we made a few weeks ago!! There was a lot of wind and guess what, they really flew!!! We were excited!

Til next week!

Fab Fridays

Oh the things I love!!!!

Here are my loves of the moment:

Pinkalicious and Purplicious!

We picked up these great books by victoria Kann at the school book fair this week. They are a daily read... 2 or 3 times daily read ;) Purplicious has a really good message about peer pressure.


Woodkins: We trudged into the depths of the basement this morning in search for new games. I keep them in rotation since I just don't have enough room to keep everything in our game cupboard. In one of the boxes were Sunshine's old woodkins. Fabric goes in the frame and when you close it voila! the doll is dressed. The twins are loving them, I can't believe I haven't taken them out before now. Sorry girls.



My kids: I know this is obvious!! I really love the things they think they know. Thing 1 just told me: "do you know that the black part of your eye is called a blimp? it gets bigger when you go in the dark and smaller when your in the light". She got part of it right. I'm quite impressed she knew that! During bring your mom to gym class the twins put together a huge detailed puzzle of the human heart and knew the names of the pieces!! I've brought out the anatomy books!! This is my love!

I have been spending a lot of quality time with them lately and I am an addict, I'm always wanting for more.... quality time that is, not the crazy times!!! LOL!!!

Watercolor artists: Wow, since our waterpaints came out a few weeks ago they haven't went back in! I brought their easel upstairs (from the defunct craft room in the basement) and they act as though it is brand new. They spend all their free time painting. Yesterday thing 2 wrote an I love you message to her twin sister and said "I do sissy, I really do love you!!" It was beautiful!

My garden experiments. They are growing!!! Wait for Monday to see... it's pretty cool ;)

My renewed interest in myself. I'm starting to take care of myself again. It was a long winter. Now I'm heading to the gym, drinking my water, writing down what I eat. I'm back in control baby and it feels so good!!!!

I've gotta run! Such a busy day.... I love that too!!!!
What do you love????

Fab Fridays

We finally made the kites! I thought that deserved a spot in Fab Fridays... I mean, geesh, I've been talking about them long enough!!


I am sad to say my photography skills were lacking. It may have been that we were doing this at 8am on a few sips of coffee or that I was so excited to finally make them that I forgot to take pictures, and hurriedly took the ones I did. Any way, this is the only 1/2 way decent picture taken of the kite making process.

I thought it was a lot like making paper airplanes. you folded the paper in the middle length wise then each side corner to corner (like a triangle). We used 12 X 12 scrap booking paper. The girls decided to put the print on the side with the rudder (so they could see it in the sky). One huge tip: put the hole for the string at the top of the rudder or it will fly upside down... oopsie!!

This is the finished product (with the pretty ribbon tail cut out, shucks!). With no wind they didn't fly up in the sky. No matter, if you ask the girls they were wonderful and flew great! That's all counts :) Well, and that they are just adorable and make a cute spring decoration.

Notice thing 1?? She's sporting her two loves. Her kite is decorated with water colors, and she's wearing her favorite PJ's!! Flying kites at 8:30 am requires you to still be in PJ's... but I did talk her into wearing pants under them... that's what I call success.

Just in case the girls decide they want to fly kites up in the sky, I found these at the dollar store and decided to stock up. I heard they fly great and also fly right out of the store so I bought a bunch. Really, you can't go wrong for $1!!!!

Have a great weekend everyone! See you on Monday!

Fab Fridays....

Calendar Spring is here!!! From my years as a preschool teacher and mom in New England I have learned to call today the first day of "Calendar Spring". Why??? Because kids think of spring as trees full of leaves, beautiful flowers blooming, warm air, and butterflies. I have had more than one child come to me very disappointed that the snow did not melt and the leaves and flowers did not pop out overnight!!!!

In Maine, it is now "Mud Season".... Spring as the kids know it, arrives in May. Calendar spring is still a great time of year. Its a time of hope, with the brightly shining sun there is a knowing that warmer days will soon arrive.

We have spent the last week drawing with chalk outside, riding bikes (being sure to peer around the snowbanks and watching out for ice and mud puddles), and blowing bubbles. It's over 30 degrees... spring enough for us!!! It helps that we have a paved driveway and road, as long as they don't step on the little bits of exposed grass there's not much mud...thank god!!

Today, the twins and I went on a Spring Cleaning Adventure!!!!! We took out our bottles of homemade "Go Green Cleaner" (made of equal parts vinegar and water) and our reusable rags and went to town. I cleaned the yucky smelling wood stove and all around it while the girls cleaned the windows, TV's, Baseboards... whatever they could think of... they love to spray!! This is the first time they've actually wiped things well too!! A few streaks remained but that doesn't bother me... as the Flylady says, even cleaning done wrong blesses the family! Boy do I feel blessed! That wood stove smells great when it is running but stale wood smoke is just gross! I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the smell for the longest time. It finally dawned on me that cleaning the dusty soot off everything may just help ;) Yep, I'm a smarty ;) The vinegar really helps neutralize the odor too... after it stops smelling like deviled eggs!!

To end today I again want to wish a Happy Calendar spring to my New England friends, and Happy Spring to the rest of you! For a glimpse of spring that I'm totally Jealous of check out the Pictures Jess at KadyHope took this week. Oh to live in California!!!! LOL!!!

This week....

Has been filled with the ying and yang of life.

Happy moments when your so proud you could bust. Bike riding, making play dough, an afternoon hanging with my favorite cousin, girl scouts, giving of items to someone in need, everyone working in the kitchen prepping a meal, good conversation... "Life can't get much better than this" moments that make it all worth while.

Hard moments when you want to pull out your hair. Bus warnings and bus slips, stubborn independent 5 year olds, temper tantrums, Too many bad X's to win a prize, shoveling snow in a rainstorm because the puddle at the bottom of the driveway is bigger than the kids, mean people, having to stand up and say what's on your mind because it's right (SOOO HARD)... those lift your head up and shout "SCREW IT" moments.

I'm trying to love the good, learn from the hard, and just carry on. How was your week???