Laughing Out Loud

Ok... I was laughing at myself last night. I was turning the lights out and I thought I saw this huge spider on the floor. So I started beating it with Dave's shoe. After beating it senseless, I saw that it was just a fly from our game earlier today. Ha!

Girls Day Out

Being a SAHM it is a treat to get out for some girl time! Last week was Sarah's birthday and her best friend, Christie, came from California for the celebrations. They invited me to join them for a girls day to lunch and loads of shopping!

Let's just say they whooped me! I haven't done mall walking like that since before Ethan was born! It was so much fun to window shop and help Sarah spend some birthday money on clothes! I found my new favorite store! Was so inspired by it that I have already created a top on my own! (I love Becca for letting me borrow her sewing machine!)

Here we are (minus Becca taking the picture of course) at the Woodburn Outlets. We went there after lunch, Bridgeport Mall, and then afterwards went to Becca's for a movie and yummy birthday cake! I got home at 11:30pm! All I have to say is that I need to do it more often! It was loads of fun! Thanks girls!

Photos of the Week

Here are some of our photos of this week's art projects. To see details of the projects go here.

Ethan stamping away!

Painting his little piggies... not his toes, the paper. ;)

We Love You Mom and Dad!

The day before yesterday was Mom and Dad's 36th anniversary! I had been planning something special for their day since October. When I was working on the family project for Thanksgiving and collecting photos for their book, they had mentioned that the wedding photo they let me borrow was the only one they had.

I took several boxes home of photos that Dave's grandma had in her home before she had passed away. Jack and Sharon had kept them in a closet and haven't been through them. When I opened one of them, the entire box was filled with negatives. All of the negatives were labeled from before she passed away to as far back as the early 1900's!

The best part was finding all the negatives to Mom and Dad's wedding! So I used Scan Cafe and had all the negatives scanned, restored, and put on a DVD for Mom and Dad!

These are my favorite two pictures of the wedding. You can just see the love in their eyes! I cropped these and made them black and white. I am so glad that I got a copy of the DVD too because now I have these pictures and can use them for any project, not worrying that I will hurt the original!

Mom and Dad of course... cried. Well, Mom cried and Dad kept on repeating, "You did good girl." It was so nice to bless them with pictures that they hadn't seen in 30 years!

Tag - I guess I'm It!

OK... you know how much I dislike "tagging" games but Becca is having me play and no one likes a spoiled sport. ;)

Here are the rules of the game:

1. Take a quick photo of yourself and then post it on your blog.
2. List three unusual things about yourself we probably don't know.
3. Then you also tag three to five of your blogger buds to play along.
4. Don't forget to include links to your friend's blogs so we all can blog hop too!

So, here's my photo. Actually it is a sketch of what I probably look like today. Actually, the sketch is a lot better. Have you ever tried and made your hair beautifully messy... yeah, um... bed head doesn't count. On a side note... remember when Becca had that beautiful long hair with a perm, while she worked at Heritage Heart? I was so jealous cause she would get up in the morning and her hair looked amazing. Yeah, that's what I don't look like today!

1. Something that I wish everyone knew about me is that I am not a picky eater. In fact, I only won't eat three things: Lima beans, peas, and gooseberries. I wish my husband would remember that and not make peas for dinner. ;)

2. I didn't pass Tadpole swimming class 4 years in a row. I was the only teenager in the class with preschoolers. Humiliating...

3. I haven't picked up my sketch book in 12 years. Becca encouraged me to practice drawing my girls like I use to in high school. She was trying to get me to practice painting faces again for my dolls. Dave likes to read before he goes to bed. In fact, he can't fall asleep without reading for about fifteen minutes. Me? No... I lay my head on the pillow and I am out. Unless there is a light on in the room... so, no sleep for Jen until Dave is done reading. So, this week I picked up my sketch book and started drawing while Dave reads. It is actually very relaxing.

Those that are tagged are:

Jessica

Tammy

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I can't wait until warmer weather! We had two days of sunshine and during Ethan's nap I was able to get a little yard work done. I transplanted a lot that needed to be moved and separated. Here is our patio.

I moved all the climbing roses to the arbor. It was Mom's idea and when she told me I thought, "Why didn't I ever think about that?" Then they can all grow up and over the arbor. The best part is that we could have a beautiful view from our french back doors.

Since the rose bushes were moved I moved the wishing well that Dad made me. I can't wait to continue filling the flower bed around it. I planted some day lilies and transplanted several irises around it. I would also like to get a few more lavender plants to fill in around and behind it.

The front yard just got cleaned up and I added my stepping stones. I moved them from the roses to here! They look like they were meant to be. Wait until I post pictures in May! This whole garden will be filled in and beautiful. I can't wait!

Be Inspired...

I have been wanting a bit of a blog change for a while now... quite a bit of change. Can you tell? I have had friends and home school parents ask for help or ideas for their kids. I have been giving them our family blog address.

I realized that I would like to do a lot more with the teaching and art inspiration that I come up with, but I want to keep Ethan safe. I have been wanting to post quite a bit more about my art projects but realized that our family kind of gets lost in the blog. I want to focus our family's blog on the happenings of our life and keep my creative mind channeled! ;)

Teach Often is going to be a site dedicated to ideas to help you and your kids have fun (in school or at home)! Create Often will keep my art pieces and ideas managed! Hopefully all this means is that Dave can look on his family's blog and find pictures of his family and the rest of you will still be inspired!

Pigs in the Mud

I got so excited yesterday when I went into the attic and pulled out my "spring" and "farm" boxes! It was like Christmas all over again. I haven't looked in the boxes for a year and I had forgot what was inside!

One of my favorite centers is "Pigs in the Mud." I found these little piggies at the dollar store years ago. I make "mud" from my favorite play dough recipe that I got at a conference about eight years ago. I love to use my liquid watercolors to color my play dough because the colors can be so vibrant and beautiful. But you can use food coloring and it will do the trick just fine! (Look below for the recipe).

I loved watching Ethan play... he kept on pushing the pigs in the mud yelling, "Oh no! Ahhh!"

This recipe was given freely without copy right. The teacher believed that all should gain from her work... there are so many good ones!

Sauce Pan Play Dough

This play dough is quick and easy to make. It is smooth and requires no kneading. It makes a small quantity and may be doubled or tripled but it can be hard to stir.

1 Tbs. oil (I use baby oil)

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

1 Tbs. vanilla

1 tsp. alum

a few drops of food coloring

Process: Mix dry ingredients in a sauce pan. Add food coloring, water, oil, and vanilla. Mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches the consistency of mashed potatoes (really!). As it is cooking the mixture will change from a milky color to a translucent color. Remove from heat. Let it cool for a minute. Roll to form a ball and release the heat. Store in a sealed container.

Drawing "I"s

I couldn't help but take picture of our craft, yesterday! Ethan made it so fun. I traced his hand onto orange paper.

I think this was his first time to have his hand traced and cut out in this way. When I finished cutting out each hand, Ethan used a glue stick to glue them onto his bird's body as wings.

I then gave him his crayon and told him to make "eyes" on his bird. He thought I meant "i"s and so that's what he did.

We hung it from the ceiling next to his collection of art. We are getting quite the gallery.

We moved our bags off the window onto the cupboard. I don't know how many times the bags fell off because of the cold weather. They haven't come off once in their new home and are growing nicely.

"Here Mama..."

If you think it's been quiet over at the Evans' - you're right! We have all been sick. I caught that nasty stomach flu. Tammy and Jess had it several weeks ago... maybe it takes several weeks to make make it out here in the canyon. ;)

Actually, that's the first smile I could mustard up in the last three days. Dave asked me yesterday if I was mad at him. When I asked him why he thought so he said, "Normally when I come home you talk my ear off." Ha! Wow! Learned a lesson last night for sure!

Ethan has been feeling a bit better today. I am a little slow but feeling better to get some cleaning around the house. I just let the house go - I couldn't even get off the sofa! Ethan was a great helper. He would get me a blanket and say, "Here, Mama..." while patting it on me. What a sweetheart...