Recent Visit

Grandad and Grandmom recently came to hang out at Sherry and David's house.

There was much fun and frivolity!  Playing outside, jumping from high platforms and riding in mini-cars were on the menu.

Grandmom brought an art project.

But mostly we just enjoyed hanging out together.

Pottery Time

My Mom decided that painting pottery was long overdue, sooooo.....

She let them each pick one out for themselves....Lucy chose pretty instantly, Iris took a LITTLE longer, but Clyde AGONIZED over his decision.

Here they are painting....

and here they are with their finished products :)

Thanks, Nena!

"Proper Young Lady" lessons for Lavender

It was decided, today, that Lavender needed to be taught to be a proper young lady.

Each child in the house gave themselves a job to do which they deemed important to the agreed upon mission.

Here is Lavender sporting her new, blue silk riding ensemble, with matching feather hat made by none other, than aspiring dressmakers, Lucy and Meg.

Lilly decided to abandon the seemingly hopeless endeavor for more productive and edifying tasks.

Here is Lavender sporting her jeweled collar designed by the royal jeweler, Iris.

Here she explores her new royal quarters, including ferret sized, table, bed, throne, tissue box (with real, ferret sized tissues), art work, etc, etc.....all of this provided by Clyde and Iris.  Clyde also provide the royal music and dance.

Then, she is received driving instructions from Meg, in her Clyde-built queen's carriage.

And the ferret survived happily ever after.  The end.

Consumer Report -from one who has been organizing toys for days!

As I have been cleaning/organizing/throwing away toys and many other things for the past few days....I have felt the need to express my growing feelings towards certain products.

There are products that (even though, I like to THINK of myself as unmaterialistic) have brought great joy to my family and products that have brought my children to TEARS...not to mention the frustration they have brought to Stephen and I as we try, try, try again and still end up wiping said tears.

So....without much further ado....

MARKERS!

Markers which look like these.....AVOID these at all costs!  Do not purchase them for yourself, friends, your children or gifts...unless your goal is to add more useless clutter to their house.

Markers that look like THESE are WONDERFUL!!!  They will last FOREVER (or for your crafty child, maybe a year which = FOREVER)!  Basically, I'm saying BUY CRAYOLA!  Do not buy scented markers...there is no way they can be good for you and they give me a HEADACHE!

Same goes for crayons....buy crayola or your kids pictures will have these little wax pills all over them.

There.  I said it.  I am an art supply snob.


HOTWHEELS!

When buying hot wheels tracks DO NOT buys the really cool looking tracks advertised that have lots of parts that break off and are supposed to do really cool things.  THEY DO NOT WORK...or if they do, they won't for long.  Pretty soon you're going to be finding the pieces EVERYWHERE saying, what does this go to???

DO BUY THE BORING LOOKING TRACKS THAT FOLD UP AND HAVE A HANDLE!!!!  Your kids will enjoy countless hours of racing for YEARS!  And that folding capability ROCKS!  And Stephen and I have stayed up late trying to find out which single hotwheels car is really the fastest???

LEGOS!!!

Even though, you will get a dizzying headache from finding them everywhere, Legos will pay you back in full with profit to spare.  We take ONLY these toys with us when we go out of town, for rainy days and they have kept, not only our kids busy all day, but many other kids occupied during bad weather as well.  Legos ARE WONDERFUL!  Also, Stephen and I enjoy playing with them :)

also...wooden blocks = good!

TOYS THAT WILL GIVE YOU A HEADACHE AND NOT REWARD YOU FOR SAID HEADACHE.

These would include Polly Pocket, toys from children's meals (may I just say AAAHHHHH!), and possibly Littlest Pet Shop.  Little plastic toys with no purpose drive me BANANAS.

Clyde ADORES transformers!  Which is why we had complete breakdowns with each transformer that came into our house.  It is hard to be devastatingly excited about something and then have it fall apart in your hands. 

PLAYDOH!

This one is simple.  I'm going to be a brand snob again.

I'm just sayin....generics are going to drive you crazy with their crumbles and their crazy awful smell! That smell will not leave your children's hands for DAYS!


GAMES!

Games that do not fit in their box....or never came in one to start with....DO NOT BUY THESE!  They WILL drive you crazy.  Also, many games are simply not entertaining.  Your kids don't play with them...they just take up space.  And your kids will cry when you throw them away.

Games that come in and fit in a box= good.  Games that actually do occupy children also = good.

BOOKS!!!

GENERALLY.... books = good!

There are exceptions to this rule, however.  Read books before your children do.  Some of them are HORRIBLE and should not be allowed in a children's section.

  There will come a day, when they will read faster than you and more than you and you will get SICK of children's literature.  At that point just hope and pray that they will talk to you about them and that they will cause your sweet ones no harm.

Small cardboard children's books that are supposed to be about Jesus or Bible stories are not exempt from the "read before sharing" rule.  We were given one that said Jesus was a good prophet and that people loved him so much they dreamed he rose from the dead.  FOR REAL, people! 

There is so much more I want to say, but I need to get back to organizing toys.  My pet peeves are starting to overflow, so there may be a sequel.

TTFN!

Mother's Day 2011

I woke up this morning to 3 delightful children putting handmade cards on my bed :)  As soon as I got done reading the last one, I heard music playing.  I looked up at the computer screen and Stephen was playing a slide show which he had made for me, that made me cry.  (He also bought me a brand new Canon camera!!!)  so yeah...incredible morning!  And Stephen pretty much rocks!

Sherry, my kids and I surprised Mom by showing up at her church for worship.  I decided to take a picture of the kids BEFORE we went in :) ...on my NEW CAMERA, of course...

Afterwards we got pictures of Mom with the kids and Mom with Sherry and I.

 

Then we took she and Papa to Smokey Bones....at this point Stephen joined us.

Then Sherry, Mom and I took a 48 minute walk....aaahhh....sunshine.

It was a WONDERFUL Mother's Day!!

My Mom :)

To my Mommy,

Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks for always loving me so unbelievably much.

 

Thank you for all the fun you made sure I got to have.

Thank you for being consistent and firm and not letting me act like so many of the kids around me.

You have always acted as though I just deserved everything.  The way you would just give me anything you even thought I might need...without me even asking!

Thank you for being such a great "Nena",  my kids just soak up your great love for them and all the time you spend with them!

You are so beautiful to me and I love you SO much!!