Round 2.....

So I will be missing over the next few days as we brace for round two of this wonderful bug that is visiting us. Now it is Sam's turn. Wish us luck.
Update--it is 5:30 in the morning and I am wide awake after only a couple hours of sleep because Dh has been hit with it to. Now lets hope that the odds are in my favor of staying healthy. (doubtful though)

A sick day....

Well I was going to get posting things yesterday but it was just one of those days when you everything you plan goes straight out the window. Gabe came down with a bug. I started of scouring his room and the bathroom clean. That was all before 9:00 am. Sign of how my day was going to go. Not at all like I planned.
So Gabe spent the morning laying on the couch watching shows. He looks so excited don't you think.

I had him go to his room for some down time in the afternoon. His brother spent the entire reading to him. The little guy fell asleep while his brother was reading. This is how he looked when he woke up. His tempature rose and he got sick again. The poor little man. As you see though his brother is very attentive to him. His nuturing gene is really strong.

So this is how he spent the rest of his day. Even sick he is still adorable. Thankfully he is on the mend today. He is taking it easy today but his fever and everything else is staying low.

Some Crafting Time.....

First off this is my 500th post. OMG I can not believe that I have enough things to say to fill 500 posts, or that I still have any readers, so thanks it means the world to me.

I thought that I would share some of the crafts that we have been working on around here.
Gabe got this really fun art project from my SIL for his birthday. He had so much fun painting it and putting all of the stickers on it.
The boys have been working on their sewing and they made hand puppets this week. Gabe made an alien hippo. Sam made a cute little puppy for his brother.

I never shared the presents that we made for Gabe's birthday this year. First up I made some new pajama pants for my little monkey.

I found a panel of fabric at Wal-mart with all of the pieces to make this adorable plane pillow. It only cost 2.50, I had to get it at that price. He loves it.

Gabe loves to play with cars so we made him a car mat. We used a twin size flat sheet and painted his own town on it.

I have been tagged....

Ok I got tagged by two of my blog friends for this here and here. I figured that I better get it done.

The rules for this one are simple - you go to your pictures folder and go to the sixth one and then you find the sixth picture and post it.

First please excuse the messy room in the back ground. Other than that I love this picture because the boys are so sweet together. How cute giving his little brother a piggy back ride.

Ok now I have to tag 6 more people for this, and I can not wait to see what they have to share.
1.) Kate

2.) Yasmina

3.) Amber (Maybe she will get back to blogging :))

4.) Mrs. Darling

5.) Piseco mom

And last but not least

6.) Nina

Wow, a book list...

See I am starting to get back to a normal routine. I actually got a book list up this week. Wow that has been a long time. I hope that you enjoy them.
First up is My Name Is Not Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry. This book is written really well in my opinion. It has beautiful drawings and a wonderful story line. A little girl tells her mom through out the day that she is not Isabella, but that she is different famous women through out history. It would make a great story read for next month during womens history month.

Next up is Pete and Pickles by Berkeley Breathed. I loved this book. I constantly found myself saying "ahhh, so sweet" through out the whole book. The book is about a "perfectly perdictable pig" named Pete. Everything was very simple and uncomplicated in his life. That is until he found an elephant named Pickles hanging out in his lamp. Then the most unlikely friendship starts.

With two boys the list would not be complete with out a truck book. Melvin Might? by Jon Scieszka fit the bill perfectly. In this story Melvin is a truck that worries about everything, and I do mean everything. That is until one day when his friend is in trouble and he is the only one that can save her. That is if he can stop worrying long enough to do it. Do you think that he does, check it out and see.

Ok I found out about Blackberry Banquet by Terry Pierce on this site. Any of the books that I found on here have been great. This one is a really cute story about animals that have found a blackberry bush and what happens when a bear unexpectedly joins them. The best part is if you want to expand on any of the topics in the books the back is full of different ideas. If there is not enough information for you though make sure to check out the website too. They have even more info on there.

SuperHero Onesies...

Look what my DH made. We were unable to get our friends real present done in time for her shower. So we came up with this idea. How cute are they. My Dh made a stencil and then hand painted each of them.
The Green Lantern

Superman Batman

The Flash

Last but not least, Captian America. I have such a talented hubby. :)

And now back to regular programming.....

Well at least I hope that I will be at regular programming for me. Our big busy things are finally over so things can slow down a little. Here are a few pictures that show some of the stuff that we have been up to.
There has been some reading. I found Gabe reading a book about ancient egypt to all of his animals on Gorilla Mountain. He said that they were actually reading their own books. To share a little about the Mountain set. We got it for his birthday and he loves it. I highly recommend it. The whole set folds up nicely for storage. It is really sturdy too. He has had it for a whole week and nothing is broken yet. That says a lot because 90% of the time the kid breaks something within the first 24 hours of having it (that is usually on purpose to).

We are working on a couple of different lapbooks right now. Sam is working on one about Japan and then as a group we are working on about Zoos and Zoo keepers.

There has been some painting going on. Our Friend is going to have a baby any day now. She is doing his nursery all in superheroes. I thought a nice gift from the boys would be to make some original art work for the nursery. I gave them each a canvas a told them to create what they thought a superhero should be. Gabe (who is really into transformers) created bumblebee (on the left). Sam went a little more original. He created Smart Man (on the right). Smart Man saves the world with the use of books.

Look I can even get them to sit still for about 2 minutes and do a work sheet. Look at the concentration on that face. hehehehe, he deserves an oscar for that act.

Ok that is it for now, but more soon.

Flour Tortillas

Yesterday the boys had baking for their life skills. They made some flour tortillas so that we could have them with supper. I found the recipe in their Around The World Cookbook. We bought this after getting it from the library. It is a great cookbook, we are having a lot of fun with it.
Are you ready to cook with us......

Add in all of the ingredients.

Mix it up really well. Use your hands if the spoon does not work well enough.

After you have divided the dough into 8 balls you need to roll them out flat.

Gabe really wanted to form his into something. He made a heart (kind of hard to see, sorry) with his last ball. When I asked why he made a heart. He said "because I love you". Can we say awww. He is just to cute. Needless to say that was my favorite part of the day.

Of course though we could not do cooking with out a flour fight. This time we even got Sam. hehehehe.

Sam was taunting us saying we would never get him on the rug. My response, that is what we have a vaccum for. I got him, then pulled him closer to the kitchen. I told Gabe to get Sam. Silly me I thought that he would only take some stuff from the counter. Nope he dug both of his little hands into the flour container. The result is shown in both of these pictures.

Needless to say we all did get hit. I think all of us changed because we were so covered. At least we had fun! Gabe enjoyed it so much he kept throwing it at himself.

I thought that I would share the recipe to if any one wants to try and make it.

Flour Tortillas-- Makes 8

Ingredients-

2 cups of all-purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling

1/2 cup of vegetable shortening

3/4 cup of warm water

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

1.) Mix the ingredients in a medium bowl until a dough forms. Turn out and knead for one minute. Divide into 8 balls.

2.) Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat.

3.) Sprinkle flour on your work surface and rolling pin. Roll each ball into a 6 inch round. (Don't worry if they're not perfectly round). If the dough sticks to the surface, sprinkle with more flour.

4.)Place 1 round in the hot pan. Cook, turning once, until bubbles pop up on each side, about 2 minutes per side.

5.) Remove from the pan and wrap in a clean towel. Repeat, stacking the cooked tortillas in the towel.

Added note-- we have been experimenting and adding in different seasonings. So have fun and see what is the yummiest to you.

Birthday Cakes

I thought that I would share some pictures of Gabe's cakes. Yes I said cakes. You see Gabes birthday was on a Thursday and his Dad worked late. So we decided to have cake and ice cream on friday with family. Of course he had to have something on his actual birthday so I wanted to make cupcakes for him. I found this one on Family fun. I did not have any ice cream cones but I did have waffle bowls for ice cream. I figured that it would work just as well. It did, but it expanded a lot.
Here are ice cream sundae cupcakes. They were very large, It took a couple of days to eat it. They were oh so yummy though.

Very yummy indeed. Made for a great sugar high.

Here is a shot of his cake from friday.

FEBRUARY 12, 2003

Our Sweet Little Boy! You came into our life 6 years ago. It has been amazing. You have always been such a happy, wonderful sweet boy......
And you still are. Our funny little boy. You make us smile all the time. We love all of your creative stories and the fact that you always keeps us on our toes. Thanks so much for all the good times. So our beautiful baby boy.......

Have an amazing birthday and enjoy being six. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Hula Hooping Mania

I bought the boys a hula hoop the other day. I thought that it would be a fun way for them to have gym class. I got the video of each of the first time trying it. Gabe was just having fun. Sam though surprised me on how good he could do (ok I was jealous of him). Since the video he has been doing it and can get it going for up to 30 seconds. He is a big fan of the Guiness World Records, so now he wants to keep going until he can break the record. As long as he keeps at it I am positive that he will. So I hope that you enjoy the videos.

We are still alive, I promise!!!!!!

Sorry we disappeared for a few days. We have just been so busy. All weekend we tried to spend as much time together as possible because tax season has officially started. We did some wonderful family time and spent the day yesterday at the Miami Zoo. It was such a wonderful day. Then we also have so many projects going on right now. Gabe's Birthday is next week and we are trying to make most of his gifts. Then also our friend is having a baby shower next weekend. She asked us for one thing, but of course we are doing so much more than just that. Who can stop at making just one baby item. I will share pictures of some of the items that were made after the shower. I am also trying to make the lesson plans for the month to. It has been a little on the crazy side around here the past few days.

We did take today off because the boys (me too) were very tired from yesterday. So the following shots are of some of the activities that they did today.

Dh teaches the science and on friday's he has science experiments. He is going to start letting Sam do the experiments every other week. He gets to come up with them and then teach everyone. Today he spent some time trying to come up with his first one. This one is one that he found in the back of the newest family fun magazine. I will show pictures on Friday if it works for him.
Gabe spent alot of time playing on his leapster. We gave him Sam's old one yesterday and he loves it. He has already spent hours playing with it. When he is not playing with it, he is at his table playing with all of his toy animals on his table. He loves playing that he has his own zoo.

In honor of groundhogs day, Sam made a lapbook all about groundhogs. He started this project a week ago and worked so hard to finish it in time for today. He did such a great job on it.

I promise to be back soon. I have a lot to share book list, fact list, school plans, some projects that we are working on and probably more. Have a great night and I will share again soon.