The Monkey House

Farmer's Market

2012-01-24T18:48:00.000-05:00

The other day we took the kids to our local farmer's market. The kids love going here and getting the fresh fruit and vegetables here but this trip was a little different though.

I promise Gabe had more fun than it looks like in the picture. He was just a little upset because I asked him not to be silly in the picture. I know, I know mean mom. :0)

The difference for this trip was that the kids got to pick their fruit and veggies off the plants themselves. They thought that this was the funnest thing.

First up was the strawberries. It was hard to get the boys away from these plants. They loved finding them in the plants.

Gabe really enjoyed racing up and down looking for new plants.

Sam was a little more patient and relaxed on his hunt.

Eventually we seperated a little bit. Sam went with his dad and found lots of yummy ones.

I got this little cutie as my helper. He wanted this picture because of the really long stem. :0)

My three guys showing off the haul. Rob really does have some in his bucket but Gabe has the most in his.

We got a nice little strawberry haul. After picking the strawberries we headed over to the the tomatoes to pick. We did not stay over there long because all the tomatoes were green. We did pick some, just waiting for them to finish turning red now.

Heading to the stand to pay for our goods. It was a really beautiful day for picking.

Some shots from the outside of the farmer's market. This was an antique wagon.

I love the red in this tree.

This was a bottle sculpture that the kids thought was pretty neat. It was for sale if you want it. It is a just $89. Sorry kids maybe next time.

That is all for now. Off to enjoy a homemade oreo, yummy

Coming soon

2012-01-23T13:37:00.000-05:00

I know I disappeared for a week but I promise I am back with lots of pictures to share. As you see we have been hard at work. No major thing going on just our basic fun. I will explain this photo soon too! Till then have a good one.

Cooking with Kids

2012-01-16T06:00:00.033-05:00

Learning to cook is an important part of life. I have heard so many stories of kids leaving home and having no idea how to cook. Worse they have no idea what to do in a grocery store. Well I am going to make sure that does happen with my boys. If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know that Sam is not an issue on this front. He is even one of the big reasons why I am having problems losing wieght, the kid can bake. He has even been working on knowing how to grocery shop. He is capable of looking for what the best deals are. His favorite thing now is when we go to the store that I give him his own list and he goes off with his brother and teaches him how to do it. I like it because my shopping is getting done twice as fast now. He even knows how to use coupons, LOL. Love it!

Gabe is a whole different story. He is just learning his skills in the kitchen. Gabe is a really smart kid he just needs a little more supervision in the kitchen because he is still the kid that will grab a hold of the hot pan handle with no oven mit. Ouch! I want to give him more independce in the kitchen though because that is important to his self esteem. For christmas I wanted to give him his own cookbook that would assure more independence for him. I spent a few days searching and I found The Do It Myself Cookbook. What a great cook book, the recipes are so easy for the kids to follow on their own.

Here is a picture of the way the recipes are set up. This is actually the recipe that he did. It is Peanut Butter, Strawberry, and Coconut on Cinnamon Bread.

As you can see he takes his cooking very seriously, look at the focus on his face. He really loves being able to cook. It is one of his goals to work on this year.

Showing off the completed sandwich. He is very proud of his work. I mean wouldn't you be look how good that sandwich looks. It was very yummy too!

On a side note the kids did all of their grocery shopping for this recipe and stayed well within my budget. I was thinking of trying to make a cooking segment each week. It will feature recipes that the kids have made on their own or with very little help. What do you think, Let me know if you like this idea.

How the rest of our week went!

2012-01-15T06:00:00.070-05:00

Well my boys truly love homeschooling. I mean most kids would right? However for the few years that we have been doing it, it has not been easy. With all the good moments there was just as much bad moments too. I think though, fingers crossed, we might have actually found our groove. My biggest problem was getting them to get all of their work done on time. They would be so far behind. Our schedule is 3 weeks on 1 week off, and that week off they would always spend it catching up. About 4 months ago something clicked in them and they started getting things done daily, never falling behind any more. I really hope that I did not just jinx us with that statement. Oh well we will see. Now on to the rest of our week....

Plenty of silent reading time. Sam does plenty on his own that we do not have to put it in his schedule. Gabe though we have to assign him something. Then when he is done we have to ask follow up questions to make sure he got it. As you see though we are not completly mean. I wish that my work consisted of me curling up on the couch and reading.

There was some sewing going on. Sam is hiding behind the blanket because he is trying to make something for his brother's upcoming birthday. It was the only way that he could think to hide it from him. I can not show you a completed picture until after Gabe's birthday to make sure that he does not see it. Gabe did make a sewing project though that I can share. Sam's favorite country to learn about is Italy so Gabe sewed the flag for a pillow.

Photo taken by Sam

They boys did start on the water science this week. Along with the worksheets they have had lots of fun experiments. Gabe is doing a taste test of regular water to see if there was any flavor.

Sam, using an eye dropper had to figure out the size of one drop of water. The photo below Sam is trying to build different styles of boats to see what one can hold the most before sinking.

There was plenty of pictures being taken all around. The boys recieved this camera in the mail this week as a free gift for one of the mailing clubs that we are in. It is not the top of the line camera but it is perfect for them to play around with, and hey it was free!

There was baking of course. Sam recieved a donut maker for christmas and loves making his own donuts. He brought some of these into the girls in ballet class. He is smart, The only boy in the class and he brings in homebaked goods to the girls. I think I am going to have some problems keeping those girls away. Gabe did do some cooking this week to, but I am going to share that tomorrow. Make sure to come back for that.

Playing with play-doh. Great way to build up the muscles that are needed to write with.

We practiced grammar by playing a game of lego grammar. Momma won, but Sam was really close behind. Gabe, ahh he still needs ome work on that. He will get it though.

Lots of Just Dance 3 for gym class. The keep trying to beat mom and dad's score. Good luck boys, you will get there.

Of course there was lots of lessons on the iPad. Gabe is working on an art lesson here.

Sam was working on his money lapbook. Did you know that Antartica has its own currency? He was pretty excited to find that out. The money is really pretty to, yup there was penguins on it.

We played monoply crazy cash with Gabe. That kid kicked my butt. He is a little Donald Trump in the making. He loved it that I kept calling him money bags. He laughed so hard that he was having problems breathing.

Look how proud he was that he was beating me. Funny little kid he is.

Have a great day. Check back tomorrow for a cooking with the kids (Gabe recipe)

Mathblaster Winner

2012-01-14T19:25:00.000-05:00

We have a winner for the Mathblaster Membership! Congrats to Mind Games I know that you guys will have tons of fun with it.

School time

2012-01-11T10:59:00.001-05:00

We took a little bit of an extended break around here because of the holidays. The boys did a bit of unschooling during that time but were missing the structured lessons that I give them. Needless to say they were pleased to get back into the routine this week. On Monday they started their lessons before 8, they were a little eager to get going. LOL.

They started practicing music on the iPad. We got the Dr. Seuss band for an app and is fantastic. The kids are having alot of fun with it (Husband is too!) If you see right below Gabe's hand there is a line of circles that has all the notes on it. They can play their own songs or songs that are offered on there. If you do not have this app I highly recommend it. It cost only a couple of dollars.

Practiced penmanship by writing out postcards to family.

Worked on a short story (He was hiding from his brother so he could concentrate)

Built with legos as a life skill. Gabe worked on it as a way to follow directions. Sam actually worked on rewriting the directions so that there would be no pictures as a way of giving clear directions.

We started in with water science. Of course we had to start with the sink or float experiment. Sam stayed at the counter to write in the results while Gabe waited eagerly at the tub to drop in the item.

There was also some arts and crafts. With Story of the world the boys learned about the conquistodors and made mask of them. Sam is in the top picture and Gabe is right below. If you look closely at Gabe's he is sticking his tounge out, always trying to be funny!

So that is what we have been up to so far this week. Hope that the rest of the week goes smothly as the begining..

Make sure to check out the Mathblaster Giveaway, there is only a few more days to sign up for it.

Wishing and Fishing...

2012-01-10T21:51:00.001-05:00

I was going to share some pictures of the kids getting back to school, but blogger is being a pain and not letting me. I can however share some really cute videos of the boys public speaking today.

First off I wanted to mention the backdrop. For the longest time the boys hung a ugly old blanket up as a backdrop. So for Christmas, Rob and I decided to make the boys new back drops. We picked up twin size flat sheets at Wal-mart for $5 each. Unfortunetly we have only got one done. To make this one though we just used up a bunch of our extra felt and hot glued it on. So the only expense was $5. The kids loved using this today and can not wait to see the others that we make.

The Poem was called Wishing and Fishing

from Dirt on my Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy

Wishing and Fishing

I was just wishing that I could go fishing

What I might catch I don't know

A shark or a whale, or a fish with no tail

No matter 'cause I'll let 'em go.

Also make sure to sign up for the mathblaster giveaway.

Avengers Mansion

2012-01-09T06:00:00.017-05:00

Gabe has become obsessed with the Avengers over the last few months. Well for you that have seen the Avenger's on Disney XD know that they have a mansion as their headquarters. For Christmas we got an unfinished doll house from Michael's. We painted it up for him to have the mansion. He even got a bunch of the little action figures to put in it. Some were from us but he used his Christmas money to get the rest.

Here are some shots of the inside of the mansion. We still have not decorated the inside up yet. It is really hard finding the furniture that is not all pastels. We are still on the look out for some though. I think some paintings might be neccessary to. We will see.

For the outside I painted a big window on each end. Then as you can see the back has windows and a door on it.

With some of the christmas money he did also buy the Shield Ship. Sam took an old box and decorated it up to have storage for him.

The house itself is not being used as much any more. I think that he is getting tired of moving it around. It is almost the same size as him,LOL. I am going to work at setting up a special area for it and I think that it will draw his attention back to it.

Also make sure to sign up for the mathblaster review.

Positivity!!!

2012-01-08T06:00:00.014-05:00

With the new year upon us one of the biggest changes that I want around here is more focus on the positivity and less on the negative. So recently while I was looking around at pinterest (like so many of us do now,LOL) I came across this quote by Audrey Hepburn that I felt was something my family needed to see everyday. It said "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE THE WORD ITSELF SAYS I'M POSSIBLE" I mean how great is that right. As a homeschooling momma I hear alot during the lessons that it is to hard, that it is impossible. Not anymore, I made a painting of it and hung it up where everyone could see it.

What do you think? We love it! Now if anyone starts to get negative, I can simply point at the painting and say nothing is impossible. What are some of your positive sayings, I would love to hear them. Also if you have not signed up for the mathblaster review yet make sure you do.

Puzzle time with Dad!

2012-01-07T06:00:00.020-05:00

Recently the boys recieved a new puzzle. It was a 3D Breakthrough of Lightning McQueen and Mater. A puzzle is the perfect thing for them to do with their dad, He loves puzzles. With time constrants and limited space he unfortunetly does not get a whole lot of time to do them.

The puzzle took them a couple of nights to do. On the first night the put in all of the regular pieces of the puzzle. Then when the boys went to bed Rob glued the puzzle together.

I love this picture of the boys working together. That is always a nice moment. :0)

The next night they started assembling the 3D portions of the puzzle.

Dad and Gabe worked on assembling Lightning McQueen. He was the bigger of the pieces.

Sam worked away on the logo and Mater. He had a little trouble with Maters tire but he fixed that in the morning.

Here is a front and side view of the completed puzzle. It looks really neat. The boy actually want to theme their room to the Cars 2 movie so this will look perfect hanging up in there. We just need to get a frame for it.

The boys posing with the completed puzzle. They are very proud as you can see. If you want to get one of these puzzles youself check out the site here at 3D Breakthrough.

Also If you have not signed up for the mathblaster giveaway make sure that you do.

Mathblaster Review

2012-01-06T06:00:00.086-05:00

Just before Christmas I was approached to do a review of Mathblaster.com. Mathblaster is made by Knowledge Adventure, the same people who put out jumpstart.com. It is a game based around math for 6 to 12 year old. They can create their own avatars called blasters. Once they have created the Blaster they go through training (math games).

This is a shot of what it looks like when the game starts. In this area it has the sections that leads off to the different worlds. It has a bar along the bottom of the screen. On this bar the kids have access to their friends and can even change their Blasters looks whenever they want.

The boys absolute favorite part of the game is that you can get a pet. You can name them, or choose the randomizer to help them name them. The pets do go through an incubation period. Even though the boys do love this feature Sam has found one down side to it that he does not care for. Sometimes you cannot get into certain games with out having the pet with you.

This is obviously a game meant for the kids and it is a lot of fun for them. However I have not had such a good time with it. As fun as it is for kids there is a lot of stimulation going on for me. So my husband was a sweetheart and played the game for me so that you could have a little better view of the game. The picture below is the blaster that he created. What a good looking man I have. LOL.

I found it to be entertaining. You get to play all sorts of math type of games. Some games teach math functions such as fractions and other games teach logic and eye-hand coordination. I only played for about 20 minutes. In that time I created the above character (isn't he cute!). I also found a pet and brought him to incubation. The incubation takes about 12 hours. I am not sure it is 12 hours of playing time or 12 hours real time. While the pet is incubating you collect different "powers" (lack of a better word) that the pet needs to grow in incubation. So the game also teaches the child how to care for his/her pet.

Now for the fun part. Mathblaster is allowing me to giveaway a 3 month membership to one of my readers. With the membership it also comes with a bonus membership to jumpstart.com. To win this all you have to do is leave me a note here by Friday, January 13th. I will draw the winner and annouce on Saturday the 14th.

“Disclosure: I was provided with a membership good for Math Blaster and JumpStart at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.”

Muffins and Frogs

2012-01-05T20:03:00.000-05:00

So one of my goals for the new year was to blog more. I was trying to blog each day but last night I could not get my head to function at all. Which is to bad because I was trying to set up a giveaway, make sure to check back tomorrow for that.

Last night my husband was kind enough to make some muffins so that we could have them for breakfast this morning. He was very excited to show me one muffin because it looked just like a frog to him. He is very funny. I do have to say though seeing the actual muffin it did resemble a frog. I mean it was not green and slimy or anything like that. I posted some pictures of it so that you could see it.

And just so you know it was yummy but did not taste like chicken. LOL!

Holiday Crafts...

2012-01-03T21:54:00.000-05:00

I thought that I would share some of the crafts that we put together for Christmas Gifts. I was really pleased with how much we made this year. These are photos of the gifts that we shipped out, unfortunetly I did not complete all in time. I am still going to get it done so I will share pictures after completing them. I promise kids, I know that you are reading this, I am working hard on them. I promise they will ship soon. Now on to the gift that I managed to get done. Well that would be with help from all of my guys.

First up my husband made a couple of mermaid dolls for the little one year olds in our life. He got the pattern for them from the Wee Wonderfuls book. Of course he did a great job on them.

For one of our other little cousins we built a barn and supplies for. I assembled the barn and Rob made all of the inside supplies. The roof comes off and can be used as a yard for the the barn. Rob hand painted the farmer and his wife. A very cute job on them. When she is all done playing with it she can put it all back inside and put the roof on for easy storage.

For our niece we bought her the book "The Best Mouse Cookie" and made a playset to go along with it. It was complete with all of the supplies for her to act out the story on her own.

For our nephew we wanted to carry on with the theme that we did for his birthday. For his birthday we put together the fort building kit. So for Christmas we decided to make him some gear that he could pretend he was camping in his fort with. I got the pattern for the fire and lantern from here.

For some of the adults in our family we put together what we call "Cold Weather Baskets". Really we were trying to be funny since they all live in the New England area and we live in South Florida. We put in the baskets home made cocoa, chocolate covered marshmallows, cookies, and some mugs. For a touch from the kids we saw this idea for coasters. The kids hand painted all of them and then Rob covered the top with resin and put felt on the bottom to keep from slipping or scratching surfaces.

Have a great night everyone. See you tomorrow.

Our Christmas...

2012-01-02T11:31:00.000-05:00

Before it gets to far away I wanted to share a few of our Christmas photos with you. Our Christmas was really wonderful, Simple and at home, just the way that I like it.

The boys going through their stockings first thing that morning. Lots of fun goodies right in there.

Gabe showing off what Santa gave him. A new imaginext set for Cars 2. On a side note I have to mention his pajama pants. They are the first pair he ever made on his own. He is so proud of them, and me I can only smile when I look at him in them.

Ok now for Sam's Santa Gift. I had to share a sequence of these photos because I do not know who was more excited about the gift Sam or Gabe. As you can see in this first one Gabe is very curious about what he got.

This has to be my favorite one from the day. Look how excited Gabe is and the present is not even for him actually (Sam said he would share with the whole family, Gabe did know that at the time though).

Finally Sam's impression of his Santa Gift. I think that he was pretty pleased. He has been wanting new pots and pans for so long and they are in his favorite color too, orange.

Finally the favorite toy that was recieved. Affectionaly known as "Avenger Mansion" around here. It was a basic unfinshed Doll house that I picked up at Micheals and painted for him. Then we filled it with Avenger toys for him. He loves this thing. As you can see it is really large and he drags it back and forth between his room and the living room daily. I will be back soon to show some of our crafting projects that we did for the holidays.

A New Year....

2012-01-01T21:10:00.000-05:00

I hope that everyone has been having a wonderful holiday season. Ours has been good, very busy though. Between the illness spreading around here since Thanksgiving and trying to get all our projects done, there really has not been much time to breathe let alone blog. That makes me sad because I really do enjoy blogging. Well there is still alot going on around here but we are starting to feel better. Now it is time to try and get caught up on things. So to start off with last night I asked all of my boys (Rob included, LOL) on what they wanted for goals this year. I thought that I would share them here. This way they are out there and we are more responsible to do them. Up first the youngest of course.

Gabe's Goals
1.) Learn more Jazz moves. (He really loves his dance classes, Jazz is his favorite right now)
2.) More cooking time. (He really loves to cook and wants to improve his skill alot. It is really nice to see the pride in his face when he does a good job.)

Sam's Goals
1.) To learn to knit.
2.) Learn more about architecture. (He actually started working on this today. He is rearranging his room, so he measured everything and made a lay out of how he wanted things set up. I will try and share that later)
3.) Make more sculptures. (This kid loves art and building things)
4.) More ballet moves. (He is in love with all of his dance classes, but ballet is his number one right now. That might be because he is the only boy in the class :0))

Dad's (Rob) Goals
1.) Get Healthy! (Love this one, doing it together)
2.) Balance our budget better.
3.) Go back to school. (I am very much supporting on this. I think he will be amazing)
4.) Learn a new style of art. (He is not sure what yet, but he will figure out something. He just wants learn something new)

Mom's (Mine) Goals
1.) Get Healthy! (See it is one my list too)
2.) Get Sabe Creations stocked and running consistently.
3.) Stay ahead on Birthday/holiday crafts. (I really love making alot of the gifts. I just get behind and get really overwhelmed on everything.)
4.) More me time. (O.k. every stay at home parent is probably putting this one on their list)
5.) Improve on my knitting ( I know very basic knitting skills, Sam wants to learn so I am going to help him and hopefully improve my own skills at the same time)
6.) More photography time. (I really wamt to work on my skills more)
7.) Blog more (See already working on that one :0))
8.) Read more. ( I LOVE a good book)

As a family goal we want to learn the piano. Living in a small apartment there really is no room for a piano. A great alternative came our way during Christmas. Rob recieved a new iPad as a christmas bonus (very cool). Then the boys recieved a piano to go with it. So we figured that this is a good starting point for us. Then when we have a bigger place we will look into upgrading.

That is our family goals for this new and wonderful year. I am so excited for it. I hope you keep reading this year and see how we are making it through our goals. What are your goals for the new year, I would love to know.

In closing tonight, since it has been so long since I posted I thought I would share a picture of two of my favorite guys.

All the best wishes for a wonderful and amazing new year. May all of your goals be met succesfully!

Pocahontas

2011-11-08T09:40:00.000-05:00

The boys are doing a study on Colonial America. One of the lessons recently was to write a dialogue pretending that they were a colonist needing help from the Native Americans. They had to thank Pochantos for the help that she gave to them. The video is a copy of what they came up with. Sam Designed the costumes too. Sam plays the colonist and Gabe is Pocahontas. It is a really short video but super cute. Hope you enjoy it!

Morikami

2011-11-07T12:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the last day that my father in law was here. We decided to take him to the Morikami Museum and Gardens. It is so beautiful there. It was a great way to end his trip. It was such a beautiful day to walk around the Gardens. I thought that I would share some of the pictures from our day. Keep in mind this is a heavy photo entry (but it is not all of my photos from the day). On with the pictures.

These two shots are from the entry way. We had not even got inside yet. You can just tell this place is going to be stunning. (Sam heard me saying the word stunning while we were there. He was like "I love that word. Hehe sometimes it is so easy to make a kid happy. Alright enough of my sidetrack back to the pictures)

This was one of the first bridges that we came to and the boys posed with Grandpa on it.

Very cool statue there. Rob asked if anyone wanted to play basketball. Sam knew right away what he ment and told him that was the mayans that played basketball that way. That is our little encyclopedia boy (That is what Gabe calls him, LOL)

A really cool tree that the boys thought looked like a bunch of dinner plates.

All of the guys in front of the lake, (Three Generations)

A really cool spot out in the lake. I could picture relaxing up under those trees and reading a good book. What a wonderful way to spend a day don't you think?

This was a photo that Sam took of the museum on the other side of the lake. He loves taking photos in black and white. I think that he did such a wonderful job on this picture.

Another one of the many cool bridges around.

My cutie pies. Love them so much.

LOL this kid never fails to please. I asked him if he would do a silly pose under the gate so that I could take a picture. He certianly did deliver on that.

Posing by one of the rock gardens.

Rob took this photo. I love the purple of the flowers. I also think that he did a great job on the photo too.

Another rock garden.

I just love this bridge shot. It looks like it could be a postcard.

There was turtles all over the place, Sunning themselves on the rocks.

I love waterfalls. This little area was filled with some of the biggest Koi fish that I have ever seen.

When we made it around to the other side of the lake the kids went into the museum. It was a very cute little children's musuem. This is a replica of how some seats looked on the bullet train. Gabe says that the seats are very comfy!

Then they got to experience what it was like to sit in a Japanese classroom. LOL Sam is always happy to have a chance to learn.

Checking out what it would be like to sit at a Japanese table.

Exploring the cupboards in the kitchen with Grandpa.

Standing outside the museum. The museum itself was set up like an actual Japense home.

Another stunning bridge. This time I was not the only one that thought so. Look who else did.

Sam did. He wanted me to take his picture on it. I definetly did because unfortunaly he is getting to the point in life that he really does not want his picture taken. I jump at all the chances that he does ask for them.

It was a really great time. The kids got a new book at the gift shop called All About Japan. They were so excited to read on the way home. It really is an excellent book. If you are ever looking for a good one about Japan I recommend it. I hope that you enjoyed all of the photos. Until next time have a great one.

LoggerHead

2011-11-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

A spur of the moment field trip for the kids this weekend to the Loggerhead center.

The boys love going here because of all the wonderful help that they give to the sea turtles. They also love the little nature center in the front.

This skeleton of the sea turtle was so large the picture does not actually do it justice. Lets just say that you most likely will not find one this size on a beach any time soon.

Cool Fish tanks all around.

Checking out some really neat fish with grandpa.

Just being my little Dude. Love that little face.

The boys posing as a mermaid and a scuba diver. Each boy had a turn in the different characters.

Here are some of the turtles that are being nursed back to health.

I love this shot with the bubbles.

Gabe could have stayed there all day watching the turtles. He loves them so much.

I love this shot of the boys. Gabe was posing and Sam snuck up behind him. Ohh how much I love these boys.

Sam ended of the trip with another pose. This time he was measuring the sea turtle. He liked that much better than the mermaid one. LOL. Check back tomorrow I will have pictures from the Morikami.

Time out..

2011-11-03T10:30:00.000-05:00

Life always gets so busy that you tend to do all your work and have no fun. Well then you have a family member or friend come and visit, which cause a change in the everyday life. One good change is that you slow down in a way and actually see some of the great things going on around you. Right now my father in law is visiting and we got out for some time yesterday and it was great.

It was a picture perfect day out and my husband called and asked if we wanted to go play some

Mini Golf!!!

So we surprised the boys. As you can see the little one got a bit excited. He has been before but it has been awhile. This was kind of like a first time for him.

He posed with the cute little statue in the lobby. He was actually trying to give it bunny ears but I snapped the picture before he could get the fingers right.

First up to play was Gabe.

Followed by big brother Sam.

Then Grandpa

And the Daddy got his shot in. I did not play. I like mini golf and think it is alot of fun. But my husband knows me well enough and asked if would like just to take pictures. Yea alot more fun in my opinion and no pressure to play and take pictures at the same time.

As you can see his excitment carried on.

Gabe came running over to me a one point saying mom did you see that shot. It was like twelve inches from the whole. He is just to funny. His ball is in the picture. It is a light blue one to the right of the flag.

Watching for his ball to come out of the tunnel. He loved that part.

This was the first water hazard. They were both pretty sad that they did not get it in the water. Boys what can I say. :0)

However the next hole gave ample oppurtunity to hit it in the water. Gabe only hit in once. Sam though.

hit it once,

and again. He must have hit the ball in the water at least 4 times. Too funny.

The course was really pretty. They had these really pretty carvings in the path.

Gorgeous flowers all over the place.

Really pretty statues all around.

This is looking down the course at one point of the game. The bridge is actually part of the 18th hole.

My silly boy, contemplating mini golf. LOL.

The model one :0) posing.

It was a really great day. They had so much fun and can not wait to go back again soon.

Halloween

2011-11-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Halloween. Alot of fun was had here. I finally got pictures of the boys this morning. Ever since we completed the costumes it has been raining so I could not get it taken. Finally we had sun this morning, YAH! Alright on to the costumes. Did anyone guess from my last post what Gabe was going to be...

He was a parrot. Any one get it right? The Costume was pretty easy to make and very inexpensive. It was just really time consuming to make. He loved it though and that is all that matters. :0)

To make the costume I bought a 5.00 twin size flat sheet (my only expense) and cut out a bunch of feathers out felt that I already had. I added the zipper (also had already) to the front for it to be easy to put on and off.

Here is a view from the back showing all the way up his head.

As you see Sam was a red-eye tree frog. So of course he had to pose in a tree. LOL

I love this shot of him . Such a good looking kid. :0)

He really wanted to have a shot next to the pool because as he put it "Mom I am a frog and frogs like water."

Then he wanted to get one with him jumping mid air. LOL funny kid he is really taking dressing as a frog to heart.

Here is a close up of his eyes. They were probably the best feature of his whole costume. (all though the whole thing was pretty cute)

His completed costume only cost us 5.00 dollars too. Can not beat that. His father made his costume for him and we had all of the supplies for it. The only thing that he bought was some glue for the felt hands and feet so that he could double layer them with out sewing it.

I am including a very cute video from Halloween night, Sam froggie jumping with his little 2 year old buddy.

Randomness

2011-10-25T09:40:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone now that we are still here. Just really busy getting ready for the holidays starting up. Of course throwing in everday life too. Here is a little bit of Randomness that we have been up to.

Our grandmother is back in Florida, So we went to visit her for the weekend. The boys absolutly LOVE seeing her. They find her really silly.

Of course there has been alot of working on Halloween costumes. This is a little peek at Gabe's costume. Any guesses at what he is? Hopefully I will get it completed today, then I will share what each of the boys are.

With the boys being homeschooled I do not have to make the holiday gifts for kids in the boys classes. This actually makes me kind of sad because I love doing that kind of stuff. So instead we make things for kids in the dance classes. This is a picture of one of the cookies that I put into the bags. I was so excited how it turned out because it was the first time that royal icing has ever worked for me.

When things get as busy as they do in life it is always nice when you can fix something easily. As most of you know that follow us Sam is an avid reader. Well one of the many series that he is reading right now is called Septimus Heap. The first book in the series called Magyk had some problems. It got to a certian point in the book and pages started repeating and then a forty page section was also missing. Well my husband e-mailed the publishing company, Harper Collins Publishing, because we wanted to get it fixed. We figured it would take a while to get the problem resolved. Not the case though. By the next morning the replied to our e-mail asking for the ISBN number and our address. Then they mailed us a new copy at no charge to us. In under a week we had the new book in our hands. I love when something goes that easy.

Time to get off the computer and get some more work done. Such a busy time of year hope to be back soon with some more stuff that we have been doing.

Going Batty!!

2011-10-13T07:08:00.000-05:00

I love reading the blog MADE. The other day I saw her tutorial for making these pillows. I thought that they were so cute and had to make them. I did not have any pillow forms to fill it with so I just used the throw pillows on the couch. I made the casing as an envelope so that I can just take them off when ever I want. I used bat fabric to make the actual bats on the pillow. The orange is fleece so the pillows are nice and soft. The kids love them and so do we. They were nice and easy to make. The part that my husband loved the most is that they were free (used supplies that I already had). When I do have a chance though I think that I am going to buy some new pillows to put inside them. The ones from the couch are getting to be a little flat.

The Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-09T09:50:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we decided to take the boys to the farmers market were they set up all kinds of fall fun. When we got there we decided to start with the hay ride.

Rob has been working seven days a week for a few weeks so the poor guy is really tired. He decided to close his eyes for a little bit.

And yes I am even sharing a picture of me. Just do not mind the squinting eyes. It was really bright out. How could I not share though, one of my favorite people are in it. My cutie pie Gabe that is. :)

There is my other favorite guy way down on the other side of his sleeping father. Love that smile of his.

We even got to see some wildlife on the ride. The tractor driver stopped so that all of the kids could see him. Pretty cool. There was actually two of them on the ride.

At the end of the ride he dropped us off at the pumpkin patch. In Florida it is just to hot for pumpkins to grow. To give the leafy green that you see there, it is cucumber plants.

They had plenty of spots for photo taking to.

This was a sweet little bridge in the middle of the corn maze.

The dragonflies were all over the place there.

My three guys picking out pumpkins. We can not wait to go back again. Next time we might even hit up the haunted house.

UPrinting Letterhead Winner

2011-09-23T09:02:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone that entered. To my sadness though, all of you can not win. I really would have loved to give it to all of you. Well Sam drew the winner this morning. Congratulations Movement Arts you won!!!!

UPrinting Giveaway

2011-09-17T11:54:00.009-05:00

http://www.uprinting.com/envelope-printing.html

Hi everyone! I have a really cool giveaway for all of you today. It is your very own letterhead from UPrinting.com

UPrinting is one of the leading printing companies that specializes in various printing services including letterhead. Visit UPrinting.com for more of their services and for more Letterhead design ideas.

So do you want to win. It would be a great prize for a small business. Maybe even a nice stationary set for a someone who loves to write letters. It would make a really nice christmas gift for them. Check out all the details.

Prize Details:

500 pcs. Letterheads for One (1) winner

5.5” x 8.5"

70lb Offset

Front Only Printing

4 Business Days Print Turnaround Time

*Free Shipping

Restriction: Limited to *US residents 18 years old and above only

To win just leave me a message on here, that is it. Easy isn't it. If you would like to give an extra entry like UPrinting on Facebook, then come back here and tell me. You can enter between now and the Sept. 22. I will anouce the winner on the morning of Sept. 23.

This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting, no monetary compensation was given and I will receive letterhead printing service by hosting. Please visit UPrinting.com for available letterhead design and for more details.

There is a fly in my soup...

2011-09-13T14:36:00.000-05:00

Nope it is just Gabe.. We were playing a new game today and having some fun.

The Game... Scrabble Alphabet Scoop. This is a very cute game for kids ages 6 and up. We wanted a game of Scrabble that would be a little better for Gabe to do. This was right up his alley.

When you open up the lid all of the items store right inside. It is a nice feature, I just have to find a place to keep it now because I can not put another game on top it.

To start with you give out a card to each player. Then you choose the one word that you want to spell. After that some one takes the lid off the pot and says "ready, set, scoop" and everyone starts scooping to get letters.

You keep scooping out letters until you spell a word. If you scoop out one of these lovely bugs you have to put back all of your letters. This happened to me three times in one round, Gabe thought that it was hillarious. Once you have finished spelling your word you put the lid back on and say yummy and that ends the round for everyone.

I thought the game was really cute and alot of fun. I thought that it would even be easily adaptable for some younger kids. It is a fun way for kids just really learning how to spell to practice the skill. I did ask Gabe what he would rate it 1 - 10, 10 being the best. He gave it a 7. When I asked him what he liked about it he said "It is fast and about food. I like anything that is fast and about food. Then I asked him what he did not like about it "I had to spell" LOL. He did say he rather play the game then do a worksheet to learn how to spell though.

Changes for us....

2011-08-19T16:37:00.000-05:00

In life everything is always changing for everyone. Some good, some bad. I choose to focus on the good. A change that we have going is that there are two new sites that you can find us at.

First is that we finally started our own Etsy shop. There is not much on it right now (what is there is good though;)). Our goal is to add at least a new item each week right now until things get built up some. So make sure to keep checking it out to see what new things are arriving. Head on over to Sabe Creations to see what is there now.

Then our other place that we have is a photo blog. I have been wanting to start one of those for a while now. I finally got a chance to. The boys and I have been taking pictures for awhile now as a way for us to have a bonding time. Now we will have a place to showcase them. I really hope that you stop by and check out what we see in our daily life.. Check out Sabe Photos....

Children of the World

2011-08-18T19:42:00.000-05:00

I was busy trying to come up with a fun way to teach Gabe about geographical thinking. Like where someone is located in the world what type of clothing they might wear. I came aross the site BlueBonkers.com. On it they had paper dolls for children of the world. I thought that they would be perfect for Gabe except they are dolls. He would destroy them so easily. Then I got to thinking that I had some of those self adhesive magnet sheets. Magnet dolls, PERFECT. I am so glad that I found them, look how cute they are....

This is the Italian girl with extra clothing.

An Eskimo boy with his dog.

Hawaiian girl with extra accesories.

The Mexican boy all dressed up.

The Korean boy and all of his hats.

The first set that I made for him.

As you can see they were having so much fun playing with all of them that I ended up going and making more for them. Well actually the rest of the set. I would share all of them with you but that would be alot of pictures. Instead I will share the link so that you can go make some for your little ones. Here you go for the children of the world.

Starting new...

2011-08-16T16:18:00.000-05:00

Things have been so crazy around here for the last 6 months or so. School and everything has been kind of stressful. So it has been time for a change for a while. I am trying hard to put alot of hands on projects, you know more fun versus the dreaded worksheets. One of the things that we have always tried to do is have a year long project that teaches us new things and gives the boys goals to accomplish. Some of our past projects have been to read 1000 books in a year, learn 10 new facts a week about different animals (not so succeful on this one), and our last projects learning about time zones. Each month the boys picked out a new country and I painted both of their clocks to look like the flags of that country and they would set the accurate time. Well our newest project is going to be global eating. Twice a month the boys have to pick a meal from the country we assign them and make it. They have to stay within a budget too! Love always being able to add in other lessons when I can. This month they have to pick meals from Brazil in honor of starting our new country unit about Brazil, starting in September. The first meal they picked is......

Meat Stew

This is a dish that is very common in Brazil. It was originally developed by slaves. They made it from leftover meat parts that the owners did not want anymore. The boys found the recipe in Brazilian Foods and Culture. I have put the recipe in if you would like to try it. I thought that it was really good, especially the broth.

Meat Stew

Ingredients

3 Strips of Bacon

2 onions

3 cloves of garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 pound of smoked sausage

1 pound of boneless beef (any cut)

14 ounce can of stewed tomatoes

1 cup of hot water

1 tablespoon of yellow mustard

salt and pepper

4 cups or 2 14-ounce cans of black beans

Directions

1. Cut the bacon strips into big pieces. Fry them in a large pot over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes. Stir often so the pieces do not stick. Turn the heat down to medium.

2. Cut the onion in half. Peel off the skin and outer layer. Chop both halves into small pieces. Peel the cloves of garlic and chop them into very small pieces.

3. Add the onions and garlic. Stir until the onions are soft, about 3 minutes.

4. Cut the saugsage and beef into 1 inch pieces. Add them to the stew. Cook until the meat is brown on all sides.

5. Add the stewed tomatoes (with juice). hot water, yellow mustard, and some salt and pepper.

6. Turn the heat down to simmer. Cover the pot. Cook for about 45 minutes. Stir often. Add more water at 1/4 cup at a time if it looks too thick.

7. Add the black beans (with liquid). Cover the pot. Cook for 10 more minutes. Serves 8.

Enjoy your Dish of Brazil. Let me know if you try it, I would love to know what you thought of it.

Frosting for the Cause

2011-07-28T08:47:00.000-05:00

Please make sure to check out this blog today. For every visitor they get they will donate 10cents to the Look better, Feel Good foundation. It is a worthwhile cause and it will cost you nothing, but you will sure find some yummy recipes.

Bonding with Dad....

2011-06-29T16:45:00.000-05:00

For you that have been reading my blog for awhile know that my husband paints t-shirts up. The boys have always loved that . Gabe actually tells people that his dad is his favorite designer. Well recently Gabe asked if they could paint t-shirts as a father son bonding.

Rob of course started on his a few days early because he wanted to surprise Gabe with it. A new shirt to go see the movie Cars in.

He started helping the boys with theirs. They each picked out a design that they wanted and drew it for us to transfer to a t-shirt. Sam actually transfered his on his own.

Rob had not finished his up yet so they all three had a painting party. Such a creative bunch I have here.

(photo by Sam)

This is the horse that Gabe drew and painted all by himself. He did such a good job. His abilities in art are really improving.

(photo by Sam)

Sam wanted a new top for his pajamas. So he created this cute little monster.

What has everyone else been creating lately? I would love to see, let me know.

A reason to smile Mimi...

2011-06-24T13:05:00.000-05:00

Gabe has been practicing his spanish and wanted to tell you that he loves you!

Happy Birthday Uncle Alan!

2011-06-23T17:33:00.000-05:00

The boys made this short little video to wish their Uncle Alan a Happy Birthday. Gabe is dressed as a monkey because he says that his uncle is a monkeys uncle, LOL. He also chose Sam's costume.

Pro shots for Dance 2011

2011-06-18T13:37:00.000-05:00

So I wanted to share the boys pictures from picture day with you. I hope that you enoy them.

The group Acro Shot.

One of my favorite shots. It is the group ballet for Sam.

This is the Boy's tap class.

Gabe with all of the little girls in ballet and tap (just the skirts change on the girls)

I hope that you enjoyed all of the photos. We really did have a great year. Make sure to check out the following entry for the photos and videos from rehersal night.

Rehersal Night

2011-06-18T13:20:00.000-05:00

Well the boys had their dance recital last weekend and it was fantastic. I am so proud of all three of my boys (yup, there was a Dad's dance this year). Well I can not take photos or videos during the actual shows I am allowed to during rehersal. So I have alot to share with you. Let's get started...

It was a long night for the boys 4:30 to 9. We made sure to bring some sandwiches for supper. Gabe does not look that impresed with his sandwich, LOL.

They did have time to hang out with friends (Sam and Brendan)

Sam and Lawrence

Best Buddies, Gabe and Marc! These two are inseperable. They three years apart to the day (Gabe is older) and so close. It is great to Gabe have that strong of a bond with someone.

Ok during rehersal they normally run through the Dances twice. I started to be happy about this because my video camera died and so I only had my regular camera left (it takes video too). Well I wanted pictures and video so I figured that I could do video on one round and photos on the other. For some reason they only did one round for Sam's Ballet (Lady in Red was the song) so all I got was pictures. No video :-( It was a really good dance too, At least I have pictures to share with you.

As you can see in these two photos he was totally loving this dance and being the only boy!

He even did some partnering work. He was about to help Amanda with her leap here.

Well here are two out of three of my favorite guys. (Gabe was to busy playing with all of the girls to get in the picture)

Hip Hop was interesting this year. The boys were actually seperated into two classes but during the show they did share some dance time. They put a little bit much on the smoke machine. There are other boys on stage with Sam!

Gabe waiting for the music to start during the hip hop number.

This is the video of their hip hop dance. The song is "Black or White" by Micheal Jackson.

This is the video from Gabe's Ballet. The song was called "Yellow".

Here is the video for Gabe's Tap. The song was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon"

Getting some direction from their teacher Miss Britni.

Sam's other favorite dance -- Tap!

Sam's Tap Video. The song was "Blue Suede Shoes" by Elvis.

Here is my little frog hoping around in his Acro number.

My little monkey rolling out a foward roll into a split.

The boys acro video.. The song was "Over the Rainbow"

My biggest guy, My husband. I love him so much and am SOOO Proud of him. What a good dad he is to get up there again and dance. He did such a good job! (and the boys loved it)

Just before the dancing started. I thought it was a really cool shot. Rob is the one in the center.

SO PROUD OF THIS GUY (SAM AND GABE TOO)

Here is the video of the Dad's dance for you. There is a little delay before the dancing starts so make sure to wait for it. The song was "Men in Black"

So that was rehersal night. Incase you did not notice the theme this year was colors. It was a great year and the boys are already looking foward to next years recital. Gabe is excited because he will be adding a new dance style to his skills, Jazz. Sam is looking foward to it because it looks like he is going to be a teachers helper. (someone who is one stage with the little kids to help them with the routine)

Day Four ...Hollywood Studios

2011-05-24T06:00:00.033-05:00

Otherwise known as Our last day :0(... It was a really good trip the boys had so much fun at everything we did. This was probably their least favorite park of all (I think it was mostly how tired they were, otherwise I think that they would have liked it alot better.)

When we first got their we seperated from Rob for a little bit. He wanted to ride on the Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith rollercoaster. Not something the boys and I wanted to do, So the boys and I hung out in the gift shops for awhile (not something Rob wanted to do). They tried on lots of hats. I love how silly Sam will act about things now. There is a point in time he would have never put this hat on and let me take a picture of it.

He even got on this Pony. Kid is getting way to big though. He stood on the base of and swung his leg right over no problem. I miss my baby, he is growing way to fast.

Oh this child loves his stuffed animals. (I should show you a picture of his bed sometime) How sweet is this photo though. Childhood innocence at its finest.

The guys in front of the Tower of Terror.

Gabe giving Mike a hug goodbye. Sad to see our trip end. The boys are already planning our trip back. If you want to see the rest of the photos from Hollywood studios look here

http://s923.photobucket.com/albums/ad74/goofykeene77/Hollywood%20Studios/

Day Three...Magic Kingdom

2011-05-23T06:00:00.038-05:00

The Magic Kingdom was probably the favorite for Rob and myself. The boys enjoyed it but the liked the first two parks more. (Animals and World Pavilion, kinda their thing) Over all it was a really wonderful day, even though we were all getting really tired at this point.

(taken by Gabe)

I love this picture because it shows how beautiful everything looked. That is the thing about Disney it is always so clean and beautiful. Also it is a great picture just because Gabe took it. He asked me if he could take a picture and of course I could not say no. I think that the kid has a pretty good eye, don't you?

O.k. Is their anything better than my three favorite guys in front of Cinderella's castle. I mean after all they are my Prince Charming! ;0)

Rob riding in a Giant flying elephant, LOL.. He loved all of the rides so much that he even took Gabe on this (might have a little something to do with how much he loves Gabe too)

This was one of my most memorable rides, because it was one of the things that caused Gabe to feel the Disney magic. It was the Peter Pan flight ride. When you first get in their is a bar that does not close until you get to the end of the runway. Once you get there the attendent waves their hand over the bar and it closes. So at the end of the ride I saw Gabe wave his hand of the bar and it openend right up. He was so excited to have the Disney magic! LOL

The first ride that I took Gabe on that morning was the Speedway Racers while Rob took Sam to Space mountain. Gabe loved it so much that he wanted to go on it again. This time that I was able to wait and take pictures and look who I got being all big and riding by himself. Yikes that is my scene in just a few short years. LOL. Tomorrow is our final day, Hollywood studios. Until then check out the rest of our pictures from the magic kingdom here http://s923.photobucket.com/albums/ad74/goofykeene77/Magic%20Kingdom/

Day Two...Animal Kingdom

2011-05-22T06:00:00.028-05:00

On to day two, we went to Animal Kingdom.. (we choose the order we went to the parks for early opening) I was actually pretty excited to go to Animal Kingdom because it was the one park that none of us had actually been to. ( I have been to the other three) It was nice to experience it all together. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day...

We actually ended our day with this ride. It was the favorite ride out of all the parks for the boys. I loved it (other than it being really fun) because on this trip Sam faced one of his fears on it and conquered it. He loved it and was begging to go on it again. We would have except the line was to long and it was getting close to the park closing for the night.

Here is a close up of the Tree of Life. The details of the tree were amazing. I mean can you see the octopus legs above the Orangutans head.

My Two really happy boys in front of the Tree of Life. The tree did have a really cool show in side it, Called it is not easy being a bug. It was a 3-D show featuring characters from the bugs life movie. It did startle Gabe abit, because parts were dark and loud. Your seats were even involved in it, at the end they ask you to wait and let all of the bugs out first. Your seats move like there are bugs crawling under it.

The have a section there called Rafiki's Planet watch, it has a conservation station in there. Gabe was so excited to find his long lost twin (see the resemblance, LOL)

The boys even got to meet Rafiki (I love Rakiki, One of my favorites from the movie). Sam was so excited because he was wearing a Disney Coservation Pin and Rafiki loved that. Next up Day 3, Magic Kingdom (mine and Rob's favorite) until then check out the rest of our pictures from animal kingdom here. http://s923.photobucket.com/albums/ad74/goofykeene77/animal%20kingdom/

A little video of Gabe

2011-05-21T10:24:00.000-05:00

This was Gabe's public speaking lesson for today. It was to cute not to share. Sam video taped while his dad made the "rain". Hope you enjoy.

Day one...EPCOT

2011-05-21T06:00:00.035-05:00

Our natural desire to cram in as much as we can in our days continued while on vacation. We were only there for the four days and wanted to do all four parks. Ok that means really long days for us. You know what though We have the BEST KIDS EVER.. The more tired they are the better behaved they are. I know we are so lucky. They did not fight at all. They were patient and waited well on everything. They never complained either. I mean are we totally the luckiest parents or what! Before you go hating us for having the greatest kids (which we do) They are almost never like that at home. Ok here are a few of my favorite shots from EPCOT, Our longest day (about 13 hours overall at the park).

The character meet and greet with Momma's favorite Goofy.

We took a boat ride through a very cool area that showed ways they are trying new types of growing. Look at those sweet potatoes, they are huge and did not even grow in the dirt. Pretty Cool. This ride kept making me think of our friend Kate. She would have loved it.

The boy played this really cool game of Kim Possible. They got to be secret agents and had to find they bad guy. They were given a kimunicator that would give them assignments that they had to complete. It was pretty neat. (Doesn't Gabe look impressed in this photo, LOL)

They boys in front of the monorail and Spaceship earth.

(Taken by Rob)

Rob and Sam stayed a little later than us that night and got this shot on the way out. I thought that it was so beautiful. Alright the next one will be Day two...Animal Kingdom. Until then check out this link to see the rest of our photos from EPCOT.

http://s923.photobucket.com/albums/ad74/goofykeene77/Epcot/

The Month of May....

2011-05-20T17:02:00.000-05:00

Ok so I think in the month of may we really start to lose it abit. It is probably one of our busiest months. There are 5 birthdays and mothers day just to start. Then we have our school evaluation to start getting ready for. This may we also had a baby shower for the boys dance instructor. The dance recital photos and Dad's dance practices going on too. The goal is also to have the etsy shop up and running by the end of the month too. All the while all of this stuff happens we still have to keep up with everyday life, boys schooling, cleaning, etc... That's alot of stuff happening so what do we do, up we go on vacation for a week. It was really fun though, look where we went.

Disney World.. The boys first time there. I took so many pictures while we were there that I had to break them all up into groups ( It took 692 and I have not even uploaded Sam's yet. He took another 150) So I thought that I would spend the next few entries sharing some of my favorites from each day. To start with I thought that I would share around our hotel. We stayed at the All-Star Movie Resort. So all the buildings were themed to movies, ours was the love bug.

Sam and Gabe sitting in RC from Toy Story.

Sam and Gabe near Woody in what was supposed to represent Andy's Room.

Rob decided to take a nap in RC

This was the focal point of the main pool.. It was themed Fantasia. We had such a good time and and there was so much to see and do at just the hotel. Tomorrow I will share our day one...Epcot. Until then if you want to see the rest of the pictures from the hotel and our train trip there, clck on this link.

http://s923.photobucket.com/albums/ad74/goofykeene77/Hotel%20and%20Train%20to%20Disney/

Sam's 11th Birthday!!!

2011-05-06T08:19:00.000-05:00

So My Little guy is not so little anymore, He turns 11 today. How come they can keep growing up. I really do not like it. Oh well, guess that I just have to give in and go with it. This year his presents were a little more grown up. To start with last weekend we took him to Micheal's and gave him him $50. He was allowed to buy whatever he wanted. Among the many things he got his first glue gun. Also some wood so that he could start practicing wood burning designs. O.K. now on to his 2 gifts that we gave him this morning. Well as much as Sam loves crafting he loves to read more, So we got him a

Kindle. As you can see he is pretty happy about that. We loaded two new books, Kingdom Keepers 4 and Throne of Fire.

He found out that Throne of Fire was from his little brother.

Now on to the biggest of all the gifts. Hmm what is this in here, a bunch of papers?

This is starting to look like some good papers. Could it be?

Yes it is Tickets to Disney World!!!!!

Finding out that we leave on Monday morning. Now time to fill Gabe in on what is happening.

Yup now he knows. Needless to say they are pretty excited. This is their first trip to Disney and they can not wait.

Normally when his Birthday Cards come in I let them have them right away, but this year I had to hold them. That was because so many people were in on the secret. His mimi sent him a gift card to Disney world., so the secret would have been out.

Ok we leave in a couple of days so expect a few (ok a lot more than a few) pictures when we get back.

An Impromptu trip to the pool....

2011-04-28T11:57:00.000-05:00

This morning we took a little trip down stairs to the pool. As a picture loving, camera snapping mom of course I made sure to get some pictures while we were there. Here are just a few to share with you (I took 60 pictures and we were there for only 20 minutes). Yup a little camera happy! Well my favorite pictures are usually in black and white, so of course most of my favorite are black and white. Well at least all that I am sharing with you are. :0)

I just love this little face.

Brothers

Brotherly love at its finest!

Play time

This guy is growing way to fast. Such a handsome young man!

race you

I love these faces so much, I mean how could I not.

Trying to work on swimming.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T08:28:00.002-05:00

Hoping that everyone has a wonderful and happy Easter!

Loggerhead Marine Life Center, part four

2011-04-19T06:00:00.021-05:00

Ok so my final entry on the Marine Life center. Once we were all done with looking around the inside, we decided to walk the nature trails over to the beach. It was really pretty. I must admit a good work out too, walking in flip flops on that sand.

Once we got into the trail a little bit we could see the ocean. See that small spot in the center of the picture. That is the ocean, yup it seemed far. It ended up not being all that far away.

Before we knew it we were there. Ahh and it was so nice.

The boys started sending their footprints off to the Bahamas.

I like to call this picture "contemplation". It really describes Sam so well. He is always trying to figure out problems, contemplating on them, you know.

And my other little guy. He finds wonder in every little thing. Here he is showing me the wet sand he found. I know imaging that, wet sand at a beach. LOL. He is just to cute though.

They have not ever spent a whole lot of time around snow but they know what snow angels are. So they decided to make sand angels. Too funny!

All in all it was a really great day. The boys can not wait to go back again soon. I hope you enjoyed all of our pictures.

Loggerhead Marine Life Center, part three

2011-04-18T06:00:00.037-05:00

So I am back with part three. We really enjoyed the Sanctuary so much that I had to split these photos into multiple days. Today is of the inside of the place. It had lots of cool exhibits for the kids to look at. The first few photos that I am sharing with you were taken by Sam. He is hosting Flat Cam and wanted to show some of the things in there.

He thought that the giant sharks tooth was really cool.

As you can see from these two pictures he enjoyed seeing the turtle skeletons. He really liked seeing the similarities of their skeleton and ours.

This was a sculpture done to show how turtles hatch.

They had several cool aquariums in there too.

I really liked this shot. There is actually only one shrimp in this photo, it is a mirrored side. I love how they look like they glow in the dark.

Star fish, so simple, so pretty.

Sam exploring on the many hands on exhibits. He loved this place so much, so many things to learn.

This skeleton hung up overhead. It had to be one of the largest Sea Turtles that I have ever seen. It actually could not fit completly in the frame.

So much learning going on. It was a great day. Check back tomorrow for my last entry on the sanctuary, the beac. Until then have a good one.

Loggerhead Marine Life Center, part two

2011-04-17T06:00:00.021-05:00

Ok so one of the really cool things that the kids got to do was be junior vets. They supplied them with lab coats as you see in the picture below.

Dr. Gabe and Dr. Sam reporting for duty.

Once they go in to the area they have a table with a turtle and some tools on it. Everything a vet would need to take care of a sick or injured turtle when it first comes in.

Here is the info sheet that they had to fill in while examining the turtle.

A close up of the table and all of their equipment.

The boys listening so attently to Dr. Logger. He was really good at the job, made sure all of the kids got to answer questions.

The had a mock drill where they got to go out and rescue a turtle. You can not see it to well but he is holding a plastic one in his hands that has been attacked. The kids got to help by telling everything the saw that was wrong.

Once they went back to their table the started to work on examing the turtles. I love the focus on Sam's face here. He was so into this. I had alot more pictures to share with you but for some reason when I tried loading them, some kept saying server rejected. Sorry. Make sure to check back tomorrow for part 3, the inside of the santuary.

Loggerhead Marine Life Center, part one

2011-04-16T17:02:00.000-05:00

Wow have these last few weeks been really busy. Thankfully Tax season is now done, So I have my help back. No more trying to hold everything up on my own. Well when tax season ends we always try to throw a few outings in for the boys to help make up for the lost time with dad. The first place they wanted to go was to the Loggerhead Marine Life Sanctuary. They got to go there a few weeks ago for a birthday party and could not wait to go back. I have to agree the place was pretty cool. I took so many pictures that I am going to split them up over the next few days. For today I put up pictures of the turtles healing in the tanks. All of the turtles are rescue turtles and will be released back into the ocean once they are healed. Some are injured from shark attacks, or even motor boats.

Check back tomorrow when I share the pictures of the boys geting to act like Sea turtle vets.

The Little Leprechauns say....

2011-03-17T12:51:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!!

Sick Days...

2011-03-16T19:34:00.000-05:00

We have been missing around here lately because we all have been sick. It started a little over a week ago with Gabe getting sick, then Sam and I followed suit. So there has been lots of relaxing and snuggling with our favorite friends. Now that we are all on the mend, it is catchup time on everything around here. So I hope over the next few days to get some other entries up for you.

Burnin Calories with the Brothers

2011-03-08T09:03:00.000-05:00

The boys are so into making videos now, I had to share the latest with you. It is the latest in workout videos. Yup you heard me right, they made their own video. Ahh I love these boys, I never know what they are going to do next. They made it into three videos if you care to watch them. It goes in order of warm up, workout, cool down. They are all under 5 minutes each, but swear you will be sweating up a storm (according to them that is).

I hope that you enjoyed them as much as I did. If they make more I will try and make sure to share.

Its a Carwash....

2011-03-01T07:35:00.000-05:00

With it being tax season here, the boys unfortunetly do not get alot of time with their dad. So he tries to make it quality time with them when he does get the chance. This weekend it was beautiful out so he took them outside to wash the car. Here is some shots of all the fun that was had.

Gabe posing for the camera. That was probably the most that he wash the car right there.

It is amazing what you can find when you clean. The missing stylus pen for the DS.

My gorgeous boy looking up at me (I was standing on the second floor).

Dad hard at work so the boys could play a little bit.

Airborne over the puddle, Only means fun is on the way.

He begged his dad to spray him. LOL

He kept wanting him to spray him.

Can't leave the other child out. :0)

Alright one last time with the hose.

Is it safe to come back?

Sam helped a bit more than Gabe on actually getting the car clean. He is just turning into an amazing little man, love him!

This is what Gabe spent most of the time, playing with the water.

My favorite shot, how sweet a little boy in a puddle. They had a great time overall, they love spending time with their dad.

Michelangelo's in the making...

2011-02-23T09:13:00.000-05:00

Well we are fully in to our study of Italy now. So of course that means we have to do a study of Michelangelo. Here is one of the projects that we did. They painted lying down, and thought it was a little cool. They would have liked it better if their arms did not hurt so bad.

They even took precautions to protect their eyes by wearing their sunglasses. Too cute for words.

Overall the project was a hit. I think that they would definetly want to do it again.

Happy President's Day!

2011-02-21T11:55:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone has a great President's Day! We saw this idea over here on MADE in honor of celebrate the boy. There dad used her template that she offers and hand painted these. He does such a great job with painting. I will try and share some of our other pictures of the shirt later.

A little about Sam....

2011-02-16T11:20:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it is kind of hard to know what Sam wants in life. He is kind of a private kid and keeps all of that to himself. As his mom, knowing what he wants is important of course. Well lately he really has been into Arts and Crafts, so I decided to give him a project that would help me find out. Some people call the dream boards, some call them wish boards, you can call it what you wish. They are really the same thing, things that you want in life.

So here is Sam's board. He took a large canvas and covered in so polar fabric. Then he glued some animal ribbon around the board because he wants to save animals all over the world. Then he took some wooden shapes and painted them up to represent things he wants most in life. Lets take a look at them shall we.

He wants to visit Canada!

Build his own house!

Start a store of his very own!

Be a farmer and grow his own food!

The monkey represents his brother!

Be a World Traveler!

Start a Zoo to help all of the animals he rescues!

Be CEO of National Geographic!

The frog represents himself, because that is my nickname for him.

Well I hope you liked his board. He made sure to leave extra space because he will have more dreams in the future. I love that he is always dreaming. I think the world has a good future with him in it dreaming the way he does.

Celebrate the Boy

2011-02-15T06:00:00.011-05:00

Two of my favorite craft blogs, Made and Made by Rae, started getting together last year to do a whole month on boy projects. The projects were really great and they are doing it again this year. I can not wait to see what they are going to do. It starts today, so make sure to click on the button and head on over there. What are you waiting for, lets celebrate those boys!

Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T06:00:00.015-05:00

Since valentines day is only two days after Gabes birthday I never get to make much for this holiday. I have been really enjoying making banners for the front window lately. I put this one together pretty quick and I thought that it turned out really cute. I just used felt and ribbon, so easy and inexpensive.

I even did some baking to send off to my nieces and nephews. All in all it was a pretty productive valentine celebrations. What is every ones plans for tonight? Mine is grocery shopping, I know exciting right. It is though because my favorite valentine gets out early today and is joing me.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S!!!

February 12, 2003

2011-02-13T18:01:00.000-05:00

Someone Turned 8!!!

Needless to say he was pretty excited about it all. He kept saying all day that it was the "BEST DAY EVER!!!" LOL

One of his first gifts that he got to open was from his Aunt and Uncle in New Jersey. He was to funny and told me I better get the camera. Always the little ham! They did such a great job. They got him a little handheld game from the movie Cars

This was his really ~~large~~ big gift from us. He saw this monkey at Toys R Us and loved it. The thing is though that he saw it at christmas after we had already finished all of his shopping. So we really surprised him on his birthday. We even bought a couple shirts for him to dress up in. My husband thought that the Donkey Kong shirt on him was to perfect.

Look at the size compared to him this thing is huge.

He is really into music and wanting to be a singer. Sam got him a new guitar for his birthday to help along that dream. Such a good brother. ;)

Gabe even wanted to have his monkey Sam (yes he named him after his brother) play the guitar too. He actually took this picture of him.

My two monkeys eating banana monkey pancakes. We got an adorable pan at Target for the monkey pancakes.

Gabe is really into the movie Cars. His dad made this play set of radiator springs for him. then to go with it we picked up some extra cars to go with it.

His cake. O.k. first go easy on me they were really hard to take pictures of because of all the different angles. Of course it is not the best job on the decorating either, but that is a whole nother story. It was of this really cool ice cream and cake pan that I got at target. Unfortunetly I did not take a picture of the pan to share with you and I can not find a link for you to see it. The animals on it were a monkey (of course), an elephant, a lion, a gator, and a hippo.

We had a really nice lunch with family. Gram and Harriet made a 4 hour drive just to have lunch with him. I think he is pretty loved.

Getting a little sugar high from the cake.

What always comes after the sugar high...the sugar low of course. This monkey is so comfy to snuggle with... seriuosly comfy.

even Rob got a snuggle in. LOL

Later that night we had some friends stop by. Which it is always fun to watch this little guy play. He really loved Gabe's car that he got for christmas.

Sam used his uDraw to make brother a birthday card

Another entry of those crazy boys!

2011-02-08T10:34:00.000-05:00

OK I did manage to get back here for another post this week. Yeah!!! I just had to share this with everyone. It is the newest public speaking videos. This week I let the boys do their own. I told them that they could set up a stage and use props, they had so much fun. I hope you enjoy what they came up with. Sam is actually already working on what he should do for next week. Lets just say it should be interesting. One is more than likely going to end up dressed like a sumo wrestler.

Here are the poems that each of them read. It came from a book called Someone Used My Toothbrush! The poems are written in the order of the videos, so Gabe is up first.

BELLOWING IN THE BATHROOM

There's a bellowing in the bathroom

Like a mad moose on the loose

Or perhaps it is a rhino,

Or a loudly honking goose.

could it be a wounded bison?

A gorilla's mating call?

It bounces off the ceiling,

And echoes down the hall.

Could it be a brontosaurus

Roaring at full power?

No, it's just our dear old dad,

Singing in the shower.

THE MEDICINE CABINET

Our medicine cabinet is full of junk,

Squeezed-out tubes of nameless gunk,

Little brown bottles of ancient pilld

To fix some long-frogotten ills.

Sprays for noses, feet, and pits,

Half-a-dozen cures for zits.

Barettes and scrunchies, mousse and gel,

Ointments with obnoxious smells,

Thermometers and toenail clippers,

Rusty razors, nose-hair snippers,

Cough drops, syrups of all sorts,

Patches to get rid of warts.

Wipes and swipes and salve for sores,

Two small plastic dinosaurs,

Sunblock, sunscreen, sunburnlotions,

Tiny jars of mystery potions,

Bandages and dental floss,

Fake tattoos and old lip gloss.

Safety pins and dye for hair --

Open up that door with care,

For if you don't, then you will chance

A medicine cabinet avalanche.

I hope that you are enjoying the shows that they put on as much as they are doing them. I am so proud of these two videos because they did them all on their own and are very ~~funny~~ serious and well done. No all joking aside I thought that they did a great job.

Public Speaking

2011-02-03T06:00:00.034-05:00

I am pretty hit or miss on my entries latley. When I do post it is very little about the schooling any more, so I thought I would share a little public speaking today. The boys have one day a week where they work on public speaking for English. I pick out a different poem for each of them to do and then they read it aloud working on emotion and pronounciation of words. Well this week I put each of them on video after they worked on it a little. Please forgive the poor taping. I had not used the video feature on my new camera yet, so a few things to work out still. Enjoy it other wise though, each video is around one minute long.

I got the poems this week from A Burst of Firsts. It is a great book of poems, make sure to check it out. Just in case any one could not understand everything I thought that I would include the poems each one read, starting with Sam and then Gabe's.

First Person to Create Blue Jeans

Levi Strauss - San Francisco - 1873

First, coal miners wore the pants.

(Denim came from southern France.)

Cowboys followed, then came teens--

Half the world is wearing jeans.

You decide which pair you want--

Zipper-fly or button-front,

Loose-fit, wide leg, classic kind...

Half the world's been redesigned,

Sew it seams, on its behind.

First Time the Sound Barrier Was Broken

By a Brontosaurus -- About 100 million years ago

A Brontosaurus tail

Could cause a frightful gale.

THE SNEEZE! The sudden lash,

The wind -- and then the CRASH!

What first broke the sound barrier?

A Brontosaurus derriere.

I am going to video tape the boys each week for their public speaking so I will try and share it with you all. I hope to get back here soon, who knows though. Got a lot of work to do around here right now, a certian little boy around here turns 8 on the 12th. Hope to see you all soon, hacve a good one.

Japanese Egg Molds

2011-02-02T12:49:00.000-05:00

Alright I am so far behind on my entries it is not really funny. I was meaning to show you some stuff that we did over the holidays but it is just way to late know. I did want to share something pretty cool with you that the boys got for Christmas though, Japanese egg molds

They come in sets of two. We got the one that has a car and fish. As you can see they are big enough to fit one egg each in. We were not really sure how to use them since the directions were written in Japanese. Thankfully they did have pictures on the back so we could have some clue how to use it. First we made hard boiled eggs like you normally would. Then we quickly peeled them while they were still hot, put them in the container and sealed it off. On the package it had a picture with the containers in a bowl of water, so we put the containers in warm water for about 10 minutes.

Once they were done they looked like this. The car came out really cute. The fish however had a hard time getting the tail working though, LOL.

Look how cute the car is. It was alot of fun for the boys. Hope you enjoyed.

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-08T06:00:00.041-05:00

Ok another really late post, please hang in there with me because I have another couple of these before I am caught back up. On Thanksgiving we always head over to the west coast of Florida and celebrate. The kids always have fun over there with the family. This year was a big showing, 14 of us.

The trip is a long drive for everyone (4 hours) so we make a stop at the rest stop on the way. This was the morning of Thanksgiving, as you can see Gabe is very excited for the day to happen, what can I say he loves to eat.

Once we arrived his uncles were already there and he just had to take Gypsy for her walk.

My Grandmother lives in one of the many retirment communities in florida and this is of her back yard and several of her neighbors. My brothers boyfriend took the shot on my camera using the panoramic setting. I think it came out pretty well the yard just does bend the way it looks. One of the great things about the park she lives in is there is always so much different things you can see when out for a walk. So one time when Gabe went to play shuffle board with his dad, Sam and I went for a walk. Here is some of the shots we got.

I love the bright red on the flower. Also the fact that you can see the sun shining off the bee's back is pretty cool too.

There is a few of these spanish moss trees around the park. I think that they are so neat. These next few shots are of these two birds that would just walk around the park. I just thought that they were so beautiful and we could get so close to them. Hope you enjoy them, I experimented with the black and white on some of them.

We also had some fun at the park near by. Unfortunetly the playground portion was closed for repairs so the boys could only use the swings.

Gabe worked at learning how to through the frisbee. His form is coming along really nice.

Got some more loving from Gypsy.

Listened to some books on tape with best friends. (If you look close he put head phones on the monkey too. He is such a cutie)

Well that was our Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for letting me share it with you all. I hope that you all had a great one too!

A visit with Grandpa

2011-01-07T10:35:00.000-05:00

So this is a really overdue post (He visited just before Thanksgiving, oops) Better late than never right. I figured that since the big gap that I had on here was during the holidays I would try and share the fun things that we did during this time. So what better place to start than Grandpa's visit. This was my Father in laws first visit so it was really special for the boys. We tried to pack alot into the week that he was here because of that. They wanted to share all of the fun things that they love to do, this was such a small percentage of them that they can not wait for his next visit. I thought that I would share some of my favorite pictures from the visit.

This was at the Zoo. They loved taking him around and showing himall of the favorite animals.

Gabe got a chance to show Grandpa how well he is doing with his reading now.

Of course we got a chance to eat out too. We ate at TooJay's deli, coconut mounds cake, yummy :0)

I think that my favorite part of the whole trip was our trip to the park. It might be because it was my first chance to experiment with my new camera, yeah that could be the reason :0). I mean check out these pictures of the kids.

I love the profile shots when they do not realize that I am taking it. They are more natural, and I get so much better shots.

I have no idea on why this on tipped to its side. It did it when I loaded it on to blogger. Oh well, look at that face, love it.

To sweet holiding grandpa's hand on the nature trail.

Gabe got daddy in on playing.

Enough room for all three of my favorite guys.

I wanted to share some of the nature shots that I got on that day to. This was of the snapping turtle in the nature center. I love how it came out you can not even tell he is underwater.

Just a body of water on the nature trail, really pretty.

One of the other ponds on the nature trail.

I was playing with the zoom on this. It is probably one of my favorite shots that I ever took, and it was totally by accident. I was trying to see how far I could zoom and take a picture of the bird house (brown blur in back). Instead I got this shot of the tree. I was impressed with how it looked on the camera but then I got it home and on the computer and happend to notice the dragon fly on it. How cool is that, I know I get excited pretty easily.

OK that is it for now, I know it was a long post. I am going to try and get some more up this weekend of the other things that I missed. Also look for some cool stuff coming from that talented husband of mine. He got the book, 365: A daily creative journal, on new years and has been working on his projects from it. He plans on sharing them on here, yeah!

A New Start...

2011-01-06T09:53:00.000-05:00

(Picture from my front door on New Year's Eve)

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Ours was really nice, but glad things are starting to slow down. I am looking foward to the new year with some high hopes. There is going to be lots of changes and fun things going on around here. I hope to share as much as possible with all of you. Over the next week or two I hope to revamp the blog some, so please patient with any mess you see during this time. It is a lot to learn. Alright I did want to just check in a let you know we are still here. Gotta run now and get some more work done.

Just a little ..... Jet pack!!!!

2010-12-09T14:48:00.000-05:00

I thought that I would share one of the new projects that I made for the boys. A really cool Jet Pack! What little boy does not want their own jet pack. I have to admit this is not completely my idea. While looking through the many amazing and wonderful craft blogs out there I came across this. My only dilemma is that she made it out of recyclables (Gabe would destroy that in a heart beat), So I designed it out of fabric so that it could last longer.

I had problems attaching the two tubes together so I ended up hand stitching a panel in between. This worked out, because it fit him better and now fits Sam.

To change it up a little I made wings for it too. They are completely removable in case he does not want to have them on. Which is a good thing because he does not like them on much, I think that I made them a little to small (oops!)

He had so much fun blasting around the park.

So it turns out to be a great gift for the active kid in your life. It would make a great present under the tree don't you think?

Ted the Turkey....

2010-11-05T16:33:00.000-05:00

O.k so I do not do much decorating for Thanksgiving. Basically all I have is some decorative pumpkins in the window. Well I wanted something for the door. I saw Ted here at Joanns one day (half off, woohoo, only 2.50) so he came home with us. He was unfinished so I painted him up. Then I put a coat of outdoor Mod Podge on him incase of rain, I did not want him to wash off.

I think that he came out really cute. I love the how bold the colors on his tail look.

Halloween...

2010-11-03T09:24:00.000-05:00

I hope that everyone had a great halloween. We had a really nice one here. We meet up with our friends and trick or treated with them. It was alot of fun because their son is younger and just starting to learn what it means to knock on the doors and get a treat. He had a good time with that. :0) As for our place we left out candy, unfortunetly we did not get many trick or treaters. LOTS of candy left over.

See this is what we had leftover plus what the boys got for trick or treating. It is a 4ft table so I could not even get the ends in, there was alot of candy. I did god narrowing it down though. (at least I think so :)) After throwing things out and freezing some, this is what I got it down to. And after a week or two, what is left will probably get tossed.

Now on to the costumes... we actually made two for each of the boys this year. As most of you know the boys take dance classes. Well they were allowed to wear costumes in this week as long as it did not bother there ability to dance. So the boys went as ballerinas since there actual costumes would be a problem to dance in. I made them each a tutu (in their favorite colors of course). Please no laughing at the tutus, not a whole lot of experience making them since I have Boys. LOL.

Look at those cute little tushies. I love the big bows on them. (yup so saving these for when they have girlfriends, what are moms for LOL). I just love the picture below of them together.

Now on to the actual costumes. I made Gabes costume this year. He was King Arthur this year. This year I wanted to let them have more say in the costumes so they got to pick out the fabric and colors that every thing was going to be.

Isn't he a fearsome ruler. :0) His cape is reversable so he can pretend to be something else if he wants. When he has the stars on the outside he is SUPER MONKEY KING. That is my boy, LOL. His chest plate is actually a slip cover over a superman chest plate. (all about the multiple uses) I did not want to get him one of the plastic sword from the store, because honestly I thought he would hit with it. King Arthur needs a sword though, so I made him one that is stuffed (so it does not hurt if hit with). Then of course he has to have a shield to protect himself with. We just cut a shape out of foam board and painted it up, very easy to do. Then of course we topped it off with a crown.

Sam's turn... since Gabe was King Arthur Sam of course was Merlin.. Rob made Sam's costume for him, and he did a great job on it. To start with he needed a staff so he took a wooden dowel and attached a stryofoam egg shape to the top. Then he spray painted the whole thing gold. Once that dried he attached little gems around the sphere and topped it of with a big blue gem on top. Then he made the cape with a hood. Sam got a lot of compliments on this because of the cool sparkly material on the inside. Then the final piece was the Merlin mask. We found it at Joanns for half off.

The boys of course had to do some role playing in the costumes of course. :0)

Of course we could not forget our little buddy, I mean ducky that we went trick or treating with. How cute is he!

Look at his cute little ducky feet . He was so cute chasing after the boys. The little duck tail wagging away.

Here is the trick or treaters (plus the ducks mom, :0)) ready for some fun.

Even though we had a great time, I am glad halloween is over. Now that the holiday season is underway, there is so much that I need to get done. So over the next few weeks I will be in and out. I will try and post some projects as I get them done.

More Halloween Crafts

2010-10-20T09:27:00.000-05:00

Today I thought that I would share some of the projects that my husband and I have been working on. I tried to make some decorations for his office. To start with he has really high doors to his office so he wanted me to paint him this pumpkin to hang from it. I thought that it turned out pretty good. Although people in his office thought the kids painted it, LOL.

So Rob has been working on projects for around here. He decided to make a sign for our front door. Looks pretty good. He put a layer of Glow in the Dark paint on it, but then we remembered there is always a light on it, OOPS. :)

I made him this coffin to keep on his desk filled with candy. I am so happy with how the bat on the outside turned out. For the dots I just used a Q-tip on it. Then the inside I Mod podged the really cool fabric of bats on it. I think hubs was really pleased with it.

On a personal note I wanted to share that our cousin had a premature delivery last week. She is need of a blood donations for the baby. If any of my readers live near Hackensack Hospital and have O- negative blood please consider donating in her name, Jaelyn Camphausen . Hackensack Hospital M. - F. 201.996.4819 Thank you.

Halloween Garland

2010-10-19T10:48:00.000-05:00

With Halloween getting so close I thought that I would start to share some of my projects that we have done this year. So today I thought that I would show you my Garland. It has the things on it that make me think most of Halloween, candy corn, witches hats, and of course pumpkins.

I made three of each one and then sewed them to a nice "spooky halloween" ribbon.

I think the candy corn was my favorite one of all of them.

I loved how the pumpkin has lines to show the roundness of it.

I thought that the witches hat came out cute. I was not really sure what to do with it because it such a basic shape. So to give it some dimension I sewed a line across close to the bottom to give a little brim to the hat.

When it was finished we hung it up in our front window. I just love how she glows! What things have you made for halloween this year? I would love to see, let me know!

Our halloween swap...

2010-10-18T06:00:00.015-05:00

My friend Mamagames over at mind games set up a Halloween Swap this year. It was alot of fun. We got a really sweet family up in Ohio for our swap. Here are some of the pictures of the great stuff that they sent to the boys.

The sent a package of Twix (yes we could not wait to get into them, yummy). A pumpkin Spice granola,
some cool orange bowls. Then a really fun ice cube tray, skull heads.

They also sent along a few things to play with. A pirate play set, and a kitty mask (as I am typing this I realize that I forgot the Knights shield,oops) Some glow in the dark braclets that Gabe is very excited to try. Finally they sent a book to Sam.

A really great package as you can see. Thanks so much to our swap family in Ohio. What is everyone else doing for fun this halloween.

Pure Cuteness!!!

2010-10-17T08:54:00.000-05:00

Sick

2010-09-29T07:59:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the lack of posting lately. All my guys came down with a nasty cold last week. So it has put me behind a bit. Gabe was put back with his breathing treatments. He gets so bored sitting there that he starts to get a little silly. Thankfully he is back as well as my other two guys. I am trying to work on a few new post to share with you. Until then just wanted to say hi and let you know that we are still here. Have a good one.

Ducks!!!!

2010-09-20T08:18:00.000-05:00

Look at our new little friends.. The Duck Family! The other morning I noticed a duck laying in the bushes right below our apartment. I thought that I saw something moving below it but I was unsure. Later when I was outside I saw this by the pool. She did have babies, Yeah! They are so cute.

She lead them over to the bushes below our apartment again. I was able to get pretty close to them too. Here are a couple other shots. I took a bunch but I thought I better limit how much I put on here. Enjoy!

Don't you just want to snuggle them?

I LOVE that we live in the middle of the city and the boys get to experience baby ducks. They are loving checking on them every day. Homeschooling at its finest!

A Halloween Craft

2010-09-19T06:00:00.025-05:00

Ok so I am super excited for Halloween this year. I have already started putting together some crafts for it. I wanted to share some of them with you as I finished them. I found some little coffins at Micheal's the other day and I thought that they would be really cute all decorated up and filled with candy. Here are some shots of the finished project.

I painted the outside black and and the inside silver. There is a sound box on the inside that sets off an evil laugh every time you open it. I painted a cross on one and the other I put circles like it was nails in the coffin. Also to give it something a little more I Mod Podged the outside edge with some cobweb and spider ribbon. I love how these turned out. I can not wait for Halloween. I would love to see what everyones else is doing for Halloween.

Make sure you head over to Mind Games and sign up for the Halloween swap.

To make a snake...

2010-09-18T06:00:00.030-05:00

One of the lessons that I do with the boys is have them sew as a life skills lessons. They actually have their own sewing machine that they got for christmas last year. Sam is becoming really good with it. Gabe is good as long as he realizes that it is not a race car. Well I am always trying to have some fun projects with them to sew. Recently Gabe started to become really interested in Snakes (he watches alot of Jeff Corwin). I saw this project and I thought how perfect it would be for them to do as a joint project. I was actually sewing something on my machine at the same time, more on that at another time.
Being the smart momma that I am (hehehe) I actually thought to document their process in photos for you. Hope you enjoy, I know that I did.

First step. Pick out the material and cut out your pieces. Side note, The helmet is on because he recently started learning to ride his bike. He has gotten obsessed with the helmet, wears it all the time.

Step two. Get pins in so you can start sewing.

Then big brother realizes that you are big enough to start sewing on your own.

After you get it all sewn together, it is time for stuffing it. Phew that sure is a tiring job, LOL!

Once you get all of the stuffing in that you want, it is time to sew it closed. Look at that concentration, he is just to cute sometimes ;)

There you have a super easy and cuddly soft snake made by two brothers.

the full snake

I just gotta wear shades

2010-09-17T06:00:00.001-05:00

We just got them some new glasses. Look how handsome they are!

A picnic with friends

2010-09-16T06:00:00.042-05:00

Labor day weekend we got together with some of our friends for a picnic. The best part of the picnic was that Sam planned and put the whole thing together. He did such a great job. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Connor resting up before the picnic (I guess he would not take his nap after, oops)

Picture was taken by Sam

Sam with Carl and Li Mei.

Connor Having a blast playing in the dirt.

Picture taken by Sam

All the kids having some food.

My monkeys hanging out in trees

After lunch we went down to the water and the boys had so much fun with the buckets of water.

You can not see it in this picture but Carl had just thrown a bucket of water at him, that is why he looks like that. LOL

Sam had some fun playing with Connor in the water too.

After the water we went up for the kids to play on the swings. Look at that smile, he is just to cute. :0)

Picture taken by Rob

Sam, Li Mei, Connor, Gabe, and Carl at the end of the day. It was such a nice day. Good job on your planning Sam.

(Sorry about the darkness of the picture, we were right under a big tree)

A common view...

2010-09-15T06:00:00.004-05:00

I thought that I would share a picture that is becoming more and more of a habit around here. It is just the sweetest, don't you think?

A little spell building...

2010-09-14T06:00:00.023-05:00

So I am always on the look out for new and fun ways to teach my kids. Well one topic that I find kind of, well boring to teach is grammar. Then I saw this idea on Filth Wizardry. What a great idea, I mean who does not have a ton of big legos lying around. What not put them to good use and teach your kids something with them.

He was so excited to show what he wrote. He loves making up sentences this way.

Make a Didgeridoo..

2010-09-13T06:00:00.036-05:00

With our studying of Australia, one thing we had to make was a Didgeridoo. I was so excited to find this link on how to make one. We gathered up the supplies and started making it.

First step is to get a three foot of pvc pipe.

Then we spray painted them all one color so that it would look like wood.

Then you let 2 very excited boys design up one each, with aboriginal style paints of course. :0) Once they finish painting DH melted down the beeswax and made mouth pieces for them.

The finished products. Gabe made the one on the left and Sam made the one on the right. The boys love having them. They love to put on little shows with them. Thank goodness the noise level is realitvly low on them. LOL :0)

Halloween Box Swap for Kids...

2010-09-12T16:26:00.001-05:00

My friend PisecoMom over at Mindgames is trying to put together a Halloween swap for all our cute little kiddos out there. If you are interested you should make sure to go sign up. Deadline for signing up is September 24. So either click here or on her button in my sidebar and it will take you there. So what are you waiting for, go sign up!

Edited to add... I was having problems with the button so I took it down. Just click on my links instead.