Eagle Projectin' Up

We were so lucky to participate in Travis Bloomfield's Eagle Scout project today. They cleaned up the grounds of Hunter and Michael's school and painted a map of the United States on the sidewalk. It turned out so great!

Isn't Hunter gorgeous!

Bubble Baths Are for the Birds

Ellie was so sweetly and quietly playing with bubbles and sidewalk chalk while I was helping my dad with the garden. She was being so good. She even came and assisted us after a while and was a super tool holder.  On our way back inside, I got a better look at the beautiful chalk drawings she'd made on the sidewalk as well as the fun she'd had with the bubbles.

Reminds me of a certain shag carpet concoction.

Honoring Honor Rollers at Gattitown

In honor of Hunter and Michael and their fantastic report cards, we all hit Gattitown. If you don't know what Gattitown is, it's only the COOLEST pizza restaurant ever. The food is all served buffet style, including the drinks. The kids got to make their own soda fountain concotions and even drink icees if they wanted too. We ate in a dining room with TWO movie screens. We invited our babysitter friend Alyssa to join us for our celebrating.

After dinner, we entered the game room. I totally dreaded not only the annoyance of the loud games and chaos, but also how quickly the cash for games would dwindle and the kids would be begging for more money to play more games.  But, surprisingly, I had a blast playing games with the kids and by the time I finally dragged them out of there, we still had money left on our game cards to play more games.

Elle picked a froggie game that was really a mock roller coaster-type ride. Crazy fun. My favorite was the bumper cars. Michael and Hunter and I couldn't stop laughing our heads off.

Since Elle was too little to ride the bumper cars, she found her own game to play.

I loved watching Michael and Huntie play Whac-A-Mole and then Whac-A-Sibling shortly after.

Mom, I have to tell you something about my report card . . .

SO, I had no idea today was report card day. It could have flown safely over my head and I would have never been the wiser. But my cutie Huntie felt it was very important to tell me that she got her report card today and that I shouldn't be too worried about looking at it because she didn't get any awards or honor roll or anything. She was so straight-faced and matter-of-fact about it that I just figured, well no big deal, I guess the schools in Texas don't make all the hoopla each term like the schools in Louisiana did.

So we get home on our bikes and I kind of forget about report cards. Then Hunter comes back into the kitchen a few minutes after later and said, "Mom, I have something to tell you about my report card."

OK.

She whipsers into my ear, "Mom, I got an F."

WHAT!

So she gets out the report card. You see, she always loves springing stuff on people, so I'm usually on my guard about that kind of stuff. She loves to jump out and surprise people and catch anyone off guard. She also loves to switch the outcome of her stories, just to see her audience's relief, or surprise, when she jumps back to the true ending. So, here we are, looking at her F.

Of course, no Fs. But she really did have me going for a second there. I know she'd been working her tushie off in a new school with high standards. I knew she'd struggled with difficult homework assignments and challenging classwork. I told myself, well, an F would suck, but maybe she's just doing the best she can the same moment she moves to a new school, new state, in with her grandparents, her mom and dad get divorced, etc. An F would be easy to understand. But I was so grateful and truly beaming that she came out of all of that on top and securely on A-B Honor Roll. She really truly has worked so hard and done so very well.

The same goes for Michael. He is thriving in his new environment. He's on fire writing stories, reading books and doing Accelerated Reading tests left and right, solving math problems and everything else you could imagine. He's soaring, and he's not even breaking a sweat.

Both kids earned Citizenship awards! YEAH!

These are tender mercies from our Heavenly Father. He has carried us through such a trying time. I feel Father daily and am so grateful for his personal involvement in our day-to-day lives.

All Michael Wants for Easter . . .

. . . is his two front teeth. 

Michael pulled out his own tooth tonight!! Go Michael!

Think he's a little proud of himself? Um, YEAH!

Shrinky Dinky Doo

Do you remember Shrinky Dinks?



Talk about come a long way! I remember Shrinky Dinks as a kid like this Mr. T kit here. I mean, Mr. T, what could be cooler than that.

But as I googled what kind of Shrinky Dink business was going on nowadays, I found more and more remarkable stuff like this:

I would LOVE some killer Shrinky Dink jewelry like that! Maybe we'll have to a "functional Shrinky Dink" craft day at our house one day soon.

In the meantime, Shrinky Dink fun for pure entertainment value is good enough. Hunter and Michael AND Elle had a great time Shrinky Dinkin' it up with Hunter's cutie friend Hannah. Check out their creations:

 

I didn't remember how extensive the coloring investment to the finish product ratio was. Check out this before and after for the very favorite giant squid guy.

So the kids started out picking their image to trace.

Then they colored their little hearts out.

Cut it out.

And watched their giant creations become tiny pieces of artwork. LOVE IT!

I ♥ Elle!

I totally ripped off this ridiculously cute hairdo from my wonderfully creative friend Jenna - an idea she ripped off from another crafty friend. And so the circle is complete.

I hope you enjoy it! I LOVED braiding these little hearts into my Ellie's hair :).

When I was a little girl, maybe Hunter's age, I used to style all the neighborhood girls' hair. My signature style was the "ribbon" look. I would give my "client" a top-of-the-head ponytail - either complete or partial would do. Then I would separate the ponytail into small sections of hair. I would douse one small section of hair at a time with AquaNet, or Rave 4 Megahold (my favorite), until it was soaked. Then I would  take one of those super small curling irons that were so the rage in the 80s and sizzle that section of hair into a tight ringlet. Then repeat with all the small sections of hair until it looked like a fabulous pile of hair-colored curling ribbon was piled on top of my client's head.  I know, it was fabulous.

Family Day at the Childrens Museum