father’s day craft

I posted on my summer list that I want to find some toddler crafts. This is in an effort to keep Miss Delaney busy, and therefore, happy. I tend to park myself in front of the tv while she plays. And then when she’s bored and I’m totally into whatever I’m watching, she proceeds to run through the house like a tornado, leaving a path of destruction. The result is a messy house, a grumpy mom and an out-of-sorts toddler. So I figured, maybe we need a little more structure around here. Hopefully a few crafts here and there will do the trick.

This week, Delaney helped make a card for her daddy for Father’s Day.

The picture on the left is Delaney. The one on the right is her daddy. You could probably tell by the glasses! And you’ll notice she is beginning to put clothes on some of her drawings (the little shape under the head that is attached to the legs are the clothes).

Happy Father’s Day to Jeremy, the best husband and perfect daddy for my kids!
Happy Father’s Day to my dad, the best dad I could’ve had…perfect, like me!! Ha!
Happy Father’s Day to my father-in-law, Chuck. Thanks for raising such an awesome kid!!

summer list 2011

I wasn’t going to do a summer list this year. The older girls think it’s lame and Nate and Delaney can’t really appreciate it. But I decided to go ahead anyway, because there are several things I’d really like to do this summer. And writing them down and posting them keeps me accountable.

 

In case you’re wondering about some of the things on the list, here are a few descriptions:

*Chicken Mary’s was featured on the Travel Channel’s show Food Wars, it’s a home-style restaurant in Pittsburgh, KS.

* Exploration Place is a hands-on children’s museum in Wichita.

*Milk paint – I want to make or purchase to paint a few different pieces of furniture I have around the house.

*Museum of World Treasures is another museum in Wichita.

*Caves – We plan to go to Missouri this summer and I would like to do a cave tour, either at Silver Dollar City or one of the drive through caves near Springfield.

*I know my family Jeremy will not be thrilled with the new weekly recipe. He’s not one who likes change. This week’s new recipe was Cedar Plank Smoked Salmon. No pictures to share, but I can tell you, it was yummy. I ate it all by myself (since Jeremy refuses to eat fish). He really had a hard time grilling it for me, but was a good sport!

I think most of the others are pretty self-explanatory. I’ll try to post pictures of the fun things we do this summer. And I have room to add more fun ideas (in case the teenagers decide a summer list isn’t all that lame!)

they've got rhythm!

I don't normally post videos, but thought this was worthy. Our local high school drumline won a competition against other high school drummers. Here is a video of their final winning performance (with a prize of $1,000!) Not too shabby for a bunch of white kids!

all packed up

My summer was off to a crazy busy start. Allison has 6 am (yes, I said am) practices until she goes to dance camp the last week in June. She had driver’s ed the first 2 weeks of summer. Bri had to get packed (after a major shopping trip to make sure she had enough clothes for 2 whole weeks!) to head on her trip. I was exercising like a mad woman because of a competition I was in (which I took second place in…boo, but lost 16 lbs…yay!) And I had to get my classroom completely packed up to move into the new building.

87 boxes. Plus lots of odds and ends that I shrink-wrapped together.

I sure hope the movers are careful with my things. I have horrible visions of destroyed lamps and collapsed boxes. And beat up book shelves.

It was a little sad to say goodbye to my old classroom. But it will be so exciting to move into the brand new building!!

friday fun

A day at the zoo.

After a week or more of temps over 100, we finally had a little reprieve from the heat, so I decided to take Delaney to the zoo. Gaga and Papa joined us.

Delaney was not terribly excited about the big animals. Snakes, turtles and birds were more her thing. Whose kid is she? She did eventually warm up to most of the animals. But Papa had to carry her whenever there were animals roaming freely. You know, real scary animals, like baby goats and sheep.

Personally, I was not too crazy about these guys. They were very active and flying around more than usual. Very creepy!

Don’t worry. She wasn’t feeding the bird. But how crazy is it that she wouldn’t even look at a bear that was more than 10 feet away, but was willing to reach out to this bird?

This guy was strutting his stuff all over the zoo. His body was the most brilliant blue. This picture doesn’t do it justice.

And that’s….the end!