First Day Of School! 2011-2012

They were so excited, it has been a long hot summer with (as they say) "Nothing to do!"

Lol!

August 25, 2011

Jesse going into 7th grade

He said he had a great day but was sad his best friend is on a different team, so year they don't share any class. Oh well probably better that way, they won't get into trouble together! Lol!

Can't wait to see how he does in Spanish (I wanted him to take Typing but he picked Spanish)

Cole going into the 4th grade! He is growing up so fast! He was very happy to see some of his old friends in his new class and is quickly making new ones!!! And the friends that are not in his class he still sees on the play ground so he is super happy! He is also starting a AG class, so he too is super smart! GO COLE!

August 29, 2011

Lila is going into her 2nd (and last) year of preschool with the 4 day 4s! She was so excited till the night before, she got sad that and wanted to stay with me! Lol! But I knew that her tune would change once she got there and saw all her friends and you know what!?! IT DID!!! She had an AWESOME DAY and she got to be the line leader!

So now that the kids are all in school what am I going to do in my short 2 1/2 hours being kidless!?! Right now it has been running around a lot catching up on somethings I did not want to do with them during the summer! But the first goal is cleaning up the house (again!)!!! Then maybe getting me time!!! (would love to get my nails done, have not done that in YEARS!)

But till then....

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~

The Beach

August 19-21, 2011

We Love going to the Beach even if it is just for a short weekend! We had lots of fun playing in the waves and sand and even meet a new friend that joined us (see crab in the pictures)!

One Happy Little Girl! Lila already wants to go back!

My Little Character! I love the picture up top of Cole looking terrified which was about a wave coming to get his sand creation! Lol

Jesse did a lot of boggy boarding and being that he is just months away form being a teen he is not much of a picture person but I did steal a few!

We had a lot of fun going to one of the islands off our coast for a couple of days to just get away the weekend before school started! We did the beach and the aquarium, ate out, shopped for souvenirs, and all around had a great time! We had a crab crash our beach spot, lol! Unfortunately as we pack up around him he stood his ground and did not scurry to his hole so as we were headed up the board walk we saw a seagull come down and start picking at him. So sad =( for our new little friend! So everyone had a great time! (well except the crab) Wish we could have stayed longer!

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~

Twas The Night Before School...

(Someone posted this on Facebook and it was too cute not to share! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!)

Twas the night before school started,

when all through the town,

the parents were cheering...

What a riotous sound!

By 8 kids were washed and

tucked into bed...

Where memories of homework

fill them with dread!

New pencils, new folders,

new notebooks, and glue!

New teachers, new friends...

Their anxiety grew.

The parents just giggled

when they learned of this fright-

shouted upstairs:

Go To Bed! It's A School Night!

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~

A Diary of a Whiny Mom!

So again I am going to do: "A Diary Of A Whiny Mom!"

(we so love the 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' books and movies)

Today it is about how LONG and HOT the summer has been! School is around the corner and the boys are not getting any better! Most day have been supper hot so they can't spend a lot of time out there and they are the ages that they don't want to do the same things any more... the older want to be on the computer the younger one wants to play with toys still, and so on!

We have been to a pool here and a pool there (a lot more than last year) but nothing consistent like when we lived in the apartment 4/5 years ago. We have had some friends over and been over to friends houses. Lila did a couple of camps, the boys did not want to do any camps!

But all I hear most days at any given time is.....

"Mom, Jesse won't play with me! Make him play with me!"

"Mom, Cole won't leave me alone! Make him go away!"

"Mom, Jesse won't go outside with me..."

"Mom, Cole's on my side..."

&

"It's my turn first!"

"You promised to play another game with me!"

"He hit me!"

"Hey that's Mine!"

And it seem to be all day these days! And it is making me a little crazy!

Ok... A LOT OF CRAZY!!!

Is it to late to sign them up for YEAR ROUND SCHOOL? Because I CAN NOT take another summer like this! Something has got to give!!!!

~So sign them up for camp!

You can't make them if the don't want to go,

plus we don't have the $ to do it all the time!

~Take them out!

They fight even when we take them out,

so much so I don't want to go any where with them!

Plus the HEAT, Plus the $...

~Put them to work!

They do have chores.

Some they get payed for and some that they don't.

I am sooo glad school starts next week! I have a whole school year to figure out what I am going to do next year! I am praying for a good school year!

But if something does not give I may be running away come May 2012!

Sorry I just need to get it out,

Thank you for listening (I mean reading) my whiny self!

Any suggestions for next summer?

(And aways what I am searching for:)

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~

Something That Makes Me Happy

Something that has made me really happy lately is that I got to start my fresh water fish tank! Any one that knows me knows that my hubby has an (lets call it) addiction to salt water fish, corals, crabs... well all the cool things you put in a salt water tank!

I do love the salt water fish and our 'Dory' & 'Nemo' but there are some fresh water fish I REALLY wanted! PINEAPPLE SWORDTAILS!

So we took the tank that has been sitting empty for quite a while (use to be salt water but he upgraded them to a bigger tank)

~reused a filter that we already had (but had to get new stuff to go inside so that we were not putting salt back into the tank)

~got water using the RO filter hooked to the hose outside (this took the longest time but was done in one day!)

~and last but least threw in a RosyRed fish that we had on hand (we feed them to the Lion Fish)

Then come the fun part since we reused most of the stuff I got to buy new rocks, plants, fish, and a cool little shrimp!

Bamboo Shrimp

African Dwarf Frog & Solar Flare Swordtail Fish

(the frog unfortunately had an accident w/ the filter. We will get another one when we get a better cover for the intake on the filter)

Fancy Guppy up at the top & Swordtails in the back corner

MY PINEAPPLE SWORDTAILS!

=)

So this is what it looks like today!

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~

A Big Accomplishment!

I did this one a about a month or two ago but was still a great "Accomplishment"!

This is what you saw when we open our font door to let you in! Not PRETTY!

(Before)

All the shoes were driving me nuts! Yes I have a shoe problem which does cary over to some of my children! So I got a cubby thing (which we had to put together) and some baskets...

(After)

Now there is a cubby for me and one for hubby to throw stuff into as we walk in the door...

And two for each of the kids, one for library book or when school starts school stuff and one for their most used shoes (and while it is summer flip-flops)!

It looks so much better...

but we still have the basket of extra shoes on the wall facing the cubes but you don't see it unless you look down when you come throw the door or when you are leaving so for now it works.

I also want bigger baskets soon these ones came for the dollar store so I could keep the cost down! (those baskets are like $5 to $16 or so each and I need at lest 4!)

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~

What to do w/ all that Bread Crusts!

So for my Little Lady Bug's Tea Party we made very cute sandwiches with cook cutters so when we were done we had tons of crust! Now the question is what to do with all that extra bread with out throwing it out?....

We could go to a pond and feed the ducks/geese!

We could throw it in the compost pile!

We could feed it to the dog throw out the week in pieces mix in her dog food!

Or we could turn them into bread crumbs! We use bread crumbs!

So we toasted the bread under the broiler watching and flipping after one side was toasty brown so both side would be toasty brown!

Than let it all cool!

Next used the food processor to chop it all up into little biddy pieces!

Then put it all into a bag for storing till we need it!

Looks good!

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~

Test Tea Party!

Well Lila has wanted to do a tea party for a little while and unfortunately she said that her plastic set just would not do... She wanted a real Tea Party!

So got out the "good" china

(someone gave it to us when hubby and I were in our first apartment 10 years ago and

we have never used so if little girls end up braking them no worries!)

Invited a Friend

Made some cute little sandwiches

(Grilled Cheese Butterflies)

(Jelly Frog Sandwiches)

Then it was time to pick out an out fit or should I say model

all our pretties dresses!

Lol

Added some Goldfish, Animal Crackers, and Apple Slices to the menu

And after all that work we got to enjoy a nice Tea Party!

Even if it was for a few second of munching down than running off

to go play! Lol

So was our Test Tea Party a SUCCESS?

Well for 2 little girls it was!!!

And as for their mommies?

Yes!

It was nice to have them pretend for a moment than

run off to play while we got to hang out and chat!

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~RA~