10 Spring Break Tidbits

There are a few things I learned from Spring Break 2014........

1. On the rare occasion (like once per year) that I have the opportunity to be by myself for three days, Murphy's Law shows up and I'm in bed all three days with a heinous sinus infection. Thank you, dust. I'm still coughing up phlegm.

2. Steroid shot = I might have even eaten cardboard if it came to that. I. was. starving.

3. When a three year old goes to stay with grandparents for 7 days, you will get a beast back in his place. I'm just saying. S-P-O-I-L-E-D.

4. Three nights of solid sleep make one feel human. And then the beast returns home and wages a war for chocolate milk in the middle of the night and the dream of pleasant sleep in crushed. I won the war last night, though I'm injured.

5. Spring weather is just a wild card. You may get dust, wind, frost, heat. But invariably it will not be nice if your kids have the chance to play outdoors.

6. "Let it Go" from Frozen might possibly cause me to smash my toe with a hammer in hopes of choosing something that is more appealing than listening to the song yet again.

7. Roasted weenies and burnt marshmallow s'mores made from a real campfire are truly one of life's great luxuries.

8. Don't underestimate the power of repeatedly watching Cheetos incinerate in a campfire-at least an hour of fun.

9. One can substitute club soda for milk in Bisquick and make the most light and fluffy and scrumptious waffles ever.

10. The alarm going off on Monday morning the week after Spring Break will never be welcome around this house. Ever.

Spring Break, how we miss you already.

Mud Dawgs

What do the Smarties do on a warm Saturday afternoon?

 Why, play in the MUD, of course!!!

Valentine's Day Parties 2014

We signed up to bring drinks to Gunnar's school party. Here he is with his heart sucker! This child loves candy. Valentine's Day was a good day for him.

Gunnar and his teacher, Ms. Shannon

We had ice cream sundaes at Finley's first grade party!

Finley opening all her Valentines.

Slade's fifth grade party was a sock hop. We had hula hoops, limbo, and 50's music. They ate popcorn and drank Coca Colas.

This was Slade's last holiday party in elementary school. Sniff, sniff.

Limbo actually being done incorrectly by my son.

Silly Slade and Ben. This last Vday party was the 12th party he's had at Smith. It's been a good run. This momma is a little sad. Lots of fun times and good memories.

Gunnar's First Dentist Visit

My boy went to the dentist last week for his very first visit. I wasn't sure how this would work because he is not a very good patient at the doctor's office. To my surprise, he did quite fabulous and it only took a bribe of "sugar free" gum! The visit did not consist of much. They just let them get used to the chair, the room, the dentist. So basically, I paid $65 for the dentist to count his teeth and say to come back and he would clean them. Although I felt it was totally unproductive, he at least knows what to expect next time.

He did say some funny things. After the dentist finished the 10 second, $65 count, Gunnar smiled and said, "that took thee minutes." Yes, my three year old felt we got scammed, too. When we walked out the door, he laughs and says, "That wasn't that bad." We shall return next month for a $120 cleaning. I hope it takes longer than three minutes.........

House Newbies......

Since we have moved in, which just passed the year mark in February(cannot believe that), I have been planning to get some shelves up in the kids rooms. They each have some furniture pieces, but no actual shelves. Slade needed some badly. I hosted a shower at my house this past weekend, so we did some sprucing up projects. Just in time for the party, we got all the shelves done and they look awesome!!! I'm so happy with them!!! 

 Gunnar's rooms. (sadly, these cell phone pics are to be desired) I had them painted a dark navy blue and they really look nice.

 I put up several things from when Kyle was a kid. The Twister Game spinner is from Kyle's house in Morton, the animal barn and McDonalds were all toys of Kyles. Also his little Bert & Ernie from Seasame Street are in the glass pumpkin of Margaret's on top of the stack of books. The blue sign by the monkey is a sign Kyle had in his room growing up, too.

 Love the corner shelves!!! The basket of stuffed animals at the top are some of Slade, Finley, & Gunnar's favorites or sentimental ones when they were little babies.

 Finley's shelf turned out great above her window seat.

 Slade has shelves on the other side of the window, too. He needed them the worst because of all his trophies. I just really love how everything is displayed.

Another project I worked on was this photo collage. I have tons of pics and frames that were still in bins from when we moved. I bought turquoise and black spray paint and recycled all of my frames and put in my favorite photos! I am so excited how they turned out!!!

On a side note, I sprayed the frames while it was windy out. Um, that night, Slade brought it to my attention that my hair was blue. Yep, all my hair had a thin but VERY noticeable blue sheen. I tried not to freak out, but was afraid that I would be leaving the house doing my errands with blue hair. I googled "how to remove spray paint from your hair" and found out that mayonnaise will take out spray paint. Yes, yes, my friends, mayo works!!! A word to the wise......do not spray paint while it's a bit windy outdoors.

Gunnar Funnies.....

Some things I don't want to forget Gunnar said. He's my very funny kid.

I was trying to hide from Gunnar and jump in the bath. He's on a kick and likes to play in the tub like he's a fish and ends up getting water everywhere. I had told him no bath till tonight. I had managed to bathe and was drying off when he appeared at the bathroom door. He said, "Mom, you take a bath, then I take a bath."

This morning I told him that he had school today. He asks, "Mom, but can I watch Netflix a little minute?" Every block of time to him is a "little minute". Haha!

G has gotten into the habit of lounging around in his pajamas all day on the days we stay home. I had to dress him for school, to his dismay. He looked at me and whined, "I don't want to change, I want to wear comfortable clothes!" Let me just add, ALL his clothes are "comfortable" as he wears cotton pants and shirts most days!!!

He likes to pretend like he's a dog and crawls on all fours, barking, growling, and licking. He came up and licked me on the face when I was talking on the phone the other day! LOL! So when Kyle drops by the house in the middle of day, Gunnar immediately runs up to him and asks Kyle to play "puppy". Kyle pets him and plays fetch. It's all quite funny. Lately, though, when G gets mad at us for whatever reason, he says, "I'm not going to play puppy with you anymore!"

And there's so many more......I will have to keep thinking of them!!!