Skating Fun!

Hattie had a birthday party at the skating rink.  I love those kinds of parties.  

Discount!  We only had to pay for two skaters.  

 They all began in the beginner area.

 Does Emogene look miserable?  Lydda had a good time though.

Lydda did get brave enough to hold on to the side all by herself and go around and around.

 I think Hattie was making friends.

  Then Emogene and Hattie got brave enough to head on over to the big rink.

 They arrived just in time for the race.  These girls do not back down from a challenge.

 Everyone gathered at the starting line.

 Ready, set, go!

 At this point Hattie was thinking, "At least I'm not last, at first."

 Taking the turn

Hurry!! 

 In the home stretch

The race is over and they didn't come in last place.

They were both happy little skaters.

A Work in Progress

We are redoing  doing Lydda and Hattie's room.  Hattie told her teacher that her room was just a bed and had nothing on the walls.  That made this momma want to paint that poor baby's room.  I had some inspiration from the new Thirty-One catalog and started planning.  I sent a big furniture piece off to get painted and distressed.  I started crafting an artwork holder for them to showcase all their glorious drawings and colorings.  Here are a few pics of all we've been doing.  I'll post a final pic when we have everything finished.  I can't wait!

 Painting classes began that morning.  They didn't pass the class with a very high grade so they were limited in their painting jobs.

Although bunk beds are not the prettiest things, they are very useful to save space.  Lydda and Hattie shared a twin bed.  Hattie actually preferred sleeping on the floor, but I put a stop to that.  Emogene has two twin beds in her room, but anytime I sent Hattie to sleep in her room, they would sleep in the same bed together.  They do not like sleeping alone.  They get very excited when the weekend arrives because they all get to sleep together.  Now that we have the bunk beds, I noticed they spread out.  Hattie slept alone at the top and Emogene and Lydda slept on the full bed on the bottom.  Yay!  

After we assembled the beds, Lydda and Hattie explored.  Lydda kept thanking me and telling me it was the best day ever.  Eric kept getting annoyed because he did most of the assembling and wasn't thanked much.  Hattie said the bunk beds were "AMAZING."  I'm glad they liked them.  Now, I need to start searching for bedding.

 Here is my first attempt at distressing using Vaseline.  I liked the outcome.  

This is part of the artwork holder.

Here are the clothespins I covered, distressed, and Mod Podged.  I can't wait to finish the room.  

Valentine's Crafting

We were supposed to ALL be taking a nap on our Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.  Lydda was my only reluctant.  The other two and I were feeling yucky from colds and were looking forward to a nice nap to finish our day.  I laid down and was interrupted twice by Lydda.  Then Hattie came in to tell me Lydda wouldn't be quiet.  Hattie fell asleep next to me and I heard a little three year old leave her room many times and piddle around the house.  I went ahead and got up and missed my napping chance.  

Lydda and I had over an hour to ourselves, so I decided to tackle her school project.  We made her Valentine's box.

I deviated from the list of boxes they put on the note and settled on the hot cocoa can.

I stamped her name into the lid, but the white ink I had takes tooooo long to dry and it kept smearing so I changed that later.  I covered the lid with some of the paper I used on the sides.

 Lydda and her no pants self loved the stamping part, remember she was supposed to be napping.

 She punched out circles with gusto!

 This was my second idea for her name.  I have had a bag of little clothespins for almost 6 years.

I am finally almost out of them.

She was very willing to glue the Chinese character for love on her box.  She also got to close the glue.   She got to stamp, glue, and punch.  I think she totally made the box herself.  Look at her cute little yogurt smeared face.

Here is one side of our finished Valentine's box.

 This is Lydda's favorite side.

Lydda and I enjoyed our afternoon together.  I finally had to wake up the other two and fix them all soup and smoothies for supper.  I hope everyone starts feeling better soon.

A forgotten swimming suit

These are super old, but I love seeing a baby in a diaper and my baby is not a baby anymore.  She is growing up way too fast.

A love note to ME!

Smooches to you!

Super DOG!

That insane Great Dane climbed up the ladder to get to the children.  He wanted to be a pirate in the game instead of always being the shark.

 It was quite funny trying to get him to go down the slide, but he did it.  Way to go Sheldon!

Little Angel Darlings

Believe me, my little girls were being such angels in the huge crowd of elementary students waiting to perform.  They were not running around and screaming.  I was so proud of them.  My Emogene was preparing to play her clarinet with the band.  Emogene and Hattie did such a beautiful job singing and playing the clarinet for the school's Christmas program.  It was a great night.

quietly goofing off

I had terrible seats, but here is the closest I could get to my talented Emogene.

Bling!

Thank you crafty second graders!  I have remembered to wear them three days in a row.

Crafty Mess Makers

Hattie spends A LOT of time in my classroom before and after school.  Unlike Emogene, she doesn't embrace independence.  For the first half of the year, I constantly often caught her or found the remains of her beloved crafts.  She enjoyed making anything from the supplies in my art cabinets.  This year, she has focused mostly on making bracelets.  That means, I find beads all over the place.  My class helper also finds yarn, beads, glue, pipe cleaners, etc all over her table/desk.  I finally got it through to Hattie that this was unacceptable.  Well yesterday, I returned from car line to find her and her best friend, Kali, on the floor in front of my art cabinets with LOTS of supplies scattered on the floor.  They were happily crafting and making things to "sell" for free while my forehead vein was popping out of my head.  I sat at my desk and felt my blood pressure rising quietly watched them.  Kali's mom came in to check on her, and I informed her of my aggravation.  I knew it wasn't Kali that instigated it, because I know of Hattie's crafting obsession.  Kali's mom and I approached the girls about the problem and Hattie's excuse was, "You said I couldn't make anything on Mrs. Lavern's table."  Ever the smarty pants!  Oh my word!  She just now ran into my classroom and said, "Ms. Stubbs told me to make her something."  She was so excited.  She is digging in my craft cabinet at this very moment.  Her teacher is trying to torture me.  I've also found out that her teacher is laying remnants of craft supplies on her desk all day to add to her "collection."  Ms. Stubbs is definitely trying to torture me.  

Look at her praying mantis.  She is a great crafter!

Wallace Christmas

Wow, I didn't get many pictures of some people.  We really missed Kristi's family.  Hopefully we will get to see them soon.  The girls gave a beautiful concert.  Lydda directed them.  They each had solos.  It was so beautiful.