Best Book

I got this book when Clint was in Kindergarten. It has a checklist at the back that we have been checking off over the years. 101 Things Every Kid Should Do Growing Up. I recommend it to everyone. Childhood just flies by so fast...as everyone always says and knows. This list will help to make sure we make the most of it! The book includes instructions for crafts and science, tips for teaching values, and also provides places to find resources to make a fun and memorable childhood. The author shares my philosophy that the most important aspect of childhood is to have fun and realize the world is a beautiful place full of wonder, and that anything is possible. #101 on the list is "Every kid should have a dream for the future and an adult that believes in the dream."

The list also includes simple things, like "Having your own library card", and "Experiencing the ocean". It includes productive activities like"Do chores around the house without being paid",and "Learn the value of money". A few things all of us have already done, like "Blowing soap bubbles", and "playing dress up". It's just one of my favorite books that I refer to on a regular basis. And it makes me feel like a kid again too. Which really is, I think, the VERY best part of being a Parent.

Conversation

Clint: Derek, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Derek: I want to be a Baseball player, no a Football player...

Clint: Don't you want to be something really cool like a Scientist, or an Astronaut?

Derek: No! I want to be a Football player!

Clint: But if you are an astronaut, you can go to outerspace!

Derek: I HATE GOING TO OUTERSPACE!!!!

Bugs

Now that we have crossed the top of the summit of winter, and are on the downhill slope, my mood is starting to improve, and I even feel happy again! Especially on days like today, where we had to take our coats off at the park because it was too hot!

I know summer is still a long ways off, but to celebrate the beginning of the thaw, we decided to pay tribute to some of our summer friends, but making some fun and colorful bugs!
We just used plastic spoons for molds. And mixed up the Plaster of Paris that I have had in my closet since my teaching days. (You can get it at any craft store for just a few dollars).

They dry in less than 30 min. And Derek painted them with acrylic paints. Most of them are ladybugs, in diffrent colors, of course...but we did make a few beetles too.

Inadequate

Yes, that's me. Yesterday I stopped by my good friend Michelle's house, unannounced, at about 6:45 pm. She is my Treasure for PTA. I had some checks for her to sign. Her daughter opened the door and invited me in. To my left, I walked by an immaculate kitchen with a beautifully set table and a bowl of fruit salad in the middle of the matching red plates and stemmed water glasses. Complete with folded napkins and all of the silverware in the right place. I walked past the kitchen and into the family room where her daughter and son were practicing music together, one on the piano, the other, the guitar. Her oldest daughter, the sterling scholar at Jordan High, sat in a big comfortable chair studying french while the other daughter went back to the computer to finish her essay before Dad, the Bishop, got home. Michelle was in her cute little apron, going through the checkbook, making sure it was balanced. I immediately felt inadequate. On so many levels. To make it even worse, as I complemented her on this scene of the perfect home, she, being the sweet and unpretentious mom and friend that she is, started to downplay the whole scene, something about how if I had just been there on Sunday when everyone was in tears, or how she doesn't have small children anymore and her kids are big enough to help, and she is not PTA blah, blah, blah...

I think I would have felt a lot better about the whole thing if she was conceited, or pretentious, or proud of being the great mother and homemaker that she is. She's not. She's gracious and sweet and kind. A lot of my friends are. I just feel inadequate.

Is it Springtime yet?

Soon, Derek....soon!

Great Finds

Since we have been stuck inside so much all crappy winter, there are a few cool things we have found to pass the time. MOON SAND is something that I have seen several times in the store and always wondered about. Wondered about how to have sand contained in your house....

Well, I found some on sale at Target for such a good price that we brought it home to try it out. It comes with a little inflatable sandbox that does a pretty good job at keeping the sand inside.

And the set we got came with all kinds of accessories. And it is good for seriously hours of fun at a time. And the sand that does get away sweeps up easily. The colors are all mixed together now, but the kids don't seem to mind too much. After all, real sand is brown.

My other cool find was a Birthday Gift for Derek from his cousin Amber....

The first time we played with it, Derek and I spent 2 hours going through the book and making things out of the purple clay that came with it.

Now we have progressed to using colored play dough to enhance the experience, and enlisted the rest of the family to make really cool works of art.Every page has suggestions for what to make out of clay....

Of course, we made a Sponge Bob Scene!

Crappy

Yesterday was a really crappy day. So bad in fact that I realize that I really need to make some serious changes in my life. Today I am so exhausted because of all of it. So today, For Valentines Day, Clint and Derek decided to secretly load this song onto my playlist. They are both huge Sponge Bob fans...me, not so much. But this song did make me smile...and maybe today will be a better day...

Window Paint

This is another Tradition.....To help me to make sure I clean the windows at least once a year. The paint is just equal parts tempra and cornstarch, with a little dish soap mixed in with it.

The paint mostly just comes off with a rubber spatuala.

Clint and the other kids lost interest after the first day. Derek has continued working on it for the last few days... And he has created quite any army of Transformers. In the "rainbow jungle". The best part is listening to him imagine all of the things that are happening in that jungle.

We leave it up until Valentines Day.

One more reason why I love Jeff for giving me Ceramic Tile Floors!

Idiot Box and Superheros

What do you get on a cold, rainy day when 2 friends who love Sponge Bob and Superheros get together?A reinactment of Sponge Bob's "Idiot Box"......And about 20 superhero changes.... And Mommy gets to be the Princess while the Black Ninja/Batman and Batman/Wolverine/Pirate Skeleton take on all the Pirates of the Carribian....

The Princess gets saved, and the Black Ninja "hides in shadows"and Pirate Skeleton Boy can't wait to run home and back to show Mom his costumes....

It was a great Day!!!! Or as Sponge Bob would say..."It's the Best Day Ever!!!"

Favorites

I love this picture that Derek painted today. While he was painting I asked him about it. He first painted himself, then me and Jeff "Jumping into the water". I asked him where Clint was, and he added Clint. Then he painted 2 other people...I asked him who the were.....His cousin Chelsea....And Uncle Scott....

You two are pretty lucky to be jumpin into the Ocean with the rest of us!

Little Einstein

Clint took 1st again this year at the Science Fair. We were not expecting him to win. The experiment this year was on Bending Light. It was not as great as last years project. We won school and District last year, but then bombed at state. It was hard, because, well, it is much more fun to win. This year we will try to keep it all in perspective. Clint has plenty of disappointments in his life...remember a few posts ago in basketball??? He would like to be good at sports...but he is good at lots of other things. And no one can be good at everything, right?

I am just glad that he is a happy and confident kid. The judge today from the school district told Clint that some of Einsteins first experiments were with light...I didn't realize that Clint had so much in common with Einstein!