The Elf Adventures

Oliver and Jasper made a little mischief last night while the rest of us were sleeping. They went into the girls bathroom and dumped out their hair clips and pony tail holders. If you look close you may notice that they were trying them on as well. Paige and Megan took these photos while I was at work. I thought everyone was still in bed when I left for work this morning at 8 but I never went into the upstairs hall bath. Those elves sure are sneaky...and quiet too. After Paige and Megan took the photo's they cleaned up the mess. That was nice of them, and a good lesson too on how it feels to clean up a mess that they did not create. Hmmm kinda like when mom has to clean up stuff that they have left out.

My post for Friday, November 28,2008

Puppy Love

I had to work today from 7 to 3 so I did not get any fresh pictures taken. So I am posting a picture from yesterday. This is Paige, me and Megan getting some Hershey love. Hershey is Aunt Terry's lab-beagle mix pup that she got in the end of August. She is a sweet little thing with big paws. We love how she just flops down and snoozes. I wish we would have gotten a shot of her paws not only are they big but they have a speckled pattern on them they are pretty paws.



Have I ever mentioned that we have really cool neighbors? Well if I haven't let me tell you they are really cool. Ya know what makes them so cool? They invited us down tonight for turkey tacos. Xavier and Sherry made them and they were excellent...and so was the rice and home made salsa that they served with them. Anybody that invites me and my family down for a home cooked meal after working a long day cashiering on black Friday is well...very very cool!

A New Thanksgiving Tradition or Men Trying to Be Boys Again?

Mike got a call from Xavier last night asking if he would like to join some of the neighbor guys in a game of flag football in the morning (8 a.m.). Well they gathered in the green space ( a big field with houses around it) and they turned it into tackle football on the frosty turf. Sam's wife Cyndie told him "don't come home if you get hurt!". I think they were playing nice because there were no trips to urgent care.
When I took the dogs out we walked down and took a few pictures of them in action. Then I asked for a team shot.

The Elf invasion has begun!
Last Christmas the girls wrote to Santa and asked for elves. But unfortunately all of the elves had already been given out and the new elves were in training. Santa promised that they would get their elves this year and he kept his word. They arrived this morning with letters and a "Rockettes" dvd.

Paige and Oliver (Ollie for short) and Megan and Jasper (Jazz for short) are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade.

Click on the links below to read the letters from Ollie and Jazz.

Paiges elf letter       Megans elf letter

Happy Thanksgiving Greetings from Ohio :>

My post for Wed. 11-26-08
Mike took the girls on a field trip to John Eagle Candies. They went over to Dave's and picked up Grandma and Grandpa (Barb and Jim) and they went down to the candy store where Barb and Mike used to work when he was going to O.S.U.
The girls were being shy and would hardly pose for any pictures. But Mike got this shot of them by the machine that covers the candy in chocolate.
They gave Paige and Megan each a bag to fill up with goodies and Barb said they were kind of shy about helping themselves to the sweets, but they weren't shy about eating them up when they got home.

My post for Tuesday, November 25, 2008

I wear cashmere....

when I take the dogs out. I wear my cashmere on my head...it's my green beanie that I bought from the clearance rack at "Filene's Basement" last Spring. I can't imagine paying $25.00 (the original price) for a stocking cap but when they had it marked down to four bucks and I used my 20% off coupon it was a steal. I thought "heck it may be nice to have a cashmere hat next fall". It is nice...soft and warm and the price was right!

Snapshots of Monday night

While Paige was doing some reading homework and Rebel was warming her lap Megan helped with dinner prep by pounding the chicken.
After dinner Miss. Linda came over to stay with the girls while we went up to the school for teacher parent conference's. It was very pleasant, just talking about how well the girls are doing and what cheerful sweet personalities they have. What a blessing to have smart, talented, caring daughters.

What do I do before 8:30 a.m. on a Monday?
Well I jazz up a journal, of course!

Remember those black and white composition journals that you get for school? Well Megan's class uses theirs for writing in each day and the one she brought at the beginning of the school year is almost filled up. She asked me to get her a new one so I picked one up at Walgreen's on Saturday. I just happen to see it and for some reason my memory kicked in and I actually remembered to get it after forgetting for over a week.
I told her I would "fancy" it up, but then I didn't get to it until this morning. So this is what I can whip up in 20 minutes. Not bad for a mom that didn't even have her breakfast or shower!
The tags read "Good times", Follow your heart", " discover" and "reach for the stars". I thought those all described Megan's outlook on life.

Oh and just one more...had to get those fun-colorful tights in the shot!
Have a great Monday, smile:)

My post for Sunday, 11-23-08

The first dress rehearsal for Nutty Nutcracker was today from 2 to 5:30. The girls were hungry and tired when they got home. They had fun watching the other girls dance in their costumes, too. Paige's favorite dance is the "Robot dolls" and Megan enjoyed the "African dolls".
My favorite's are the "Spanish Dolls" and "Jesters", of course!


It was easy to get Paige ready since her teacher made the costumes and they stay at the studio we just had to put her hair in a bun and she wears her pink tights and black leotard and brings her ballet shoes. Pretty easy! The hardest part (no pun intended) is parting her hair on the left side, it parts naturally on the right and puts up a fight when parted on the left. She gets it wet, I slick it with hair gel then after it's done I spray the heck out of it with good ol Aqua Net.

Megan's little outfit took a little bit extra time to get ready. I had to stuff her hat with tissue so it wouldn't get "a flat". I also had to resew one of her pom poms it was about to come off and it was not on straight to begin with. I also had to sew her tutu to her leotard (this has to be done while the child is wearing the costume) and I tacked the points with the pom poms down to the tutu soe they would not be flipping around during the dance. I must of done good because they used Megan's costume as an example to the other moms of how to get it all done.

My post for Saturday, November 22,2008

It's Monday morning and I am playing catch up with my "picture of the day". I just loaded the pictures off the camera and found these from Saturday. Paige was taking pictures (it's her camera) while I was at work. She also shot some silly video's of her sister dancing to Christmas songs from the radio. But I will spare you from that.


A pretty decent shot of the fish in our 29 gallon tank.Rebel in the middle of our unmade bed.
Megan being a rock star in her p.j.s

Bundled up for the bus because it's
22.3F
outside.
*Brrrrrrrrrr*

Last night was the
last day of riding lessons for Autumn 2008.

Spring session starts in early March. Paige said that seems like an awful long ways away. It was cold last night around thirty degrees and the wind was chilling. They kept the barn doors closed and the girls rode inside. Paige even tried bare back and did just fine! I knew she would be okay and Miss. Ginette was good she told Paige that if she was uncomfortable then they would throw the saddle on, but Paige was fine with it. She also said that Calliope helped keep her butt and legs warm. (that's the whole idea of riding bare back in the winter...to stay warm). Miss. Ginette also reminded Paige that if she felt like she was gonna slide off that it's okay to grab the horses mane.

Here's CeCe below drinking his ice water. With this cold weather coming on so fast they are still getting ready for winter. They need to get the big buckets out.Little Smudge the miniature horse in his red blanket. His winter coat has come in nice and think his fur feels like a husky, dense and soft.

Megan and I hung out in the barn and I helped Paige brush Calliope. Then we watched her ride for a bit before we went and snuggled under a blanket in the back of the van. We could see through the crack in the barn door (it was open about 10 or 12 inches) and Paige was even trotting while riding bare back. She's a brave girl and I am so proud of her.

One of these may be coming to a mail box in your neighborhood!

Here are some of the cards that I made yesterday and in my spare time over the past week or so. You may click on the photo to enlarge.

My post for Tuesday, November 18, 2008

We love Redi Whip!
Today was definitely a hot cocoa day. It was 24 degrees when I took the kids (oops no one was paying attention to the time and they missed the bus) to school at 8:30 a.m.
When I got home I went up to my messy/creative corner in the bonus room and worked on some cards.
The sun came out in the afternoon and it got into the thirties, the sun felt great until you walked out into the brisk frozen air. The dogs pretty much parked themselves in the beanbags which were sitting in sunbeams. They know how to stay warm.

First Snow!

Our power went out at 6 a.m. luckily our alarm system beeps when the power goes out so that wakes us up. Someone probably slid off the road and hit a power poll (it was snowing). From our bedroom window we can look across the fields and see the school bus lot. So we knew school was not canceled because they still had electric at their buildings.

Mike scraped the snow off his car and made this little snow man for the girls. After breakfast we fixed him up with cheerio eyes, a pumpkin seed nose, dried cranberry mouth, spaghetti arms and an acorn top hat. Then the kids each took turns getting their picture taken with him.Is it me or does our snowman resemble "Mr. Bill"?

Our little kindergarten friend Ayva comes over to hang out with Paige and Megan until the bus comes. That way her mom does not have to bundle her two year old sister up and stand in the cold. Don't ya just love her little blue fur collar on her coat? She looks like a little Eskimo pie!

My post for Sunday 11-16-08

Can you tell we had a nice relaxing weekend?
I had to work on Saturday from 8 to 3, but I was doing relief so that went by fast. Megan had a swim party at the indoor pool at the club on Sat. from 2 to 4. When she got home with soaking wet hair I gave her a nice warm bath so we could wash her hair. After that I made a yummy dinner of pork tenderloin, roasted leeks and carrots, roasted smashed potatoes and cibatta bread (from Andersons). I also made brownies for desert.
After dinner the girls and I watched a movie called "The Ballet Slippers". Speaking of ballet they did not have dance practice for the Nutty Nutcracker this weekend so we enjoyed a quiet Sunday at home. Not to say that I was sitting around. I cleaned the carpets with the carpet cleaner. I also helped Mike clean up the patio of dead plants and we emptied the fountain and brought some stuff down to the basement. It was cold and blustery this weekend, we even had some snow flurries. But nothing that stuck to the ground.

My post for Saturday 11-15-08

This little doll baby is Ella.

She lives with her mom, dad and two rowdy brothers down in the cul de sac. I took Miss. Ella's photo yesterday while we were at the school for the Harvest party. Her big brother Hunter had stopped in Megan's class to share some cookies with Megan's teacher. Anyways I just couldn't resist snapping a picture of this little sweetie. She is the happiest baby, I have NEVER seen her cry. She is so friendly and will snuggle with anyone. We (the moms of the cul de sac) just love holding her when we get the chance.