Samuel's First Pinewood Derby

Samuel had his first Pinewood Derby race for Cub Scouts today! When Samuel was building his car, this is how it started out:

And here's how it looked after Samuel put his finishing touches on it!Pretty awesome, right?!?! That's Lego Robin (as in Batman and Robin, the crime fighting dynamic duo) sitting up on top. Samuel named his car The Robin Car. Samuel was pretty excited about getting to race his Robin Car. And when he showed up at the church where they were holding it this morning, you should have seen all those other little boys crowding around Samuel, telling him cool his car looked. It was awesome!

There were several boys there, and some of the cars were really neat. One little boy made his car look like a tank. Another little boy made his car look like a submarine. It was neat to see all of that creativity. And as for Samuel's Robin Car, it was a little "top heavy." Lego Robin got knocked off of the car at the finish line (Oops!). Live and learn... But, Samuel's car came in 2nd place amongst the Tiger Cubs! And he really did have a lot of fun cheering for his friends when they were racing their cars too.

Ready, Set, Go!!!And the Robin Car takes 2nd place!

Isaac wanted to watch all the racing action with the big boys...

And just in case you didn't know already, Samuel is ALL about Lego Batman and Lego Robin these days. When Samuel got a Nintendo DS for Christmas (thank you very much, Granny and Papa!), it opened up a whole new world for him because Samuel instantly had a way of connecting with the boys in his class and Cub Scouts. It would seem that every boy out there has a Nintendo DS, and having one gave Samuel something to talk to the other boys about. Think I'm joking? Well, at one point before the races began this morning, I counted no less than 10 boys all sitting around playing their Nintendos.
Boys with their toys...

Samuel's already told me that he wants his next game to be some race car game he saw another boy playing today. I told him it would have to wait until his birthday. :-)

Our Rental Property

This afternoon, I was washing dishes (Yes Hector, I really do wash dishes during the day!) when I heard a lot of noise coming from the fireplace. I went over to it and realized that there must have been birds on top of the fireplace screen cover outside, because the chirping noise was really loud. I went outside and there were 4 or 5 tiny birds with poofy belly feathers sitting up there. Those birds would start chirping, and then it seemed like another bird that I couldn't see would chirp back to them. Back and forth the chirping went, almost like they were having some sort of bird conversation. And then I realized that the other bird they were talking to was across my backyard, perched here:

I started to get a little upset, thinking that the wrong type of bird had moved into my birdhouse. And that's when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a very sleek looking bird swoop down and in mid-flight grab a piece of dog food into it's beak, and then land in my tree. It was a purple martin!!! Can you see it in the tree?

And that's when I saw another purple martin pop it's head out of one of the holes in my birdhouse! It called out in a very loud chirping noise, and the bird in my tree flew over to the birdhouse. And then the tiny birds on top of my fireplace screen all flew over too... It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen!

So, I guess we're landlords, Hector. Looks like a family has chosen our rental property to call their home sweet home!

The Garden of Avery

A few weekends ago, Avery and I went to the store to buy seed packets for our summer garden. At our local Walmart, they have an entire aisle of just seed packets. Visually, it's really neat to walk down the aisle. This is something new that Walmart is starting to do in their stores. To explain, instead of putting one brand of seeds all together (like all the Burpee seeds together, all the Walmart brand seeds together, etc.), they put all 3 brands of carrot seeds together (Walmart brand, Burpee brand, and the Organic Gardener brand), then all 3 brands of peas together, etc. I actually did a market research study group for Walmart last summer, and this was something they asked the people in my group about. Walmart wanted to start displaying items in their stores in such a way that it would be easier for the customer to compare price, package size, nutritional information, etc. for various items (no doubt a blatant attempt to get people to buy Walmart's store brand items...). So, instead of putting all of the Lay's potato chips together on the aisle, they want to start putting all of the barbecue flavored chips of every name brand product and store brand product together. Instead of putting all of the Coca Cola products together, they would put all the different brands of Orange flavored soda together, then all the brands of Lemon Lime soda together, etc. Regardless of what Walmart's motives might be, I thought it was a really neat and new concept. Seems like others may have thought the same thing, because I've started seeing more and more displays in my Walmart being set up in this new way. Look for it in your local Walmart! And every time you see items being displayed in this new way, think to yourself, "Patty played a part in this!" :-)


Anyway, back to the original story. Avery had a blast looking at all of the seed packets, and we decided it was time for her to start her own garden. Interestingly enough, she picked herbs! I was a little worried about us getting one more freeze this year, but so far the weather has stayed warm (yesterday it was 84 degrees here). And her herbs are growing strong! She planted sweet basil, cilantro and mint. I tried talking her out of the mint because really, how often will we actually use it? But, it is her garden and she wanted mint! So, mint is what she got... She wanted to plant her herb garden next to mine in the front yard, and when I suggested we make a sign saying "Avery's Herb Garden" she told me that she didn't need a sign... she knew it was her garden! :-)

The Garden of Avery

Avery also helped me start some of our seedlings that will go into our family garden. We started our cabbage and carrot seeds last weekend. The carrot seeds aren't doing too good, but the cabbage seeds are doing great. This is how they look after 3 days in the seed starter kit:

This weekend, we can transfer the carrots and cabbage to the outside garden. We can also plant onions and potatoes. I'm very excited to try growing potatoes. I've never been able to find potato spuds in the stores, but I did find them through a gardening magazine that my mom sent to me. I also found 2 types of tomato plant seeds that I've never seen in stores. I ordered seeds for tomatillo tomatoes and yellow pear-shaped cherry tomatoes. Who knew I would ever get so excited over seeds? I've also decided to keep a garden journal this year. I'm keeping a log of everything I purchase for the garden. When my garden starts producing a crop, I want to log just how much it produces, and then compare what I spent to what I get out of it... Should be interesting!

Samuel has his Pinewood Derby this weekend for Cub Scouts. The car he made is really cute! Oh, I mean it's really cool, not cute! Sorry... I'm a little worried because the car is a bit top heavy, but Samuel doesn't seem all that interested in whether or not his car will actually win the race. He seems much more interested in how cool it looks. :-) Once the car is finished, I'll make sure to post some pictures, as well as pictures from the event this Saturday.

As Seen on T.V.

There's a little boy in 4th grade at Samuel's and Avery's school, who did his Science experiment this year on 2 different "As Seen on T.V." items. The Super Target store in our suburb has an entire aisle devoted to these types of items (items you see on t.v. infomercials). The little boy wanted to find out if 2 of these products actually performed as well as they claimed they would. He tested the Shamwow product, as well as the Debbie Meyer Green Bags. Here's what he found out.

The Shamwow product sells for $19.99 and comes with 8 towels. They claim to be super absorbent all-purpose towels that you can use for any type of liquid pick-up. They also claim to hold 20 times their weight in water, and they won’t drip when you take it to the sink or when it's drying. This boy found that the towels did a good job of absorbing liquids, but they didn't always pick up everything, and the more he used them, the less absorbent they became over time. He also said that he never could prove that the towel could actually hold 20 times its weight in water, and that it didn't necessarily mean the towel couldn't hold that much, just that he never could prove it.

Next, the boy tested Debbie Meyer Green Bags. This item comes with 20 re-usable bags and sells for $9.99. They claim to keep fresh fruits and vegetables fresher, longer. They also claim to help save you money by eliminating waste. The product packaging states that most fresh fruits and vegetables release ethylene gases during the natural ripening process. Exposure of the products to these gases accelerates aging and deterioration. These bags contain a natural mineral called 'Oya, which is supposed to extend the life of produce by absorbing and removing the ethylene gases. Overall, the boy found that these bags worked just as good as they claimed they would, sometimes even better. And he even figured out how much money his parents could save over the course of a year, by simply using these bags.

So, I decided to go out and get these bags. After all, my 3 kids eat tons of fresh fruit, and 2 out of my 3 kids eat tons of fresh vegetables. :-) We never can seem to buy enough fresh produce to last all week long because it starts to ripen and spoil before the end of the week. My hope is that if these bags really do work, it will not only save us money from produce going bad, but it will also save us a trip mid-week to the grocery store to buy more fresh produce. I put a bunch of bananas in 1 of the bags yesterday, and I left 1 of the bananas from the bunch out, sitting in the fruit bowl like I would normally have my produce. After just 1 day, here's what the bananas looked like:

I can tell that the banana on the left that was not put in the bag is already showing signs of ripening faster than the bananas on the right that were put in the bag. I can't wait to see how it goes for the rest of the week. I'll keep you all updated!

A completely random fact

Clover leaves mixed with mud produce a stain that's impossible to get out of khaki pants.

You know your child is a 2 year old when...

... he's watching a slide show screen saver full of pictures on our home computer, and with each new picture he makes the comment "My ______ (fill in the word)."

"My chair."

"My lollipop."

"My Avery book. My da-da-gator."

"My cake."

"My bed."

"My Mama, Samuel, Mama."

"My Dada slide."

Nifty Fifty

How many US States can you name? Without looking... How many states do you think you could have named when you were 5? Well, A few weeks ago Avery came home from school singing a song about the Nifty Thirteen United States. And despite the fact that I tried very hard to inform her that there are 50 states and 13 colonies, she insisted that her teacher said there were 13 states. Now, if I didn't know Avery's teacher all that well, or if I didn't know my daughter all that well, I probably would have written her teacher a nice little letter asking her what on earth she was teaching my daughter. But, since I do know both of them pretty well, I decided to not make a big deal out of it. But Avery continued, day after day, singing about the Nifty 13 states. Until this weekend, that is! I was in the car with Avery on Saturday afternoon, and I realized that she was singing the exact same melody she'd been singing for weeks, but now she was singing about the Nifty Fifty United States.

"Nifty Fifty United States,
That started from 13 original colonies.
Each one has it's own unique name and space,
So now I'll give them all a proper mentioning."

And then, Avery proceeded to name the states. I could not believe my ears. I knew she missed a few along the way, but I was stunned that she named a lot of them, in alphabetical order no less! I couldn't wait to get home and tell Hector. We decided to have Avery sing the song to us, and we were going to count the states as she named them. Granted, Tennessee came out sounding like Henesee, and Utah came out sounding like Ooo-ah. But she named 43 states! Unbelievable! So, Hector and I gave it a try. I named 48 states and Hector named 45. So, now it's your turn. How many of our Nifty Fifty United States can you name? Go on, try it... I dare you! :-)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Samuel's entire 1st grade class had their PTA musical performance last week. It was entitled How Does Your Garden Grow, and it was very cute. Samuel did great, of course! He had a great time singing and dancing. He didn't have a solo this year, but his friends who did have solos all did a great job too. Here are some pictures from the performance.

A few random notes...

Isaac seems to be more interested in playing dress up lately. His favorite character to dress up as is The Singing Construction Worker. He's gone to pick up Samuel and Avery after school in this outfit, as well as to Walmart and the doctor's office. We get some really nice smiles when people realize what he's got on and what he's doing when he sings into the microphone. Especially when he's also wearing his "My Dad Rocks" t-shirt.
Last week, I went to another Mommy Swap party. No, we don't swap mommies. And no, we don't swap kids either. We do swap children's clothing, household items and adult clothes. Anything your own kids have outgrown or don't use anymore, as well as any other items that you maybe no longer wear or need, can all be taken to the party and then swapped for your friends' items that they bring. It's tons of fun, and everyone I know who goes to one of these parties becomes instantly hooked and can't wait until the next party. Why? Well, imagine going to a really nice garage sale where the cost for everything is 1 item from your own home that you no longer want or need! So, at this last party I went to, I was able to get some adorable preemie baby clothing that a friend of mine brought. Her baby girl Claire wore them. I got them for Avery's baby dolls. Avery had so much fun dressing up all of her babies in these adorable, tiny clothes.

And finally, we've had some visitors scoping out "the neighborhood" lately. We were all outside last weekend, prepping the garden for this year's summer garden, when I saw something fly by. When I looked up, I saw 2 Purple Martins sitting on top of my bird house! They haven't moved in quite yet. These Purple Martins are the older generation, just stopping by on their way through to their own homes further north. But spotting them is a good sign that the younger generation of birds are on their way, and will almost assuredly be looking for homes. How exciting! Purple Martins can be quite particular about the house they pick to live in, because once they move in, the same family will return year after year. Purple Martins are monogamous... they mate for life. Once they start their family, the parents along with their children continue to live together in the same house for as long as their landlord (me) maintains the condition of their home. Anyway, after I spotted the 2 birds sitting on top of the birdhouse, I decided that I needed to have a clear view of the birdhouse from my kitchen window. So, I took down the curtains and added this valance that my mom gave me. Funny enough, when I took this picture below, I could see the birdhouse in the picture. But now that I look at the picture again, you can't really see the birdhouse... It's to the right, just behind the tarp of the swing set, and it blends in with the tree way off in the distance. But, I guess the point is that I can see it from the kitchen window. I keep waiting for the birds to show up again. I'm very hopeful that one set of Purple Martin newlyweds will pick my birdhouse as their new home!

A little of both...

This is a conversation I just overheard Samuel and Avery having in the living room. I'm going to try my best to quote them both accurately.

Avery: "Hey Samuel! Do you know you're part Mexican and part White?"
Samuel: "No I'm not."
Avery: "Yuh Huh! One part of you is Mexican. The other part of you is White."
Samuel: "I don't know what you're saying to me. That doesn't make any sense."
Avery: "Mommy told me that you're part White and part Mexican. That's what she told me. I'm not lying."
Samuel: "What are you saying to me? Look at my face."
Avery: "I know. That's the White part, from Mommy. But the Mexican parts, like your brown parts (I'm guessing she was referring to his eyes and hair), that's from Daddy. We are a little of both."
Samuel: "OOOOOOHHHHHH, I get it. So like my Mexican parts are from Daddy but my White parts are from Mommy. Like that?"
Avery: "That's it, sweetie. You got it."

I wanted to laugh out loud, but there was a little part of me (pun, fully intended) that was proud that Avery had actually listened to something I'd told her, and passed the information along to Samuel. :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

Samuel and Avery had their Valentine's Day parties at school this past Friday. Hector, Isaac and I were able to attend both of their parties, which was a nice surprise since I thought I would need to stay at Avery's party the entire time, since I'm the Room Mother. But her teacher asked another parent to come help out with the party, so I got to sneak out after about 30 minutes! Avery's class had an ice cream sundae party. All of her classmates liked the cards she made for them.Isaac really liked the cookies someone brought!
Samuel drank an entire fruit punch juice box and ate a sugar cookie too. What?!?! And his teacher told me that his classmates really like the cards he made for them.
See those white pieces of paper on the desks? That was my suggestion! Samuel's teacher told me a few weeks ago that she was going to have to start giving Samuel unsatisfactory grades in handwriting, as well as to some of the other students in her class. And I told her that at home, Samuel uses a handwriting worksheet that shows the proper strokes for each letter (how to write each letter properly). Well, she told me that she has this same worksheet posted on the wall in her classroom. But I told her that I know Samuel... he's not going to look up every single time he needs to write something, to see how the letter is supposed to be written. I suggested she put a smaller copy of that sheet on his desk, like we do at home when he's doing homework. She liked the idea so much that she made copies of the worksheet and put them on all of her student's desks.
Oh, and one more funny story... Samuel's teacher told me that it had been a crazy week at school. Samuel broke his glasses during Music class on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, Samuel had asked to go to the bathroom, and came back a few minutes later in tears. She was worried that he'd had an accident. But no! He had put too much toilet paper in the toilet, and it overflowed. She assured him it was fine and that he was not in any trouble. Well, later in the morning, Samuel's entire class was taking a bathroom break, and she could hear Samuel telling his friends "You see that sign that says out of order? I did that! The water was coming out of the potty everywhere. It was cool." She said that Samuel sounded almost a little proud of what he'd done. And as if that is not funny enough, another little boy has asked to go to the bathroom on Friday, and came back missing a shoe. It would seem that there was a bug on the wall directly behind the toilet, so this little boy thought the best solution was to take off his shoe and throw it at the bug. Which, of course, made his shoe fall into the toilet. Samuel's poor teacher had to go fish this little boy's shoe out of the toilet. I told her that she had probably thought on more than 1 occassion throughout the week that she simply does not get paid enough...

So, I would like to say thank you to all you teachers out there. And if you know a teacher, you should make a point to thank them sometime this week too!

There goes another forest!

My kids come home with a lot of paper from school and church. School is the worst offender, but church is coming in a very close 2nd place. I decided to collect all of the paper my 3 kids came home with over the course of this month. I have a large wicker basket in my kitchen that I've been putting all of the paper in. And here we are on day 13, and I am overwhelmed with paper at this point. I'm finding it difficult to let it sit there any longer without going through the massive quantities of paperwork that is starting to fall over the sides of the basket. In the picture below, the pile of paper on the left are things that I've already looked through, and do not feel the need to keep any longer (tests, school work, homework, artwork, reminder notes, etc.). The pile of paper on the right are things that I have either looked through and want to keep, or that I haven't had the time to really look through yet (Valentine's Day cards that the kids received from friends, school work and tests that I want to talk to the kids about, artwork that is worthy of a place on the refrigerator, etc.).

That's from 2 Sundays at church and 9 days of school. What you don't see in this picture are the 20 or so additional pieces of paper that I've already placed on the refrigerator (the school's menu, calendar, weekly newsletter, Jump Rope for Heart donation forms, and homework assignments that are still in progress, as well as the church's preschool newsletter and a reminder card that we got in the mail for a church event). It's a lot of paper. I've been taking the pieces of paper that only have something printed on the front, and I've been using the back side as scrap paper and coloring paper. But what should I do about the rest of it? I'm starting to feel guilty about it, and it's not even my fault. :-) I would love suggestions from anyone reading this. What can I do with the massive quantities of paper my kids bring home? Maybe I should take up paper mache' as a hobby. If you would like to start receiving some of this artwork or some of the old assignments/tests from Samuel and Avery, to see what they are doing in school, just let me know! Or even if paper mache' is already your hobby, just let me know. I'll mail you an entire forest!

Changes...

There's a big, open field about a mile from our house. Every spring, the field is covered with wildflowers. I've taken some truly memorable and wonderful pictures of the kids in that field. So, you might understand why I got upset the other day when I was driving by that field, and saw that it was being torn up, covered with construction vehicles. Something is being built there.

It wasn't even a year ago that my favorite locally-owned Italian restaurant got torn down, and a sports bar (a popular chain restaurant) got built in it's place. This Italian restaurant was unique. It was supposed to look like New York's Central Park, hence the name, Central Park Cafe. It had park benches at the tables, and a huge white gazebo right in the middle of the main dining area. On Friday nights, they would bring in live entertainment, which our kids thoroughly enjoyed. Their favorite artist was a young man who played the accordion. He even took requests. The garlic bread was always hot and dripping with butter, and when you would bite into a piece, it would melt in your mouth. We could feed our entire family with drinks, salads, bread, and entrees, for around $20. And now, it's gone... Replaced by some yucky sports bar.

I'm a creature of habit. Don't get me wrong, every now and then it's fun to mix things up a bit. But I tend to do best when things are predictable. Too much change all at one time can scare me. I like smooth sailing, and clear skies. When changes come along unexpectedly, it can feel like you're in a small boat in open waters in the midst of a big storm that's tossing your boat back and forth. Well, I've recently noticed a change within our family that's left me feeling a bit tossed around. Avery, who has always clung to Isaac since he was a newborn and has always demanded his full attention, has been shifting the majority of her attention towards Samuel. For the past few weeks, it has seemed like the "newness" of Isaac's arrival has finally worn off (2 years later!), and Avery has started to realize that Samuel's a pretty cool guy to hang out with too. Samuel and Avery have always had an awesome bond, and I never even noticed how much things changed between them when Isaac was born.

All of this came to a head last weekend in a rather sad way when I found Isaac, banging on Samuel's bedroom door in tears, saying "A-E" (that's how he pronounces Avery) over and over again. Samuel and Avery were inside the room, laughing. I could tell that Isaac's boat was no longer sailing in smooth waters. A change had occurred, and it was like a big wave had just come crashing down on Isaac. Too much change all at one time had rocked his little boat. Bubba missed his Sissy.

It seems like a lot of people these days are trying their best to navigate their way through the choppy waters of change... changes in their job, living situation, health, and overall sense of security. Change is hard, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what your age. But I would like to end this story on a positive note. Much to my surprise, this is how I found Avery and Isaac last night:No matter what changes we might all be experiencing these days, perhaps we could all learn a valuable lesson from Avery and Isaac, and seek comfort from the people around us who love us most. And perhaps we could even find our comfort in something as simple as the words from a really good book.

"Others went out on the sea in ships.... and a tempest lifted high the waves. In their peril, their courage melted away... they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed." Psalm 107: 23- 29

A Crafty Nurturer

At my last Mothers of Preschoolers meeting, we were asked to describe ourselves in one word. The tricky part was that we were given a list of words to pick from. It was a lot harder to do than you might think. I picked the word from the list that I thought best suited me, nurturer. Then we all went around the table and explained to the other women why we picked that word for ourselves. Funny enough, 4 of the ladies sitting at my table would have picked nurturer for me as well, but the other 4 ladies at my table picked the word crafty for me. One lady sitting at my table exclaimed "It would seem that you're a crafty nurturer." I like that! :-)

So, for my most recent crafty nurturer project, I helped the kids make their own Valentine's Day cards to take to school for their classmates. I got the idea from an email newsletter that I get from the Disney website. February's newsletter was packed full of great ideas for homemade cards. I've placed a link to the website on this page, to the right, if you'd like to get some ideas of your own. Here's what we made.

For Isaac, I purchased small buckets and shovels from The Dollar Tree, and wrote on a little heart "I really dig you!" Samuel wanted to make bumble bees made out of pipe cleaners for the girls in his class. We wrote "Bee Mine" on the hearts, and he signed his name. For the boys in his class, Samuel wanted to make camouflage hearts. We wrote "You're out of sight!" on the hearts. And for his teacher, he wanted to make a basket- weave heart. I was a little amused that he picked 3 different hearts to make, but at least he was showing an interest in this activity, so I just went with it. And they all turned out so cute!

Avery wanted to make butterfly cards for all of her classmates. She decided that for the girls in her class she would make the butterfly wings out of pink hearts, and for the boys she would make red hearts. We took heart-shaped lollipops and made that the body of the butterfly. We glued on some fancy antennas made from pipe cleaners, and glued on some googly eyes too. And there you go... homemade butterfly Valentine's Day cards! I thought these cards turned out really cute too. I think these were my favorite.

And because we absolutely wanted to include Amanda in all the fun we were having, she wanted to make camouflage hearts for all of her classmates. She made pink camouflage hearts for the girls, and red camouflage hearts for the boys. She made all 21 cards by herself because she wanted to. Didn't she do a great job?

And this might seem like an off-the-subject question, but did anyone catch the interview on Dateline last night with the mother of octuplets? I'm not trying to open up a can of worms here, but hearing her speak about her children, I could tell that she truly just loves children and wanted a big family. I understand that. Seeing the images of her with her children, I could tell that she has a nurturing spirit. But honestly, how on earth does this poor woman think she will be able to manage 14 children by herself? Wow! She has received a lot of negative publicity, and perhaps some of it is justified because she made the decision to bring those children into this world without any thought as to how exactly she would care for all of them adequately. But the reality is that she has 14 kids now whether we agree with what she did or not, and there simply is no way she can manage it all by herself. Think about the feeding time alone that will be involved for those 8 tiny newborns. She's going to need to come up with some pretty crafty nurturing techniques in a hurry... I wonder if there's a website for that. :-)