Valentine Crafts

Had been seeing this adorable wreath on the blogs for a while. So this weekend I ran to the fabric store while the kids were at Sunday school and grabbed some cute fabric. And in about 1/2 and hour me and the girls made these cute wreaths:



It was really so easy. While the kids were at gymnastics, I sat in the observation deck and cut (and ripped) the fabric into squares. Then we just glued and poked them in. The girls loved it, and I think they are cute!

new blog design - yay!

Isn't it soooo cool? I really like it. It was designed by Lauren at Designer Blogs. They have a special - book in January and get 30% off. So worth it.

And, btw, blogger finally fixed the problem with videos, so you can see adorable Big Man below.

Enjoying the Flakes

This past weekend we went to Wisp with two other families (total of 6 adults and 7 kids). We had a blast. We went snow tubing on Saturday - played it easy on Sunday (expected bad weather arrived), skiing on Monday (first time for me and the kids) and home today (tried to snow tube, but not open until the evening on a Tues!). Also tried out their mountain coaster - which was fun, albeit expensive ($15 per ride!!!). The amazing thing is we have no broken or sprained bones. I even went down a few green trails (ok, only one successfully multiple times, the others may have involved some crawling and scooting on my butt.) AND - we all had lots of fun. The kids had ski school/camp for a day - and all three made it up to the bunny hill. I was very impressed. DH and I took a group beginner lesson, were released to the bunny hill after about an hour, and after lunch we did some greens.. It was really fun. I was VERY sore last night, but am ok today. Note to self: next time -take drugs before, during and after!

Highlight for me (other than the fact that I actually skiied and didn't break anything nor injure anyone else!) was tubing with Big Man. He went down the first time and said, "Lets do it again!". The second time, he forgot to scream and terrified himself. I am a big believer in the scream - it works for this and for roller coasters and the like. If you get afraid - scream bloody murder and it pushes all the fear out!). So then next time I told him we should scream something crazy (to make him remember to scream). He didn't do it so much, but me yelling it (we were linked together) made him laugh, so he forgot to be scared. Here is a video I love. Notice the crazy woman in the background yelling.

RVs...here we come

This weekend is step #2 of convincing DH we need an RV. Step #1 was to talk about it, and then bring it up at every opportunity (such as pointing out RVs every single time we see one, work it into many conversations (we should get that movie on DVD - yeah! It would be great to watch in our RV), an so on). Step #2, go to an RV Show. This will let DH see all these new fancy high-end RVs that we can never afford, but will get him to like the idea in preparation of buying our own used lower-end RV. hee hee.

My MIL (who grew up in a family with LOTS of RVs) is coming. That should help! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

(fyi - posted while we are still on vacation! back wed!)

Happy Birthday to Me

Let's keep our fingers crossed that I don't actually break my leg (or arm, or hip!) on my 42nd birthday!

What the Hell

I saw a card at Trader Joe's last week that read:

"Ever notice that "what the hell" is always the right decision?" Marilyn Monoe

Well, I hope she is right. This will be our what the hell weekend. We are going to Wisp Mountain with 2 of our closest family friends. There will be 6 adults and 7 kids (who are those people with 3 kids that mess up all the ratios??!!). 6 of the people have skied before. In my family, only DH has ever skied and it has been 20 years. I am probably the wost representative of Massachusetts ever. I don't ski (yes, I know you people from CO and the like don't consider NE skiing REAL skiing, but bite me) and I am not a fan of seafood. Sorry. (I am a liberal Democrat who loves the Red Sox though!)

But this weekend, we are saying what the hell. At 41 (actually, during the weekend I will become 42), I will try skiing. I will get laughed at. I might even break something. But there we are. Also plan to snowtube, ice skate, snowball fight, and maybe even ride an outdoor mountain coaster.

What the hell!

Learning Boards

When I redid the girls' room, I had come out with this idea of them each having a whiteboard by their desks. We could use it for reminders or even as a teaching tool. Instead of a pricier white board, I just got 2 12x12 picture frames from Ikea, and some whiteboard markers. I flipped over the stock picture and used the white side. Works great. Well, ok, the yellow doesn't really show much - but the rest of the colors are fine.

We have been using it for math and vocabulary. Each morning they wake up to a new word that they look up in their dictionaries and then write what it means (not the definition, but what they summarize from it). They also get a math problem to solve.

The best part - the girls LOVE it. They think it is so cool and can't wait for us to come in and "score" them!

That's what Works for Me! For more things that work, visit Works for Me Wednesdays!

Kids and Language

I have found it very interesting to watch how my kids' language skills have developed. We thought K was very talkative, until B came along. At 3 that girl could TALK! It was crazy, her vocabulary and just love of talking. Now 5, she still can talk and talk and talk! Big Man didn't talk much for a while - then we got him early intervention speech therapy and now we can't shut him up. At 3 he now has a bit of a stutter - but not unexpected at this age. He just has so much to say its hard to get it all out!

K is 7 and loves to use adult words and phrases. She has been in the habit of using "obviously" all the time - not always appropriately. Trying to nick that one in the bud, as it is obviously annoying. On Saturday morning we are all in bed watching cartoons and I ask if she wants me to braid her hair. She says , "no, not at this moment, thank you." hee hee

It's Hard Being the Little Brother

Last night after dinner, Big Man came in the kitchen carrying a Snow White costume dress and a Belle costume skirt. He wanted help putting them on. I asked why he had 2 skirts. He said "in case of emergency", I said, "a princess emergency?" DH piped in with, "buddy, if there is a princess emergency, you need a sword and shield!" K said, "no, a Princess emergency would need the Powerpuff Girls!" Of course...what we were thinking?

2010, really??

Where did the last year go? I have no idea. Work was busy, kids were crazy, life was insane. Basically normal with a little bit of extra craziness thrown in.

I do not have a resolution for 2010. I have decided to just do my best. Try and not scream at the kids as much. Try and lose the weight I gained back. Try and exercise more. Try and keep my house from looking like a college boy's dorm room. Try and get my kids (and DH) to eat more food that is good for them(side note - few weeks ago DH blew dinner and we ended up serving the kids pumpkin ravioli. Of course I didn't tell them that until they had licked up every last crumb and asked for more. Then I told them what it was. They couldn't believe it!).

And as always, try and enjoy every single moment. Hope you do to.

Big Bedroom Reveal!!!

So back here (!!!) I started talking about what I was going to do to the girls room. We had finally convinced them to move out of their smaller bedroom into our old bedroom - with two closets. They wanted princess decor. They wanted pink and Ariel and Cinderella. And...without further ado...we gave it to them!




Yes, I did the paintings on the walls - but I used a $10 projector I bought at Michaels ten years ago. I have no drawing ability - this was just tracing and coloring in. But I am really happy with it. I wish I had a before, but I can assure you it looked NOTHING like this. The walls were blue, there was a big queen bed and LOTS more furniture. It looks so much bigger. The canopy's I got on Amazon for like $15 each. I love the star lights on the wall - $10 at Ikea. The two desks were Craigslist each about $20. We painted them to match the room and decoupaged Princess stuff on them. The chairs were free off a neighbor's curb. So really, this was just about the painting. Amazing what a difference it makes. And really, I am no artist - this is just tracing and coloring (DH helped with the Princess' hands - I could not get a good enough trace to do those!)

The girls LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Their brother does too. Now if we can just get Big Man to sleep back in his own room!

For more DIYs - visit - http://asoftplace.net/2010/01/diy-day-10/
And for more painting projects, click here.