This Weekend

Jeff's mom came to visit this weekend which was nice and the kids were very excited. She was able to see Greta play basketball. This game brought on a bad case of laryngitis I think..you know with all my cheering I do. Jeff's mom didn't move away from me like most people and said I didn't shout too much. I am sure she was being nice but I will take her word for it. 

 This was her first game this session and the first time she played with real basketball rules and score keeping(not modified rules). She was teamed up against a girl that we guessed to be about 5'4" and 10 years old. Greta's stats are 4'9" and 8 years old(she's the youngest on her team). She held her own well and got a basket which is always her goal. It was fun watching Greta look up to this girl all wide eyed. After the game she said she never played against anyone so tall before..(Above is a picture Jeff"s mom took of Greta in black closest to the basket being scrappy with the tall girl in green.) If it made Greta nervous playing against a much bigger girl, well I think it made me more nervous...by the way.. The starting jump shot was between Greta and the tall girl. Greta got it.. I was so proud. 

 We went to a museum of history and watched a movie and ate too much theatre popcorn

 Fieldin being a scientist/archealogist

A nice weekend but would have been better with a voice.. I am never so quiet :) 

A big thank you to Bev and Jeff for taking pics. I'm a slacker! Two more ball games for Greta this week and soccer for Fieldin.. I will bring my camera.. maybe it will stop me from cheering and save my voice! 

Ugly Potholder

 We are all blessed with talents... sewing is not one of mine...

I get out the sewing machine about once a year to work on a few projects and I am reminded quickly that sewing is not my thing.. as you can see in the pics.  Even sweet Greta told me that she could do better and she can't sew.. I'd say that was a major burn but it is the absolute truth. I'm pretty sure the cat could have sewed it better by jumping on the peddle.. We had lots and lots of laughs over this poor pathetic thing. So as I try to add more creative time to my year I don't think my time will be spent with the sewing machine. Practice will not make perfect in this situation. I also worked on a stenciling project yesterday to the households surprise. I am not usually a stay in the lines sort of person so I think I made Jeff and the kids nervous as I stenciled. In the end it turned out well, not perfect but that just gives it character, right? 

 As horribly bad as this turned out it was fun and gave me a chance to laugh at myself which is always good to do once in awhile. Do I like to sew? Sometimes... but I'd rather play with a paintbrush or hand sew. As for the potholder, I tested it out and it works well so I'm going to use it and laugh every time I see it. 

 some close ups of my wonderful work. Yikes.. 

I hope this may make you all try something new today. If you do let me know what it was and how it turned out. I am sure what ever you choose to do it will turn out better than this potholder :) Now on to more crafting adventures. 

Around Here

We took three pictures this last week... pretty sad. 

We did have a busy week. Jeff and I celebrated birthdays and the kids made us a gluten free blueberry/blackberry pie(below) that turned out very good. Nice work you two.. 

The kids made the pie the night before my bday and we were woken up very early on my birthday by Fieldin who asked" Is it time for pie?" He was not happy to hear he would have to wait til after dinner and Greta's basketball practice for pie. 

 This week was full of playdates, practices, school, another phase of updating Greta's room into a bigger girl room, crafty time fit in and some "I'm one year older" thinking on both Jeff and my part.. 

It was a full but good week. 

Here's a photo of Greta before her team pics.. I must do better with the camera next week... 

A New Years Resolution..

If you know me well you know I am more of a creative type person.. The problem is I am also a type A person.. these two traits usually don't exist together often. So I usually give up creative time to get things done around the house, errands and practices etc. Last year I was pretty stagnant in the creative department. This year I want to fix that, I am much happier when I create. The last couple days I have been taking the time to do a few things. 

 The type A in me wants very badly to control the lego chaos in the house. His favorite part of Legos is the people and he is always losing them, their pieces and there is alot of time spent searching.. So I used a $2 piece of foam board, some old legos we had from the 80's and lots of hot glue. Now he has a place for his people. We mounted the board to a wall in his room at a height he can reach. So far it is working really well. I think I may put some molding around it to make it look like a frame. I think it will be around for quite a while. 

 We realized Fieldin is at an age that he may start getting visits from the tooth fairy in the coming year. I asked him what kind of tooth fairy pillow he wanted and he said "Angry Bird Star Wars Yoda" pillow... So I spent a couple hours this morning drawing it out, cutting felt, gluing and sewing.. The picture isn't very good but there is a pouch in the front.. It turned out cute and I had all the stuff laying around so it was free :) 

And, I've been practicing with my water colors again.. I am pretty rusty but with some practice I think I can get back on track. I usually paint with acrylic so I forget that watercolor can be less forgiving.. I am enjoying taking a few minutes when I find them and painting little things likes this for a practice journal. 

I hope all of your resolutions are still running strong! 

Happy New Year!

 2014! Can't believe it.. this year I taped the year on the wall for all of us to write our resolutions on.. most of the kids resolutions are about crafts and travel it looks like. I'm thinking I may scrapbook this, I love seeing their writing and reading what they wrote. 

 I had the kids make their own New Years balls to drop but we started too late and they didn't dry in time. So,they glued fun confetti and sequins to round paper plates as a back up and it worked just as well. 

 Chompers is starting the new year missing some fur after a trip to the vet. He is ok. It actually looks worse in person. Every time I take a picture of it, it just looks like a small upside down heart. We are hoping for his sake it grows back quickly. 

 Dropping their new years balls off the second floor. Fieldin isn't tall enough to see over so all we could see was his little hands.. They would count down from twenty as they dropped. 

 They had a lot of fun with this and it kept them busy for longer than I expected. 

 More dropping.. They wanted me to countdown and then yell happy 2014! 

Down on the pull out couch most of the night watching Rudolphs shiny new year and the Santa Claus movies.. They love them. Then we had breakfast for dinner in our pjs.. We watched the ball drop at nine and they were done! Both wanted to stay up til midnight but that didn't happen.... ;)

Wishing you all a wonderful 2014! 

Recharge

 Sunday was a recharge day.. we seem to be spending more time indoors this winter due to the weather. More so than years past... we needed to burn off some steam and the fog.. 

 Fieldin's foot print

 This little guy was back in his element so happy to be digging with his shovel again. 

 Greta found the biggest and prettiest urchin shell she has ever found. It was laying right on the beach..

 creating new dinosaur species...

 we played in the sand, played some volleyball and football... below the quarterback just got sacked by Fieldin... He can't take us down but he can still plow her down. 

 a little soccer and then home. It was a short trip but much needed.. I don't think Fieldin stopped running the whole time. 

Sofa Time Capsule

 This sofa has been good to us. 

She is 12 years old..with years of watching PBS cartoons, being covered in sippy cup juice, formula and the effects of sick kids. She also made it through the toilet training of both kids. After all that she still looks good. She has watched lots of movies, been used as a trampoline, held sick kids, watched as the kids said their first words to reading their first words, she's been part of circus acts, countless forts and seen Greta go from a baby under 7 lbs to a girl that can barely stretch out on this sofa now. 

After all that we are going to give her a new life.. hopefully a happy retirement. We decided not to replace her. Just moving in a couch from another room. We knew the sofa was full of popcorn(and it turns out ALOT of cheerios from way back). We turned the sofa on its side and heard some major clanking, so we opened up the back slightly and this is what we found in the sofa time capsule. 

Three books, a pack of lupine seeds(???), an  Imaginext toy pilot, two hair clips, magazine subscription cards, uno cards, wood block, dvd, camera case(I've been looking for that for years), hairbrush, little football, a power ranger walkie talkie thing that Fieldin won in a coloring contest, pens, a plastic tomato, a teething ring, Fieldin's old binky, a playdoh toy, kid scissors, hair scrunchy(that is really old), half of a plastic Easter egg, pencils, lots of straws and one fruit roll up wrapper. 

While moving it to the garage we heard more clanking but couldn't get the last things out. We are guessing one of the sounds is one of Fieldin's hot wheel cars, the other sound we have no idea... 

Thanks for many years of wonderful service "Green Couch".