PowerPoint Proposition

Mackenzie has a birthday in a few weeks and there is only 1 item on her list. She doesn't care much about a party or a cake this year. Only this:

She wants an iTouch in the worst way possible. Of course, she really wants a phone, but we have informed her there is no way she is getting a phone. I'm putting that purchase off for as long as I can! In the discussions about an iTouch, we have put forth many rules and stipulations. Since she will have internet access and the ability to text, it makes me kinda nervous. Here's a few of our rules:

It must be placed in the kitchen at 9:00 every night and left there until morning.

She may not bring it to school.

We are allowed to check texts and browsing history at any time.

It must be put away at the dinner table.

I'm sure we'll develop more over time. If any of you have any suggestions to add to this list, I would love to hear them. Mackenzie has spent her time assuring us that she is responsible and able to handle the restrictions. To emphasize this point, one day she created this Power Point project. She created the entire thing by herself with pictures included. Marty was so impressed that he said he would have bought her an iTouch that night if we didn't already have one sitting in my closet waiting for her birthday.

My personal favorites are #6 with the inclusion of a picture of Miley Cyrus as a reasonable teen, and #7 with the reason illustrated by the girl sitting by herself and the word "lonely". I love the implications that if she doesn't get an iTouch, she will equate herself with the girl under that tree. She makes me laugh. And she's brilliant, because this totally won us over. Which number is your favorite?

School Session

Well, now that school has been in session for a week and a half, I guess it's time to put up my official "1st Day of School" pics. I'm nothing if not punctual and relevant.

I always like to look at these kind of annual pics alongside the previous year's pics, so you are subjected to a double whammy today. Just be glad this computer is only 1 year old, which means I can't go back to my last 5-6 years of pics and bore you to tears without great effort on my part to locate my external hard drive and spend my Saturday sifting through old pics.

Mackenzie 2010 - 4th grade

and this year, 2011 - 5th grade

Avery 2010 - 1st grade

Avery 2011 - 2nd grade

Group shot 2010

Group shot 2011

Nathan 2010 - ALC - 2 year old class

Nathan 2011 - ALC - 3 year old class

They have all done well, although we have already been hit with a sick day due to a stomach bug (vomiting in the car, yeah!) and a yucky cold for Nathan. Just working out the onslaught on germs, I guess. They have all grown so much and I am getting used to having Nathan gone 3 days a week this year. I miss my little shadow and my days are much quieter. In the meantime, it's taxi/chauffeur mode for me and the miles on my car are going up, up, up. One of my best friends is in the process of teaching her son to drive and discussing things like insurance and hardship licenses. I think I'm going to be content with the high mileage and taxi status for a while! Happy school days everyone!

a Pinterest Project

I have so many great things to post about! But so little motivation to actually sit down and write about them. I guess I am enjoying knocking things off my to-do list too much!

One item I marked off the list a few weeks ago was a framing project that I had mentioned. I have recently jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon. It is truly fabulous for getting your creative thoughts flowing or put your motivation into overdrive. Or it can keep you sitting at the computer for hours while you look at everyone else's creativity. I was determined to actually create something that I loved on Pinterest.

Here are the inspirational photos:

(for sources, you can follow me on Pinterest here.)

Since I already had several old frames, this was approximately a $10 project.

Frames before:

Side note: I have learned the hard way that the best way to hang groups of frames is this: measure your space, arrange your frames in this manner on the floor in the same size space, use butcher paper to cut paper frames of each frame in exactly the same size, measure and hang these paper frames to the wall with tape, once satisfied with arrangement, nail the paper frames to the wall, remove paper frames (but not the nails) and replace with real frames - no multiple nail holes or remeasuring needed!

I ended up having to break mine up into 2 arrangements due to the funky placement of a random light switch in my kids' hallway. Male contractors, you make me tired. A girl would never put a light switch at a different height than all the others, in the middle of a long hallway wall. But I digress.

I had a little painting help. Yes, he's only wearing underwear and we painted on a drop cloth on my hardwood floors. (Hi Mom!) It was like 120 degrees that day and no paint drops were spilled, so no worries. Moving on.

The 3 year old with no clothes on took this picture with my DSLR camera. He has talent, right?

Maybe he'll be a stay at home blogger one day.

Ready to start hanging my paper frames!

And the (mostly) final product...

I was quite pleased with how these turned out. The beauty of these frames is that they are hung on my kid's side of the house. They are not visible at all to anyone that is not going to their rooms or their bathroom. Which means it's great that the frames match their shower curtain and not the rest of my house. I am using them to hang artwork and do have plans to make 2 of the frames into chalkboard. I will possibly add chicken wire to one or two as well. It looks like an easy, breezy project, but it took me several hours with my little "helper" around. Also, if you try this project, keep in mind that your kid's artwork has to be fairly small to fit inside of a frame. An 8 1/2 x 11 paper size or smaller works great with most frames.

So hooray for Pinterest for motivating me to actually accomplish something creative in my house. Now, if only I could un-motivate myself to make these brownies that I pinned earlier.

Yum, yum.

Photo practice

I mentioned on a recent post that I am taking an online photography course. I hesitate to mention it because 1) I don't want my amateur pictures judged or scrutinized for improvement and 2) I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be some for real photographer. But that's one of the reasons I have enjoyed this class. It's not about being a great photographer at all, but it's more about how to capture a moment vs. an event and how to take your digital SLR camera off the auto setting and actually use the manual settings. And how to use natural light to your advantage. With those things in mind, I took advantage of time with just my little guy last week and tried to capture a moment.

Of course these pictures are not perfect by any means (check out the blur!), but I love these pictures so much. They totally capture his little boy "play mode". And for good measure, the cat became a model as well.

I am happy to report that the girls are back home and all is right in our vibrant, noisy home. We are enjoying the last few days before school. We all may or may not have slept in until 9:00 this morning. It's going to be a tough transition!

Where my kids at?

It's project week! Also known as "My kids have left the state to visit their grandparents and now I have energy to tackle some projects that have been left on the back burner for too long" week! Yes, I still have my little guy running around since only his sisters went to STL, but he is quite used to being my shadow and is easily entertained. Yesterday we shopped for all of our project supplies and we were ready to tackle the to-do list!

Here's a glimpse of the day:

Spent an hour at school getting all my PTA treasurer books ready for next year

Michaels and Lowes for supplies

repainted kid's bathroom

watched 4 episodes of Real Housewives of New Jersey (I'm getting caught up on the season)

repaired a broken desk drawer with wood glue

cleaned out Mackenzie's room and closet, packed away clothes for Avery

Ahh...much better. And yes those are pics of Harry Potter and friends above her bed. In case you didn't know, she's kinda obsessed a fan. I always clean out my kids' rooms when they are not home and I usually tackle them 4 times a year: before/or right after school starts, before Christmas, spring time, and before the last day of school. It's funny how the problem areas in their rooms reflects their personalities. Mackenzie probably has 200+ books in her room. Of course she won't part with any of them, so we have to get creative with storage or it becomes cluttered real fast. Avery is over run with clothes. Right now she can fit into almost anything size 6-8, but her closet get stuffed with clothes she is not ready to part with and clothes of Mackenzie's that are still too big for her. Nathan's biggest challenge is Legos and blocks. Easy enough. In my 3 years experience comparing boys to girls, girls will win the messy room award every time. We'll see if this holds true going forward!

Today's list looks like this:

pay bills and balance check book

framing project for kids hallway

catch up on all emails and blog reading

hang new pictures in my living room

finish reading my book

update all PTA spreadsheets for new year

Nathan gets a haircut

Attend open house at girl's school

Hope my parents are enjoying their time with the girls! They will be worn out after this week for sure. :)