Pinewood Derby

Seven joined Cub Scouts this year, so this was his first year to participate in the Pinewood Derby. He was very excited! Here he is working on his car...

This is Finn's 3rd Pinewood Derby. You can check out his 1st Pinewood Derby here and his 2nd Pinewood Derby here. He was hammering in his axle to his car here. 

Seven painted his car to look like a cheetah. Check out his car winning. It is the one on the far right, yellow with black spots.

Seven's name was spelled wrong on the screen. I'm not sure how that mistake was made since it was just his troop and everyone knows who he is and what his name is. They corrected it later, but for this race and the previous race, he was "Seren." His car is on the far right again.

"Seren" wins again...His car is in the second lane from the right.

After all the Cub Scouts are done with their races, family members and siblings can race. Jeremy made a car and entered it. Piper was at Girl Scouts that day, but Jeremy also entered her car into the race. Jeremy's car is the gold one in the second lane from the right. Piper's car is to the left of Jeremy's car. She made her car to look like a tiger. It was a really close race between Jeremy and Piper, but Jeremy beat her...just barely!

Another close race...Jeremy's car is in the far right lane and Piper's is in the lane right beside him. This time, she beat Jeremy AND everyone else in this particular race!

Piper, Finn, Seven, and Jeremy raced each other. From left to right, the cars are Jeremy, Seven, Finn, and Piper. The results of this particular race were 1st = Jeremy,  2nd = Seven, 3rd = Piper, and   4th = Finn. 

Finn wasn't happy that he didn't get a ribbon so he really didn't want me to take his picture, but I needed a picture of him with his car. So, this is what I got.

Seven got 1st place for his level, which is a Tiger. He also got 1st place overall, which means out of all the levels, he beat them all! You can see what his cheetah car looks like. 

Jeremy and his car with his 1st place ribbon. He got 1st place in the family and siblings category. Way to go Jeremy!

Piper got 2nd place in the family and siblings category. Pretty good for not even being there, huh? When I picked her up from Girl Scouts, she was proud to see her ribbon.

Concert and Thunderstorm

Granny has lots of stickers! My kids love making artwork using her stickers. In fact, they are very creative with it and make great pictures.

Seven made a concert. I am very impressed at his creativity and imagination! His piece is very detailed. I'm sure you can see for yourself, but the band is on stage. The little arches below the stage are the audience. There is a singer and a guitar player. Flowers are even being thrown onto stage by the audience! And what concert is complete without the 2 guys at the back of the stage spinning disks?

That same day, he made a picture with two people splashing in the puddles made by the storm cloud.

I love seeing what stories my kids tell using Granny's stickers!

Rilian's 5th Birthday!

My baby is NOT a baby anymore! On February 2, Rilian turned 5 years old! If you ask him when his birthday is, he will tell you "Groundhog's Day," which is in fact February 2nd!

Rilian wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday this year. I set to work on making his invitations for his party so he could hand them out to his friends.  

Rilian was one lucky Texas boy and got snow for his birthday!

We celebrated Rilian's birthday the following weekend because Jeremy and I were out of town on his actual birthday. So, by the time his party came all the snow had melted and his friends were able to come to his party without any travel problems.

Before the party started, I took some pictures of the set up...they got to walk the plank...do you see the sharks in the water down below?

I put a Jake and the Neverland Pirates tablecloth on the table...

Of course, we also got Jake and the Neverland Pirates plates...

And each of Rilian's friends got to take home a Jake and the Neverland Pirates cup...

We played Pirate Bingo...Granny made the Bingo cards. There were a few different cards. What did we use as markers for the cards? Gold coins! It was actually chocolate wrapped up to look like gold coins.

I served the birthday boy and his guests "ocean water" to drink. It was blue Hawaiian Punch. Below the ocean water is sand with sea shell on top. I placed the chocolate gold coins beside the ocean water until we needed them.

A Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday banner...

After everything was set up, it was time for the guests to arrive...my children watched at the front door for the first guest to arrive...

When the guests arrived, the first thing they did was become Jake. Rilian didn't want to, so he just stood beside Jake.

Piper, as Jake...

Seven, as Jake...my mother-in-law also made Jake for the guests to put their face in.

After they became Jake, they walked the plank...

While we waited on more guests to arrive, they got to make a pirate face. There was a choice of a bandana or a pirate hat. You could also choose to put an eye patch on and eyes. I had markers for the guests to draw the nose on and mouth and scruff, if they chose for their pirate to be a scruffy pirate.

Rilian's pirate face...

Finn's pirate face...

Piper's pirate face...

Jeremy is the cake maker for our kid's birthdays. He did an awesome job on Rilian's cake! It is all edible, well, not the characters or the candle, but the sail, mast, and everything else are! 

Singing "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy...

Not sure why Rilian chose to smile like that, but he's goofy sometimes!

Seven decided to dress up like a pirate! Rilian got this "costume" as one of his presents.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, silly baby boy! You may not be a baby anymore, but you will always be MY baby! I love you, Rilian!

Mingus Loves Pipe Cleaners!

My kids use pipe cleaners to make crafts and such with. Well, sometimes they leave them lay around and Mingus finds them. He LOVES to play with them! It's so fun to watch!

Spaghetti Knot

We don't really encourage our kids to play with their food. But one night we had spaghetti and Seven made a knot it in. So, of course I had to take a picture of it!

I love Seven's expression in this picture. Looks like he is thinking, "Yeah...I did that!"

How do your kids eat their spaghetti?

Prince Rilian

I wasn't home one evening and Jeremy decided to take the kids to Burger King for dinner. I didn't mind missing out on Burger King, since I don't really care for it. Rilian put on a crown and Jeremy took this cute picture.

He wore it all night and when it was time to go to bed where did he put it? He hung it on his bed post...

Rilian's crown was very fitting because we got his name from The Chronicles of Narnia, The Silver Chair. Prince Rilian is Prince Caspian's son. 

Girl Scout Cookies

Another season of Piper selling Girl Scout cookies has come and gone. This year, at one of the cookie booths that she sold Girl Scout cookies at, her and her friend MaKalie actually got to BE Girl Scout cookies!

Is it wrong that Piper is wearing the "Shortbread" cookie? She and Makalie are only a few months apart, Piper being the younger one. 

Easy Cheese

Have you ever had Easy Cheese? Have you ever shared the fun with your kids? I remember having the stuff as a kid. Jeremy came home with a can one day, so I thought I'd introduce it to my kids.

Just exactly how did I do that? I drew faces on crackers for them! Piper, Finn, and Seven each had one, maybe two or three. But they weren't as impressed as Rilian was! Rilian REALLY liked it! He had several! 

I'm sure it's not the healthiest thing for my kids or any human to eat, but they haven't ever asked for it again. But remember, folk, you haven't lived life, until you have had Easy Cheese! ;)

The Training Wheels Came Off

Confession time...I am a slacker mom! I mean, look at my blog. It is constantly behind! Usually by a month OR TWO! Piper is 9 years old now and Finn is 8 years old. I was starting to feel really bad that they didn't know how to ride without training wheels on their bikes yet. I worked with them and Seven a couple of summers ago in the back yard some trying to get them to be able to ride without training wheels. Why the back yard? Because it had grass, which is much better than a cement street! At least I can't be blamed for that...then the temperatures got cold and we got busy.  

So, my goal for this summer was to have them be able to ride without training wheels...well, I jumped ahead of myself by a few months, and in January we had some nice weather and Piper and Finn and Seven learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels. I was almost shocked when we went out into the yard and Piper and Finn just took off! Check out Finn...

And Piper...

Please excuse the lady walking through our yard and the man crouched down by the tree, they were there to remove our Christmas lights (remember, this happened in January) and I didn't realize they were in the videos until I posted them just now. 

Seven was able to ride without training wheels in the yard, but he just wasn't that into it that day, so I didn't get a video of him. He's not that comfortable yet without training wheels, but he is only 6 years old, so I don't feel so bad about that. I can say that Piper and Finn have successfully ridden their bikes on the street and not crashed or gotten skinned up. They are doing really good!

I guess now, I can take off the label of slacker mom. Or as least I can say that I'm not that much of a slacker mom anymore since my 9 and 8 year old can ride their bikes without training wheels. Maybe it is kind of a good thing that I did procrastinate about it, because it was a breeze to teach them this go 'round!

A Minion

Piper saw a yellow balloon and immediately thought "minion". So, she got a sharpie and used her art talent to turn the yellow balloon into a minion!

If you ask me, I think she did a wonderful job!

Plowing the Field

After we planted the onions, we needed more rows plowed so we could plant more veggies. I got to drive the big blue tractor to plow the field! Here's what it looked like, from inside the tractor, as I turned the corner...

Jeremy was down on the ground and took a picture of me driving the big blue tractor, plowing the field.

Jeremy also took a video...

Rilian was excited to ride with me while I plowed the field!

Waving at Daddy...

Yeah, that's right...I plowed a field, driving a big blue tractor! Go me!

Planting Onions

Onions are the first vegetable we planted on the farm. Jeremy showed the kids how to put their finger in the ground to make a hole for the onion to be planted in.

Looks like Piper made a hole with her finger then had to reach for an onion.

Patting the dirt down around the onion...

Piper and Finn were down at the end of this row. If you're not a farmer or are wondering what the black tape looking thing is in the middle of the rows, it is called a drip line. It is how we are going to water the vegetables on these rows. It is a black tubing that has holes in it and water drips out.

I think Rilian blinked right when this picture was taken. But even someone as young as Rilian can help plant vegetables!

He did need a little help making the holes for the onions. Granny helped him.

It looks like Seven is holding a worm, but it is actually an onion. You can see better what the drip line looks like in this picture.

Making a hole to plant the onion...

Seven looks proud of his work. Good job, Seven!