My lil' helper

Ella is my helper. Gavin will help, but he has to be asked and reminded many times. Ella on the other hand is always asking, "Is there anything I can help you with, Momma?" The kids have chores, like making their beds, putting their clothes in the hamper and picking up toys. Ella sets the table and Gavin clears. Gavin also has to empty the small trash cans around the house. When we need to freshen up the house before company is coming, both of the kids do a great job of wiping up the bathrooms with a Clorox wipe and they both love to swiffer the floor. I keep thinking that they should do more, especially Gavin but I am often at a loss for what to have them do.

The other day, I had a MOUNTAIN of laundry on the couch and needed to get it folded and put away. The kids have offered to help with this before, but their folding leaves a bit to be desired. It is more like wading up the clothes into a ball...but they are both good at putting the clothes away when I bring the basket to their bedroom. Ella REALLY wanted to help and so I asked her if she could match up the socks for me....WELL.... could she EVER! Plus..it looked like such a fun "game" that Gavin wanted to join in! They did all of the socks and I just had to go along and fold them together. I have decided that this will now be a regular part of their chores as well...Good job kids!

The Kitchen

The kitchen... ah... the kitchen....

Andy has been working ALL week and it is not done! It was a big job and he did not do it in the most organized way. That is not a criticizm...hey... I am so grateful that he has been working so hard on it! I am just tired of not knowing where my forks are! Besides, I am really scared that it is going to drag on forever now that he is going back to work!

Poor guy did not get a single day off during his Spring Break to play! He got to go out to dinner and coach a baseball game today, but other than that, he has been in the kitchen! The doors need one more coat of paint each and then they all need to be hung and the handles put on. The bar did not even get started, but we hope to work on that a little bit each night next week.

Of course, it is like "When you give a mouse a cookie..." Now that we have painted the cabinets, we don't like the wall color and we are thinking that we need new cushions for the benches at the table and of course new curtains. If we do that we will need new curtains and pillows in the family room, and we want to take out the panneling and paint and of course the cushions on the window seat would need to be re-apholstered.... oh, and I really want a new desk and we found a great new couch that would look better with the room layout!

Whew... we took a step back from all of that and decided to go forward with re-doing the floor into the kitchen, laundry room and our bathroom (all connected) and then... we will see what we can do next....

I wrote that last night and today, after church Andy put another coat of paint on the cupboard doors...some need one more coat. Next we started hanging cupboard doors, only to discover that the hinges added 1/16th of an inch to each side of the door and they would not close. Andy has spent most of the day cutting out a groove in the side of the cabinet so that the doors will hang right. Unexpected problems with house projects...I sure do wish that we could pay someone to do this stuff for us, but then we would miss all of this "adventure"... yes, you do note a hint of sarcasm there.

Andy just told me that I have to take everything out of the spice cabinet that I spent 2 hours cleaning out and re-arranging last night. I told him to hang plastic and be careful not to get dust in there... that seems to be working. We did get the handles on the drawers, well, not before putting one very off center, but really - nobody will notice.... He is working away and I have been trying to pay bills and entertain our poor neglected children.

Ella is so tired that she put on her pajamas on at around 3:00 and announced that she was going to bed...I wanted to join her...she didn't of course, but I guess she cut out one job for me tonight! We are going to my in-laws house for dinner...thank goodness, because I can't cook in the mess! Maybe tomorrow I will be able to post that the kitchen is all done and put back together! I will hope.....

I apologize too, if this a massive wall of text, but I have fixed it 5 times and blogger just keeps leaving out my spaces... ugh....

Back on the wagon...

Weight Watchers that is....
I am there again. My top weight limit, the place that I keep re-visiting. The place where my belly rolls over my pants and everything is too tight and I feel fluffy. I checked out Jenny Craig last week and was seriously considering it. I feel overwhelmed sometimes by counting points and figuring out what to eat and I thought that it would be easier if I just didn't have to think. The cost of food is about $100 per week, plus fruits and veggies. After considering it, and thinking about the fact that I normally feed my entire family of 4 for that price, I have come to the conclusion that I am not in a place in my life right now that I can afford "not to think". That luxury may come some time, but not now. So, I am counting points. I did really well all week, including a meal out at Chili's. I went online and got all of the nutrition information (which is REALLY shocking!) and figured out ahead of time what I would order. I even got an extra side of veggies and was so full! I have dropped about a pound, maybe 2 and my pants fit better already. I really want to get to my goal this time and keep it there. I have not made it since before Ella... this last 14 pounds really likes living on my midsection and is reluctant to leave! Last spring I lost 7 pounds and then spent the last year putting it right back on! This time, I know that I can't stop until I get there! I know that I can... and now that I have you all on my side...I will!

Oh, we did stuff in February too...

There were things that we did in February that never made it to my blog, because March was just so darned crazy.....I have been working on uploading and ordering photos today and came across the pictures....

The really cool thing that we did was go to the Huntington Beach Kite Party! We were supposed to meet up with some of my family, but my cousin's son was running a fever. It was just the Huffakers 4 and we had a great time. We stayed for a couple of hours, saw some amazing (and enormous) kites and flew our own! Ours is the sea horse... we picked it up at Costco for just $10! It went up easily and was really pretty. We have since bought a couple more of these in different styles. The Gecko was HUGE... the rainbow kite above it is an average sized kite....My cute husband, having a great time with his kite!

As we were headed home it started to rain, so we had left at the perfect time. We went home, showered and jammied everyone by 4:30 and had dinner. After that we snuggled up on the couch to watch "High School Musical". It was a fun family weekend!

Birthday party...details

Several people asked questions about the party... so here are the answers:

Yes, I made the cake. It was a regular round layer cake. After I stuck the layers together, I sliced them in half to make two semi-circles. I then carved off the rounded edge and set the whole thing upright on that carved flat side. I frosted it and made the plank lines with a fork. The rest was all decorating... cookies for the gun wale sides, cookies with candles in the sides for cannons. Playmobile pirates, shark, island and treasure chest along with individually wrapped rolo candies stacked up for gold and malted milk ball cannons. The sails were paper and put onto skewers.

I had several large props, including a life size pirate, cut out of ocean waves, real looking and VERY big cannon and the treasure chest. These were borrowed from a local high school and really added to the feel of the party.

The treasure balls were made from used coffee grounds (which were collected by a local coffee shop and given to me), flour, salt, water and tempra paint. We added some glitter to make them sparkly. The dough was like bread and we made balls and then made a hole in the middle to tuck in the clue, then seal up the ball. We baked these in the oven at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes and then let them air dry for the next week. They were hard and the kids really had to bang them on rocks or the ground to get them to crack, but they could do it without help from a grown up!

I am still "hanging" in there... my kitchen is being painted and Ella's crib (which was in "day bed" mode) broke and we had to get her a toddler bed. I just finished putting it together. Oh, and I am now "officially" a Creative Memories consultant.... If you need to place an order or want to come to a workshop... let me know!

Happy Birthday Gavin!

Well, his birthday was actually on the 6th, but with all of the stuff going on this month, we had to celebrate on the 16th! Seven years old, I can hardly believe it! We had a special dinner and dessert on his actual day, but the big party was Sunday! We celebrated in grand pirate style with 4 of his friends and some family. The kids had a great time, we had good weather and good food. I think that it went well and I am glad that we are done with parties for now. This has been a tough month in more ways than a full calendar.. but more on that another day. Here are the highlights from the party:

The pirate ship cake

The Shooting Gallary...log has sensors and gun shoots a laser, really neat!

Hot Potato with a bomb that made noises and "exploded" at the end of each round.
The treasure hunt. We made stones that had clues hidden inside and the kids had maps and they had to find all of the different hiding spots. At the end was a huge treasure chest with goodie bags, candy bars and pirate swords. After they found this, they ran off and played pirates for the rest of the party. (oh, and picked avacados... ???)

This is the tablecloth that I made... I thought that it came out REALLY cool and couldn't watch when Andy crumpled it up and threw it away after the party.....

Here is me, on the floor the night before the party...making said tablecloth!

I am really bummed that I didn't get very many pictures at the party...it was VERY high energy and most of my shots are blurred kids or backs of heads...I was going to have them pose by some of our really cool props, but.... at least we had fun!

Hanging In There

Well, I have survived the month so far, and I must say have been having a heckuva good time, too! I am absolutely exhausted today, but that may also have something to do with the time change, that always gets me! A few things have fallen away from the schedule... I decided that my financial aid paperwork and doing the taxes can wait until next month. So can the trim in the kids room... Andy will have more time to do it next month, so that means a better job! (and no paint on the rug!)

The contractor came and told us that it would be about $100,000 to put a room over the garage, or put 2 rooms and bath over the back half of the house. We will consider both, but with the housing market the way it is right now, we don't really have any way of borrowing the money. That too, is on hold. We are still thinking about the door in the kitchen and are now leaning away from doing that until we remodel the kitchen in 4 years, or so! Andy is still on to paint the kitchen cabinets during Spring Break, so I am looking forward to finally seeing some changes around here!

Today we worked on things for Gavin's party and we are all getting really excited...it is going to be LOADS of fun! I just finished making treasure maps and I am going to chill out and watch some t.v.... I will probably just fall asleep there...and then drag myself to bed in an hour or so.

I will try to post something interesting later on in the week..... but definitely after Gavin's party. I just wanted to let you all know, that I am "hanging in there"!