Yeah, I'll admit it...

We LOVE Angry Birds around here.  I mean, we really love it.  I haven't bought any merchandise or anything, but I will play.  A LOT!  And the girls love it too.  I don't mind them playing, but they will veg out in front of the computer forever if I'd let them.  Now I'm not a huge fan of them having tremendous amounts of screen time, so they don't get to play very much.  So, to satisfy their need for destroying questionably stable structures inhabited by pigs, I decided to make them a table top (or floor) version.  Actually, they started building their own Angry Birds games using blocks and dinosaurs and dollhouse people.  So, technically this was their idea.  I just spruced it up for them a little bit.  The pigs are just some little wooden balls that I had in our craft bin and the birds are rubber balls from the dollar store (they came three in a bag).  Total cost for this project?  $1 (plus tax) and about an hour total of painting.   I will post pictures of them playing when the sun comes up.  It's too dark in our house right now for my little point and shoot to get a good picture.  But they are playing happily, I assure you.

And completely off topic, I have been having trouble posting comments to my own blog (probably me doing something wrong), but I always want to respond when you all comment.  Know that I do read and appreciate whenever I get comments!

Little Reminders

I am a big fan of little reminders for the kids to help them remember the things that need to get done each day - particularly the younger kids.  So I thought I would share a couple of the little reminders I have for the girls.  These two just happen to be in their bathroom.  I used to have two that couldn't read (now I just have one), so the reminders have to have pictures.  Here's our potty reminder for Zion.  They are just little drawings that I made in some frames I had in the garage (spray painted red).

This is our reminder for the all of the girls.  Since I've started working, I'm not here to make sure that everyone is taking care of those basic needs in the morning.  This way, they can still see what needs to be done each morning and evening.  Sharpie works really well on mirrors and comes off easily with alcohol.

Some day I will get a really good camera and learn how to take really good pictures and then these pictures won't be blurry, but you get the idea.

2011 Recap

I know it's been 2012 for almost a full week now and I am late with the whole "year in review" post, but I am nothing if not an avid procrastinator. So it brings me great pleasure to bring you (a week late) my favorite moments from 2011.

The first real snow that the kids ever experienced.  It was the greatest thing they'd ever seen.  I spent more time in snow that day than I have in YEARS.

Zion's trip to the ice cream/candy shop.  I just think this is the sweetest picture of all of my ladies.

The little girls' room makeover.  Granted, it has been revamped since this picture, but I still think they're room is pretty awesome (when it's clean)

Our little garden, which looks much nicer in this picture than our actual harvest looked.  We did not get much, but the kids did their best.  We'll try again in the spring.

Jena's final birthday party.  I can hardly believe that she is 10.  There was a grand rainbow-y time had by all.

Ashni's introduction to the decanomial.

Our bed/bookcase.  Still one of my favorite things that I made this year.

There's no particular order to these pictures, and we did a lot more fun stuff this year, but of course we were without computer access.  Anyway, we're looking forward to the upcoming year.  Jena is moving on the 5th grade (her last elementary year!) and Ashni is moving to 4th.  Bijou has requested that she start 1st grade this month.  She's learned to read, add and subtract, so I don't see why not.  I don't know what this year brings for me, but I'm excited to find out.

The little ladies doing some work

Just thought I'd share some pictures of the little girls doing some school work this morning.  Zion is really, REALLY good at coloring and loves coloring this same page of shapes almost everyday.  I'm really impressed with her ability to color neatly within the lines.

Bijou wanted to do some math this morning after her reading, so we pulled out the addition strip board and she worked on adding numbers to nine.