En Garde

Ashni started fencing about a month ago and it turns out that she's really good!  She participated in her first fencing tournament today and came in third!  She swept her preliminary bouts (5 wins - 0 losses), but was knocked out of her elimination bout by a girl from out of town.  She's very proud of herself and her bronze medal!  Way to go Ashni.

And now, a little funny before the pictures.

While sitting at the tournament, Zion sits in my lap.
Zion:  Mommy, see that man over there by the steps in the black?
Me: Yeah.
Zion:  He's God.
Me: Um, okay.  What makes you think he's God?
Zion:  Because he keeps saying it. "I'm God.  Fence!"

Apparently en garde sounds like I'm God when you are three years old.  And without further ado, the pictures.

She's in the blue and white striped socks, by the way.

Our littlest superhero.

I was inspired to make Zion a little superhero shirt to play in around the house.  It was super simple and super cheap.  AND she looks super cute.  The only thing that I had to sew was the cape to the shoulders of the shirt. The "s" on the shirt and lightening bolt on the cape are attached using iron on adhesive.  A fun and virtually no sew addition to the dress up bin.

I think she may have a future in the circus

The girls' garden

The girls are in full gardening mode now.  This year they planted cucumbers, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, banana peppers and I transplanted some mint from our herb garden at school.  So far, all of the plants look pretty strong and healthy, so hopefully they will get a good harvest this year.  Keep you fingers crossed.

(this box just has cucumbers and lettuce)

Big Girls' Room Redo

Jena and Ashni wanted to rearrange their room.  This is the only picture that I have of their room before. They don't have a very big room, so re-configuring furniture was a feat.  Oddly enough, they wanted to push their beds together to make on giant bed (Jena has a full size bed and Ashni has a twin).  I say "oddly enough" because they fight (a lot), but for some reason, at the end of the day, they always want to sleep together.  They decided where they wanted to put things and spent the entire day yesterday rearranging.

Sharing some art...

...yep, that's about it.  I LOVE Alphonse Mucha's work and I've always wanted to do some pieces inspired by his work.  My idea was to recreate a piece using the original layout and colors, but incorporate my style and subject matter.  So, yeah.  This one is called "...this is what she's look like".  While I was painting, I kept thinking if one my paintings had a baby with one of Mucha's paintings, this is what she's look like.

Long Weekend...

It's always nice to have a long weekend.  It gives me a chance to catch up on some school with the girls and just spend some time with them.  Well, time that is not in the car carting them here and there.  We had several movie nights (which the kids LOVED), lots of Wii, yard work, gardening AND some school!  YAY, school!!

This is how we do family nacho night in the Brown-David household!  Lots of nachos, one big tray and a blanket to protect the ugly blue carpet.  Notice who is focused where.

We also learned a bit about our tongues and taste buds.  First we made a few solutions (sweet, salty, sour, bitter and spicy just to see if spice made a difference)

Then they each got a sheet with a picture of a tongue and a key (which they colored whatever colors they wanted).

This is proof that we really DO let everyone work on the same projects.  Look how focused Zion is coloring her key.  The girls were blindfolded and drop of each solution was placed on various parts of their tongues.  Then they colored the area where they could taste each solution.