RUN!!!!

I decided a few days ago that I should start running again. I say that as if I just stopped running a few months ago or even right after Zion was born. If you were thinking that, well....thanks, but no. I haven't run in probably 15 years. Yes, 15 years!! That's back in high school. Honestly, I've been having body image issues since having Zion and holding on to a large portion of the weight. Well, Zion is almost two and I have finally gotten to the place where I figure, this is the body that I have, I may as well dress it and clothing that flatter it. Oddly enough, what comes along with my new found acceptance of my current shape is an overwhelming desire to be in better shape. It's strange how that happens (and it's not the first time it's happened). So today, I ran - for the first time in 15 years. I have to say that I am NOT 17 anymore. I think I may have eaten that 17 year old at some point in the last two years (possibly wrapped in a buttermilk biscuit or covered in melted cheese and sour cream). But it felt good. It hurt (ALOT), but it was good. I think I'll do it again...

Is it bad....

...that I completely forgot the one year anniversary of my blog? I hope not, because I did.

Finally...

So finally, I can post pictures! PICTURES!!! Yay. Okay, be prepared for picture overload while I chart the last few weeks. It always looks like we've done so much when I look back over the pictures, but it never seems like we get anything done day to day.

Anyway, Jena tended her first garden this spring/summer. I do NOT have a green thumb (or even pinkie), so this was pretty much all Jena. This is her last tomato of the summer. She really didn't have a huge tomato harvest (maybe 10 tomatoes), but she was very proud of them and they were pretty tasty.

Bijou started ballet this fall. She's very excited to be involved in the same thing as her sisters. She just looks so grown up in this picture.

I had the grand idea to make finger paint for the little girls. They had a really good time and they both know that now that food coloring will stain your hands (and face and clothes and patio...)

We discussed crystal formation for science and decided to grow some of our crystals. So we made a super saturated salt solution and dropped a piece of yarn into it. This was the crystal growth after a couple of weeks. The girls thought this was the greatest thing ever. They both kept big chucks of salt crystal (and every now and then pull them out to observe.)

Regular old table salt on the left and super-ginormous amazing salt crystals on the right. Pretty cool, huh?

Oh yeah, I mentioned in my last post about the girls having a lemonade stand a while back. They really enjoyed it. They made fresh squeezed lemonade (yes, REAL lemons) and sold cups for $.25. They made almost $15, which is big money in kid terms. We'll probably let them do it again next summer.

Jena, my crafty child, spent a weekend making clothes for her doll (which is now Ashni's doll since the purchase of Jena's new one). This was the very first dress that she made.

Notice the fancy buttons down the back and the fabulous hairstyle!

I had to have a gratuitous potty picture. I'm pretty proud of my little monkey and her potty training success. Look how happy she is!

We're studying the middle ages in history, so the girls designed their own coat of arms. They had to choose colors and symbols based on their meanings. They also learned what some of the lines and divisions mean.

Jena was invited to her first drop off birthday party. It's hard to believe how big she has become and how mature she is. She was so excited to get to hang out with her friends and not have any little sisters tagging along. Her little sisters on the other hand where not so thrilled.

I've probably mentioned Jena's love of unnecessarily complicated puzzles. She'd been working on the Empire State Building for weeks. She's finally put it all together. Now what are we supposed to do with it?
Zion, as cute as she is, does not seem to grow hair anywhere but down the center and on the left side of her head. Now if anyone can pull of that hairstyle, it's Zion, but I really couldn't do anything with it. So I decided to cut it off. This is the very first "first haircut" picture I have ever taken. It is also the first first haircut. I have to say that I didn't think that she could get any cuter...I was WRONG!

We made egg tempera paint for art. Just crushed, colored chalk and egg yolk. The chalk crushing was an experience and I think we all have great upper body strength now.

On the crafty front, I found this little doll cradle at Goodwill for $4 (actually it was marked $8, but when the lady heard me say that that was too much, she marked it down to $4!). It was cute, but a little to "country" for my taste. So I decided it needed a little make over.

A can of lime green spray paint and some leftover fabric and we have a much more appealing cradle. It works in their room very well.

My sister gave the girls a very cute Cat in the Hat clock when we visited this summer and the girls were very happy to have a clock in their room. Unfortunately the background on the clock was mostly black and the hands were black. We could never see what time it was. So I took it apart and replace the Cat in the Hat with a little color block pattern that I made with paint chips from the hardware store. I stamped the 12, 3, 6 and nine with some stamps a had on hand and the little pink jewels are some scrapbook accessories that the kids had. I spray painted the frame with the same green as the doll cradle. Next time I will remember to use the spray paint made specifically for plastic, because it's scratched already. Fortunately it's high on the wall, so it's barely noticeable.

Zion has an obsession with cell phones. She will swipe them as soon as you look away. I figured she must need her own, but letting her have an old, dead phone of ours didn't seem like a good idea. So i whipped up this one in about 30 minutes. It's just a piece of scrap wood (from a defunct Home Depot kids project) painted black. I cut a small picture from a magazine for the screen and used a couple of grey paint chips for the buttons. The OK button is one of those clear, bubble stickers for scrapbook pages. I covered the entire thing in Mod Podge to protect it from drool. Thirty minutes of my time, zero dollars and she has endless fun with it.

I try to come up with Halloween costumes for the girls that will work together, so this year they were the four seasons. Ashni was spring, Jena was summer, Bijou was winter and Zion was fall. Gotta love the dollar store and all of it dollary goodness because our costumes are ALWAYS created from dollar materials!

This is An! The girls took about 40 pictures of him the day we got him. They stop by and talk to him every now and then and Zion can be heard saying "Hi Fish!" several times a day.

Blue marker + unsupervised toddler = this.

I bought this bag for a dollar at Salvation Army. It's a very "me" bag (grey and wool), but it needed a little something...

...so I made this drawing from the picture of Zion on the toilet. At some point soon I will post pictures of how these two came together. Their meeting is now my favorite bag ever!

The newest family member

The girls have been dying to get a pet for the last couple of years, but I am NOT an animal person. Maybe it's the idea of having something else in the house that I have to feed and clean up after. That all sounds just a little daunting to me. But, being that we live in a small town, there really aren't a lot of weekend activities to keep us busy, so when the new PetSmart had its grand opening I figured I would take the kids and let them check out the guinea pigs and hamsters and canaries. While we were there a nice PetSmart employee slipped Jena a gift card. She prefaced the hand off by saying she really didn't know how much was on there. It turned out to be $10. So I conceded and the girls got to pick......a fish. Jena's has been asking for a betta for a few months now. She'd planned to spend her lemonade stand earnings (don't know if I ever mentioned their lemonade stand, but it was a whopping success) for one, but instead we helped her buy a really nice doll (on a REALLY good sale at Tuesday Morning). So, the PetSmart gift card bought the girls the fish, some food, the conditioner for the water, some marbles and a plastic plant. I bought them a very nice fish bowl for $3 at Goodwill. They did lots of research (LOL) in my old baby name books in order to come up with a name. They named him An (pronounced Ahn) which is Chinese for peace (I think). Actually he's a very nice addition to our house. He's quiet, doesn't require a lot of attention and I only have to feed him ONCE a day. Why can't kids be more like fish....

Metal on the horizon?

So the girls (3/4 of them) had dental checkups today. They all passed with flying colors - not a single cavity in the bunch. Woo hoo! Unfortunately, Ashni has a couple of teeth coming in at an odd angle. I noticed it a few weeks ago when they made their appearance. SO, we get to go see the ORTHODONTIST!!! Yay. I can only imagine the potential for partially masticated chaos that will insue in the braces of my food loving seven year old. How is any human being (doctor or not) going to give MY Ashni a list of things that she CAN'T eat? Can't eat? Are you serious? Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Sad, sad blog owner

So I swear each day that passes I am one day closer to actually getting the part to fix my computer (I swear!!). There have been all sorts of happenings since I last posted (over a MONTH ago! Really? A month?!). I keep attempting to update, but it's just no fun without pictures. But here's a few things that we have been up to:

On the school front:

Our school year technically ends in December, so the girls will be moving up a "grade" in January. Honestly, I couldn't really put them into grades right now anyway. They are both currently doing fourth grade math (although Ashni's math is a combo of third grade warm ups and fourth lessons), Jena is doing 5th grade language and science, history and geography aren't really grade specific at our house. We've entered the middle ages in history which the kids are really enjoying. So far we've made a shield and they designed their own coat of arms (learning the meanings of some of the colors, divisions and animals).
I've also decided to start Bijou in kindergarten in January. She's been bugging me to start school, so I will try to make her first day of school a grand affair!

With the kiddos:

Jena turned nine back in August and had a lovely little masquerade party. Unfortunately, I was sick for the entire week before and week after the party (blah!). AND she went to her very first big kid drop off birthday party (sans little sisters). The girls went to a Japanese steakhouse, got a double decker bus ride to the square in town for frozen yogurt, then a double decker bus ride back to the restaurant. She had a blast. Ashni broke her third pair of glasses and that's all I really have to say about that! Bijou started her very first ballet class. She is VERY excited. And Zion has been potty trained (yes potty trained WOO HOO!!!) and got her very first haircut. I really loved her patchy bald look that she had going on, but she'll be two in February and her hair shows no signs of growing. So I cut it off and she looks ADORABLE!!!

Of a crafty nature:

I made a new doll for Zion. It turned out VERY cute, so we bough some fabric at a yard sale and there are plans to make new dolls for all of the girls. A couple of winter hats have been crocheted, as well as warm socks for Bijou and Zion to wear in the house. Jena has taken up embroidery and has been making gifts for all of her friends. I need to be painting, but I'm not, so....yeah.

From the kitchen:

Rosemary cornbread and fresh baked cinnamon rolls!

So I promise that I will have a computer before 2011. And I will be back to my regularly scheduled blogging (I promise).

Backyard Camping

So, my girls were having some petty little issues with their neighborhood friends yesterday. You know, "so and so is being mean and won't let us play with them" kind of stuff. So after a brief "kids can be mean" talk, I decided that they needed something to do here at home. I decided to pitch the habitually neglected tent in the backyard and let them have their very first solo backyard camp out. Their rules were very simple:
1. Do not, under any circumstances, leave our backyard.
2. No one, under any circumstance, is allowed in the backyard with you.
3. No running in and out of the house all night.
4. Please turn off the flashlights before you go to sleep.
5. If you get scared or nervous for ANY reason, come back in the house!
They gathered their sleeping bag, pillow, blankets, books and water bottle and headed out before sunset. By the time the sun went down it looked like they were throwing a rave in the tent. To my surprise, they were asleep by 10 o'clock or so. We considered bringing them in before we went to bed (the hubby's a little more cautious than I am), but we left a light on for them and they were really only 20 or 30 feet from our bedroom window, so we just let them stay. We were awakened at 6:45 this morning by Ashni letting us know that the hubby accidentally locked the backdoor and she couldn't get in the house. They had a great time and I'm sure backyard camping will be requested again and again and again....and again.