Any Ewoks here?

Camp Robber

When we were visiting Rocky Mountain Park with my parents, Chuckles wanted to know if there were any Ewoks there. (Note to Self: Children are watching too much Star Wars) We were giving my Mom a bad time about not seeing much at the beginning but we ended up seeing quite a few things. But we didn't see any Ewoks.

mule deer

magpie

lots of elk

Ewoks? - Thanks Mom and Dad for being our guides and putting up with us.

Junior Park Rangers

I would like to introduce the newest Jr Park Rangers.

Here they are with their badges pinned on

When we visited Rocky Mountain Park, the kids both got their Jr Park Ranger badges. They had to complete a activity book and get quizzed by the Ranger. This is not a gimme. #1 Son didn't realize this so after Chuckles received his. He got right to work on his and we stopped at another visitor center and he got his badge too.

Chuckles getting his badge pinned on by the Ranger.

Colorado Letterboxes

We found 4 letterboxes in Colorado. The first one we found was in Big Thompson Canyon. The second one we found was in Rocky National Park. I was so glad that we had #1 son with us because I am 100% sure that the Giant Man Child and myself couldn't have reached this.
Yes, it is in a giant split rock. My child is wedged in there. The next one was in the Benson Sculpture Park in Loveland, Colorado. We didn't follow the clues exactly. We had to locate 2 Charlie's. We entered from the wrong end so we never found Big Charlie but we did find Charlie. I love giraffes so I loved this clue.

Lastly we found one in the park across from the sculpture park near the little train. Unfortunately, the train didn't operate on that day of the week. Chuckles was bummed. Only the Giant Man Child and I were interested in finding that one. The clue involved a lot of counting.

Brown Toast Update

I know everyone was holding their breath but Chuckles got his brown toast. All is well with the the world. Of course, Grandma's french toast was outstanding. We are back from vacation and I just want to keep that vacation feeling for one more day. I know it is time to get back to the routine but "I don't want to." (that was totally said in my most whiny petulant child voice) Unfortunately the Chuckster came back with a bad cold. It couldn't be that fine mountain air. I just downloaded 250 photos so look forward to some vacation posts in the near future.

Have you seen this lady?

If you have,

wish her

Happy Birthday!

Happy Happy Birthday Aunt P!

One Cool Old Chick

Brown Toast

We are headed to my parents house for a few days. Chuckles has been going on and on about brown toast. He keeps saying that Grandma makes the best brown toast. I really don't get it at first. Hey, I make good toast too. I have a toaster and I know how to use it. I finally figure out he means that Grandma makes the best French Toast. I don't hardly ever make French Toast. This just cracks me up. So hopefully, Grandma will make French Toast while we are there. Because in Chuckles world it is the "BEST".

Gray hair

Conversation had with Chuckles

Chuck - Mom, you have a lot of gray hair

Me- It is because I have two boys

Chuck - No, it is because you are old- really old

That converstaion was a real gem. This is the kind of thing Mom's live for.

Sea Gull at Ferry Terminal - Bellingham

View from Mrs Respiratory Therapy's Back Yard

I was browsing through my sister's photos, the Polyester Princess, that she took while she was here. She took a lot of really great pictures. I decided to make a photo book. Walgreens is having a 50% photo book promotion- CREDIT50 at checkout. I thought I would share some of her really great photos. Until you have visitors, you forget how beautiful and wonderful area you live in.

This is one I photo chopped aka photo shopped.

A Wild Hair

The other day I was inspired to finish painting my kitchen/family room area. My kitchen is coffee themed. My friend, Mrs Epi, got me some coffee inspired vinyl. I have to say I am really pleased with the results. The Coffee House sign looks painted. I have some coffee words that need to be put up also.

Totally Unsupervised

The Giant Man child is out of town this week and my best friend is road tripping. So, that leaves me supervised by the two man wrecking crew.

What have I been doing? You know that dirty word - LAUNDRY. I have plenty of clean but I hate to fold. There is no problem getting it washed but put away is a completely different story. We are going on a big trip for us next week. We have been stay vacationing all summer long but now it is time to hit the road for one last hurrah for our summer. Stay tuned for more details. I also have been finishing up some school supply shopping. I think I am down to Kleenex and hand sanitizer.

What have I been reading? I have been reading some young adult lit. I read "Speak"by Laurie Halse Anderson and "Just Listening"by Sarah Dessen. I thought both were outstanding . There are a couple more young adult books that I want to read as well.

What are my kids doing? There is still a lot of chalk drawing. Chuckles just learn to play the Giant Man Child's DS so he is addicted. We have been playing the Wii too. #1 Son wants to be constantly plugged into something - DS, Wii, computer.

The good news is that my camera is back. I am so excited to have it back.

Is my Cat Computer Literate?

I think one of my cats may be more computer literate than I am. Above, Boots is fascinated by the computer. He loves to watch the screen. I still quite frankly can't believe that I own cats. I am not a cat person. We are heading for overnight stay with Nonna so the teenage cats are going to be left overnight by themselves. We did it a week ago and no plants were harmed. They didn't even act like they missed us when we came back. That is so WRONG. I think they are probably going to have a cat nip kegger while we are gone.

Blueberries

Happiness is fresh blueberries.

Chuck eating blueberry pancakes

On Tuesday, we went blueberry picking for the first time. Those berries were huge and at .95 lb. a fabulous buy. Our home blueberry bushes have struggled a little bit this warm summer. We went with Mrs Epi and family to pick. I thought it was a great time and the kids enjoyed it because there was ice cream afterwards. I don't have any pictures of the blueberry picking as I brought my kids' digital camera without the memory card. I have froze most of my 11lbs of blueberries but I did make blueberry pancakes and blueberry zucchini bread. Mrs Epi and family out picked us by 1 lb. The Princess(of quite of lot) kept saying, "the bigger the better", and you have to tickle them to see if they are ripe. The ripe berries will actually fall into your hand if you wiggle them.

Ripe Old Age of 6

Happy Birthday BIG E

Big E told the Giant Man Child and myself that he is an old man. He is an Old Man at the ripe old age of 6. Hope you had an AWESOME or should say SWEET Birthday.

Banner

I promise this is the last birthday post for a while. I have been wanting to make a fabric banner for a long time and finally took the plunge and made a birthday banner for #1 Son. This wasn't too bad of a project. It would of been thrifty too if I had just used only my stashed fabric but I ended up getting some additional fabric and bias tape. In hindsight, I should of used a darker or different color yellow for the letters as they don't show up as well as they could. There are a ton of ideas out there. Here is a few:

amazing mae

Running with Needles

Ohdeedoh
This also can be done with paper as well. Below is the Gold Coin one I made for #1 Son's Mario Kart Party.

Here is a Hello Kitty one I did for the Diva.

Mario Kart Party

On Sunday, we had a little Mario Kart Party for #1 Son. All he wanted to do this year was have a Mario Kart Party. We are usually in Colorado during his birthday so we usually celebrate his birthday with my Mom's. I got all my Mario ideas from this website. We played Mario Kart.



We painted race cars(karts). I put these kits together and had the kids just paint. These are the $1 kits from Micheal's.




We hunted for gold coins. We put them in these mushroom necklaces.

We had pizza and cake.

What I love about YOU

Today I am a Mom to a 11 year old.

What I love about #1 Son

your laugh

your sense of right and wrong

oh my, your problem solving abilities - You can send me some of those mad math skills

Your never give up mentality

Your sometimes brutal honesty

you changed me forever

you made me a MOM

I love you for all those things and more

Happy Birthday !!!!

Happy Birthday, MOM!

My MOM

I hope you have a

Wonderful

BIRTHDAY!