Great Sunflower Project

California Road Trip - 2008

Spring is in the air here. I want to plant something. It is a early to do that but it isn't too early to start planning. I like growing sunflowers. I think they are fun and low maintenance. Somehow I ended up on the Great Sunflower Project email list. Check out this easy project to do with your kids. You just need a packet of Lemon Queen Sunflower seeds, time, and 15 minutes to complete the bee observation. Best of all no knowledge of bees is needed. The seeds can be ordered from their website. The Great Sunflower Project is trying to determine the impact of the declining bee population and how they might improve the bee population.

Why you shouldn't wave at Helicopters

You will get your picture taken. I wasn't even on America's most wanted. Though I have to say I look marvelous from the air. I look down right slender. A friend of ours, Spermy (his real nickname-don't ask), was out flying around and took some pictures of the neighborhood. I thought it was him so I waved and I got my picture snapped. Thanks for the photos.

Dollar Store Craft- Bird Art

The Diva took the dollar store bird house frame and repainted it this sparkly blue. She drew a heron in her frame. She did a really good job at that. I thought this would look good with a version of the Deep Space Sparkle Cardinal Picture too. The Diva had her own ideas.

Dollar Store Finds

I found these cute bird house frames at the dollar store. I painted one brown and white and left the other red. I don't know if I will keep it red. I think they are cute. Now if I only could find my children's school photos from this school year. The look would really be complete.

I already restyled my shelves from Valentine's. I got out my little bird houses that my Mommy got me. Love you Mom! Of course, none of my vignettes wouldn't be complete without some of my glass candlestick collection. The white bird is also a dollar store find. You can't beat the dollar store.

This is how girls roll in our neighborhood

Just had to snap a pic of our neighbor. We live on street with a lot of boys of the 6-11 year old variety. What is a 2 year old girl got to do to get on the action?

In my Hot Hands

I have the brand new publication Flea Market Style in my hot little hands. There has been a lot of hype about this magazine. I have been searching for this magazine all week. I found it at my local Haggens Grocery Store. It was my little (big) splurge for the week depending on your budget. The magazine retails for $9.95. It is a whole lot of eye candy. My favorite parts so far are " confessions of a Vintage Style Blogger", born in a barn, and doing dishes. I am a big fan of junk market style and Ki Nassauer so I really enjoyed the magazine.

Booking it through " Old School"

One of my 5 top want to reads this year was Old School by Tobias Wolff. This is part of the Whatcom Reads Program. It was an interesting book. I definitely wouldn't of chosen it on my own. I really struggled through the first part of the book that the narrator talks about Robert Frost. This is definitely a more meatier selection than last years The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian by Alexie Sherman. I am pretty sure the book club gals aren't too hot on this selection and I am the one who helped to select it. Don't hate on me. If nothing else this is sure to generate lots of discussion.

Extra Teeth

Today, my oldest son is getting 4 teeth extracted at a local surgery center. He has two extra teeth that are in the gums and two baby teeth have to be removed to reach the extra teeth. These teeth have to be yanked so the adult teeth can erupt. I guess having extra teeth is more common than I was aware of. I am thinking the tooth fairy is going to have to visit. So that is where I am going to be sitting most of the morning. So wish us luck!

Our Valentine’s Day

We had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. We started the day with waffles. For lunch, we went out for pizza. It is a tradition for us on Valentine’s Day. Then we went and walked the beach. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Chuckles received an extra special Valentine from a GIRL. It was hand delivered in the morning. Sweet!

Happy 40th Anniversary MOM and DAD!

I recently read this post and basically a kid was asking a teenage girl if the boy was good enough by saying would she go on a field trip with him. I like that analogy. A field trip is an adventure in less than ideal conditions. You have to be committed to go on a field trip. That is true love. That post reminded me of how my my Mom and Dad met. They met on a blind date. That set a precedence for all the adventures my Mom and Dad would go on and will continue to go on. My Mom and Dad were married 40 years ago in Loveland, Colorado on Valentine's Day. What do I think is the secret to my Mom and Dad's marriage beside love? I have to say laughter and a whole lot of field trips. Mom and Dad CONGRATULATIONS! on 40 years and many more field trips.

Sweet

I got this beautiful sewn heart from Chuckles. His little "I Love You " is written backwards. It is just so sweet.

Friendship Day Party and a rant

Chuckles and I made these pencil inch worm Valentine's for their Friendship Day party. The idea is from Skip to My Lou. Here is a link for the same idea found at Alpha Mom. I think they turned out fab. We made about 26 worms.

My rant is simply this. This is a Valentine Party. Just call it what it is. I am really tired of the politically correctness of the School District and renaming holidays. We can't have a Christmas Program and in our case we had a Winter Workshop where the parents had to participate in the program by DANCING with their children. Food isn't allowed to be brought into school unless it has educational value. If I really thought that doing all these things would increase the educational value, I would say great. However, I don't think this is the case. Rant OVER!

thrifted shelves

Here is the area above the entertainment cabinet without the shelves.

Here it is with the shelves.

Just before Christmas, I found or should I say Mrs Epi spotted these shelves at Value Village. I had been on the hunt for these type of ledge shelves. My sister, The Polyester Princess, suggested that I needed something over my stereo entertainment cupboard. These shelves new were too pricey for my wallet. However, each of these shelves was only $2.99 at Value Village. There wasn't anything wrong with them that paint wouldn't fix. One of the shelves had some soot on it and one had some wax on it. Apparently someone had burned a candle on the shelf. I was able to get the wax off with a magic eraser but the soot needed to be covered up with paint. My lovely Hubby finally got around to spraying them an antique white and hanging them. What do you think?

Ballet with the Two Man Wrecking Crew

We spent the weekend in the Tacoma, WA area. On Saturday, we were invited to the Ballet to celebrate Nonna's birthday. I had A LOT of concerns prior to going . The ballet and boys don't really mix. I had bad visions. We saw Sleeping Beauty. That is a 3 hour ballet with 3 intermissions. I am proud to say that they did really well.

The last act was extremely hard for the 7 year old. He was done and I think a lot of the audience felt that way. It was a dress up matinee so there were a lot of young kids dressed as Sleeping Beauty and adults too. So, there were a lot kids in the audience. Chuckles couldn't believe the witch was a man. He demanded to know at the beginning where were the special effects. The witch(wicked fairy) flying through the air didn't quite satisfy him. One of the little girls sitting in front of us wanted to know when half time was. It was cute. Guess she watches a lot of football at her house. The Pacific Northwest Ballet puts on an amazing production. The ballerina that played Princess Aurora, Carla Korbes, was amazing. I also really liked Puss and Boots and the White Cat dance in the last act.

The Olympic Torch

picture of the Peace Arch

The Olympic Torch was briefly in our county this morning. It arrived at Peace Arch Park early this morning. Syndiluhu has a post on going to see the torch. We did see it come to the park on the TV but it isn't the same. I am kinda sad we didn't go see it.

Homemade Valentines

We made about 20-25 Valentines. Our Valentines were mini suncatchers made with contact paper, tissue paper and construction paper. The idea I used is found at Wee Folk Art.

The boys both help make some of them. I got the last batch in the mail on Friday to the Postmaster in Loveland to get stamped with the Loveland Cachet. Hopefully our Valentine's are on their way to friend's and family.

Lego Heart

This isn't the greatest photo. I got this idea from Eco Guru's, Danny Seo's Blog. Mine isn't exactly the same as it isn't a notebook. IT really impressed my boys. I was cool for a few short minutes. Hey, I will take it. I think I have a Lego sickness.

Shucks

My Sister, the Polyester Princess, and I email back and forth every morning. So, I thought I would give you a sample of this morning's chat

Sister: 6 more weeks of winter! I think not! This is an outrage... the ground hog is old and senile

Me: I heard it was foggy there so how was there a shadow. I smell conspiracy. LOL

Sister: And what is up with wanting to replace him with a robot... that is just wrong

Me: Where is the outrage - that robot thing is outrageous! I DEMAND A REAL GROUNDHOG!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Monday with a Mad Genuis

This is actually a title to a Magic Tree House book I am reading with Chuckles. Though some Monday's I feel like I have a bunch of Mad Geniuses running around in my house as I do before school care on Monday's. The book is a fictional account of two young kids that are transported back into time. They meet Leonardo Da Vinci and help solve a clue. On Sunday in the newspaper there was a huge article about Leonardo and whether he painted himself as " Mona Lisa". The gist of the article is they are asking to exhume his body in France if they can get permission and then do a facial reconstruction on the skull. I shared it with the boys. Chuckles couldn't quite wrap his head around the idea that Leonardo may have painted himself as a woman.. I explained that Leonardo was a trickster. That just didn't quite satisfy him. Anyhow, the article and the magic tree house book generated a lot discussion about Leonardo Da Vinci. This included Chuckles explaining to Big E that he was going to create a notebook just like Leonardo Da Vinci.