Jace's Solar System Science Project (03-08-2010)

With Jace being out of school, we got a head start on his science project that's due tomorrow.  I think it did a really nice job painting the planets and everything.  It even glows in the dark (well, parts of it do).  Not only that, but he wrote a 5 1/2 page report to go with it.  It had to be hand written and at least one page long, but he wanted to write about all he took notes over.  We even learned how to cite a website as a source.  He's made great strides to do neater, better work lately and I'm really proud of him.

All tuckered out...(03-08-2010)

The boys were really sick all last week...each with some kind of respiritory thing which caused both to have ear infections, fevers, and Brett had an eye infection, too.  Brett had a side effect to one of the meds they put him on and he was up all night Wednesday night sleepwalking and talking and crying.  Anyway, we kept them home through Thursday and Jace and I were finishing up his make up work for school.  Brett was bored and kept asking what he could do.  I gave him all kinds of suggestions, but pretty soon it got really quiet.  I started looking around for him and found him asleep on the living room floor (the hard wood floor!)...at least he had his pillow and blanket.  He slept there for about an hour until I woke him up to eat dinner.  Poor little guy...

Now, lucky me, I have what they had!  Fun times!

Brett's 100 Days Celebration at School (02-25-2010)

Brett's class had their 100 Days Celebration.  Mrs. Elliott had all kinds of activities for them to do that all had to do with 100.  They each had to bring 100 of something to school...Brett chose 100 army men.  They counted to 100 by 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s, and 25s.  They built a pyramid with 100 cups.  They ran 100-yard dash.  They made crowns with 100 stickers on them.  And they had 100 snacks (10 grapes, 10 m&ms, 10 cheese cubes, etc).  Brett had a great time!

Library Field Trip with Brett's School (02-24-2010)

Brett's school went on a field trip to the library, and he got to get his very own library card.  Here he is signing his card...

And then we went to preschool story time which was mostly toddlers...boo to that...Brett, Anders and Isaac wondered what the heck we were doing there!

The did have fun getting their cards and checking out books after story time, though!  So it was worth sitting through 20 minutes of toddlers, I guess!  Mrs. Elliott said story time sure has changed since last time she took a group!  Preschool time used to be for kids to come it without their parents to listen to a story.

Snow in San Antonio! (02-23-2010)

Can you see it?  The little white streaks and the little white specks?  Look closely!  It snowed twice this day...each time lasted about 5 minutes but the kids thougth it was great...

And the winner is...(02-24-2010)

Here's our table at the Blue & Gold Banquet.  We sat with our friends (and rival cake decorators), the Blasers.  We're waiting for the food and judging to begin!

Here's Jace with the final cake...smoking fire and all!

Jace won 1st place in the camping theme portion, and his friend Jacob won 2nd place.  I'm pretty sure we looked at the same website for inspiration...

Jace's friend Jake won 1st place in the 100-Years of Scouting theme portion.

We all had a great time!

Father Son Cake Decorating Contest (02-23-2010)

This year for the Blue & Gold Banquet for cubs, they are having a father/son cake decorating contest.  Ours turned into more of a family effort.

Here's Brett crushing up Oreos for dirt...

My contribution to the decorating...this tree...

Here's Dad and Jace hard at work on the stream...

And Jace had the amazing idea of making the campfire smoke using dry ice (thanks to Duff and Ace of Cakes for that one!).  So, we had to do some testing first...but we made it work...

And here's Jace showing that he's better at piping trees than I am!

And the finisthed product...minus the smoke...we have to save the special effects for the judging!

Cake Decorating Class (Month of Feb)

So my friends Alisa and Margaret talked me into taking a cake decorating class with them.  The first cake we did was probably the best one...HA!  We were alwasy so rushed to decorate at the end of class that I never felt like I did a very good job.  Here's a sampling of what I learned...

Valentine Cake (1st cake)...used this at Brett's Valentine party at school...my first Wilton rose on top there...

Then came the clown cake.  We learned out to make these little clowns.  Wilton sells these little plastic clown heads that I didn't want to buy so I made my own heads out of icing...they're a little creepy but it was just for the boys so I figured it was all good.  I took my time with the shell border, but the rest of the cake I was just trying to use up some icing before I cleaned up so it looks crappy...fortunately the fam doesn't care what it looks like...

When I got home that night, I was practicing with some leftover icing before I threw it out, and Jace wanted to try.  He made this flower...pretty good!

Then we had some fun...

Our newfound "expertise" came in handy for the father/son cake decorating contest for cub scouts (see future posts)...

Brett's notes (02-20-2010)

Brett still wasn't quite done with Valentines a week later.  I found him under the coffee table in his "secret hideout" making these...

Outside:  Mrs. Elliott (his teacher)

Inside:  I Love You

Outside: Gama (er...Grandma)

Inside: Next time I come to your house I promise I will spend time with you. (He'd gone to her house that week and was upset when we left that he played on the computer the whole time and didn't do anything with Grandma!)

Outside: Anders

Inside: You're my best friend.

I love when they can't spell but they have so much to say!  I had to take pictures...

Happy Valentine's Day! (02-14-2010)

Valentine's Day was on Sunday this year, and Brett decided to celebrate with a little picture taking.  He went around all afternoon snapping pictures with his Fisher Price camera.  He was so funny!

Jace tatooed his tongue with one of those fruit roll ups...he thought it was great!  Thanks, Grandma, for their Valentine surprises!

From Matt I got a wall fireplace for our bathroom.  I've been eyeing this since we moved in, so I was super excited!  Even better was that the gel fuel that it uses Matt got free from someone at work who was trying to get rid of a case of it.  Great for this and for food storage!

It looks so cool!

Then, on Monday night, Dad and Matt treat Mom and I to dinner at Maggiano's.  Here's us (just ignore my hair...I'll never fix it like that again...it took forever and I felt like Shirley Temple...just another reason to cut it short again).  Thanks guys for a fun night out!

Clearing the backyard (02-13-2010)

Another fun (and useful!) thing about having Mom and Dad home is that Dad comes over to help on projects like the tree house and helping Matt clear the backyard (2 chainsaws are better than 1).  Here's my little workers having a snack...

And here's the fire they made to burn the brush they cut down.  Luckily it had been raining and they built the fire down by the creek bed for safety and had a water hose handy in case of emergency.

The backyard's looking better!  We can see down to the creek bed from our bedroom window now.  A couple more Saturdays out there and we'll have a nice view.  Thanks to Dad for all his hard work in our behalf!

Lunch with Grandma and Grandpa (02-12-2010)

One of the great things about having my parents back is that since I live in the same city, I get to see them pretty often.  After Brett's Valentine party, we went over to their house and ended up going to Burger King with them for lunch that day.  Since I had my camera on me from the party, I got to snag a picture of Grandpa and Brett.  So fun!

Brett's Valentine's Party (02-12-2010)

I got to be in charge of Brett's school Valentine Party this year...

The kids made little Valentine gifts for their moms...thumbprint art with pictures of them framed...

Then we played a little game to learn more about Valentine's day...the kids were more interested in what color the water would turn or if it was going to fiz over than the history, but they had a great time!

Mrs. Elliott always looks like she's having the best time watching the kids have fun!  She loves them and that's why we love her!  And check out the Valentine treat haul...

Before the kids went home, Alisa did a game with them where they danced to music until she stopped it and they had to freeze.  They had so much fun!

That's the last party I'll ever do at Mrs. Elliott's!  I'm more than a little sad that this is our last year with her...but I won't get sad yet because we still have a few more things left before the end of the year!

Science Night at Jace's school (02-11-2010)

Jace's school had a science night that was pretty fun for the boys.  Unfortunately, it was on a night that I had a cake decorating class, so Matt had to go it alone.  Matt said it was really crowded and would have been more fun with less people but what do you do?  The boys didn't get to do everything because of all the people.  BUT they did get popcorn, do some science experiements, and get tshirts!  I think they had a pretty good time anyway.

Eating...

Seeing how pollution works...

And they still made it to bed on time!  I love my husband!