Kindergarten PE night

Definition of Nostalgic:
a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition ; also : something that evokes nostalgia.

This past week my son's school had a Kindergarten PE night. Parents were invited to come and participate in physical activity with their child. Siblings were asked not to attend, due to space and availability of equipment I'm sure. It was just as well though, this was there time. I took my son and we had FUN! They had random things we could do at first. We played tag, hula hooped, climbed ropes, jumped rope..... My personal favorite was when the parents, only, played with the parachutes. They were huge, 2 of them took up nearly the entire gymnasium. We did some really fun things with them. We sat inside it, we put just our heads in while laying on the floor, we did the wave with it by trapping the air and holding it down with our knees and each side took turns pushing the air down toward the other, we even let it go flying high up in the air. The kids enjoyed watching the Moms and Dads play with the parachutes. At the end we were thanked for coming, and told to take a balloon they were providing us and to just find a spot and play with our child. They played this song I now have on my blog by Phil Collins "You'll be in my heart" while we did that. It was such a sweet time and such a sweet song, I was feeling a bit nostalgic. My little guy, still is young, but he's growing up and I just want to cherish and hold close these special moments forever.

Princess Anne House

My Birthday is this week, when I saw my mom this past week, she asked if I had gotten a doll house yet. I of course hadn't yet, she suggested I go and get one for my Birthday from her. Last night I had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby, they have a really nice selection to choose from there. I went and took a look and immediately knew which one I wanted. I had to think for a few minutes if I was getting into something that would be costing our family a lot of money. This was only the house, next comes the decor and furnishings, some of which we'll make..... My husband reminded me this was something I had wanted for awhile, it didn't take anymore convincing. I'm not going to furnish it over night, that is the fun in the journey. I chose this one called the "Princess Anne", this is a stock photo. Actually the architecture is Queen Anne from the late 1800's. It isn't completed, still in the box of course. I like the colors they've painted it, love purple! I like pink too, but for the sake of the guys in the house I think I will copy these colors. The house reminds me of the homes I remember on my Grandmother's street, when I was a little girl growing up in New Jersey. I would always look at them and wonder what the inside of the "tower" rooms looked like.

I have loved the Victorian era for a long time. I thought my wedding gown looked somewhat Victorian, even had thoughts of having our reception in a Victorian home. (to Donetta, I had a subscription to Victoria magazine too!) At one time I had thoughts of owning a home like this and restoring it. Our first home was built in the 50's and that was enough of a restoration project for me. Now I'd rather visit a Victorian Bed and Breakfast someday and I'll have my own miniature home. This home has 6 rooms, I'm thinking Kitchen, Living room, bathroom, 2 bedrooms and an attic or maybe a "craft room" :) I'm on the look out now for things that are tiny. My eyeliner has a plastic cover on the end of it, it's a glass for my house! I read on another blog how someone used the blocks to a jenga game, matches and a fish tank hose to make a winding staircase! I think that's pretty cool.

Art Masterpiece begins this week

Last year was my first doing Art Masterpiece, it is such a great program for the kids. I go into the classroom and bring a famous painting to show the kids. Depending on the age level we talk about the history of the Artist, the style of painting, how the painting makes them "feel" and what they think of it etc...I really enjoyed learning about the Artists and their works of Art. It's that time of year again, my first day will be Friday. I've been given my list of prints I am assigned. My first print is by Pieter Bruegel, the younger rather than "the elder" (his Father) the Painting is Harvester's Meal. This year I will be presenting to my son's Kindergarten class. Last year I was presenting to my daughter's 6th grade class. I'll have to scale it all down a bit this year. I look forward to hopefully doing this each year my son is in Elementary School. I will be keeping it pretty basic and only 15 min. max rather than the 20 min. I had last year. I look forward to hearing what 5 and 6 year olds have to say about this painting!

Inauguration Day today

Taken from Wikipedia: The swearing-in of the President of the United States occurs upon the commencement of a new term of a President of the United States. The United States Constitution mandates that the President make the following oath or affirmation before he or she can "enter on the Execution" of the office of the presidency:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The newly elected or re-elected President traditionally adds "so help me God" to the constitutionally mandated statement.

The swearing-in traditionally takes place at 12 noon local time (UTC-5 hours) on Inauguration Day at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., with the Chief Justice of the United States administering the oath.

Today is the day that Barack Obama will become our President. I lift him and his family in prayer that God would direct their paths.

Storybook Cottage

About a month ago I posted about my idea for the "family dollhouse", I should just call it the "family miniature house" we haven't done much with that idea as of yet. I have been looking into it though. Making miniatures for it would be fun. I found my book, it's called "Tiny Treasures amazing miniatures you can make". Looking through it gets my wheels turning, once we get started I hope we'll look at things in a more creative way. Household items and disposable food/toiletry items can be used to make miniatures.

I've had ideas about our backyard and how we could incorporate some cute small things into it. It is very green with bushes and trees and grass. When we first moved in I thought I'd like to have elves or gnomes under the bushes. I have one so far, and he's already been broken and fixed. I want to do more with that idea. Those ideas actually come from visiting Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida as a little girl. I LOVED the Fairytale/Elf Village. We have home movies of me going up to the little figures in the village. I especially like the architecture of Snow White's cottage, or should I say the Seven Dwarf's, she was just visiting :) I have such sweet memories about this. Sadly it was replaced, but my daughter was able to see it when she was little. I'm pretty sure I have some pictures somewhere of that. I have found some old postcards online from it, see them above.

While looking into miniatures and dollhouses online, I came across some sites about fairy houses. I thought that ties into the whole elf, gnome thing. When I was a little girl I loved playing on the playground at school with holes in trees and moss. I started thinking about how I needed to make a little house! I went and bought a bird house at the craft store, that was all I could think of to start myself off. I had a picture in my mind of how it would look, I picked up a bag of small rocks, I wanted it to be a little cottage with a cobblestone exterior. I also got some silk flowers, pink and purple because they are my favorite colors. I brought it all home and a few hours later I started putting my fairy house or story book cottage together yesterday. It was SO FUN, I loved doing it. I used a lot of hot glue though. I takes one bag of rocks to cover the whole house, with a few to spare. I am also thinking moss, the craft store sells it, it's treated so there isn't anything alive in it. That would look wonderful to have some moss around my little house. For now I just painted it ivy green. I haven't finished the door yet, since it was a bird house it's open. I'd like to make a door to put on it. I LOVE Thomas Kinkade's work and he uses quite a few cobblestone houses in his paintings. This is a sweet painting of Snow White and one of the Cobblestone houses. On my little house, the flowers are big in size in comparison to the house, but this is supposed to be a tiny house in the forest, it's all make believe....so it is correctly proportioned. I'm not sure where I am going to put this cottage yet. It's not really protected against the elements. I have a high window in my dining room I may consider.

The Moon was Huge tonight

My daughter and I went for a walk after dinner tonight. When we got home I looked down the street and saw a huge light coming over a house top. The moon was rising and it looked so close. I got out my camera, the picture doesn't do it justice, it looks more like a pea than the huge moon I saw. It actually looked as if it were at the end of the street. If you click on it, you can see it closer.

My little guy was watching Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D he looked so cute in his glasses, had to take a pic.

My Daughter cracks me up

The love for a child is indescribable and to have a child is such an awesome blessing. I have never been as mad at anyone or laughed as hard with anyone as I have with my daughter. She can make me more angry with her at times then I can possibly imagine. I'm not talking anything anybody has to worry about here, just typical Mother/daughter stuff, I'm sure Mom's know what I'm talking about. She and I have laughed together a lot, but more so lately. Over the Christmas break we watched a chic flick together and then she played around with her new camera she got for Christmas. It has some video capabilities and we were both being so silly. She said it was like she had a friend sleeping over, we had so much fun. We laughed so hard about the craziest things. Yesterday we went out shopping the two of us in the store were being so silly, another customer in the store got a chuckle out of us too. I laughed so hard, my face was all scrunched up and she said I sounded like a mouse squeaking, it almost hurt! In school she is known this school year for her giggling. I said she gets it from me, so true. The simplest things will tickle our funny bones. I have learned to control myself though a little better than she can :) I am finding that she can be quite a comedian. She can make funny voices and faces that just crack me up. In fact she has recorded some of it, I am encouraging her to find a visual of the voices she's doing. We have so much fun together, and then of course the opposite too.... Thank God for the good times! She is such a cool teenager!

Did Christmas just come and go? Missing the colors?

My daughter was very sad when my husband took our Christmas tree down the other day. She said our living room looks plain now, without all the color of our tree... I do feel like Christmas time wasn't around long enough this year. It seemed to come and go so quickly. Can anyone else relate to me on this?

We were able to put our tree up just after Thanksgiving, which is a rarity for us. We have gotten many real trees in the past, and in the Arizona weather you can't keep them for a whole month. Last year we bought our tree with the lights already on it, time and money saver. In the future the kids still want to get a real tree from time to time though, they love the smell. Here's a picture of our living room now, we usually have the coffee table under the window. I was so excited when we bought our house to have a front window to put our Christmas tree in! Growing up we always had it that way, I guess that's why I wanted it.

Our family loves color, we've been in this house for a year and a half, soon to be two years and haven't painted the walls much yet. The ceilings in some spots though are around 30 ft. big undertaking but we know we want to do it sometime soon. It's funny because the previous owners had lots of color, some still remains but not in the big spots like the living room, dining room. We already painted the family room just before moving in because that is a room with a 7-8 ft. ceiling. How I know this? My daughter and I checked out our house about 6 months before buying it when there was an open house. In order to sell quicker they must have thought they needed to paint the prime rooms white. They did leave lots of paint behind which is nice for us. I know curtains or draped fabric and maybe some wood blinds will make a big difference in this room, one thing at a time... We were thankful to get all this window covering with the house.

Fresh & Easy deals of the day for me

My husband was going to be making another batch of his yummy chili today. I went to one of my favorite stores, Fresh and Easy to get the meat that he needed and a few other items. WOW I was surprised to find these deals! I needed some creamer for my coffee, I love flavored creamer, that is all I use in my coffee. They had these creamers marked down to 75 cents each! They don't expire until March, so I bought 3 of them, 2 pumpkin spice and a peppermint mocha. I know I like the pumpkin, haven't ever tried the peppermint mocha though, thus why I only bought 1. Normally they go for around $2.99 or so each. It was a seasonal markdown, but I don't mind these flavors all year. We also needed a gallon of milk, $1.35! Normally around $2.69 there, the expiration date isn't until the 7th. The way my little guy drinks milk, no problem with that date. Just had to share, I know really interesting stuff right, I love finding deals....

That little lady you see in the picture, I actually found her at a thrift store awhile back. I have, somewhere, a book from my childhood it's like the Old Mother Hubbard story, not sure of the title. I don't think it's called that though. I have to find that book, anyways, this little lady looks just like the one in the book! My daughter agrees with me on this, I have read her the story many times in her childhood. You know how the images in our mind can be, we'll see how correct I am. A box of my old childhood books are in the garage. Very soon we are going to get a bookshelf just for all the stories we have to put them in one place, but we haven't done that yet, so some books are still put away. I'll have to do a post to compare the image in the book and the little lady when I come across it.

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