Bunk bed

The kids need a bunk bed and instead of buying one Eric decided to make one.  I have been trying to talk him out of doing it for weeks.  Not because I doubt his abilities, but because I was afraid it was going to take forever and although I love my children, containing them while Daddy is home and they can't play with him is an altogether another story.  Nate told me it was like "daddy was at work" and he didn't seem 100% pleased.  The first day, Gwen decided to sort all the puzzles we have, which is about 8 kid puzzles and 3 puzzle books. That actually took most of the morning and the kids seemed to enjoy it, but by the afternoon they were toast, so we watched a movie, it was too rainy to go outside and Eric didn't want us to leave since he was running the saw, in case of emergency!  By the first night he had finished the bottom, but didn't have enough wood to finish the top, so he had to go back to the store for the 3rd time.  We put the room "back together" and put Gwen's bed on the bottom and left Nate's daybed together.  Eric was curious about some noises he heard and went in and found they had made a fort out of the bed and last night they slept in the fort, it was really sweet.

So, day 2 we went to Church came home and Eric had almost finished the slats and needed more stuff from the store (trip 4 if you are keeping track) so we all went and Eric struggled to finish realizing he needed 1 more run to the store (trip 5) and finally he finished.  The kids and I persevered through another day with minimal fighting and disturbance.  But, man they wanted to help and play with Daddy!  Here is a slide show of the bed making! 

Bunk bed - how to make a free slideshow

On day 2 while Eric was working we decided to work on Gwen's "landform" for school.  Can you tell what she decided to do? 

It is the desert.  I made the "modeling clay" and she helped with the colors, a little and then she designed and made the rest of it.  I have to laugh because it is so hilarious what she thinks and how she gets confused.  She told us the sun is always shining in the desert (the moon never comes out) and there is a buffalo and cacti and a snake.  She has a whole story for the buffalo, which I can't remember but it was walking through the desert and what not, who knows. She has been to the desert before, so I was thinking that should help her, but you've got to let them do what they want, fortunately this isn't for a grade, just for fun!

So now all that is left to do is buy a twin mattress for Nate, rearrange the room, paint the bed and we'll be done...how long do you think that will be?

Happy Valentine's day

Today has been a busy, hectic day; rounding out a crazy 2 days in the part-time world. Random things that have made me wonder if I should contact tomorrow's volunteers and give them notice tomorrow might be crazy! I think I have fixed most of the random things, we will see.
So, today about everything I wanted to get done didn't get done in the time I was hoping for.  I wanted to have these pocket pies done before Eric got home, but it didn't happen, so now  they are waiting for him to finish the dishes and then we can eat.  

Now, before you go all dang that girl has a problem, I should say I made the cookies for Eric, since those are his favorite cookies and that is all I was planning on doing, but then I found this recipe for a chocolate cherry cheesecake and I decided to make that for tomorrow's meeting.  Well, I needed about a cup of cherry pie filling but then I would have some left over, and the question became what to do with these leftovers?  Enter the pocket pies!  Heart shaped, Valentine themed!  Sadly, I can't eat much if any of these things, gives me heartburn...I will suffer through 1 pie tonight and a sliver of cheesecake tomorrow, but that will likely be it.  I might be trying to fatten everyone up around me and I honestly haven't baked anything in a while!  So it was fun! 
Gwen seemed to enjoy her valentine's day.  And I decided to prep dinner, but have Eric make/assemble.  So I made some sushi rice, made some tempura shrimp and while Eric and the kids made the sushi, I assembled the pocket pies.  We were all in the kitchen and had a good time.  Gwen even ate some sushi!  A good way to celebrate the day!  Happy Valentine's day! 

Father-daughter dance and Valentines

The school has a father-daughter dance and Gwen really wanted to go.  I kept asking Eric if they were going to go and he'd say "I don't know anything about it".  So finally, at dinner the other night I asked and he said, I'll go if someone asks me.  So Gwen asked and low and behold they went to the dance.  I snapped a couple pictures before they left. 

Unfortunately I couldn't get her to change out of her socks, but I did get her to put a shirt under her dress.  WIN!  She also did her own hair and jewelry.  She is starting to get into necklaces and such, not so much bracelets or hair.  She is wearing a "medal" she made it school. 

Nate and I waited anxiously for them to come home, well Nate fell asleep, and I waited.  Gwen was fairly tired but I did find out they did have fun, ate lots of snacks and didn't dance.  Eric spoke to some of the other Dads and asked Gwen to dance, but she didn't want to, she just wanted to hang with her friends.  Apparently the had photographer who took pictures and Gwen brought home 2 flowers.  Eric got a glimpse of what the future will be and I am not sure, he might be scared.

Nate and I decided to secretly make some Valentine's cookies.  Sadly, I had to do a babysitting thing today, so I didn't have time to put the cookies away.  Guess who spotted them about 2.5 sec after she walked in the door.  Guess who told Daddy immediately so she could have some for dessert.  Oh well.  Guess I don't have to sneak them into lunches tomorrow. 

Nate really likes to help and now he has the fancy apron for helping.  He was a much better helper when it was just us and I didn't have to decide which kid does each task. 

School happenings

This week was Catholic Schools week and so they had busy happenings at the school this week.  The Kindergartners were invited back to school on Wednesday night in their PJs for bedtime stories and bedtime snacks.  Gwen was SO excited.  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture.  She had a good time and fell asleep almost as soon as she went into her room. 
Friday night they had the faculty/staff basketball game.  One of Gwen's teachers was playing in the game, as was our neighbor.  We were surprised at how evenly matched the teams were and there seemed to be a lot of players that weren't faculty or staff...I guess we will figure that stuff out as the kids get older.  The Pastor and the principal were designated foul shot takers.  Gwen sat with her friends under the basket.  I couldn't believe it, isn't that what the teenagers do, not my kindergartner?  Well, she and Nate had a good time, I guess that is all that matters! 

 Getting ready for the halftime dance, all the kids went out to do it...I took a video of just Gwen and Nate. 

 Gwen's friend came over and took these pictures of us, as you can see Eric thought he was going to be in the picture also, he was denied.

 She did take a picture of him also. 

During "half-time" it is traditional for there to be some sort of dance thing.  This year they decided to have a "flash mob" and invited all the kids to do the dance the teachers have apparently been doing all week.  The teachers apparently decided to break out in dance periodically during the week.  I recorded the whole song. 

Bless the heart of my uncoordinated children!  (Nate might be really tired and it is possible he fell asleep on the way home and stayed out all night!) 

Outside

We have a big field at the end of the neighborhood, the kids love to go there and run wild.  The husband enjoys running around with the kids, so I sat on the hill and watched. 

They would come and check on me every so often, but I was knitting and watching them, so I was good. 

It is good for them to get out in this unseasonably warm weather and run some energy out.  I know some day it might actually become winter here and they will have to stay indoors.

They are a little crazy, but man do they like to run outside! 

We like to encourage the running around outside, so they don't run around in the house and scream at each other.  Of course when they get too tired they whine more, but then they go to bed early, you win some you lose some.

The Quilt and other things

As some may remember, I have been working on this quilt for Eric for I don't know, like a million years.  Ok, in truth I started this bad boy in September of '09.  You can see the full thing without any quilting here and when I started hand quilting here.  But recently I realized that I'd only finished 3 squares and I still have 22 to go, so I have to figure out how to get this thing on the machine.  I did at the beginning of the month and I now have 9.5 square done.  I have really sped through the thing now.  The bad thing is that my basting method, while fine for hand stitching, is not holding up for machine quilting, the t-shirts have stretched some.  This is not going to be the flattest quilt, but it won't take me 25 years to finish!  I guess I should re-baste.  But, here it is so far, well actually I have another shirt almost done, I am working on the diagonals now.  

Today Gwen went to a birthday party.  She came home looking like this.  I don't know if you can see the jewels on her face. 

She wanted to look like a fairy princess!  By her account she had a very good time.  They had a clown who did a magic show (with a BUNNY!), balloon things and obviously face painting.  The lady had quite the skills! 

New Year's Eve

We were pretty excited to have visitors for New Year's Eve. Gwen was really excited, she wouldn't go to the grocery store with Daddy and she wanted to decorate the driveway. 

I think that Eric might have helped a little. 

It was nice to my friend and her daughter.  We don't get to see each other that often, even though we live closer than we used to, and we seem to be in the exact same place in life currently.  Which you know doesn't always happen, made Eric a little uncomfortable, just the idea of what we would talk about sent him off to another room!  But we had fun, kids stayed up too late, and we saw the ball drop.  The neighbor was kind enough to make a special trip to bring over some sparkling cherry juice that she apparently had laying around, so we were able to enjoy that in Champagne glasses, like we were real drinkers!  A good night indeed!