Green, Green, Green

I was so excited to get cast in a community play. It has been far to long since I have been able to indulge in my passion to perform. I was equally as excited when the director asked us to acquire or make objects that could be sold after the play in order to raise support for Women's Space, a local shelter for victims of domestic violence.

I thought it would be really fun to create some items that had lines from the songs or the play. I was given a solo about a girl who wished she had lived in a mansion with white pillars. I wanted to stitch a mansion with some of the words from my solo. I started my search on the web, but just wasn't finding anything that would fit. I stumbled upon a picture of the Herlong Mansion Historic Inn in Florida.

This is my ORIGINAL design inspired on the Herlong Mansion. I have to say that I was very excited as I have never before created my own design. I have always relied on someone else's pattern.

And the Ants Go Marching Four By Four...

The little one stopped to shut the door and they all go marching down to the ground to get out of the rain...

Well, I, for one, can sympathize with the poor ants wanting to get out of the rain. March should be renamed to marsh. Yuck! But I digress...

My little man wants to have a bug cake for his birthday. As you may know, our household tradition is for the birthday kid to assist in making their cake. He is very excited about constructing bugs out of M & Ms. I thought it would be fun to make invitations with him also. My bright idea turned out super cute and wasn't too difficult. Even with an almost 4 year old who's attention span didn't last as long as the project.

Ant Invitations:

Needed:
Black Construction Paper
Orange Construction Paper (or other color)
Pipecleaners (3 pipecleaners make legs for 2 ants)
Glue
Tape
Scissors
Circular object or stencil (we used a glass)

Trace three circles on black construction paper. We traced 2 medium circles and 1 large circle. Cut circles out. Glue circles together overlapping enough to provide structure but not too much so that you lose the circular shape. We used the large circle for the bottom of the ant. At my daughters insistence, we drew lines across the large cirle to mimic the lines that sometimes show on the bottom end of ants.

Trace and cut out a cirle of the orange paper that is the same size as the circle used for the ant's head.
Use glue to adhere one edge to the underside of the ant head. The goal is to have the orange paper "open" like a mouth. Chose to write your party information before or after gluing the orange paper in place. (I found that it was easier to write before I glued)

Cut two strips of black paper approximately 5" by 1/4". Wind the strips around a pencil or a pinkie finger. Slide the strip off to maintain the curl. Add glue to the end of one strip and glue to the head for one of the antenna, repeat for the other antenna.

Take pipecleaners and cut in half (ours were about 5 inches once cut). Shape the pipe cleaners into a "U" and tape to the underside of the ant: one at the joint of the head and middle, one at the middle and one at the bottom. We bent the legs again to give each side a "knee".

You can add other embellishments: googlie eyes, tongues (it kind of reminds me of the Cootie game)

Now they are ready to be hand delivered.


My little guy posing with his ants and a "slice of orange". He cut out the ant on the left.

Errant Art

I bought a picture frame but, when I got home, I discovered that it was actually a legal document frame and was too large for my standard 8 1/2 x 11 photo. I had set it aside to return for the right size. Well, I waited to long and Tobias broke the glass. I decided to throw it away, because I could no longer return it and it would cost more to replace the glass than the whole frame. Before I did, I decided to repurpose it. I used some Aida cloth and some stuffing and turned it into a padded earring display. It worked really well for all my shepherd hook earrings, but I favor the ones that have a hook and clasp. I also decided that I didn't care for the plain white background. So the following picture is a work in progress and will be followed by a finished product picture in a few days (or weeks).

Hey, What's For Dinner?

Here is the new menu:

Monday ~ Chili, Pasta and Cheese accompanied by cauliflower
(it was supposed to be Scalloped Potatoes, but the timing didn't work out)

Tuesday ~ Scalloped Potatoes accompanied by beets, relocated from it's previous place on Monday

Wednesday ~ Pizza with Pineapple for the kids and with olives, sauteed mushrooms and garlic for the grownups

Thursday ~ Salmon with roasted brussel sprouts and carrots (the vegetables are my kids favorite, believe it or not)

Friday ~ Thai inspired Peanut Chicken and cauliflower

Saturday ~ Possibly using a gift certificate for PF Changs that I have been carrying in my purse for at least the last 12 months (maybe longer)

Sunday ~ Still in negotiations

Weekly Menu

I am not a breakfast person. Not really fond of eggs or bacon and sweet stuff makes me feel sluggish. I've settled, recently, on steel cut oats mixed with peanut butter. I love the chewiness of the oats and the peanut butter is just the right combination of sweet and salty. Mmmm. Lunch is either soup, salad or a half sandwich.

Here is dinner:

Monday ~ Turkey Sliders and Baked Yam Slices

Tuesday ~ Pumpkin Chili (with Tomatoes and Pumpkin from our summer garden)

Wednesday ~ Homemade Macaroni and Cheese with Green Beans

Thursday ~ BUNCO! Chicken Cacciatore

Friday ~ Date Night (It's a surprise)

Saturday ~ Burritos

Sunday ~ Soup (Yet to be determined, but thinking about Mexican Chicken Corn Chowder)

Sunday Traditions

Every Sunday, we all pile on the couch and watch America's Funniest Home Videos while eating popcorn. I love listening to my family laugh. I was also laughing at Natalia as she repeatedly said, "oh, that's not safe." I have to admit I am not opposed to using the videos to support safety. I have been known to ask the kids if they remembered what happened to someone on AFV that was doing the same thing.

Birthdays and Updates

Exercise update: I finished 29 days of a 30 day workout routine before they removed the episodes I needed. No significant changes in weight, for which I had been hoping. The program was called the 10 lb slimdown. I know that my body shape has changed for the better, but the scale went the wrong direction. I have had a hard time sticking to exercise since and need to get back to it. I have also been doing fairly well with the bedtime goal.

It was birthday time for Miss Isabella last week. She invited friends from school and most of the girls were able to attend. I had Isabella plus 4 other first graders, a kindergartner, my almost 5 year old and the little brother for a grand total of 8. Most parents dropped their girls off, but one mom stayed and helped me with all that energy. Isabella had requested bobbing for apples and I figured, "why not, it's her birthday." But the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that it would be a serious germ fest. She settled instead for Mommy's version of bobbing for apples. We took a toy broom, with the bristles removed, so basically it was a short stick, and wrapped it with crepe paper. Then I washed the apples and tied yarn to the stems. (Tobias and I had gone shopping and spent several minutes trying to only find apples with stems) They we tied one apple to each end. Hands behind backs, the girls took turns trying to be the first one to capture the apple. I'm happy to say that it was a success and that there were no teeth lost and no germy water to deal with. Natalia liked it so much that she wants to do it at her party. We also made crowns and recycled the "kiss the frog" game from last year. I had drawn a picture of a frog on poster board, then I recovered it in Glad cling wrap (yes, I through last years cling wrap away). The girls got to pick one of my lipsticks, we applied it and then blindfolded them and spun them. The goal was to kiss the frog on the lips and transform him into the prince. Half the girls loved it and the other half have reached the "kissing is gross" stage and wouldn't even participate. We revisited the butterfly design from Natalia's cake last year. This year was strawberry cake with chocolate icing. We topped it all off with a movie that none of them could agree on and only one or two of them really even watched. Fun times.

Poor Natalia, though, is having a difficult time with this birthday thing. She is the last one to have a birthday and is feeling very left out. She has been very sad that Isabella has received all these new things and she hasn't gotten any. We pulled out the clothes from the attic that I have been saving for warmer weather and she kept asking why she didn't get new clothes. Of course, it didn't help that I discovered a purchase that had been set aside for Isabella and Tobias. The only things for Natalia were the hand-me-downs (which were also there for her siblings) and a pair of new flip-flops.