February



About 4 years ago, Lauren received her Webkinz cat.  I told her she could adopt it online when she learned to read.  Earlier this year, Lauren signed Alley the Alley Cat up.  :)  She was very into playing Webkinz and taking care of her pet for weeks!  Then she discovered the Webkinz music videos and would play them and dance along.  The songs are funny, about animals, all different styles of music.  And Lauren is quite the dancer.  She doesn't play Webkinz music too often anymore; but she does still dance to music w/ my clock radio.

Julia and I went to yard sales again, Feb. 4.  For $8, I bought 6 pieces of clothing (all Gymboree, except the gray dress) for Caroline, plus PJs and the dress-up starry tutu skirt, fake oranges and lemons, 2 large candle sticks, and 4 Depression glass bowls.  I had a lot of little glass bowls from our wedding, but over the years several broke.  I was glad to find some more cute little bowls for ice cream and cottage cheese. 

That afternoon Brian built another fire.  The big bush on the right is one of the hedge bushes we ripped out from the front of the house last summer.  Glad to see them gone and burned. :D

I got new glasses in February.  I haven't had new glasses since 2001!  I usually just wear them at night, so not a big deal as my vision hasn't changed much since then.  However, my old ones were falling apart. I also got new contacts; the last time I bought them was 2004!  I made my boxes last a long time...too long, really!

Austin jumped on the trampoline that same afternoon (2/4).  I came out there to talk to Brian and him, and Austin wanted me to jump with him.  He's so silly on the trampoline!  Not extremely daring or anything, just silly w/ his moves.

Jumping with my boy!  It's fun!  The kids are a little freaked out about the weight limit warning however.  The 3 older ones tell us only one of them can jump w/ Daddy or me.  NOT both of us together on the trampoline.  Or we might break it!  Oh my!!

The baby pinecones? buds? on our pine trees were leaving off all kinds of pollen.  There was a layer of yellow dust on the trampoline and patio.  Weird, and interesting.  There was a lot of it, yet it wasn't extremely messy.

Lauren's class at school had a 100 Days party Feb. 6.  They made a giant trail mix:  every kid was to bring in 100 of some small food, then they mixed it all together and everyone got a cup of the mix.  Lauren brought 100 mini Oreos.  You can see a few ended up in her mouth as well.  ;) 

Caroline with her lined-up animals and food for all of them!  She likes to play w/ her toy food and serves all of us meals and dessert all the time!  It is so cute.

Feb. 11 Julia and I went garage saling again.  It was kind of drizzly and there were only a few sales.  I found this painting for $15.  It caught my eye b/c of the frame.  I like the painting, but it's not really my style.  A little too Victorian? romantic? maybe...  Cream and gold is also not my favorite combination, but I really do like the curly-Q swirly raised design around the edge. 

What I think I may do is take out the painting and spray paint the frame.  Then either leave it open, or maybe add a mirror in it.  The girl at the garage sale said her grandma painted it w/ oil paints years ago, and her mom  had soooo many of her mom's paintings, and needed to get rid of some.  Alas, this was our third and last yard sale day!  Sad!  We've had something going on every Saturday since then for the kids or Brian.  It seems there were a couple Saturdays we had nothing scheduled, but it rained?  Some reason we couldn't go out, anyway.  Hopefully we'll get to go to more soon.  It's kind of fun seeing what we'll find, and most of the people are very friendly.  We also need to have another sale of our own!  LOL

 

Julia had to read a biography and write a book report, and make a puppet of the person she read about.  Her person was Clara Barton.  Julia's puppet is made from a water bottle, w/ craft pom poms for the neck and head.  She folded a satin bow in half for the apron.  Clara's black dress is a sock, and she has pipe cleaner arms.  Every kid's puppet had to hold something to help show who it was.  So Julia made Clara hold a medicine dropper.  Creative!  :)

Caroline loves the VeggieTales movie Sweet Pea Beauty, and checks it out all the time from the church library.  In this picture she'd bought it!  Hee hee hee

We have a compost pile in the back of our property!  Yay!  We had one at our first house, but not at the last.  It's Austin's job to dump the compost.  I like having the compost container near the sink, convenient when cutting fruits and veggies. 

I was just using a plastic bowl (left), and thought it was so ugly sitting on the counter, with banana peels, coffee grounds, etc., for all to see.  I kind of looked around for a crock, or some kind of covered container.  Didn't want glass, in case Austin dropped it.  Didn't want cheap metal, would likely rust... 

I was at the Grover Beach Goodwill killing time one afternoon when Julia had Bible Quiz practice.  I found this green pot and thought it would work for my compost.  Well, it does!  And the colors are perfect in my kitchen.  It's not beautiful, but definitely better than the clear plastic bowl!  It is Club cookware, which I quick researched, and was made in the 50's or 60's.  Fun!  Kind of a retro compost pot.  Ha ha!  But all the images I saw when I googled had a matching green pot/green lid.  Or matching aqua pot/aqua lid.  I wonder what's up w/ my mix-n-match pot?  LOL  And where's the aqua pot and the green lid?

Valentine's Day!  The older kids had parties at school and exchanged Valentines with their classmates.  Caroline had made Valentines for her Cubbies friends, then was sick that night, so didn't get to bring them till the next week.  Oh well!  She liked being included in what the big kids were doing.

Not sure why this picture got cut off???  Blogger did it, not me!  Anyway.  Caroline was sick pretty much the whole month of February.  Colds and stomach viruses.  Poor thing! The other kids got sick more in February too.

I cut out this quilt in February.  I want a new throw for the back of our couch, in my new color scheme.  I found this pretty fabric on Etsy and cut 8 1/2" squares.  The blocks are all sewn together now.  It took me 1 1/2 hrs. one night.  I basted the quilt and now just have to machine quilt it.  It's been sitting on top of my sewing machine for weeks now.  There just have been other things going on!

Cute kids after church.  Getting so big!

President's Day weekend Brian and I painted Julia and Austin's rooms.  I need to show before and after shots.  They look soooo different!  And really good.  :)  We thought the top part of Julia's walls were white; that is, until the beadboard got painted Ultra Pure White!  What a difference!  Brian painted the color in both bedrooms: Benjamin Moore Bird's Egg in Julia's room, and Behr Silver Drop in Austin's.

As usual, I painted all the white:  baseboards, trim, doors, closet doors...  And in this case, the chair rail and beadboard paneling in Julia's room.  Oh my goodness, that beadboard!  It was the most tedious painting I've ever done! 

It was navy blue before, so I painted two coats of primer, then two coats of paint.  I had a little system going:  brush, brush, brush real quickly in the grooves, then roll over it all w/ the roller.  It took a loooooong time!  I had to be careful to not use too much paint on the brush and roller, so the grooves in the beadboard wouldn't get gunked up w/ too much paint.   It was worth it, though!  I love how it turned out.  I like white beadboard anyway, and this going from navy to white just brightened the room so much.  Pretty!  Julia was very happy w/ her room too.  She and Austin both helped choose new bedding for their rooms.  So fun.

Julia participated in the Awana T&T Bible Quiz Feb. 25.  There aren't too many girls quizzing in her book/age group, so she quizzed alone.  She ended up quizzing out!  You can quiz out for getting 3 answers correct, or 3 answers wrong.  Well, Julia got all her answers correct!  She got as many right as she possibly could. 

Her friend, Elizabeth did also, for her age group!  They both earned Quiz Champion for the highest score, and then High Honors for perfect scores.  They are both super smart and have been blessed w/ amazing memories!  They also both practiced and reviewed quite a bit.  This is the last year Julia is able to do Bible Quiz.  She has learned a ton of verses in her 9 (!!!how is that possible?!!!) years of Awana.  She wants to continue to do the Jr. High program next year.  She (and all the kids doing Awana) are learning so many good things!  Bible verses, yes, but also principles and values backed up by the Bible, making it practical for the kids.

Julia turned 12, February 27.  Wow!  She brought brownies to share with her class at school.  I bet this is the last year sharing birthday treats happens.

I took these pictures after school.

 Caroline had it in her head, all day long, on Julia's birthday, that we needed to have a princess dress-up party for Julia.  Julia nicely played along.  Austin escaped dressing like a princess. ;)

















Julia chose spaghetti and Caesar salad for her birthday dinner.  She wanted a kitty cake.  She loves her cats!

 

 Julia chose spaghetti and Caesar salad for her birthday dinner.  She wanted a kitty cake...she loves her cats!

I bought this apple box before we were married, and used it in our two apartments and two previous houses, as is (was!).  I was tired of the apple theme.  I still like red, but want a change w/ that too.  Soooo, I spray painted the box aqua (surprised?!  LOL), and the handle antique bronze.  Add fake fruit from the yard sale, and it looks totally different.  I have it displayed in the kitchen.

I changed the winter mantle into more of a Spring look in February.  You can see I the yard sale candles and candle sticks.  I spray painted them antique bronze.  No more distressed cream and gold.  Except on the picture frame.  LOL  Still need to get to that.  But at least the painting in it is pretty and the colors work for spring.  :) 

The star is from JoAnn Fabrics.  The silver candy dish is from our wedding; eggs inside from Michael's.  The white milk glass vase? dish? is from a thrift store.  Flowers inside from the dollar store!  Whatever works, right?  This mantle is still up, and I want to change it to make it a little more summery.  Have to figure that out!

November

At the beginning of November, Julia and Austin had their T&T Grand Prix races.  Austin was very into building his car.  Julia didn't really care--Brian had them both sand the cars after he cut them out of the block of wood.  Austin was right there the whole time watching!  Both kids painted the cars how they wanted.  Neither of them won awards this year, but they both had fast cars.  Austin's situation was kind of disappointing.  His car was actually very fast!  It won 2 of its 4 races, 1 was still in the top speeds, but one was soooo slow it didn't even make it to the end of the track. 

Well, Austin saw that car in the track w/ his name, and burst into tears, "That's not my car!!!!"  Sure enough, the person picking the cars out of the box read the number upside down, and picked someone else's car instead of Austin's!  Every kid gets their lowest speed dropped, so that bad score didn't count.  It was an accident, and probably the fairest thing to just go w/ that, rather than rerun his car, considering time constraints.  But still disappointing, b/c of the "what if" his own car had gone really fast for it's dropped run?  His average speed may have been higher.  Anyway, he took it well--I was the one analyzing more than anyone else. ;)



 The Target Toy Book arrived in the mail early in the month.  Actually, Brian and I both got one, so we had two.  Austin, and Lauren circled and initialed the toys they wanted; Lauren did the same for Caroline.  Julia only wanted one thing out of the Toy Book:  an Easy Bake oven.  I asked her why she wanted one of those when she can (and does) use the real oven all the time?  She had to laugh herself.  :)  They do look cute, and I remember wanting one when I was young too.

Pretty sisters after church

I bought several paint samples the first weekend of November.  I think here we have Sherwin Williams Sea Salt (darkest), SW Glimmer (light, w/ a bit of green), SW Williams Buoyant Blue (light, a bit of blue).

The same day we bought a pantry door at Home Depot.  We;d measured, but didn't realize there were different cutout possibilities for the hinges.  We bought a door w/ 3, knew we had 2, but the man said it should work out just to use the top and bottom cutouts.  Wrong!  So we brought the door back to Home Depot.  They didn't have one in stock that had the same hinge cutout configuration, so we had to special order a door.  Our coat closet door ended up being an exact match to the pantry (we tried it) in size, swing, everything.  So we bought that to the store so the door person could measure and order one exactly like it!  Brian picked up the new door about 10 days later.  Here are the little girls riding w/ our coat closet door in the Home Depot parking lot.

Little girls drawing and coloring.  Austin and Lauren made lots of art this month.  They said they were going to have an art show and display it around the house.  Well, they made tons of pictures and designs, but then I think lost interest in the idea.  Notice the Toy Book (and open!) right there w/ the girls. 



Every few days Lauren brings home these little Open Court decodable books.   One night she decided she wanted to read them all that night!  She did, too!  She had them all arranged like this, then would read one and put it back in its box.  They didn't all get put away till they were all read.  She put the 2nd picture on her class' Star of the Week bulletin board when she was the Star.  Her teacher was so impressed, and said she wanted a copy of that picture.  And if anyone else in the class read all their decodable books in one night to take a picture, and she'd put it up too!  :)

 

Veteran's Day weekend we did a ton of painting.  Brian and I taped off and painted the family room, kitchen, mud room, and breakfast nook.  The kitchen was the worst to tape off--and the biggest nuisance to have taped off, w/ plastic over the cabinets, appliances, and sinks.  We'd have to carefully go under the plastic to even get a drink of water!

<<< This is what went on while Brian and I painted:  Batman tied up Cat Woman.  See her leopard coat?  Appropriate, yes?  We DVR'ed a ton of the old Batman episodes from the 60's, and the kids all liked watching them!  They'd sing the Batman theme song over and over again, and the Batgirl song.  "Batgiiiirl, who's baby are you?  Batgiiiiirl, who's baby are you?"  Even Caroline.  Funny!

We chose Sea Salt for most of the painting we did; I chose a custom 50/50 Sea Salt and Glimmer mix for a few walls, just in case the Sea Salt looked dark when it was done.  I love how it turned out.  Sea Salt is a gorgeous color, IMO, kind of a grayish aqua.  I kind of wish we would have done some of the "mix" walls Sea Salt instead.  Oh well.  It all looks nice.

Brian decided to paint some ceilings he hadn't finished in July, since we had plastic all over the place anyway.  And since he did that, I figured I might as well paint the hall.  Since the plastic was out and it is such a pain getting all set up, might as well do more while we're at it!  I painted the hall, and all the baseboard trim and doors.  Brian has never painted trim:  says he doesn't have the patience for it.  I have never painted ceilings...and would much rather sit on the floor, scooting along little by little, painting trim!  Ha ha ha

We had extra Sea Salt and the Mix, so I also painted the main bath!  It looks soooo much better.  I kind of didn't mind the soft yellow the PO's had throughout the house, but I detested it in that bathroom.  Something about the whole look I didn't like.  W/ my chocolate and tan towels it reminded me of rotten bananas!  I know, crazy.  Who else thinks about that?  Anyway, it had to go.  ;) 

You can see a bit of the little girls' room here.  I actually like the paint job in that room, and it goes perfectly w/ their bedding.  When Brian painted ceilings in July, I told him not to worry about being careful about the walls, since we'd repaint anyway.  Now I wish I would have had him be more careful in their room.  There are only a few drips.  And there are nicks and scratches from the PO's little girl, and it could use new paint, but I'm in no hurry.

Lauren reads so well.  This was the beginning of the year, and she has (of course) only improved!  She was reading the Costco magazine to Caroline here!

Lauren participated in the Sparks Drive-In movie night.  Brian helped her build her car.  It was the month of building cars for him.  ;)  She painted it.  This was in the midst of all our house painting.  She got mad at me for the paint (old!) clothes I picked out for her, saying they weren't girlish! Glare. Scowl.  Pout.  Meanwhile I was wearing an old VBS shirt, torn-up old jeans, yet she said my paint clothes were more girlish than hers!  Oh myyyy!  LOL 

We have several trees that change color in the fall, at this house.  I am so thankful for them, and have enjoyed watching them change through the seasons!  Julia made the floral arrangement for her 4-H floral design group.

Our Disneyland passes expired this month.  We went one last time, the day they expired, Monday of the kids' Thanksgiving break.

We stayed all day at Disneyland.  It was busy, but we still got to do a lot.  The weather was nice.  We got our family picture taken and used it for our Christmas cards.  I have to say, this was the easiest trip!  Since Caroline was just a little older.  For some reason, that made it easier.

My mom and dad came to visit us Thanksgiving week.  They got to our house while we were at Disneyland and made themselves right at home!  ;)  The kitties were glad to see them.  Lauren planned to have a party when they came, and made this turkey the week before.  She wanted to play Pin the Feather on the Turkey.

We all had to be blindfolded and then put our feather on the turkey.  Well, the game was rigged, with the winner being determined before it had even been played.  My dad [purposely, ahem] placed his feather the farthest away, not even on the turkey, and Lauren said Grandpa won!

Austin caught one of many lizards we see around here.  We see lots of lizards.  One day we saw a mouse running in the back yard, in and out from under the honeysuckle bushes.  Eeeeeeek!!!  Bailey has caught several gophers (Yay, Bailey!!).  One night there was a raccoon on the patio--that freaked out the cats!!!  However, we hardly see any snails in our flower beds, and that is good!

My mom knitted socks for all the girls this fall.  She started a pair while she was here.  She gave me a pair too.  Austin is no longer interested in knit socks. Grandma doesn't mind; says Grandpa isn't either.  ;)  She made Austin a pillowcase out of Air Force fabric.

My dad did a bunch of projects.  He and Brian hung the pantry door.  It came primed, but not painted.  And continued to look like this until the middle of January, when I finally got time to paint it!  He also put up my laundry room shelf and hanging bar. 

I hang all my girls' dresses these days.  We haven't had tons of shrinkage problems, but sometimes one will shrink in the dryer, which is a bummer b/c Julia and Lauren are tall!  It can be hard to find dresses that are the right length.  I don't want to size up b/c then the dresses are too wide and sacky!  So I hang to dry.  :)

My dad also put a shelf in my cabinet above the fridge.  And one in the former trash cupboard.  I am glad I took out the trash cans and rolling guide "thing".  It works nicely for me like this, to store lunch boxes, the salad spinner, etc.

At the very end of November, Brian and Julia rang the bell for the Salvation Army at the Arroyo Grande KMart.  They did it once more in December.  They enjoyed it.  I think Julia's favorite part was when some customers gave them chocolates!  :)

And That's Why She's Going to College

The other day, Lauren brought a Barbie to me. She needed Barbie's dress put on. I said, "Wow, that's a short dress!"

Lauren: "Well. It's ok. She's in high school. And she's going to go to college." Like being older made it more ok to wear a short dress.

Me: "What will she learn in college?"

Lauren: "She's going to learn how to ice skate really good so she can be in the Olympics!"

Lauren with Austin last week before Awana. Crazy Hair night. Could you guess? ;)

Random Christmas Break

These pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes were taken 12/5. I planned to post them. Who knows why I didn't?! Austin was so handsome all dressed up. In typical 8-year-old boy fashion, his shirt stayed tucked in for about 2 minutes.

I love the girls' Santa dresses. Brian said they looked like Santa's elves. I called Caroline 'Santa Baby'. Oh, and Lauren is snapping in her picture. She is the only one of our kids who knows how to snap her fingers! She wanted to do it, and practiced and practiced, and got it!

Sweet Santa Baby... You can kind of see the pine cones I spray-painted. Some were silver, and some were white. I also painted one basket red (it was red, but faded. So now it's pretty again!)

Close-ups

These crazy satin headbands were constantly slipping out of Julia and Lauren's hair. Nuisance! So much for that idea.

My mom and dad sent a Christmas package for the kids. These socks were inside, as part of their gifts. My mom knit them all. :) We love Grandma Sharon's knitted socks--warm and cozy! And pretty patterns and colors!

Lauren and Caroline were pretending to be super heroes, with their favorite blankets as capes. Lauren used masking tape to hold their capes together. :) Lauren got her Barbie Dream House for Christmas. Well, now it is a Barbie mansion. I guess! She and Austin added those two boxes from my poor-girl Barbie house from when I was a little girl, to the top of Lauren's Dream House. And now she has to stand on a chair to play with the top rooms!!

Austin got this remote-control helicopter for Christmas. It took him awhile to get used to flying it, and he'd crash a lot! He's practiced quite a bit though, and flies and lands it much more smoothly!

Our Christmas card wall (do you recognize any?), and Julia working a puzzle. She's got interested in doing these 500+ piece puzzles over Christmas break.

The kitties love Julia. They will often come by her when she's sitting reading. I set that pink princess tent up in the living room before New Year's, and it's still up. The 3 younger kids go in and out of it every day. One day they tipped it over (horsing around), so no more tent the rest of that day.

Caroline thought she was sooooo funny with her long, long arm. ;) 2nd picture is our Christmas ornaments for this year. Every year we give the kids each a new ornament. This year they were from Disneyland, since we'll be going there a lot! Julia chose Alice b/c Alice in Wonderland is her favorite Disney movie. Austin chose Lightning McQueen, and Lauren of course chose Tinkerbell. She looooves Tinkerbell! The Mickey and Minnie bells came in a set, so we gave Minnie to Caroline, and Brian and I are keeping Mickey.

Pic. 1: Caroline w/ her Silly Bands from Grandma Alvina. 2nd pic: Austin and Lauren played together quite a bit during vacation. They still are good friends, but he's learned how to push her buttons. She won't take it, and pushes right back, so they are often fighting!

Lauren--the princess with her castle. And throne. She wore her tiara to church on Sunday. I think she's convinced she really is a princess. :) She was a little self-conscious of it in her class though, so it stayed in her cubby during Sunday School.

A true princess: tiara, feathers, fluffy lei, glittery shoes, and a fancy hand-me-down nightgown. :)

The family room was a mess! A disaster! after being played in so much during the break. The kids had to clean it up Sunday night before they went back to school!

Here I thought this was such a nice picture of Austin. Oh what a handsome boy. A mischievous look. Pretty blue eyes. Then I saw his teeth. Yikes! We'd eaten lunch at church (there was a business meeting), and he had chocolate cake for dessert. Lovely. I thought it was cute how he had these Lego guys and their weapons all sorted out.

And then, back to our normal routines Monday morning. We had a nice three weeks off. Very lazy and relaxing, except the last week when we went to Disney. That was nice too. Just not so relaxing. ;) The kids got a lot of playing in. I got several projects tackled. Some new ones started (always some sort of project going on w/ me!). I am very glad to get back to walking to school. After all the goodies and lazing around, it felt good to be moving [more] again!