Happy Easter 2012

After church this morning, we stopped back by the house to take a few family pictures before heading over to the Jones' for Easter lunch.

Ashley

Daniel

Laurie

The5Jones

Happy Easter!

Pool is Open for the Season!

It's official!  The Pool is open!  For the last three days, the kids have spent all or part of each day swimming.  While the water is a bit too cold for most adults, the kids don't seem to mind the 78 degree temperature.  Poor Birdie can only stay in for a short time before her lips turn a little blue and she shivers. So she just runs around the yard for a while, warms up and jumps in again.  It's all good.

Poolside with popsicles

Bring on the summer temps, Sundays by the pool and popsicles all around.

Pony Stampede

This is the unusual site I found walking into my breakfast room today.



It appears the My Little Ponies went on a stampede right up the front of our beverage fridge.

I wonder what inspired them to go on this little ride...



And when they will return to their stables upstairs.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Green for Birdie

While Birdie LOVES school and is learning so much, she still struggles behaviorally with the discipline in class.  Her teacher is a very strict disciplinarian who expects a lot from her Kindergators.  Birdie stays on "Green", at the top of the behavior color chart, most days, but rarely can make it through a whole week without a "warning" or a move down the chart to "yellow."  Since Christmas break, we've been a bit shocked for Birdie to receive the first "Red" marks of the family and quite a few of them in a short period of time.  For the most part, her disciplinary troubles have been minor - difficulty following directions and getting a little excited at times.

Despite her difficulty, we've been pleased with her progress through out the year. With the strict discipline, Birdie's teacher is lovingly preparing them for a successful future in school.  It worked for Ashley in this class and we don't doubt it will work equally well for Ms. Birdie Boo.

In March, things started to turn around for our little trouble-maker.  We noticed she made it through a week on all "Green," and then another week!  By Spring Break, Birdie's behavior calendar had only smiley faces (which means "Green").  After Spring Break, we challenged her to stay on "Green" for the whole month. Day by day she inched closer to the goal.

At the end of the month, Birdie's chart looked like this!!

Yay Birdie!!!!!  Great job!!!

She earned herself quite a treat and was able to take pride in the fact she could follow the classroom rules when she tried really hard.  

A New Hamster

Daddy surprised the kids with his offer to buy a second hamster as a friend for Isabella.  While Daniel was off at a birthday party, the girls and Brian went off to Petco to select their new pet.  They chose another small dwarf female hamster, the same as Izzie B, but with slightly different colors and markings. Before they even walked in the door at home, they had christened her - Chelsea Caroline Jones

Chelsea Caroline Jones

Chelsea was immediately at home in the two cage set up.  Izzie was asleep for the most part when we put Chelsea in the cage and ignored her the few moments they came nose to nose.  We thought everything was fine... until later....

After several hours, Izzie B woke up and sought out Chelsea in the cage.  Next thing we know, the two hamsters were fighting.  Fighting!  Izzie B was chasing Chelsea, confronting her, and then pawing at her head.  You could hear the two girls "barking" and "hissing" at each other while they went paw to paw.  Thankfully, they didn't bite at each other. Our big problem was they were confronting each other in the tight confines of the tubes, so we couldn't get them out.  After several minutes holding our breath while attempting to separate them, we finally got them in different cages.  

Since it was late and the kids were in bed, Brian and I had the task of reconfiguring the cages so they were no longer connected.  The hamsters were both on edge and difficult to handle.  Brian and I laughed at how the hamster stuff took us all night to sort out.  But, we were happy they decided to fight after the kids were asleep and while we were still awake.

The 2 now separate cages

As of now, they are still separated but in cages next to each other.  We aren't sure when or if we will try to put them together again.

Ready for Battle

This is Daniel ready for a Nerf gun battle with his friends.  If you're counting, that's 5 visible guns, 2 ammo clips and pockets with more bullets. I'm not sure who won, but he said, "It was an AWESOME time!!"

Test

Trying out BlogPress app to post on the blog


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's Derby Time!

The Pinewood Derby.  It's a big deal and right of passage for any cub scout and their dad.  Daniel's own grandfather's both look fondly back at making cars for them self or their son.

This is year two of Derby car making for Brian and Daniel.  Last year's car was "fancy", a land speeder from Star Wars that made it to the finals of the race.  It was definitely a labor of love for the two of them.

Star Wars Land Speeder Derby Car

This year, with time shortened (don't ask, long story) they discussed many ideas before settling on a car that was sleeker in design, and therefore simpler to make.  An iPhone!

Daniel's iPhone Derby Car

They had a blast making it.  Again, Brian had Daniel do most of the sanding and labor so it was truly his car.  I helped a little with getting the Angry Birds picture stuck to the top of the car.  An old pair of ear buds completed the look necessary for a sleek black iPhone Pinewood Derby car.  

They did have a little trouble adding the wheels so the boys had an inkling the car wasn't going to be too fast.  It had drag on one wheel.  Daniel really didn't care.  He thought it looked awesome!  Off to the registration they went.  

We all turned out the next day for the race.  1... 2... 3... GO!

Oops, that's the iPhone car in the back of the pack

The car didn't perform well, but our boy was really happy with his cool looking car. We had one dad mention that his iPhone must be an older model, not the newest 4s, because of the lack of speed.  He said he had that problem with his own iPhone.  Daniel thought that was funny!  

Did I mention that this was evidently the year of the Angry Birds car?  Daniel had the only iPhone car, but many had the Angry Birds theme on them.  And of course, Star Wars was still very popular.  Daniel is already dreaming about what to make next year.  

100th Day of School

My baby just finished her 100th day of Kindergarten!  Can you believe it?  Laurie absolutely LOVES school and is just thriving as a kinderGator. She can't wait to do homework every night and tell us ALL that she learned during the day.  We still deal with behavior issues at least once a week, (she ranges between "Warnings" all the way up to "Red Notes,") but I am confident she will eventually settle into the rules of kindergarten. Before the end of the school year would be nice.

Laurie on the 100th Day of School

The KinderGators had a great time Monday, making necklaces, hats and trail mix signifying the 100th day of school.  Laurie was thrilled.  Daniel & Ashley were a little sad it wasn't a big deal for them any more in the 2nd and 4th grades, but they had their turn.  For now, Laurie got the spotlight - and all the fruit loops she could fit on that necklace!

Pinterest Projects

Do you love Pinterest?  It has quickly become the latest fad in social media online.  I visit the site several times a week, but am reluctant to "pin" many items.  To me, it just seems like more crafts/recipes/projects that I love, but will never make the time to complete.  I don't need any more projects, as evidenced by my overflowing bins of fabric and scrapbooking paper taking over my closet. Yet, I still pin away, hopeful that I will return to the crafty world soon.

I found myself eyeing a TuTu table skirt on Pinterest last week.  It would be perfect for Laurie's room!  I suddenly realized I had all the material to make it sitting in my closet.  So, while the kids were gone one day, I sat down and made the TuTu table skirt for Laurie.  It was simpler than I thought it would be. And, although I didn't have as much fabric as the inspiration piece (that's 3 layers in my picture); it turned out really cute in her room.  Woo Hoo!  1 project found and completed in the same week!  

My TuTu table skirt

Taking inspiration from my project completion, I decided to tackle another project I thought was adorable for Valentine's.  It is comparable to an Advent calendar for St Valentine's Day, called a Valentine Countdown Chain.  Each heart link has a scripture verse about Love for the kids to read each day of February ending on Valentine's Day.

Valentine Countdown Chain

This one, I'll admit, was quite easy because the website that created it, Catholic Icing, gives you the verses to download and print.  Luckily, I had corresponding pink papers from another Valentine's Day project I'd never completed a few years ago.

Two pins done on Pinterest and many more to go!  Will I be inspired to complete more crafty projects or will this be it for me?  Who knows, but this was fun!

Daddy's Ties

This week is no bullying week at school. That means that there is a dress theme everyday.  Monday was wear red, Tuesday was Silly Sock day and Wednesday was wear a Tie.  

I am not great at getting into these dress up days, and I barely remembered the wear a tie day just before bed.  We pulled out the bins of Brian's old ties and the kids had a ball going through them.  Each one chose a tie to go with their outfit the next day.  Then we left them on the couch for Daddy to "tie" them, cause I have no idea how to tie a tie.  

They were so proud to wear Daddy's ties to school the next day.  Boy, I was glad we'd kept all his old ties all these years.   We did have a bit of an "oops".  Birdie evidently spent too much time playing with her tie while in class - something about putting it over her eyes to pretend she was blind?  Guess who got another yellow note?  

Thursday (today) was Hat day.  We were lucky that they all had a favorite hat to wear.  Daniel chose Kubota, Ashley wore her beret and Laurie went for a hat that matched her "new" outfit.  (I said it like that because it was Ashley's, then Brenna's and now Laurie's!  Not that she cares one bit.)

Cute, cute cute.  Now don't ask me what tomorrow is, I have no idea.  Guess I worry about that tomorrow.