Swinter

THIS was fun! Inspired by an episode of Phineas & Ferb, the girls asked if they could have "Swinter" in the back yard. Our version was a much lower scale than Phineas & Ferb, but no one can top those guys!

We just shaved some ice with our snow cone maker into a large bowl & headed to the back yard. At first, the girls didn't think they needed gloves, since it was 95 degrees outside, but they quickly figured out that ice is cold, even if it's hot outside! ;)

They had fun throwing it at each other.

And throwing it up in the air so it felt like it was snowing on them...

When we were done with the snow, we got in the pool. What a great way to end a perfect "Swinter" day!!

Summer Cooking Fun!

I haven't blogged forever. I thought this summer might be a fun time to do a few posts (we'll see!).

Many of us full-time moms start to go bonkers when school gets out. Our routine is blown! Taite, Paige & I are SUPER-routined. Other than signing Taite up for a handful of week-long activities this summer, I like to try to think of weekly activities we can do at home to keep us busy. One thing we did last summer that we're doing again this summer is a weekly cooking/food activity.

Here's what we've done so far:

1. Simple sugar cookies

Just bought the pre-made dough, but the girls got to roll out the dough and cut out shapes. We decorated with sprinkles. Nothing too elaborate, but we don't get a chance to do the cut-out cookies as often any more.

2. Zucchini Bread!

This was fun! Our neighbor had made some zucchini bread from zucchini in their garden. I'm not a big fan of zucchini, but I used to LOVE my mom's zucchini when I was a kid. Taite tasted Mitzi's bread & she loved it (I didn't tell her what she was eating at first!). She was thrown off by zucchini being in a sweet-tasting bread, but she wanted to try to make some ourselves. So, we got the recipe from Mitz & made some ourselves. The funniest part of this baking 'session' was when I asked Taite to turn on the mixer for me. I had just added a LOT of flour to the bowl. She turned it on too fast, and we had flour ALL over the place! We laughed a lot. In the end, the bread turned out well. She ate that bread every day for over a week!

3. VBS Fish Chex Mix

I signed up to take a snack for VBS this week. They asked me to send an appetizer! What? An appetizer for kids at VBS? I had no idea what to send. Mitz comes to the rescue again and suggested Chex Mix. The VBS curriculum was created by the Christian group "Go Fish", so I found a Chex Mix recipe that included goldfish. It was pretty easy - chex cereal, colored goldfish, pretzel goldfish, a little bit of melted butter, dry ranch mix & parmesan cheese. It turned out pretty good. Taite said the kids liked it!

4. Home-made Finger Paint

Super easy - not a food, but still a "mixing" activity. We found this one in an arts & crafts book we checked out from the library. Just mix flour & water and add some food coloring. We actually cooked the mixture in a skillet on med. for about 5-10 min. Added the food coloring after we cooked it. Let it cool & it made pretty cool finger paint.

Okay, long post. Sorry. I'll have to add weekly now (again, we'll see!) ;)

Softball!

It's a miracle! I posted pictures to my blog! If anyone knows how to disable "Data Execution Prevention" on Vista, please let me know! That darn "safety feature" has kept me from uploading pictures for the last several months. This kind of blog is pretty boring without pictures!

Anyway - Taite started softball & had her first 2 games this weekend. They were just practice games. It was very entertaining to watch. It's Dad-pitch. She did well in the field & actually fielded a few balls. She did a good job! She didn't get any hits this time, but did get a piece of one pitch. The regular season starts in 2 weeks. What fun!!!

Check out the face masks they have to wear now when they're batting!

Follow-up on our Artist!

I'm still ticked that I can't upload pictures! My computer is blocking it. I think it's our internet settings. I'll figure it out.

Anyway - about a month ago (see 2 posts back) I posted Taite's entry that she drew for the cover of her school directory. Her picture did not make the cover. However, they chose a select few that they featured inside the book. Her picture was amongst them! She was SO, SO excited. She said, "I got 2nd place!" :) We were really proud of her & excited that she got her picture featured in the directory that went out to all of the kids in her school. Way to go, Taite!

5K!

We did it!!! This darn thing isn't letting me upload pictures right now. I don't know why. I've got "before & after" pictures of us with our race #s on our shirts.

Anyway - the race was great! It was my first time to run the entire 3.2 miles. I did fine & wasn't even dying! ;) The weather was awesome.

Here are our times:

Steven - 24 min.
Lewis - 30 min.
Jen - 33 min.

This was a big accomplishment & I'm ready for another one!!

Our Little Artist

Taite's school has a drawing contest going on for their Student Directory Cover. This is right up Taite's alley. She LOVES to draw! Basically, the kids just had to come up with something reflective of their school.

She wanted to incorporate their mascot, the Ponies into her picture. But, she also wanted KIDS in it! Ah, what a great idea....kids on an illustration for an elementary school directory! :) What we loved about her kids is that she thought of two actual 3rd graders, two 2nd graders, etc. to draw. And, it had to be a boy & a girl for each grade. So, if you look above, the two kids on either end are 3rd graders (Braden & Jade, to be more specific). As you go in toward the sign they're holding, there are 2nd, 1st & kindergartners (she, of course is the girl 1st grader!). They're all holding a sign that says "We (heart) Cline Ponies" (I don't know if you're able to see the writing).

Obviously, we know it's a long shot that she'll win. This is her first contest to ever enter, so we had to explain that you can't always win. But, we think she did a great job. I love her creativity and how she has a story behind everything she draws. I'm glad she got to use one of her passions for something like this! How fun!

Paige's 1st Day of School

Paige started preschool on Friday. This is our 6th year at Friendswood Methodist. Things are a little different this year. It's always been a "Mother's Day Out" program, but they're in the process of becoming licensed so they'll be an official "preschool" now. There's also a new director. A lot of people left because they feared the changes. I'm glad we stayed. I feel a kind of loyalty to them since we've been there so long & secondly, things are headed in a great direction! I'll have to keep you posted! Paige is still going 2x a week on Mondays & Fridays. These are actually great days for me to help at Taite's school, so I love the days. Paige was ready to go. We're so, so excited because one of Paige's teachers was one of Taite's favorite teachers. Ms. Donna. She was Taite's teacher when I was SUPER-pregnant with Paige (Paige was born a week into that school year). So, Ms. Donna has literally known Paige since she was born. She is a retired teacher who came back to teach preschool several years ago. She just loves what she does & is 110% "in" to what she does every day. Paige's other teacher, Ms. Angie is a former kindergarten teacher & has kids at Taite's school. She seems really nice.

Paige has 7 other kids from last year's class in her class this year and her good friend Tyler (my old roommate, Michelle's son). So, they were all really comfortable going into the classroom. Although, they had one cryer, so they were really not letting the parents into the room. We had to say a quick good-bye & leave. Paige did fine, but I was kind of bummed that I didn't even have time to get some good pictures. Here's what I got! Better than nothing! ;)

I hope Paige will have a good year. We all know she's the aggressive one! I think she'll do fine. She's really excited & is glad to have all of those friends in her class again. Looking forward to a fun year!....