It's February!

People!

It's February!

And it's been over a week since I last blogged!

And there's really no need for me to keep writing individual sentences and using exclamation points!

But I can't seem to stop!

Kidding! =)

Seriously now. After Ice Age 2010 blew in we were without power from the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 28th till the early morning of Wednesday, Feb. 3rd. Thankfully my parents in chicken Town had power and cable and a willingness to let us crash with them. We ended up staying with them until Friday the 5th because Hubs had work in the area and there was really no reason to do all that driving back and forth.

And unfortunately some people in our area are still without power.

However, we are really glad to be home now and getting back into our routine.

I have some posts scheduled for the rest of this week so come back often. And Princess' room is still under construction but I have hopes to have it mostly done by this weekend and fully done by the end of next week.

It's pretty awesome!

Bridget

Ice, Ice, Baby

Last Thursday we were visited by a winter storm. A big one.

Wednesday evening we drove to Chicken Town because Hubs had some appointments in the area over the next few days. He didn't get to have any of those appointments. Thursday morning it hit.

However, we are so glad we came up here because we only went without power for about 2/3 of a day. A-town is still without power.

It's day four without power for the whole town.

And it doesn't look like it's gonna be back on for another day or two.

Yuck!

Friends and family are staying warm with wood burning fireplaces and gas heaters and stoves.

And it looks like we'll be in Chicken Town for a few more days.

Bridget

The Myriad Garden Crystal Bridge Fire Alarm Drama Ending. Finally.

After hanging out outside for about 15 minutes we were allowed to go back inside. Still not sure exactly what caused the alarm to go off. The fire dept. came and checked everything out. The kids loved seeing a fire truck and real firemen. Sorry the story isn't more interesting than that but not really.

Here we are back at the entrance. Have you seen Night at the Museum, Dumb-Dumb? We forgot the gum-gum. One great idea that came from the curriculum I used this year is to take clipboards on field trips and have the kids sketch things they see or experience. I only bought three clipboards at the beginning of the year so Princess usually has to wait for a brother to finish before she gets a turn.

Bear found a place to sit while he sketched.

Each kid was required to choose one plant, tree, or flower to sketch.

Bobo decided to remain standing.

Remember: you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. The Crystal Bridge has a really cool pirate ship. We know it's a pirate ship because a silhouette of Peter Pan is on the top of it. There is a ladder inside for the kids to climb to the upper deck. And, yes, I saw the the sign that says 6 years and older, and I know that Princess is only four. I'm a rule breaker, baby. Popeye. Peeking through the window. Princess decided she didn't like the upper deck. Thank goodness for big brothers. When she got down she discovered an unused clipboard and she got after it. I could eat her up right now. I love how her precious little legs dangle over the side. She looks so big and so small at the same time. And she's so proud of herself. I think the boys would have spent the night on the pirate ship if they were allowed. The loved it. Princess kept sketching. Popeye checked on her. And she kept sketching. Look at those beautiful flowers. It was a wonderful time. The kids said it was the best field trip we have been on.

Bridget

Treasure Chant

The clues to find treasure are in this pirate chant:

"Ye start at Ranchard's Cove and then yer adventure would begin. Then ye sail off to Altast Grove to find a haunted inn.

Then say 'What if skulls and bones do remember tones of the voices they used to own!' Then ghosts will appear. Ye ask for directions, one ghost pulls out a map and points to a spot and says, 'It's here.'

Thanks go 'round and then ye head off away from the ground.

When ye hit shore on an island called Lafloore, ye will climb the tallest palm tree. There ye may find, bigger than a whale's eye, a coconut, well actually three.

Ye take them down, then crack them without a sound and find treasure in them. When ye have gone ye will be richer than King Lafcon."

The End
Bobo

National Soup Month

January is National Soup Month.

I decided that it was only appropriate that I share a soup recipe. I would have loved to have some pictures of the soup to go along with this post but alas I do not. Life got in the way.

Taco Soup

1 small onion
2 pounds hamburger meat
2 cans corn
2 cans dark red kidney beans
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans sliced stewed tomatoes
1 can rotel original
1 package taco seasoning
1 package dry ranch dressing
2 tablespoons sugar

Dice the onion and put it in a large pot with the hamburger meat to brown. After draining the browned meat and onions pour all other ingredients into pot. Do not drain any of the cans! Then let the soup heat on the stove for 30 to 45 minutes so all the flavors can mingle and get to know one another. This soup is fabulous with corn bread, sprinkled with cheese, tortilla chips, or tortillas. (I usually eat mine with cornbread mixed in it like chili.)

The Princess Room Pt. 3

After sleeping in on Sunday I asked Hubs to help with my plan.

I had borrowed The Home Book by House Beautiful from the library. It is fabulous! And in it I found an inspiration room. It is actually the front foyer of the house, but the wallpaper instantly spoke to me. I decided to copy the look, while tweaking it for Princess' room. (it's on page 198, fyi)

First, I measured the wall and found the center. After marking the center at the top and middle trim of the wall I then marked 1 foot marks till I got to the corners. Luckily, the two walls I was painting in Princess' room were 10 ft long so it worked perfectly with no left over wall space or hard math. =)

Then I used some ribbon and a straightedge to draw lines from one mark on top to it's coordinating mark on the bottom. (the mark that was four over from it) and did this till I had a diamond pattern on the wall.

I will say that this is much easier when two people do it together. Thank you, Hubs!
After all my lines were drawn I then used a foam roller cover with a rounded end to stamp pink dots at all the intersections. After they were dry I used a very small artist brush to paint over the lines with brown. It took 1 1/2 hours to do one wall but I love it! And Princess is totally worth it!

I also painted the ceiling pink. It is amazing the effect a painted ceiling has on a room. A real "finisher".

I must say that Princess wasn't real excited about the changes till the pink was put on the walls. She's been sleeping in with her brothers and is really ready for things to be done. However, I couldn't finish it all in a weekend and our new mattress still hadn't arrived yet so I wasn't in a huge hurry.

Bridget

Myriad Gardens (The Inside)

After receiving a wonderful and warm wlecome from the gentleman at the front desk, and paying for our tickets we took a quick bathroom break.

Smart.

Then we headed into the gardens but were stopped by some delightful parrots that kept telling us 'Hello' and then 'Goodbye'. We weren't sure if we should stay or go.
The first thing we checked out was the waterfall. It was beautiful and there were stairs that walked behind it. Cool.

This is the new album cover for our family cd that is dropping sometime in May.

Kidding! But it is a cool pic.

One on the coolest things at the Crystal Bridge was the cable bridge that runs along the top. You are up in the tops of the trees and you get a great view of everything. They also had a place with some creepy crawlies. A frog, a turtle, a bullfrog, a snake, and a tarantula.
This is Princess showing me the face the turtle was making. =) Bobo did a good job of checking the flowers out and naming the parts. The gentleman at the front dest came to find us after his shift ended. He showed us the pond with the fish. The kids loved it. And then this is where things get interesting. You see, as we were going about our business the fire alarms started going off. The gentleman told us it was probably just a test even though he didn't know they had one planned. So we just hung out and kept looking at all the flowers.

After I snapped a few more pics, another worker came and asked us to please exit the building because they didn't know why the alarms where going off.

I took this pic while the alarms where going. Bobo and Bear are being my perfect children and smiling like good little boys. Popeye looks worried and Princess doesn't care about the pictures just about the very loud noise. Unfortunately for you, I don't have time to finish this post so you'll have to come back next week for the conclusion of The Myriad Garden Crystal Bridge Fire Alarm Drama.

=)

Bridget