Bobbing for Apples

Yesterday, we decided to do a few fun things while we were waiting for Halloween to start. One of them was bobbing for apples.

No one remembers ever really doing it before. No one had much success at it except my son. He was the bobbing for apples champion! But every one had fun trying anyway. I'll have more Halloween pics to share - probably on Wednesday.

(c) Stay at home mom

(c) Stay at home mom

(c) Stay at home mom

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

WW #68 "Big Sprinkler Fun"

Last week while visiting down my mother's we went to a playground in her town. And they had a big water fountain/sprinkler, with about 7 or 8 different shoots coming out of it. The kids had a blast running around these sprinklers. We went there 5 days in a row.








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WW 52 "Fun With Scooters"

This is my 52nd Wordless Wednesday! Or sometimes not so wordless. But that means a full year of Wordless Wednesdays!

So anyway, here are some photos of the kids "scootering" a couple of weeks ago. They love scaring their poor Mom by going down the biggest hills they can find. Here's to another year of WW's!

WW #50 - "First Bike Ride"

We broke out the bikes this past weekend. The kids loved having their first bike ride of the year. They have wanted to ride them practically every day since. Especially my daughter, she wants to ride it as much as she can.

Me being the overprotective Mom, though gets paranoid and nervous of them on the bikes. I'm trying to get over it!






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WW 48 "I Like a Good Wigwam"

I mentioned in another post, about a place we like to go walking in the woods. It's called Beaver Brook. Here is a cool Wigwam, you can see on one of the paths. This Wigwam has seen better days though. I read that they replaced another one in 2003. I think it's time to replace this one.



The kids usually like to check it out. They like to go inside, but this time it was looking a little yucky. They didn't want to go in it.



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WW 43 "Let's Go Snowshoeing"

*Sticky Post for today. Newer posts may be added underneath*

Another Snow Day

Another snow day today. No school for the kids. Not to complain or anything, but snow days stink! All the kids do is fight over the TV, Computer and whatever else. And then it's too cold and snowing to go anywhere or do anything so your stuck in the house all day. They would be better off having school. At least I think so.

This is I think their 4th snow day so far. I can't take much more! And my daughter's dance class was canceled again because the last storm was on a Wednesday too. And they make you still pay even though the class is canceled.

OK. Sorry for sounding so negative. But I've got a headache, and the kids have been driving me crazy all day! Please no more snow days!

Sledding, Drama Queens & Nosy People

My husband and I took the kids sledding yesterday. I forgot my camera, again. But here are a few pictures, I took not to long ago, on another sledding trip.

(taken at high school. It looks like fence is in way, but no way of hitting that)




But anyway, we went to a place sledding we haven't been to in awhile. And it was plowed in a little on the side so there was somewhat of an icy snowbank. With a possibility of sliding into it. So the kids were sledding, actually my son was using his snow board. And was doing great on it. I've got to get a picture of him on that. So my daughter was doing great at first, but she was getting a little nervous of going into this one little tree in the way. I mean it was practically a twig and wouldn't even hurt if you bumped into it. My husband placed her in a good spot, but she moved half way down, because of this tree. So in the mean time she went right into the snow bank instead. She kind of wiped out and fell into it a little.

I ran down there to make sure she was ok. She was fine. But her being the drama queen that she can be sometime, really cried overboard on it. She came back up the hill, but proceeded to cry. And was scared then of going down the hill. My husband was trying to get her not to be afraid and said it was ok, he'd make sure she didn't do that again.

In the mean time a man & his daughter showed up to sled down the hill. That is fine. Great. Sled all you want. But the problem was, while my husband was talking to my daughter (very patiently I might add) my daughter was still somewhat crying (totally overreacting), this man kept giving us the dirtiest looks. This nosy guy kept pacing back and forth looking at my husband & daughter and then at me (I was sitting up on a bench) and totally staring at us. I think this guy thought we were forcing my daughter to sled or something. I don't know what he thought, but It was none of his business, and it totally was my daughter just being totally overboard about the whole thing.

It's hard to explain, but both my husband and I were getting really aggravated with this guy and the looks he was giving us. Finally my husband was like let's get out of here, and go to the place we usually go sledding. Which is at the high school, where there is a better hill and nothing to worry about bumping into. We got to the high school and the kids had a great time sledding and snowboarding. They did it for almost an hour more. We will just go there from now on.

I know my daughter can be somewhat of a drama queen, but I wish other people would not be so judgemental, when they don't even know the situation. I'm sure this guy's kid is just perfect right? And never cries? Oh well. My kids ended up having fun in the long run.

Thursday Thirteen #15 "Things I Say To My Kids"

I couple of weeks ago I did a TT on "Things My Kids Say" (things they say daily). Well now here is 13 things that I say to them daily. Sometimes I wish I had these taped on a recorder so I could just play them back to them everyday:

1. Get dressed
2. Brush Your Teeth
3. Get your shoes on
4. Brush your hair
5. Do you have any homework?
6. Do your homework
7. Almost time for bed
8. Get off the computer
9. I have no idea where you put _________ (insert whatever item is missing at the time)
10. I am not looking for _______(said item)
11. No more snacks for today
12. Get your pajamas on
13. I love you!

The 6th Picture Meme

I stole got this from Catnip & Coffee  blog.This is the 6th picture meme. All you have to do is go to your Sixth Picture Folder then pick your Sixth Picture. Post that picture and then tell the details of the picture.

Above is my 6th picture in my 6th picture folder. This was taken in 2004, but the thing I don't get is I'm 100 percent postive it wasn't taken in January! Unlike the date showing in the corner of the picture. Must have been set wrong. This was taken sometime in the summer when we were camping. That's the two kids sharing a seat! In the background is our tent. When we were still camping with a tent. Now I'm happy we have a pop up camper though.

The kids look so little! It's nice to look at old pictures and see how much the kids have grown. Hey if you want to steal do this meme too feel free!

Photo Hunters 135 (17) "Together"

This weeks Photo Hunt theme is "together." Hope you're not sick of pictures of my kids, because here's a few more. I dug through my box of pictures, and found some cute pictures of my kids "together" when they were little. I scanned these pictures onto the computer. Because these were all taken before digital cameras. Looking at these gives me mixed emotions. I love seeing how cute they were when they were little, but a little sad at how fast they are growing up. They are now 12 and 8 yrs old!

Here they are "together" over the years:

Thursday Thirteen #14 "Things My Kids Say"

Another Thursday Thirteen. Here's 13 things my kids say pretty much on a daily basis:

1. I'm hungry.
2. What's there to eat?
3. There is nothing to eat. (even though there is a cabinet full of food)
4. I don't have any homework. (even though they do)
5. I don't want to do my homework.
6. I want to get on the computer.
7. So and so won't let me on the computer.
8. I'm thirsty.
9. What's there to drink?
10. There's nothing to drink.
11. Where's my shoes?
12. He/She hit me.
13. I Love you!

Hope everyone has a Happy Thursday Thirteen!

A Great Toothbrush for Kids

The other day my daughter and I were in Walmart. I was looking for a replacement head for my electric toothbrush. And my daughter picked up a toothbrush and asked me if she could get it. She didn't really need a new toothbrush yet, so I hesitated for a second. But then I looked at the price, which was only like $1.88 for two (together) toothbrushes, I said sure. Plus if she wants a toothbrush, and I'm lucky to exit Walmart with just that I guess I shouldn't complain.

So anyway, she picked out a "FireFly" toothbrush. Which is a really cool toothbrush. What's cool about it, is that it lights up while you brush. You bend the bottom of the toothbrush, and a light flashes for one minute. So that you know how long to brush for. You brush the tops for one minute, then when your done, push it again and brush the bottoms for one minute. My daughter has truthfully over the years given me a hard time about brushing her teeth. But she really seems to like this toothbrush. And has been brushing the 2 minutes!

This toothbrush is great! If it will get her to brush better and more, I'm all for it. I know there is probably other ones out there like this, but I really like this "FireFly" toothbrush. And you can't beat the price! Check out Walmart, if you want to get one.

WW # 29 "Clown at the Circus"

My daughter went to the circus Friday, with her Brownie Troop.

The Cereal Crunch

I'm trying a little experiment. I'm not going to buy any more cereal. At least for awhile to see how or if this experiment will work.

Here's my reasoning behind this experiment as to why I'm not going to buy cereal anymore.

1. My kids eat cereal like it's going out of style.
2. Cereal is expensive.
3. My kids don't even eat it for breakfast.
4. They eat it mostly as a snack.
5. Even though I try to get cereal that isn't high in sugar, I still will buy that kind. And I don't think any kind of cereal is that good for you anyway.
6. We will go through at least 2 boxes of cereal a week.
7. We go through 2 or more gallons of milk a week.
8. I want them to drink milk, but when they are just pouring it in the cereal, they don't even end up drinking all the milk, and it's just a waste of milk.
9. Milk is expensive and not using it for cereal will cut down on the consumption and cost of milk.
10. I think there is better snack choices for them, and maybe if there is no cereal they will choose something that is better for them.

So that's most of my reasons for not buying cereal. I'm just sick of buying it and going through so much milk all the time. I need to cut costs somewhere and thought this might help. Not sure if my kids are too happy about it. But I'm going to give it at least another week and see how it goes.

Any thoughts? Do you think this sound like a good idea?

Making Monkey Bread With the Kids

As I mentioned in a previous post, my son is now taking cooking classes at school. He's in 7th grade (which I still can't believe!), and came home talking about his cooking class. He made a 7 layer dip which I posted here, if you want to read about it.

But anyway, it made my daughter a little jealous, I think, because then she wanted to try to make something. So I went through some of my cookbooks to try to find something that would be different, yet not to hard to make. And we came up with Monkey Bread!

I remember making Monkey Bread when I was little. And remembered it was delicious. So I bought all the ingredients, and my daughter, son and to tell the truth it was actually my husband who helped make it. I didn't really help in the actual making of it, but I did in the eating of it. It was as delicious as I remember it.

Here is the recipe we used: 4 pkgs. Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 c. brown sugar
Cinnamon

Combine sugar and cinnamon. Cut biscuits into quarters and roll in sugar mixture. Place into a well-greased bundt pan. Combine melted butter, brown sugar and a touch of cinnamon; mix well and pour over biscuits. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 min. Serve upside-down. Serves 10-12.

Thursday Thirteen #9 "TV Shows My Kids Like"

Thirteen TV shows my kids like. Even though these aren't very educational. Whatever happened to educational shows? I guess they think once they get past 5 or 6 yrs. old they don't need educational shows anymore. Oh well, the kids like these shows.

1. Sponge Bob Square Pants

2. Hannah Montana Montanna

3. The Wizards of Waverly Place

4. I Carley

5. Zack & Cody

6. Corey in the House

7. Fairley Odd Parents

8. That's So Raven

9. Back at the Barnyard

10. Phineas & Ferb

11 Opportunity Knocks (new  game show on ABC we watched, that the kids seemed to like)

12. Extreme Makeover Home Improvement (sometimes)

13. Drake & Josh

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WW 28 "Is That An Alien?"

WW 23 - "First Day of School!"

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WW 10 - "My Son & His BasketBall Award!"

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