Artist Reception

We got a letter a few weeks back that a piece of Charlie's artwork had been chosen to be showcased this month at the MISD Central Office. They had a reception for the featured artists tonight. At first Charlie just thought we were going to school for a school thing but when I told him that this was an honor and not everyone's art got picked, just a few, he just beamed with pride. We are so proud of our little budding artist!
I just love his piece. I can't wait to get it home at the end of the month so I can frame it and adorn my bare walls with it!

Henry had to get in on the action of the camera as well. Just look at that face!

I forget the name of the artist they studied when doing these pieces.....it was someone I've never heard of (which isn't that unusual; I'm not an art buff by any means). We really enjoyed walking around and looking at everyone's art. They had some amazing stuff there from some of the high schools too that were really good. But I have to say my favorite was my Charlie's piece! (I'm not at all biased here!)

Saturday Morning At Our House

After everyone got up and ate and all that stuff all the kids headed upstairs and Clayton yelled at me to bring the camera. The boys have put their old table and chairs in their room so they can sit and build their legos there. Well, the girls LOVE that table and chairs. I can see us getting one for them in the near future. Anyway, they had out their wooden blocks (compliments of Nana) and were going to town. Mary Collins had climbed up in the chair with Charlie.

And Margaret Ann ended up in the other chair before it was all said and done. Too cute!

My Girl

Well, I have been busy lately.....see, I'm posting this almost a week late......Anyway, Clayton was out of town last week for a meeting in Indianapolis. On Wednesday after we finished making our Batman turkeys I loaded up all the kids and headed to the Galleria. This was my first time going to the Galleria. I've passed it several times going here and going there but quite frankly I've just never had the time to tackle it. And I by no means tackled it last week but I got a glimpse of the good stuff, oh yes, ma'am I did!

It's almost smack dab in the middle of Dallas right off the Tollway and it just looks BIG. Well, that's because it is BIG. The entire mall, not just the department stores, is THREE stories......yes, you heard me right......THREE entire stories of shopping. Surely I must be dreaming.....someone pinch me! Now I just strolled down part of it and didn't even see a third of it I'm sure but I LOVED it. It has all the big fancy stores like Versace and all that but then it also has tons of normal stuff too like Gap and Old Navy. The Nordstom kids shoe department alone was totally worth the drive. It only took me 30 minutes from driveway to parking garage in traffic to get there too and I didn't speed! Right in the middle of the mall is an ice rink and in the center of the ice rink is a GINORMOUS Christmas tree. I would compare it to the tree at Rockefeller Center, it's that big. It sits in the center of the ice and is as tall as the third story of the mall. I am so totally going back to take pictures after the Thanksgiving break. It was glorious!

Since I've been all busy Belle has been all lonely. Now, she's my girl....where I go she goes almost always. Sadly she could not make the Galleria trip and that night when I was checking email she was giving me the guilt trip. If you look up from my computer you see this:

So the next few days she did lots of this:

That's her stuffed duck which she loves. She's loved it so much I've had to sew it back up twice.

William also loves playing with Belle and the duck:

I know it's crazy to be so fond of a dog......I'm guilty though......she's my girl.

Holy Turkeys, Batman!

I sent two boys to school armed with Batman turkeys. Now if you have two boys 11 months apart then you know that it's really like having twins. You might as well buy two of everything. So in that spirit I made the command decision to have the same disguise for their turkeys. There were a couple of reasons for this:

1) my creative juices weren't really flowing well enough to disguise William's HUGE turkey as spiderman. It's kinda like the spandex rule. There are some things that just shouldn't be done and I think that trying to cover that turkey to look like he was wearing web-flare spandex is just wrong.

2) I'm lazy and knew this would be easy and inexpensive (it only cost me 1.26 in felt!)

Truth be told reason number 2 really took precedent in the turkey disguising decision making that went on. Just being honest. Anyway, I think they turned out pretty cute.

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round, Except These Wheels Don't Move

I have been MIA this week due to several reasons. Mostly b/c every spare minute I've had to get on the computer I've used it taking a defensive driving class online to clear up a little mishap of a ticket I got back in the dark ages it seems. And after that I had to dig deep and channel my inner craftiness to make this:

This week Charlie's class is doing something on transportation and they sent home a paper saying for you to make a mode of transportation with stuff you had at home for their city and turn it in by Friday. So I immediately rushed to the pantry and eyed all our junk boxes. I had recently bought a giant honey bun box from Walmart and immediately thought, "that would make a great school bus." So when I asked Charlie what he wanted to make for his vehicle he shouted that he wanted to make a bus! Clearly he is my child and, you know, great minds think alike! So I was pumped and worked pretty hard on this little baby. In fact all the boys have enjoyed driving it around in between my yelling, "Don't touch the bus....it's wet!" Or "Be easy with it....those wheels really don't move." I had the wheels just tacked in the bus so they would move a little but after a few "test drives" I decided I'd better add some glue behind them. We wouldn't want the bus to have a blowout. And my boy was so proud of that bus as he walked in to school this morning:

Totally made all that cutting of construction paper and painting with a pencil worth it. My next project: disguising a turkey for William's class as something that pertains to our family. He's so going as a superhero I'm sure. He's not due for another week or so so I've got time to come up with something. For now I've got to go channel my Merry Maid and get my bathroom and bedroom sparkling clean and do about 15 loads of laundry, literally.....

Happy Halloween 2009

Friday afternoon we took the kids to Scare on the Square downtown so they could get a jump start on the sugar intake. Here are our little bunnies:
And the boys:

On Saturday we had a big neighborhood party before heading out to trick or treat. The kids had a ball running around and having an apple toss. The girls enjoyed eating the apples they tossed:) Here's our crew on Halloween:

Can I tell you how hard it is to get a picture of all of them?

At dusk we headed out to trick or treat. We trick or treated until our feet couldn't walk anymore. Look at our bunnies when we got home. Margaret found her thumb and gave it up. Mary Collins is waiting on that candy.

And candy we had:

Yum Yum!