Lego Star Wars Draws a Crowd

It's kinda hard to see, but Rebekah & Elizabeth were both standing in there watching David & Dad play Lego Star Wars!

Lunar Eclipse

5:30 am - Dad woke up for some reason, looked outside, and noticed the eclipse. As he was climbing back into bed, Rebekah started crying. I sat up wondering what was going on. He told me about the eclipse. I grogily fixed a bottle for Rebekah because she wasn't going back to sleep & gave it to her. She fell back asleep. As I was laying her back in her bed, David sat up & asked what was going on. I told him nothing, go back to sleep. He tried, but couldn't, so I took him out on the back porch to see the eclipse. We watched it until it went behind the trees at about 6:20 am.

First Belly Shot:

I just realized I never posted this. I emailed it to immediate family & I guess I thought I'd blogged it, too. This was taken on May 24.

Estimated Due Date: December 31, 2010. This month I heard the heartbeat. The next sonogram will be in August.

Yes, I'm Bragging...

I usually don't photograph my groceries, though I read plenty of other blogs who do. They photograph all of the groceries they bought in a week's time and tell how they only paid $23 for $352 worth of groceries... or something like that. Well, today was just good enough that I found myself arranging items on the counter and running for my camera.

I got all of these things above at Walmart. Absolutely free. Yes, that's $0.00. Nada. Zip! Whoo-hoo!!! Happy dance! How, you ask? I spend a few minutes every day on those grocery blogs signing up for free samples. I've gotten all kinds of free sample products in the mail. And that's how I ended up with coupons for all these items absolutely free. The coupons were delivered right to my snail mail box. In case you can't make it out, that's Kashi Heart to Heart Cereal (one of David's favorites), DiGiorno Deep Dish personal size pizza, Ritz Crackerfuls, Oscar Meyer Deli Fresh Shaved lunch meat, Kraft 100 calorie packs of cheese bites, and Oscar Meyer Selects Bun Length Angus hot dogs. Not to bad, huh?

I think I did pretty good at Walgreen's, too. This is everything I got at WG. Bottom line, I spent $24.85 out of pocket. Sales, discounts, and coupons saved $35.05 off the bill. I took home $13.00 Register Rewards to use on my next purchase. I've heard others come out less OOP, but I was happy with it! The next trip to WG ought to be less OOP since I now have the RR's.

The Father's Day Collage

My sister started this tradition. I liked the idea & jumped in, too. This is our 6th Annual Father's Day Collage. Dad was really looking forward to it.

Now, my questions for my sister - Are y'all still doing it? How many have you made? Where does he display them all???

Happy Father's Day!

Once again, I have no photos to share of me with my Daddy, but I did wish him a Happy Father's Day today. I took this picture last Sunday when we had lunch together.

My kids loved what their dad chose to do for Father's Day today...

(I think Rebekah was putting a rock in her mouth.
David & Elizabeth were probably trying to catch minnows.)

Another fun Father's Day
and I love you both!

Kindergarten Show and Tell

Today we hosted a small gathering that we called, "David's Kindergarten Show & Tell." I had the idea at the beginning of the school year, remembering the PTO Open House that we had when I was in elementary school. I don't know if it was more important to David or to me... probably me! I've done a lot of work this year!!!

I used the bar area to display David's
notebooks and some other work.

Language Arts/Reading, Handwriting, Science

Math & some holiday stuff
(note on the Mayflower, it's being bombed
and there's a blue shark in the water)

Folder from Dinosaurs A to Z class at our homeschool co-op
(which I also taught),
Clothespin Stegosaurus and paper Laura the Giganotosaurus

Artwork displayed on the back windows

Other little booklets he made throughout the year

Blue Crab in clay

Family looking at his work

I really intended to take more pictures, but I always forget when I'm hosting something. After family looked at the displays, David loudly sang 2 of his Bible verse songs that he's learned this year. He declined to read the book that he had selected. Then we moved out to the front porch where he presented his science demonstrations.

Displacement of air

and a volcanic eruption.

(sorry, we were out of red dye)

David was also in charge of serving refreshments and even planned his own menu: mayo & cheese finger sandwiches, Fritos and blue corn chips. The dip was my idea.

Elizabeth was not to be left out!

We had her notebook of coloring pages on display
and her Fun with Numbers book.

Ladybugs in clay

OK - on the top one, I made the head, shaped the body and rolled out the black spots. She assembled & made the legs. She did the bottom one completely on her own.

Elizabeth also took her turn in the limelight by singing 2 different versions of the ABC song very adorably. And she thoroughly soaked in the applause. : )

Today's Picks

We have entered the season again. Many of my blog posts will be gardening related. I will try to take pictures of the kids, too. : )

2 small Roma tomatoes, several Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes, 4 heads of garlic (whoo-hoo - that's 100% because I planted 4 cloves last fall as a test crop!!!), and 3 eggs. I caught Blue Beard on the nest this afternoon, so unless she moved to a different box after I saw her, she laid the egg on the far left. It's kinda olive green. That means (I assume) the other Egger laid the blue-green one and I don't know who's laying brown. Haven't seen any others in the boxes.

Goodwill Find of the Day

Today was Dad's follow-up appointment with the surgeon. Everything is healing nicely. The kids stayed with Grana so we enjoyed the outing... and the quiet! We had a nice lunch together and he was willing to go with me to the Goodwill Super Store! (It's so hard to go to Goodwill with 3 kids!) And here is the find of the day:

Metallic pink, fur lined Princess boots with glittery flowers that light up!!! For $3.00!!! They're the size larger than her summer shoes, so they should be fine when winter gets here. She has already declared, "Mama, I love these boots!" I have a feeling we'll be seeing them before winter.

And what's not to love???

I looked for some longer dresses for her, but they didn't have many dresses. I did get some little shorts to put under her dresses, though, so she won't look quite so much like a go-go dancer... except for the boots!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Oh, there's talking. Constantly. And I've had a head & neck ache for 2 days now. So sorry, but I can't remember anything that's been said. Except that there was a lot said. I'm not kidding. A lot. And much of it was loud. Much louder than inside voices should be.

Rebekah got herself stuck in this position yesterday morning. Being the good mom that I am, I ran for my camera instead of helping her. Bad move, because after that she was fussy for a lot of the day. I'll have to move faster next time.

On another note, Dad's follow-up visit with his surgeon is today. Kids will go be loud at Grana's house & hopefully we'll get a good report from the dr.

Monday's Find

Two eggs today! And they were in one of the nesting boxes! I put some grass clippings in yesterday for nesting materials.

Dad found another blue-green egg under the water barrels, but it was cracked. Fluff and Tom got the first bite of homegrown eggs. : \ That means 3 hens now laying! I'll leave them penned a little longer tomorrow and see if any more eggs show up... in the coop! Yesterday we talked about where the blue-green eggs came from, so today David asked what laid the brown egg? : ) Now he knows that chickens can lay all different colors of eggs!

Sunday Morning Harvest

Look what I found this morning!!!! I had one more cherry tomato but I dropped it & a chicken pecked it before I could pick it up. Just yesterday, Grana asked me if I'd gotten any eggs yet. I told her, "Any day now..."

So this is my first chicken egg!!! Here it is compared to a store-bought, large egg. So I'd guess it's about medium grade and it's blue-green, so it must have come from one of the Easter egger hens. We're just believing that Blue Beard laid the egg, because she's our favorite.

Elizabeth asked when it was going to hatch. I told her this one is not going to hatch, because we're going to eat it. She replied, "I don't want to eat that egg!"

This Week in the Garden

Right now my tomatoes look terrible, but there is still lots of fruit waiting to turn red.

This is why my tomatoes look so bad. I found, picked off, and fed to the chickens at least 6 of these nasty things this week... each day larger than the ones I found the day before!

I spend a good amount of time each day out there looking for them because I've chosen to be pesticide free. I need to look up what the eggs look like. I've squashed a bunch of eggs this season but apparently I missed some!

Assorted peppers are doing well. Anaheim, poblano, jalapeno... respectively.

Finally grew a marigold from seed. Never got that to happen before.

Baby Cucumber:

Pinto & Black Beans:
Corn. I didn't know if this bed would be worth growing in because there's not really any soil in it. I guess we'll have to wait & see how the corn turns out.

Elizabeth with her gourd:

I suppose in the next week, I need to make sure my children have clothes on, have hair brushed, and then take some pictures of them!

David is in charge of letting the chickens out each day. He has discovered that roosters like to fight. heh heh...