Painting on Sunshine!

There's nothing like the anticipation of company coming to throw me into frantic home improvement mode. Truthfully, I am always grateful to have company come, not only for the joy that loved ones being close bring me, but also for the opportunity to deep clean my house!

Painting the sun room has been on the agenda for several months now. I believe I started painting it back in April in preparation for James' 40th birthday party on May 1st. I knew I wanted to paint it yellow, but yellow is a tricky color to choose and can be somewhat elusive. I went to Walmart during one of my micro shopping sprees--was in such a huge hurry, that I just picked the closest yellow I could find and in record speed, had them mix it for me, and home I flew. When I opened the can and saw the bright neon, sunny droplets sliding down the lid, I knew it was the wrong color. Just for fun I slapped some on the wall and squinted at it. Yikes! "Where are my shades?!?"

I knew it needed some brown to tone it down, but I only had a few drops in my little bottle of Delta. I went ahead and squeezed until the bottle wheezed and sputtered all of the paint it could out into the giant pool of liquid sunlight. Little brown droplets dissolved into the sun. The tint did not change. So, I used a bottle of black. What I had forgotten though, is that black is mostly green. And I added a lot. So now the sunlight was looking a little green around the gills. Sickly even. Just for kicks, I slapped some of it on the wall--then I named it--sour stomach (a color so hideous that not even Walmart would sell) where it remained in its sickly glory until . . . Glidden saved the day with a FREE quart sized sample!!! I went right to the website, clicked on the top ten colors, picked out Homemade Butterscotch, and BAM! in the mail it came!

It poured out like buttah! I almost wanted to taste it! Oooey Gooey Butterscotch! It rolled on thick and warm and I knew I had a winner. The only problem--a quart doesn't go very far. Luckily the room is mostly windows! I used my mini roller and mini pan and went to work.

I painted in sections to make sure I wouldn't run out in an obvious spot. I eyeballed the last bit. I am terrible at eyeballing! I had about 10 square feet left to go (give or take--I was eyeballing after all), and I started getting that sticky slurpy sound when the roller and the plastic start to peel apart from each other. Thirsty! I pushed harder and harder on the roller. I was kicking myself for being a little generous in the beginning with my Vs and Ws. I used my brush and painted until the dry sound of the brush on the wall gave me the willies. Only two more feet to go! Of course wouldn't you know it--it's the place your eye will go to first when peering into the room! But, it's also exactly where my plant will go, but still a plant can only hide so much wall. Push, push, roll, roll, brush b...r...u...s...h... Then I got a genius idea: a spray bottle of water! I desperately began spraying the roller and rolling it on the wall. Then I sprayed the tray. Then I turned as angels sang and saw the glorious paint can lid full of buttery butterscotch paint! My wall's saving grace.

In the right light, with your head tilted to the side, you can see where the paint is thin, or is it just the shadow from that terrific plant in the corner?

My sun room is transformed into a warm, inviting space where you'd want to curl up and read a book. Too bad it's like 300 degrees in that room in the summer and 20 below in winter!

Thanks for a job well done, Glidden! I LOVE your paint!


Ah, yes, moving on to the next project. Painting the doors. I had two very eager little helpers this day. I was feeling quite calm and a bit generous when they asked me if they could help. Just look at those faces! Who could say no?

Aren't they precious!

They had a great time painting and started hamming it up. That's a dangerous thing to do when armed with painting tools. They did a good job--nothing that I couldn't quickly smooth over after they went to bed. I continued painting this door and door jamb while they got ready for bed. They each came over and leaned against the door jamb to talk to me and got paint all over themselves! It was CRAZY!

Creative Escape Aug 27-30

The Perfect Harry Potter Party

Hunter has been reading Harry Potter this past summer. One night he called me into his bedroom with the excitement of discovery in his voice. When I went to his room, he leaned over his top bunk, placed his make-shift stick wand in his book to mark his spot and gleefully said, "Mom! Magic is REAL!"

It was so precious that I didn't want to let him down. After all, if he still believes in Santa Clause, why shouldn't he be able to believe in magic? Right? I let him down easily, though, and was able to use the moment as a great gospel teaching lesson. He was fine with that.

In our household, your eighth birthday is one of your biggest. It's the year that you become a member of the Church through baptism, so we wanted it to be special. We let Hunter have a big birthday party. Of course, he decided on a Harry Potter theme.

Our Schedule:


Welcome to Hogwarts

Make Snitches and watch Quidditch

Get Wands

Learn your Patronus (choose your animal)

Cast off Dementors with your patronus

Make Butterbeer

Choose Broomsticks

Play Quidditch Relay

Chase Golden Snitch

Eat Lunch

Open Presents

Eat Cake
(and the best part) Go home happy!

 

With only a week's notice, we handed out the invitations. I'm becoming a pro at last minute parties for some reason--Ah, yes, lack of planning. But, I had already done a Harry Potter theme for Alex's 9th birthday, so I didn't think it would be any big deal. At the time of Alex's party, I had never read the books, so I was very clueless. I also spent way too much time on the cake: a chess board with all of the pieces made out of chocolate! And honestly, I don't even remember what we did! So I consulted the Internet where I found way too many ideas for a week's time to plan. I narrowed it down to one website, then tweaked it to fit my needs, and we had the Perfect Harry Potter Party!

Note: This may be a little too detailed for the average reader. If you are feeling a little overwhelmed with the descriptions, please just browse through the photos and make up the story in your head as you go. If this isn't enough detail for you and you are trying to throw your own HP Party, please email me for even more info. I would love to send out as much help as I received from the web!Our Welcome Activity was creating a golden snitch. They were able to stuff pre cut and pre stitched felt circles. I went around and sewed them together, then they had help hot gluing the wings on the back. Since this was a little time consuming, I put on the Quidditch match from HP 1 for them to watch. It worked out nicely. The smartest thing to do when planning a party: Keep it SIMPLE, oh yeah, and delegate! Hannah dressed Hunter Potter, and I say she did a smashing job! Emily did the lightening bolt tattoos with washable marker. It was great until it dripped as the kids sweat (or sweatted?).

A very simple sign with a Hogwarts monogram from aforementioned website, and tons of red and yellow balloons everywhere!

I take full responsibility (almost) for the favor bags. I downloaded a photo from the net and circle punched it. My daughter taped them to the goodie bags. I created the scarves out of a sheet of red felt with yellow strips glued to it, then with a ruler and rotary cutter, I sliced that into strips, then loosely tied them around the baggies.

We took a short break to make Butter Beer in Potions Class. Combine root beer, ice cream, and butterscotch syrup. Walmart was out of butterscotch syrup, so we improvised with caramel syrup. Truly, the kids didn't care! I made sure that no one touched it until they each had a glass in front of them. Then I explained that the potion wouldn't work if they didn't do it exactly right. They had to stir one time to the right, then quickly three times to the left, then to the right again slowly (or something like that). See those smiles? They loved it!

Here is the amazing cake that I {didn't} make! My best idea yet! I LOVE making my kid's birthday cakes, but I am always so stressed out getting them finished before the party. This year I picked up this simply decorated cake from Sam's Club and suspended our Christmas ornament above it. Perfect and so easy (except that I forgot to write on it)!

Cute little wizards.

Lunch was also kept very simple: PB&J sandwiches on white and wheat cut in squares to make a checkerboard (made by sis, Emily), watermelon and pumpkin juice (orange Koolaid).

Learning how to play Quidditch was so much fun when taught by the Quidditch Master himself, Professor Jamesledore.


James picked up sticks from the Burn pile and stripped off the branches to make broomsticks and wands. He had all different sizes lined up along the fence. The kids chose broomsticks and wands according t0 their sizes. I had originally planned on buying different sized dowels and wrapping paper grocery bags around the ends and taping them, then having the kids shred them to look like broom sticks. Wands could also be made from thinner dowels. This ended up being much too costly, and it was difficult finding paper grocery bags.

They did a relay through the yard weaving around obstacles, throwing a balloon (the quaffle) through a suspended inner tube (the goal) and flying around and cursing the basilisk (stuffed snake) with their wands, then flying to the next person in line and tagging them.

Then they took turns chasing the golden snitch (James) around the yard until the snitch pooped out and landed on the ground.

When asked what their favorite part of the party was, ALL of the kids said it was the Dementor part. Alex dressed up like a Dementor and was instructed not to be scary at all, but to be very goofy. During Hunter's 5th party, Alex and his friends put on a very realistic Star Wars battle that was a little over the top for a bunch of 5 year olds, so I wanted to make sure we were clear on the Goofy Dementor part. I didn't want any children having scarring memories from Hunter's party.

Happy Birthday, Hunter! You are one special little Amazing guy! Have a MAGICAL 8th year!

Back To School 2009

Summer went by much too quickly for me this year. I don't know that we were able to beat every possible bit of fun out of it before it was over. It must have been our long two week trip to VA without the younger children. It was certainly too much time away from them.

I had no idea that I was even excited for school to begin . . . until those first few silent moments alone in my house. Ahhhhhh. What a feeling. ALL OF THEM IN SCHOOL! Wait a second, this can't possibly be right. No heart wrenching. No tears? No agony that my baby has entered kindergarten at long last? I'm sure there is pain in my chest somewhere. Hmmmm. Nope! This feeling doesn't hurt. It feels.....EXHILARATING! FREEING! Peaceful. What to do, what to do? Nap, clean . . . THE WORLD IS MINE!!! BWAHAHA!

Okay, Connor is only in KG part time, so maybe I'll have those heart wrenching feelings next year!

Connor, my part-time Kindergartner. The cutest little kindergartner in the whole world! He was soooo nervous to start school. For one thing, he kept forgetting that he was a kindergartner and told everyone that he was a first grader. Then he told me that he didn't know how to be a kindergartner. When I told him he would be a great student, he nervously told me that he didn't know how. It was precious. Thankfully we got to meet the teacher and see the classroom the day before school began! The morning of school, Hunter took Connor by the hand and off they walked to school.Wow, Hunter is now in second grade. And he has the front teeth to prove it! Hunter kept up on his reading this summer by starting Harry Potter. What a cutie. He was so good with Connor on his first day! I wish every kid could have a big brother like Hunter! Two very cute boys!

My Middle Schooler. Another nervous beginning--middle school. Emily was so excited to have her own locker, but a little apprehensive about being so independent. I just pushed her off the diving board! I remember being more nervous than Alex when he began middle school. It's nice when Mom doesn't have to be the one doing the firsts.

Another first--Jr. High School. Butterflies? Uh, YES! Thankfully she'll have Mikaela and the rest of the 7th grade by her side today! (Another painless push from Mom).

Mr. Cool 11th grader. Too cool to even pose for a photo (or maybe those homemade muffins Mom made were just too good to pause for the photo). Yeah, been there, done that. Next year I'll have my T-shirt!

This one actually makes me feel a little shaky! I had no idea that day that scholarship and college info would be making themselves known in our mailbox very soon. Can he really be graduating next year? Time does fly.

Good luck on a great year, children! I'll miss you all dearly!

Homework: bring it!

2009 Soccer

After season soccer Purple People Eater party. Ahhh, big brother!

Could it be possible that I didn't get a photo of my two soccer stars together? I may have to stage that for later. Hopefully not too much later, or we'll be taking them in the snow!

We signed both Hunter and Connor up for soccer this year. They were both so adorable. Hunter improved leaps and bounds beyond his abilities last year, even though he was still much too gentle to aggressively steal the ball from his opponent. Hunter could be seen at each game helping his fallen opponents up and making sure they were okay. He also learned that you chase the ball and not the team mates.

I truly thought that Connor would have found his niche in soccer. He has always been my most competitive boy. I was surprised then, to see him squatting on the field watching the action when he was supposed to be defending. He also enjoyed being the "cheerleader" during the times he was out of play. It baffled me. I'm sure that next year will be a different story. It really is amazing the difference a year can make.

Their games ended up being on the same evenings, and at different schools. The fields were changed after the first game to accommodate the smaller players (the field was too big), then the games were at the same location. This made running between games much easier. James and I had to tag team it a few times. It was a little rough on us.

Both boys had terrific coaches and great years.

Connor was the Green Monsters and Hunter was his favorite color: Purple People Eaters!

Green Beans

It's harvest time here in Idaho--The land of canning anything that comes out of or grows underneath the ground!

I thought it would be a nice-bonding experience for me to teach my two terrific daughters how to can vegetables this year. Unfortunately, the girls both came down with something on canning day, so I had to think quick and somehow convince the boys that what they wanted most to do that day was to can beans!

So...how do you get a busy 16-year-old to unplug himself electronically and join you in the kitchen? You pull out the back scratcher and get a couple of kids to do the dirty work! While Alex snapped the ends off the green beans, the little boys scratched his back ( the little boys are always eager to help me in the kitchen)!

So fresh, you could eat them raw! We had a bounteous harvest from the community garden this year. Each family canned at least 21 quarts of beans! (Connor and his funky flat mowhawk).
What a fun game--fill the jars with beans!
What a sense of accomplishment!
I was obviously way too tired to snap a photo of the shiny, steaming jars of green beans all in a row.

The boys and I had a great day together in the kitchen. It's amazing how much less emotion hangs around with you on boy bonding day! We had a bunch of fun!

Don't fret about my lack of bonding with the girls--we still have peaches, pears, tomatoes, salsa, etc., etc . . .

Later on we would can applesauce. Phew that was a lot of work! We also got 21 quarts of applesauce. It would have been 28, but during the last batch, I completely ran out of sugar, I broke the bottom off of one of the jars and had applesauce everywhere (hey, that should go on my list), and I simultaneously burned what would have been the final batch.

Future Blackmail

I will most likely get "killed" for posting this photo, but it is sooo funny, I couldn't help myself!



Alex: "Mom, take a picture of my six pack for the blog ... (posing) Grrrrrrrr".


(after seeing photo)


Alex: "Nooooo! You have to turn off the flash so you can see my definition!"


Me: LOLOLOLOLing

Another Tooth on the Loose!

"Mom, can we have a Klondike bar?"

"No, not today.". . .

Question: What is the most traumatic part of letting Mom or Dad pull out your tooth? It's the blood, of course (We won't talk about the crunching and very loud ripping sound that comes from between your ears, inside of your mouth, nor will we mention the fact that an actual part of your body is being torn away)!

{warning: this update is NOT for the faint of heart}

A few months ago, while vacationing at the Atkisson's Heber house, Hunter was faced with the same dilemma that Connor was now facing; a tooth sooo wiggly, that food could not be comfortably consumed. Mom was consulted and a request was made (then quickly rescinded) to pull said tooth. Screams of terror ensued until Hunter and his tooth were rescued by Dad who had been abruptly awoken from a slumber, having no idea why his sweet child was being so abused, but ceasing the turmoil at once, none-the-less.

Hunter's experience ended just fine the next day when he, himself gave his tooth a little twist and popped it out.

But the memory of Hunter and his tooth was still fresh in Connor's mind.

He wanted to be brave.

He knew "out" was where his baby tooth should be. His "big boy" tooth was already peeking out with gleaming white, bumpy, jaggedness just behind the gangly--dangly one. The shiny coins that the Tooth Fairy would surly leave behind was also tipping the scale to call on Mom--Tooth Extractor Extraordinaire.

Could he really do it? And why does Mom get so giddy at the chance to pull some one's tooth? It's sickening!

After four children, Mom starts to get wise in the ways of pulling teeth. She now knows that white wash cloths are OUT and red ones are IN. She also knows that you only get one shot at it. If you don't get it on the first try, you can forget about it because the child will be too traumatized for a second go. Speaking in soothing tones as you would to a frightened animal is also wise {evil sniggering}.

And patience. Lots and lots of mind numbing patience.


Then in a matter of seconds, it's all over and there are smiles all around. Since there is no sight of blood, due to the nice red wash cloth, you can all quickly move on.

It's time for something cold.

"Yes!!! You were so brave, now you both can have a Klondike Bar!"

And the Tooth Fairy did not disappoint.

The End.

Still here...

Hang in there...I have so much to tell...When I have a few hours, I will post, and then I must vow to keep my blog journal up to date!!!