Pinterest Worthy--Allowance Cans

E gets an allowance every month.

She tithes 10% to our church, half of the original amount goes into savings, and the rest goes into spending.

To make everything easier, I made these cans for her:

I just used a couple of clean cans from canned tomatoes, mod podged pretty paper onto them, and embellished with buttons, flowers, rhinestones, ribbon, tags, and alphabet stickers.

Aren't they cute?

Every once in awhile we take her savings to the bank and her tithe goes into her wallet.  The spending stays in the can until she's ready to spend it.

Usually, she just buys books from the book fair at her school; but the last six months she's been saving up for her own DSi.  She's currently got enough for the system, but needs a little bit more for games.

I'm so proud of her!

In a few more months, I'll have to make some for C, too.

So exciting!

Missing Kids

See these sweet faces?

Well, I won't be seeing them this morning anytime soon.

My in-laws are in town and the kids spent the night with them at the hotel.

And as much as I will miss them, they'll be back soon.

Maybe too soon...

The Tower

Wednesdays and Thursdays, this is what I see all morning long:

And why anybody needs to copyright a photo of laundry is beyond me.  Habit, I guess.

Ugh.

I have a semi-strict laundry washing schedule, though I am often pretty lax in the folding.

Lately, I've been really on top of things.

Monday:  sheets and towels--make bed(s), change towels

Tuesday:  kids' clothes (three separate loads to make folding easier)

Wednesday:  darks, lights, maybe whites--fold kids' clothes

Thursday:  whites, if not washed previous day--fold darks, lights, whites

What keeps me on top of folding, and why I don't do it every day, is sitting down during nap time and watching Netflix.

No joke.

I have found while watching a 45-60 minute show (right now it's Star Trek:  The Next Generation; don't judge) that I can get 2-3 loads folded and organized.

I realize 2-3 loads in an hour doesn't sound like much, but I'm a super particular laundry folder.  Everything needs to be creased and lined-up and folded just right so it matches.

If only I could be that particular in the rest of my chores...

Water Color

If you believe this blog at all, I suspect you think we do art projects quite often around here.

I suppose in the last month or two we have, but not usually.

Although, maybe we should do them more often.  That would definitely not be a bad thing.

Pinterest Worthy--Magnetic Board

Last week, I made two of these for the nursery at church:

I got the idea from Pinterest, but made them my own.

I had two old jelly roll pans too gross for baking and had Mr. Einstein spray paint the bottom and sides white. 

(Side note:  I could have done the painting myself, but I'm not very good at it.  I suppose I could have practiced, but I'm a little scared of how addicted to spray painting everything I'd get.)

Then I cut strips of scrapbook paper to fit, mod podged everything into place, and embellished with a ribbon.  Mr. Einstein hammered two holes into the top of each, then I added a combination of ribbon and hemp as a hanger.

Voila!

Two magnetic name tag boards; boys on the top, girls on the bottom.

Pretty cute, no?

Playing Grownup

Mr. Einstein gave me a set of pearls as a wedding gift 11 1/2 years ago.

I rarely wear them, since there are few places out here fancy enough for pearls; but lately, I've been making a conscious effort to wear them more.

Every time I do, I feel like I'm playing at being a grownup.

And it's a fun game.

Pizza

On Sundays, usually, we have pizza for dinner.

Homemade pizza.

I let each of the kids "make" their own mini-pizzas, and they are very, very predictable.

E wants only cheese and sausage. 

 C wants everything--pepperoni (turkey), sausage, mushrooms, olives, onions, peppers, etc.  

M's choices vary; it used to be cheese and pepperoni, but this week is was cheese and mushrooms.

Go figure.

Lunchtime Inspiration

I so easily get stuck in lunchtime ruts, serving the same thing over and over again.

The other day, though, I had an inspiration.  I introduced two of my kids to my favorite lunch:  apples with peanut butter and granola.

*yum*

Of course, I served it to them differently.  Let's face it:  apple halves smeared with peanut butter then dipped in granola is rather messy for adults.; I shudder to think what my kids would have looked like afterwards.

It was a hit.

So, So Proud

At the risk of jinxing everything, I declare this little man fully potty trained.

Wahoo!!!

It took three tries, a bag of mini marshmallows, and several pairs of sacrificed underwear, but it is finished.

And he is so, so proud!

As are we.

A Ramona Moment

In a very Ramona moment, C wanted to make a really big picture with her daddy.

So, they did.

Shirley Temple

Big sister wanted curly hair, so little sister wanted curly hair.

Unfortunately, big sister's curls didn't last the day.

Fortunately, little sister's did.

  Through school, through rest time, and even through the night.

The Cheese

As promised, here is the cheese.

I abhor the cheese.

Every time he sees the camera, he cheeses.

Every

stinkin'

time.

It's nearly impossible to get a photo of him from the front without the cheese.  I can, but he has to be sufficiently distracted, completely absorbed, or taken by surprise.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the cheese is cute.  That widdle thumb and those tiny dimples get me every time.  But still.  It's cheesy.

An Evening of Kung Fu and Nachos

We're generally a little behind the times when it comes to seeing "new" movies.  We're rather frugal (read:  cheap), and movie viewing in a theater just isn't usually in the budget.

So, we rely on Netflix (streaming only) and the library to catch us up.

Most Sundays we spend the evening eating dinner in the living room and watching a movie.

This Sunday it was Kung Fu Panda 2 and nachos.

As you can see, the kids were riveted.

Riveted, that is, until one of them realized I had the camera out.  Fortunately I took the photo before the cheese came out.

   (I can't believe I don't have a picture of the cheese!  I'll have to rectify that...)

Frosty the Snowman

Sweet

When I came out of the bathroom from showering the other morning, this is what greeted me:

I knew one of them was there because I put him there.  The other one was a complete surprise.

And even though I know she's totally faking it, it's still sweet.