Pick Your Plum

Have you heard about this website? It's called Pick Your Plum and every morning they offer a new item for sale at a pretty nice discount - almost always at least 50% off, most of the time more. These items are mostly crafting supplies and home decor items (like knobs and hooks, etc). I buy from them frequently and today I got my cute little "mini decks" of scrapbook paper. I didn't realize when I ordered these that they were 6x6 sheets of paper and not 12x12 - but, oh well, it was still a great price.
Pictured with my scrap decks are some of my other finds - ribbon, modpodge squeegies, and magnetic sheets.
It's always fun to check out the website and try to hurry and get the products before they sell out. They don't restock so once they are gone - they are gone. Usually within a few hours of posting!
Go check them out - daily. :)
www.pickyourplum.com

Memorial Day

Today was such a fun family day! Jayden didn't have school today so we really just enjoyed being together and not having any definite plans to do anything or go anywhere.
We had the thought that we should go to the parade by a park not too far from our house but we didn't want to have it set in stone. We decided to go towards the end so we found a spot near where the parade would end and we got to see almost all of it! Pretty great for not planning to go! Then we decided to hop on over to the zoo that is right across the street from the park. It is a small zoo and it is free so the occasional visit is fun - and this was the first time we'd gone since they reopened for the summer. The kids had a great time! John and I did too - we felt a little bit like kids, I think. :) This picture is just outside of the butterfly tent/room.
Then, we decided to go try some custard at a local restaurant. Yum! We opted to eat it outside at an umbrella covered table but it was so hot, we soon had custard soup! It was still delicious!
It was such a calm yet fun day, it makes me look forward to summer even more!
Happy Memorial Day!

You're the Superstar!

We have recently rediscovered a Wii game that John and I used to play a lot - Mario Party 8. We decided to give Jayden a shot at playing it recently and he loved it... and so we play. :)

Tonight we played a pretty great game but in the end - John was the winner. A.K.A Yoshi. He always plays Yoshi and we really think John has some strange streak of luck with video games sometimes.

We will have our characters be "Superstars" someday! Yoshi can't always win - can he?!

Spaghetti Hot Dogs

Tonight, we had pasta (yes, again) with hotdogs and tomato sauce. Pretty much spaghetti with hot dogs instead of meatballs. Do you notice the awesome-ness in this picture though? Yep - the noodles are coming through the hot dogs!
Jayden doesn't love hot dogs but he still thought it was cool - just not cool enough to eat them. He just had plain spaghetti. Riya, on the other hand, thought they were AWESOME! :)
It's pretty simple and a fun way to add interest to an otherwise boring meal. Just poke 5-6 uncooked noodles through cut up hot dog pieces and then toss into boiling water - cooking noodles normally.
Love!

"Oh No! She Caught Me!"

This had to be the picture for today because she made this face almost intentionally, I think, because she knew I was trying to get a picture for John. Usually, she'll pose for approximately 1.232 seconds and then she'll take off. If I don't get it the first time - good luck.
So - this time I said her name, right after she grabbed my keys (she LOVES to push the panic button on so that the van starts making lots of noise right outside the house) and she looks up like this. Haha. This is also the expression she makes when she pushes the panic button on the keys.
She'll love me for this picture someday. I'm sure of it. :)

Jayden's IRP

Tonight, Jayden got to show off his IRP (Independent Research Project).

His school gives them a general theme to work with and they have to come up with the rest on their own. They did one in the fall semester and one this semester. Last semester's theme was "Community Helpers" and they had to choose a person that helped the community (I bet you couldn't guess that) somehow. Jayden chose to interview his Great-Grandpa Sutherland (my mom's dad) who is a retired Air Force pilot. He got to go see the base, take pictures with the airplanes, interview Grandpa and make a life-sized version of himself dressed as a pilot. It was really cute but poor Jayden was sick for the IRP night so he didn't get to talk about it.

This time, the theme was Science. Guess who was so excited? Yep. John. Together, he and Jayden came up with an experiment (on a first grade level) to see how salt affects the phase transitions of water. I think if you click on the picture, you can read his poster.

It was pretty fun to see all of the kids in the entire student body (K-8) with their projects!

Good job, Mr. Jayden!

A Cookie Kind of Day

Emma (lucky girl) woke up from her nap today to the smell of some yummy, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
While she was sleeping - Riya and I had fun trying out a new recipe. It was great but it made a ton of dough! I had to switch to a bigger bowl before I even added the dry ingredients! I had enough dough to give Jay's teacher a dozen and take John (and his lab mates) two dozen - and we still had about 3 dozen left over already baked. We have enough cookie dough left over to eat bake at least 2 more dozen.

I wanted to capture the enjoyment in little Em's face but when she noticed I was trying to snap a picture, she did this.

I guess that about sums it up. :)

PS - I love thunderstorms... until the tornado sirens go off. YIKES! Scary! Growing up in Texas, there was often a threat of tornados - and it has been known to bring me to tears. I was brave today. :)