photo Friday... Mother's Day edition

Everyone knows "homemade is best". Today, I received the best Mother's day gifts from Carl & Gretchen!! Today, I brought Gretchen to school alone since Lew and Evelyn were home to hang out with Carl. I wasn't going to leave Gretchen - just drop off the final day of teacher Appreciation Week gifts (cards with their names on them), have our special breakfast "Muffins For Moms" with her and pick up the surprise she had been excited about giving me all week! I pretty much knew about the flower pots, but my cards were a very pleasant surprise!! I know Gretchen loves art and drawing, but Carl doesn't always choose that for his favorite activity. So, I would have wondered if Carl made this by himself, but Tracey & Ashlie both told me he really did both the painting and the awesome drawing of me!

Tracey said he drew my legs and body first and declared himself done. But, she said "Mommy needs a head." so he drew one! by himself! Then she said, "How about some eyes?" and picked up a brown marker. He yelled at her, "No green!" (wrong color for my actual blue eyes, but it's just funny that he was so opposed to brown. ) Then she said, "Let's add a mouth" and he said, "OK. Red." So, apparently, there is an artist inside that boy after all! Here's his picture of me:

Now, the picture was in the back of a booklet that each child made me. The teachers interviewed the kids and those pages were in there as well. Kind of funny that today I gave the teachers each a card filled with answers to the interview questions I had asked them about their teachers and school.

So first, I'll share Gretchen's drawing. Now, she informed me that first she drew Daddy, then Mommy. And her teacher made sure to point out that we both have a heart and lungs! That cracked us all up!

The rest of the booklet had these questions and answers:

My Mom's age is....

Gretchen: 16 (of course, she knows you have to be 16 to drive a car)

Carl: 4

She likes to eat....

Gretchen: pizza!

Carl: spaghetti

All day she....

Gretchen: Does lots of things; takes pictures all day!

Carl: Goes to bed!

When she's by herself, she likes to....

Gretchen: sleep in! (gee, see a theme emerging here? It's incorrect, by the way!)

Carl: Take Grandma to school

I help her by....

Gretchen: waking up!

Carl: Finishing make the wet ocean (I think this is deep, don't you?)

What I like to do with my mom is.... (how cool are these answers?????)

Gretchen: Hug her!

Carl: Play!

and one final photo here... Carl took this picture of my this morning before I brought Gretchen up to school. Oh, by the way - in case you are feeling bad for Carl, I knew he wouldn't eat muffins or drink orange juice, and he was wicked happy to get to stay home with Daddy!! Plus, when I got home, I made him his own batch of pumpkin muffins. He was not deprived!!! Anyway, he took this shot of me wearing my very first Mother's Day shirt. They were 6 months old when they made that one for me. I haven't done this year's yet.... I have a couple days still! tee hee)

it's teacher appreciation week

This is Teacher Appreciation Week at pre-school. So, we have been having fun with little items to let the teachers know that we are very lucky to have them! Last week, I sent a note home to all the parents asking each one to bring in 4 flowers on Monday... one for each teacher. So, every child would give the teacher only 1 flower, but since there are 21 kids altogether... each teacher would receive a beautiful bouquet. I brought 4 vases over to school late last Friday and the teachers found them first thing on Monday morning - just in time for kids with flowers to begin arriving!

Friday:

Tuesday:

I was so happy that the other parents joined in so well!!! Part of me worried the vases would remain kind of empty because parents thought I was being pushy. I'm glad I was wrong. one mom even thanked me for organizing it.

We also have given them wallet sized photos in magnets. I went in a couple weeks ago and took photos of each teacher with the twins to use for those magnets. They have them displayed on the class fridge... cool! Today we brought them cookies and tomorrow we are bringing them more magnets - this time hand painted by the kids.

How well do you know your belly buttons??????Friday will be the final day to celebrate. I am making cards with their names on them using each letter vertically and picking an adjective that begins with that letter...

Loving

Educator

Affectionate

Huggable

(I am editting this to add the photo of hte finished cards)

I'll interview the kids about the teachers and school to write inside the cards. I love this kind of stuff!

let's go to the beach!

"I honestly think the beach is the only place children truly entertain themselves."

-Donna McLavy

photos taken Friday 4.30.10

photo Friday... Grandma style!

Grandma arrived Wednesday and the kids haven't slowed down since!!! They are loving the extra fun and attention. And Mom & Dad have even cashed in on the little known phenomenon called Free Grandparent Babysitting. mmmm...thai food....
That last one isn't super, but look how cute they are skipping into school today. Grandma got to see school and meet Miss Diane for the first time.

fashion police quote

After work, Lew changed into a Bills shirt, shorts and sneakers. This meant he still had on his work socks with his sneakers.

Carl: Daddy, don't wear black and white. Wear white and white!

attitude quote of the week

Carl accused Gretchen of yelling ("that is thumbs down!") and she denied it. This went back and forth 3 times.

Gretchen: It is NOT! (lunging at Carl)

mother of the year from across the room: Don't hit your brother!

Gretchen: I wasn't, I was just showing him my hand!

Pie of The Week Club!

I can show these photos here - no one from the camera club reads this. I think. Whatever. The moment has passed, so even if they see them it'll just be a spoiler for our upcoming meeting.

My camera club's next general meeting is going to be a slide show of our members' photos. All taken at the same moment in time, hence the name "A Moment In Time". That moment was 5:00 pm on Saturday April 24th. Members were to stop whatever they were doing at that time and snap a photograph to capture it. We'll all email them in to be made into a slide show for the meeting. Then, we'll share the stories and technical camera stuff that night. We did this last year and it was a lot of fun. Last year, we picked noon... this year we chose 5:00 pm for better lighting. No harsh overhead direct sunlight. Turns out, it was supposed to rain, so Lew spent the afternoon spreading lawn chemicals (better living through chemistry!) in anticipation of them getting rained in. Well, turns out it never rained until after we went to bed. Still, I couldn't take the kids outside for any cute playtime picture because of the lawn stuff.

Earlier today, we went and picked strawberries. Gretchen had been asking for a pie (yeah, she doesn't really eat pie.... still, once she says it, I can't get it out of my head. Last week it was the apple pie for Lindy, why not another pie?? Pie of the Week!) and out in the field, I overheard one guy say to his buddy picking alongside him, "You need 2 quarts to make a pie." Well, now, though eavesdropping, I had 2 votes for pie. But, I don't have a strawberry pie recipe. A quick internet search brought up mostly one crust pies using gelatin along with the berries. Not what I wanted. Finally, I found a couple 2 crust recipes, using the strawberries more like apples. Or like a strawberry rhubarb minus the rhubarb. One wanted a lattice crust. By now, I have visions of this 5:00 picture of a piece of pie...mmmm......pie!!!! I've never made a lattice crust - why not start today, right??

It was already well into nap time by the time I found my recipe and started the project. No problem, not near 5:00 pm yet.

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Strawberry Pie

5 c sliced berries

1 c sugar

1/3 c flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix that, add to bottom crust. Make the lattice top (1/2" strips of pie dough, woven over the filling.) Brush crust with milk and sprinkle with sugar (* you do this for all pies, don't you? if you don't... start doing it. It will give your crust that nice golden color. *)

If you choose not to lattice your crust, dot filling with butter and simply cover with the second crust.

Bake 375* for 50 minutes. (cover crust with foil for 35 minutes, remove for the last 15 mins)

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It all went together very easily... and it went into the oven at exactly 4:10 pm! So, not exactly the photo I had envisioned, but I was able to capture this at 5:00 pm.... it is still bubbling!!!!!

But, before that.... I took:

3:27 pm

3:47 pm

3:54 pm:

3:58 pm:

4:08 pm:

4:09:44 pm:

later tonight... 11:34 pm: