whatever

waffle the weirdo

 
he is a big goofball....
that needs some serious training.

but who has time for that?
not this mother of five.

he is playing at the neighbor's house with his sister right now.       

he is a dork. 

margaritas

 i told you last month that my mom makes AMAZING margaritas.
i am here for a visit and asked her if i could blog it.
of course she said yes.
 
you need:

frozen limeade, tequila, triple sec and a beer. (any brands are fine for any of these i am sure)


pour the limeade into the blender...


use the empty limeade can as your measuring cup.
fill it 2/3 full of tequila
then 1/3 full of the triple sec

pour it in the blender too.



fill your blender with ice.
lots of ice.


then blend it.
it will be slushy yumminess.

after that is done THEN you add one bottle of beer.

DO NOT USE THE BLENDER after the beer is poured in.
you will have margaritas all over the place.

(i may have done that once in my kitchen but no one can prove it so i am not admitting to anything....)


oh......yeahhhhhh.

i won't tell you how many i had.

Or how many pitchers we made.... 


mom made a big dinner for everyone.
we call it "polynesian chicken"...you start with rice and then you continue down the line of food
adding what you like to your plate.
i choose rice, chicken, sauce (cream of chicken soup), cheese, pineapples, chow mein noodles & coconut.
but everyone always a different meal at the table.
it's good.
(the strawberries/bananas/yogurt/cottage cheese are side dishes...not part of the polynesian chicken)
 
we ate on the patio in the perfect summer weather.
a still summer night.
my sister and her girls came for the night too.
it was so nice to spend some time together.

we got the kids to bed and my mom, dad and my sister and i talked into the night.
a really nice evening.

ahhhhh......

 

you have to try my mom's margaritas.
they are just yummy.  
they do not taste like a margarita mix...it tastes like a restaurant margarita...a mexican restaurant!

 mmmmmmm....mmmm....mmmmm!

 
 ***AND***

you can make these on the rocks instead of frozen.
just make it in a pitcher and add 1/2 a can of water to it.
then serve it over ice.

it is really good that way too!           

craft thursday #1

rule #1 of craft thursday (from here on out) for mama....

be in a good mood when we start.

it doesn't work well to start a craft with kids if i am not mentally ready.  
but we pushed through my mood and we did it.

hopefully they will want to make crafts with me again someday.....

i chose a painting project from Pink and Green Mama's site.
she taught it to first graders....Georgia O'Keeffe inspired flower paintings.   


 
first we looked at pictures of her paintings to notice the details.
then i gave a pencil to draw their flower having the petals touch all four sides of the paper.
then a sharpie to go over the pencil.

then watercolor paint.
the petals different from the middle and different from the background.



  
i lost sean at the very start when i said "i want you to draw a flower"
he said no.

he drew a cactus, didn't like how it turned out...threw it away and went to swim in the pool.
oh well.

the girls finished.
they loved it.
both so proud of their work.
i felt more relaxed than i did all day when i was painting mine.


annie's rainbow flower.
 

talby's sunflower.
 

my purple cone flower.

so that is it.
craft thursday.
one down....ten more to go!!!

friendship photo shoot

i took pictures the other night of a group of ten girlfriends.
they were really fun.



this a bible study group...they have spent a lot of time praying together 
and for each other so a prayer circle picture was needed.
 




 
the gal in the front...green shirt...owns a purse shop.
don't they all have the cutest bags?!
 









they wanted to to have group photos to remember their time together.
one of them is moving away....what a great gift!

thanks for a fun night shannon!   

one more just for fun....     

           

wednesday.

ok...today is better than the past two have been.
i feel relieved by that.
the pool is filling up.
the rain is gone.
the boys' nerf guns have been confiscated.
i think we are going to make it.

i received a shirt in the mail....and i love it.

you can get them here at DOTS.
it is so soft and light.
i really really like it.
and i want to make cupcakes when i wear it.
i thought this one was cute too.

the porch is my favorite spot in the summer.
yesterday i set up memory on the bench/coffee table.
it took the entire top...and was hard to remember with such a long line of cards.





guess which set of matches is mine?  
i told you it was hard for me.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
some questions were asked about the summer list yesterday...i will clarify.
 
*WORLDS OF FUN is an amusement park with roller coasters in kansas city.
*PEPPERNUTS are little spice cookies...we love to eat them but i have never made them.
 here is a website about them.  
 they are a mennonite thing...craig has mennonite roots and so does our hometown.
*a BLOCK PARTY is a street party with our neighborhood (our block).
*the FROGGIE POOL is our public pool...it has a frog shaped slide.
*DEMO DERBY is the mud pit where cars crash into each other...that we pay money to watch!

we bought journals yesterday and the three youngest were so pumped about it.
they filled up the front already with stories and stickers.  
very sweet.

the summer list

here is our 2010 list.

you can see 2009 and 2008 also.
 
it helps for our summer to be a little more intentional.  
gives us new things to try...
activities to look forward to....
it's fun!

*36 hours of reading is through the public library 
(which means i will have to settle our bill to show my face in there again....ugh)

*Cooking Kids is a night where the kids are in charge of the entire meal for the family...individually.
we put each childs day on the calendar already.  
it should be interesting...i will only supervise or help when asked.

*Craft Thursdays is my promise to be organized enough to have a different craft ready every thursday.
i have a pretty big list of what i want to do.
i will share them all...but you knew that didn't you?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and i was right about monday.
it wasn't good.
highs are so often followed by lows.
i hate that.

who is going to come over here and tell these kids how to behave...because i am tired of doing it.
and they don't listen to me anyway.

i am trying my best to use my quiet inside calm voice.
i am sure i have one...it is just hard to find it.