Aidan's pictures: episode 1

It took Aidan less than 24 hours to burn through his first set of batteries on his camera from nana and papa. And it took less than 72 hours to fill up his 4 gb memory card with 182 pictures/video clips. I thought I'd share with you some of his pictures and videos.

This one is a funny little vignette about Star Wars. Enjoy.

Chewbacca
What's this?
Oh, no! It's the bad dude
Chewbacca vs. the bad dude
Han Solo heads into the fray
Surprise attack!

Hey, where'd it go?
There it is.

From bad dude to dead dude

Best friends forever.

FHE Chart

I needed a project, I always am in need of a project. Infact, my favorite project is always the next one, the one I'm planning. So, in order to help get the kids more involved w/ FHE, and hopefully make it run smoother, I decided to put together a FHE chart.

I pulled out the cricut, turned on my design studio, and went to work. At the time, I still had the smaller, original circut, so it took a bit longer to get all the cuts made (since then I've upgraded to a sleek black expression, love it!). For the lettering, I used a mini Sharpie holder for the cricut-it lets me write instead of cut. Some zinc washers and some round magnets and I was all set.

I love how it turned out, and in the 6 weeks we've been using it, things have gone smoother. The kids like to have jobs, to help make treats or to pick out the lesson/activity. It's been good for them, for all of us. Now, if I could just figure out how to get them to sit still, we'll be golden.

btw, Maddie has one too, I just ran out of magnets.

Summertime

This is part of a typical week for us: cookies and swimming. Give them sugar, and then wear them out, it works pretty well too.

Of course, it wouldn't be summer without massive amounts of lego time. Davin was very proud of this radio tower he built.

We also spend time using perler beads, those things are lifesavers! I have found that making up patterns on graph paper to be very stimulating, so mathematical. They also clean up much easier than Legos.

Aidan's double digit birthday

Holy Cow! Aidan's a tween now, and he entered it with full force. He didn't really think about what toys he wanted this year, he listed off a bunch of lego sets the week before, as an afterthought. He told us two months ago what he wanted: a waterproof camera. That was it. Oh, this kid. It's going to be a long haul with him through his teenage years.

We began his morning with chocolate chip pancakes, two gifts (2 new t-shirts and a watch), and our summer movie w/dad in attendance. Aidan was okay with the watch, but was on the verge of tears over the shirts. There were no toys at breakfast this year! But he wouldn't tell us what was wrong, he just kept it all inside, and went and silently wept in the other room. Oh, boy, this kid is just like his mom, I don't know if we'll survive.

He rallied for the movie: Planet 51. And when we came home, we gave him his next gift: Battleship. Ah, sweet redemption! We spent the afternoon playing game after game after game. And he loved every minute of it! Davin and Eme gave him their gift: a Bakugan battle gear, which lead to the kids playing together for the remainder of the afternoon.

After a dinner of Costco Flautas, we had aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents over for cake and ice cream. Aidan's cake turned out great: dragons laying seige to the castle! Although next time I'll remember to make the cookies thinner, they're stiffer that way. We let Aidan, Davin, and Eme each decorate a dragon, they loved it. They each chose one from a different story: Eragon, Dragon Slayer's Academy, and some random princess book.

the boy likes a goofy smile

Aidan got some more clothes (the awful presents), his Webelos gear, some books, and his camera! We made him go on a treasure hunt for his last gift: golf clubs. He and Eric hit the links Friday morning and played 9. All in all, it was a good day.

One More Week, sigh

In one week my firstborn will begin to leave the world of childhood innocence. He will begin the slow decent into his teenage years. He will become a TWEEN (insert scary movie soundtrack here). I'm not too worried about him loosing the fun playfulness of childhood all too quickly, he still wants legos for his birthay. Legos are the true litmus test for childhood. When you no longer want to play with them, you're a full fledged grown-up (I still like to play legos). We'll give you the full rundown of his birthday festivities, next week. But for now, here's a bit of a teaser:

I'm hoping it turns out as good as I've imagined.

4th of July, in the heat

With the 4th on a Sunday, we didn't feel right about floating in Nana and Papa's pool to watch the fireworks show that's 1/2 mile away. So this year, we hung out at home, with the a/c on, and watched the Capital 4th's fireworks show.

Next year will be better, we will be in Hunstville.

M&M's, I'm mental, I know

Since our days are a mixture of pbs kids, legos, swimming, outings, crafts, some math/writing, pestering, and various degrees of pestering each other, I don't find as much time to either take pictures or blog about our happenings. But I mentioned a while ago about my odd M&M eating habit, although it's more like a ritual, so I thought I'd share.

A while ago my sil Jen posted about how towels are folded around her house. She and Ed differed in their techniques, and so the towels were often mis-matched. She asked how we all fold ours, and I responded by saying: it depends. I fold my towels differently for each drawer, stack, bar, and pile around my house. But always the same way for each location, Eric doesn't even try to keep up with me on this one.

A similar survey occurred with Eric's mom, only this time she was wondering how we ate our oreos. Now, oreos aren't my favorite cookie (sacrilege to some), so I had to really think: how do I eat them? Eric likes to dip his in milk and then put the whole thing in his mouth; his dad likes to drop 4 or so into a glass and then drink them. Aidan likes to twist his apart and then eat them. Some like to break theirs in half and then eat one half at a time. And everyone else just eats them. Me, I've got no set way, sometimes I twist mine apart. But when I do, I like to make sure that each half has the same amount of filling. I also like to break mine in half, trying to get them equal. And sometimes I just eat them one bite at at time. I don't ever dip mine in milk (eww, soggy cookies), and my mouth isn't big enough to put one in whole comfortably.

But then come candies like skittles, m&m's, and reese's pb bites. Here is where I truely shine, thanks to my mom. I prefer m&m's and reese's to skittles, but the same policy applies. I usually eat a couple right away (probably because I don't want my kids to see me eating them, since they'd make me share). But then, the real magic begins, or insanity, it all depends on your point of view. I will do one of two things, both beginning with my counting up how many of each color I've got. Then I will sort them by color and either group them by amounts, or else I will make lovely patterns with them (geometric of course).

When I eat them, if I grouped by color, I either eat one color at a time or eat enough of the colors until they all have the same amount in them, and then eat one of each color to maintain equality. Or, if I made a pattern, I eat them systematically to maintain the pattern as it gets gradually smaller.

Unfortunately for me, having a tease for a husband, and four little beggar children, I don't often get to make lovely patterns anymore. But when I do, they are a wonder!

So, how do you eat your m&m's?