March 27 - April 2

I am all caught up through the first week of April in my Project Life album. You wouldn't know that by my sporadic Project Life blog posts, though. :) Here we go with another week.

March 27th. Sunday. My neighbor brought some tulips over. I love tulips before they open. These were a really pretty color, too.


March 28th. Monday. Buddy (age 5) has a new chore...unloading the clean silverware from the dishwasher. He knows to leave the sharp knives alone.


March 29th. Tuesday. One of many signs that I have an all-boy household!


March 30th. Wednesday. Chief came to the back door to show me the ladybug he found outside.

March 31st. Thursday. Gas prices continue to rise. (Wow, this looks like a bargain now that nearly 2 weeks have passed since the picture was taken!)



April 1st. Friday. Happy April Fool's Day! The kids were very surprised when I served ice cream with bananas for dinner, and then chicken with rice, pineapple, and zucchini for dessert! I've done this 3 years in a row now, but somehow they never remember that's how we do April Fool's Day dinner around here. :)

April 2nd. Saturday. Our church holds a worldwide conference the first weekend of every April. We are able to watch the broadcast from home. Chief set this up to help us pay close attention. :) Every time we heard the words "Jesus Christ" mentioned by a speaker or in a song or prayer, we could eat several Sixlets. The word "Faith" gave us a piece of black licorice, the word "Temple" gave us chocolate covered pretzels, and the words "Holy Ghost" gave us Starburst jelly beans. :) Very fun -- I'm glad he thought of this.

March 6 - March 12

** I DID 2 UPDATES TODAY!**


March 6th. Today was my last time to teach the 7 and 8 year old kids at church, so my POTD is of my class.

March 7th. I have been asked to help teach the 14 and 15 year old girls at church. I learned a bit about that responsibility today. I feel like a fish out of water after teaching the 7 and 8 year olds for almost 5 years. This will be very different.


March 8th. I got my free Snapfish Disney calendar in the mail. (Just had to pay shipping.) I did a different theme for each month. Here is my "Hidden Mickeys" page -- pictures of Hidden Mickeys around Disneyland. (The 3 pics on top/2 pics on bottom aren't my pics -- they are part of the Snapfish layout.)


March 9th. Spring is on the way! (Ornamental pear tree in the backyard.)


March 10th. Today's pic...Chief playing his trumpet in his first 5th grade band performance.

March 11th. Chief's 5th grade class celebrated "Pi Day" today. (As in the math number...as in 3.14.) They don't have school on 3-14, so they celebrated on 3-11. They were invited to bring in a pie to share with the class as they did different pi-related activities. Chief took in a yummy chocolate peanut butter pie.


March 12th. Instead of a picture today, I will be sliding in an article related to the devastating earthquake off the coast of Japan.

February 27 - March 5

February 27th. Move over Wii and computer... the kids want to play Pick-Up-Sticks lately. I love it!


February 28th. Hopefully there won't be too many more days of scraping ice off the windshield...


March 1st. Maxwell is decorating a cake for his Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. He chose a castle cake after looking at old pictures and seeing that his Dad did a castle cake back when he was a Cub Scout. The Cub Scouts each got to pick a cake for their family's dessert after dinner. They had to pick a cake other than the one they brought. Maxwell's castle cake was the first one to go. When it was M's turn to choose, he picked a very cool volcano cake -- complete with dry ice action and everything! :)


March 2nd. Buddy and I played this game in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday today. Buddy asked, "Is Dr. Seuss in real life? Is he on this earth? So he can't eat his cake today?"


March 3rd. Buddy's been into watching Blues Clues on Netflix lately. He likes to have his own little notebook handy so he can draw the clues. I thought he did pretty well with this clue.


March 4th. Just one of several forts that Buddy built this week. He likes to hide in them and have me find him. I'm not allowed to touch anything or look inside while I'm trying to find him, though. :)


March 5th. Finally put together the Disney puzzle that Santa brought!

February 13 - February 19

February 13th. Sunday. A sad, sad moment. Maxwell and I were talking about what he and his brothers will do to fill the noodle jar and earn a prize. He asked me what jar we were going to use for the noodles. I told him I didn't know yet. He said, "I know what we can use!" He climbed up a step stool and reached up on the top pantry shelf. Next thing I know there is the sound of breaking glass. He had grabbed the lid off the glass candy dish I keep in the top of the pantry and dropped it onto the floor. Not just any glass candy dish - the candy dish that belonged to my husband's grandmother, who passed away almost 10 years ago. She used to keep lemon drops in it. Yes, a very sad moment.


February 14th. VALENTINE'S DAY. I'm doing a 2 pg. spread on Valentine-y stuff from the week, to make up for a week that I missed, so pics on that later.

February 15th. Tuesday. Today I took Buddy to the school for the Upcoming Kindergarteners Tour. He had a lot fun, even though he pretty much knew where everything was already. :)


February 16th. Wednesday. We got caught in a sudden hail storm on the way home from school. Glad I had my camera with me so I could snap a picture. (While stopped in traffic, of course!)

February 17th. Thursday. Time to send Box Tops in to school again. Chief divided them up between Maxwell and himself. They both ended up with 150+ Box Tops, thanks to those 50 Bonus Box Tops receipts from the store!

February 18th. Friday. Buddy saw the Zingers box in the recycling pile and asked, "Are the Zing Zongs all gone?" (He was unknowingly combining Zingers and Ding Dongs!)


February 19th. Saturday. We went to a family bowling activity sponsored by the company my husband works for. I was so happy that I captured this strike, compliments of Chief!

January 30th - February 5th

Well, I only took a couple of pictures this week, so I'll have to figure out something else to do for the layouts this week. It will probably be a category -- like "A Few Of Our Favorite Things" or something like that.

January 23 - January 29

I'm doing things a bit differently this week. Chief and I met up with my sister at Disneyland last week. We were there for 3 days -- Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. My whole Project Life layout for this week will contain pictures from the trip. I'll include some of these...as well as some with us in them. :) It was very fun and we couldn't have asked for better weather!

I always need to get a picture of this plaque as I walk in under the tunnel. Always love being greeted by this!

Hi Pluto!


Just a napkin...


I love noticing all the flowers throughout the park. These were especially pretty and vibrant!


Enjoying ice cream while we people-watched on Main Street...


Chief saw this as we were about to head down Main Street and thought it was cool. He asked me to take a picture. :)


A "construction wall" at California Adventure. Construction of the new entrance is taking place on the other side.


Taking a ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad... AKA "The Wildest Ride In The Wilderness!" ;)

Stopping to point out the golden spike which marks the geographical center of Disneyland...found on the walkway just on the other side of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.


Ahhhh...one of my favorite sights. Main Street USA at dusk.


One last shot...goodbye Disneyland!


See Ya Real Soon! ;)

January 16 - January 22

January 16th. Sunday. Buddy drew this picture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Love it!


January 17th. Monday. Chief had a bit of Social Studies homework to do today. Very fitting.


January 18th. Tuesday. Today's picture is of Chief standing on top of a ladder on the stairs, changing the battery in the smoke detector. I was very glad that he volunteered to go up. I wasn't looking forward to climbing a ladder on the stairs. Yikes.

January 19th. Wednesday. I am not sure how this treat escaped my eye. I bought it in Disneyland back in October. It somehow got pushed aside once the holiday treat season came on. It sure was fun to find it today tucked away in the pantry! (And yes...it's all gone.)


January 20th. Thursday. All 3 boys participated in a Lego building competition tonight. It was a lot of fun looking at all the creations of the other kids. (Side Note: When we checked in, each kid was assigned a number to put next to their creation. Buddy got number 36. When the lady handed him his number he turned to me and asked, "Does this mean I got 36th place?" Very cute!)


January 21st. Friday. I took the kids to a self-serve frozen yogurt place today. The 2 older boys had gotten coupons at school as part of a "Caught Ya" Being Good program. Chief had gotten 2, so he gave one to Buddy. So today's pic was taken at the yogurt place.

January 22nd. Saturday. Chief enjoys reading while he eats his cereal. He's reading The Lost Hero these days.

January 9 - January 15

January 9th. Sunday. OK, I have no idea why he does this. Buddy likes to toss his pjs, underwear, socks, etc. behind the toilet when he changes his clothes. Even if he is getting dressed upstairs, he goes out of his way to bring said clothes to the bathroom downstairs and throw them behind the toilet. Odd. This time it was his Curious George pajamas.


January 10th. Monday. Buddy and I finally broke out the Play-Doh set that he got for Christmas -- the movie treat set. Check out the hot dog I made. :)


January 11th. Tuesday. Tonight I was looking for the pizza pan. I told the kids I wouldn't be able to toss the frozen pizza into the oven until someone brought it back. I figured one of the boys had it. They like to use pizza pans and cookie sheets for their Legos. Sure enough, Chief came downstairs carrying the pizza pan filled with pieces from his new Space Police Central set that he got for Christmas. "Here it is mom."


January 12th. Wednesday. Today's Picture of the Day showcases a proud Mother-of-the-Year nominating moment. A bit of background... Buddy got dressed at 8:30 this morning. We took the other boys to school and then ran some errands. First the bank, then the music store, and so on. Around noon I sat down with Buddy to work on his new Buzz Lightyear Lego set that he got for Christmas. After a while I noticed that something wasn't quite right with his pants. He had been wearing his jeans backwards all morning long. Out in public. With the snap snapped and the zipper down and wide open. Underwear just being displayed everywhere we went. So...of course I had to get a picture before I had him turn his pants around. Mother of the Year moment indeed! We'll just keep this picture for family eyes only, though. ;)

January 13th. Thursday. The kids like to eat "Bee Cereal" for breakfast.


January 14th. Friday. Buddy loves doing puzzles. This is one of 3 that we did today. I thought it might be a little tough for him, since he's not exactly up to par on his North American geography. We worked on it together for a while, then I left the room for a few minutes. I came back and it was done. Silly me for thinking it might be too tough. ;)


January 15th. Saturday. I took this picture because my receipt didn't print and I needed to know what I spent on gas. I ended up just using it as my POTD as well.

See you next Tuesday!

January 2 - January 8

Happy New Year!

Jan. 2nd. Sunday. We were visiting my husband's family over New Year's. I loved their Christmas tree. Our tree has been decked out in white lights for the past 8-ish years, so it was nice to see something different. I had forgotten how much I enjoy colored lights.


Jan. 3rd. Monday. The kids went sledding with their cousins today before we made the long journey home. They pretty much had the hill to themselves since it was "Back To School" for most people.

Jan. 4th. Tuesday. I asked for my husband's permission before declaring this our photo of the day. :) It cost us $85 for an electrician to tell him that the reason we didn't have power was because the breakers needed to be turned back on. (The Skipper turned the power off earlier so he could replace a broken light bulb.) My husband asked the electrician if he could think of another reason that was more complicated so he wouldn't have to tell me the real reason. :) As I was writing out the check for $85 (which apparently should have been more -- the guy called his boss to bring it down to this!), Chief was looking over my shoulder and asked (in a whisper so the electrician wouldn't hear), "Is that 85 dollars or 85 cents?" :) :) :)



Jan. 5th. Wednesday. Tonight's dinner. Thank goodness our power was restored so we could make these... ;)


Jan. 6th. Thursday. My sister had to put her beloved Jasmine to sleep today. Jasmine has been in the family since 1993. This is Jazzy with my kids a little over a year ago.


Jan. 7th. Friday. I took a picture of Maxwell Smart with 2 of his friends doing a math project in the hall outside of their classroom.


Jan. 8th. Saturday. Beef Stick and Football. A New Year's Day Tradition with the boys in my family. We were out of town on New Year's Day, so it happened today instead.