Lunch "love" notes and Cooling Down...Day 272

Fridays...the one day a week we have no where to go...Friday rock my socks off!

Well...we do leave to take Sunshine to school and pick her up, but that doesn't really count :o)

The little kids usually stay in their pjs until 2:00 and I LOVE it!

It is SO nice to be able to check a few things off the never ending "to-do" list each Friday :o) One area I have dropped the ball on this week is lunch notes for my girls...and they have not been happy about it! I always send a lunch "love" note to school for the girls...Sunshine gets two each day because her school has a snack time each day.

I usually get a bunch of notes ready so all I have to do is sign the note and stick it in their lunchbox each night when I prepare their lunches. Unfortunately my stash ran out this week and I couldn't find the time to renew it.

I took care of that today!


Sunshine LOVES (LOVES, LOVES, LOVES) when I send jokes in her lunch. She tells me how she passes the jokes around at the lunch table each day. In fact, she keeps every single note I send her in the front pocket of her lunchbox and she passes lots of jokes around each day...so far I haven't heard that it is causing a problem so I let her keep them in the pocket :o)

There are TONS of free lunch note printables on the internet. I print mine out on cards stock and use my paper trimmer to cut them out.


It a very simple thing I can do easily that means a lot to my girls.

I keep each girl's notes in a zip lock baggie in the island so I can quickly grab a note each night...


This weekend is Homecoming at Sunshine's school. This afternoon, all of the students got to attend a homecoming parade. Sunshine made a sign to take to the parade...

Haha..."If you give me candy, please give me gum." When I picked Sunshine up from school today, she had a handful of bubble gum. She was very proud to offer me a piece...she knows I LOVE gum :o)

Oh, and as I am writing this, I am just noticing, "Welcome Home." Ha! Love that girl!

We had a major cool down in Central Arkansas today...yay! We just love spending time outside!!!

My girls!

We tried to skip a nap for this one today...didn't work out very well...ha!

My beautiful girl and her scary eyeballs...see her scary eyeballs? They are hanging her neck...they have been hanging around her neck for an entire week! Ha!


And if Friday wasn't already good enough, Daddy got off work early!

We spent the rest of our night stuffing ourselves with stuffed crust pizza and watching movies...ahhhhh!

Discharged & Tuesdays...Day 270

Things are looking up around here!!

Papa Texarkana got discharged from the hospital this morning!!! Whoo hoo! He still needs lots of prayers, but we are all thankful he is a free man :o) Ha!

We also had the "perfect storm" this morning in regards to our required DHS visits. Baby's Boys caseworker came for a visit, we had a quarterly visit with another worker AND our yearly visit from another worker! It felt SO good to have all three visits done on the same morning...and by 10:30 a.m.!!


As you may know, I work three days and one night a week at our church. I am sooo lucky to spend my Tuesdays with both of my girls :o) I took all of these pictures during "class" this week.

My kiddos are blessed with such sweet friends!

My baby and her crush :o) Haha!

Surgery & Bible Study...Day 268

It's been a few days, but we're still here :o)

We have been spending lots of time at the hospital...

My dad had surgery last week...

The kids think the hospital is a fun place to visit...

Little Pumpkin and I were able to stay with Papa all day one day last week. She seemed to have a great day...playing with the ipod, her ixl, coloring, playing at the fountain and getting lots of attention from her mommy and Ganny :o) She has asked if she needs to go back to take care of Papa some more :o)

We are all (more than) ready for Papa Texarkana to get better, but in the mean time, the girls are loving the extra time they are getting to spend with Ganny while they are in town.


We found out tonight that Papa Texarkana might get out of the hospital tomorrow!!!


In other news, Little Pumpkin is still loving preschool. She was super pumped because she got to pick a prize from the treasure chest again today! This was her third time...not that we are keeping track :o)


Last night we started a new bible study...Grace Based Parenting. It lasts for six weeks. I am really excited about it!


Hopefully things will slow down a bit and I will be back to posting more...I knew if I ever skipped a day it would be easy to become a lazy blogger...ha!

Lola & Stairs...Day 261

I better be careful with my "not posting everyday" deal because everyday that goes by, it gets easier and easier not to post!

We are slowly adjusting to our new Fall schedule. Honesly, it is kinda kicking my behind! We are doing three days of MDO, delivering Sunshine to/from school everyday, church on Wednesday nights and dance on Tuesdays. That doesn't leave alot of time for laundry, dishes and most importantly craft time :o) Haha!

Little Pumpkin is LOVING preschool...like really, really loving it! I am so thankful! This is usually what I see in my rear view mirror as we pull out of the church parking lot after school...

Be.still.my.heart.

Little Pumpkin's preschool starts at 9 and Daddy has to be at work at 8 so he hasn't been able to take her to school this year. But today, Daddy played in a golf tournament and he didn't have to be there until 10:30 so he came to church and walked her in...she was SO excited...can you tell?


Sunshine is also enjoying school this year. She loves to learn new things. A few days ago, we were at Target and she saw a book about insects and she just had to have it. She loves bringing it to the supper table and reading interesting facts about flies, grand daddy long legs, spiders and such to us as we eat...lucky us! Ha!


Over the weekend, Baby Boy had another birthday party to attend. His social calender has been quite busy lately :o)

It's hard to believe all of his buddies are turning 2...and his turn in coming up soon! Wow!

Our sweet cat, Princess Lola...

...has been MIA for 10 whole days. We live in the country so she comes and goes as she wishes, but we have never gone more than 2 days without seeing her. I decided to working in the garage last week so I would be outside for a long period of time hoping to see her...after three days working in the garage...nothing :o(

One project I have been wanting to do in the garage is painting the stairs. I decided to go fun and paint them blue...with words!

The girls love them!

School Pictures...Day 256

Today was picture day at Sunshine's school...

and since that child never gets her picture made...

we practiced before school.

I haven't seen the picture yets, but I am sure it will be one of my most prized possessions...

...all of her pictures are!

Football Season - Burlap Door Hanger...Day 253

September 11, 2001...
I was working as an auditor for Andersen and had just returned from business trip to Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. the week before. I am so incredibly thankful to God for the perfect timing of my trip. I watched the tragic events unfold on a break room television with about 100 ALLTEL (the client I was working on) employees. I remember how eerily quiet the room got as we watched the towers collapse. I am thankful to the faithful servants that served our country that day and who are still serving today. Where were you that day?


I finished up my second football door hanger this afternoon. I had a request to post about how I made the hangers (Hi Karen!). I am all about new blog post ideas :o) I was about halfway through my LRCA doorhanger so I wasn't able to photograph the entire process, but the process is pretty easy so I don't think that really matters :o)

Here is the finished product...


And here is how I got there...

Cut a football shape out of burlap. You can buy burlap at lots of places like Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby. The didn't have any brown burlap at my Wal-Mart so I had to go to Hobby Lobby...I went to the HL in a neighboring city :o) Good news...burlap is on sale for $2.99 a yard this week! Yay!

For comparative purposes, my football is 20 inches wide and it is a bit uneven, but I like the imperfections when it comes to projects like this :o)

I printed the letters on my Cricut...storybook cartridge (3.5 inches, shadow option).

If you are crafty, you can free-hand the letters. If you are not crafty (like me) and you don't have a Cricut, you can print the letters from Word with the outline option.

I traced around the letters with a black sharpie. I used a paper plate to trace the side arches.


...and also the top arch...


Next, paint with your choice of colors.


I used acrylic paints...


I used a black sharpie and traced around everything after I painted.


Finished with the front...


Next, take the back of your football and attach your ribbon. I used staples. I would have used my glue gun, but I was out of glue sticks. The staples worked fine. Be sure and have the "pretty side" of your ribbon facing you, on top.


Now comes the fun part! Staple the front to the back, leaving an opening to insert the stuffing.


The stuffing...used grocery bags!

After your football (or whatever shape you decide to make) is full, staple (or glue) up the hole! I quickly colored my staples black with my Sharpie so they weren't so noticeable.

Your almost there!!

Next, pick out some coordinating ribbon...


...and tie a knot with your main ribbon and then tie coordinating ribbons around your main knot...


Go Warriors!!


And Hogs!!


Thanks to Cleverly Creative Girl for the inspiration!!!

Outside & Hogs...Day 252

I haven't updated in a few days because we have been soooooo busy...busy enjoying the wonderful FALL weather! I have had a hard time keeping the kids in the house this week :o) As soon as we pull in the driveway, the kids hop out of the car and run to the playground...I pretty much have to drag them in for supper and then they are out again! I really can't blame them...I LOVE being outside too!!

There has been lots of 4 wheeler riding...


...and Diego car riding...


...and countless hours spent playing on the rainbow. Sunshine has probably spent more time hanging upside down on this yellow bar this week than she has sleeping in her bed! She has decided she wants to be an acrobat :o)


This afternoon, I finally got around to making a HOG football for the door. I found several on etsy that I liked and then I found this one that I LOVED and used as a model :o) I am working on one for Sunshine's school too...I love that they are sooooo easy and sooooo inexpensive to make!


Whoo hoo for he HOGS winning their second game of the season tonight!!!