Gimme a Smile

Gimme a big one.



Come on, real big!



Oh I give up. LOL



and a bonus... Don't you just love her wild hair look and spaghetti sauce stained mouth?

Rhetta's Purple Party with a Side of Flying

Her birthday is yet to come (tomorrow) but we had a party today with guests. We invited two family friends with kids plus three boys and three girls from her class. One family friend came, the other is excused for having her baby yesterday (Congratulations Christi!), two boys from school, and our "adopted" son whom we mentor who just turned 13. I was disappointed for my girl because she loves her classmates sooooo much, but she had a kickass time and that's what counts.

We started out playing Wii.



There was lots of snacks.



The cake, etc.







We turned on the Dance Cam for a bit then we played pin the wings on the fairy. Rhetta drew a very large Tinkerbell. I traced the wings she drew, made copies, then cut them out. Willon won!





Up, up and AWAY!

Such a Challenge

Just had to share what it's like trying to get a picture of my boy lately. If I ask him to smile sometimes he will ham but usually he either shrugs...



... or slumps (imagine a deep, heavy sigh)



Go ahead and laugh. That's why I posted these. :D

Gotta Love Mud

Our first warm day since our first snow. Who wouldn't play in the puddles? (Some of these came out blurry)











Wow, you can really see his eyelid scar in this last one! Anyway, I do not have a fast camera (and I have dropped this one several times - oops) so you can imagine how many times he jumped in order for me to get enough pictures to depict a sequence. LOL! I just love letting kids be kids. ♥

School Bus

She was ready. Rhetta is now riding the little bus. She wasn't so giddy that she couldn't sleep I think because she has been on many buses for field trips. Her goofy grin was everpresent however for the entire ride. I rode with her to school and Rob rode with her home. Today she'll ride home by herself for the first time and I'm more than alittle nervous. In fact I think I might throw up. She's in good hands, though. She has an angel of a bus driver and another who rides with them and helps. So, there you have it. One more step toward independence. I cried. Need you ask?

Waiting



Here it comes!



Boarding



Her return!



She was in the house and devouring her snack before I could blink. My big girl!

Willon Turns 3

We had a nice little family-only birthday celebration for the sweetest boy in the world.

He begged for Sonic tater tots so that was our supper.



I intended to make a train out of brownies but time wouldn't cooperate. However a train on top of brownies proved to be just as pleasing to my train lover. He nearly jumped into them when Rob cut into them.





Blowing out the candles...



Then came the presents. I shot them in 3 short videos. Unlike Christmas when they took their time savoring each gift, this time he tore into them and it was over in about 8 minutes. He made me giggle every time he'd fling a present aside to unwrap another. Sometimes people ask what their favorite presents were. Well, let's just say he carried his roller around with him everywhere today telling anyone who would listen all about it.

Before you watch the videos I want to quick brag about my girl. Unlike usual, she let Willon unwrap everything himself, didn't take any of his toys away and play with them, and was very chatty. She makes me so proud.

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Corn Lake State Park

Stopped off on our way home to get some hiking in while the sun was still up but found many distractions instead.

First thing we saw when we left the car was the river. Always a beautiful sight. This time it was full of water fowl. Specifically ducks and geese. Only after the kids chased them in, though.





When it was clear we didn't have anything to feed them they mostly just stayed in the water. If any ventured out one or the other kid would chase them back in. After about 30 minutes of this I finally convinced them to take a walk with me.

The lake is frozen over and at a low level. This tree intrigued me. It looked like it's roots were used to being mostly in the water yet that hadn't killed the tree. I tried for a group shot of my sweeties but digging a hole under one of the roots proved to be more interesting.





We did hike a wee bit.



Rhetta did something uncharateristic and got *gasp SNOW on her snowboots. She really tore it up once she got started. Even had it inside her boot at one point.



Willon was quite content with his stick digging holes and drawing happy faces in the snow, standing on the frozen lake.



On our way back to say goodbye to the birds a nice grandma type lady walked down to the water with a whole big shopping bag full of old bread. Who could resist?

Rhetta got closer than ever.



She kept shouting directions to them like, "Hey! Fly away!"



Willon was all cuteness. Here's the windup.



And the pitch.



Can I haz more?



Happy ducks.



Happy kids.

My Year in Review

Last January I made this list then promptly forgot all about it. Regardless, I did a few things on it.

Leave the state for vacation. Spent a week in Kansas!
Market my grocery bag totes. Sold 137!
Learn batik (other than what I learned in high school art class).
Change the way my family eats. 80% fresh food, 95% organic!
Take better care of my body.
Swimming every week, all four of us.
Watch the sunrise and the sunset as often as possible.
Discover some new music. Public Radio!
Have a yard sale, or three. $527! Woo!
Memorize one famous/classic poem.

I'm going to keep that list going for this year but not as a priority. I am going to add Learn to knit to it and see what happens.

New Year, New Goals

I intend to work on myself this year. There's so much it's difficult to know where to start. I am in poor health, physically and mentally. I need to restructure my days so I can nurture myself. I have been neglecting myself for years and it not only shows but it's impossible to hide. The last good thing I did for myself was quitting smoking five years ago.

Past resolutions have all dealt with money in some way, ultimately about self-control. Changing bad habits. Eliminating them. I feel I have mostly conquered all of that, improving upon them as I go.

Doing nice things for myself has always involved spending money in some way. Buying myself something special, treating myself to this or that once a week, rewarding myself with things/trips/me time. It all sounds pretty good, really. Nice things, fun vacations, time alone to relax. Yet none of it nurtures. It's all quite superficial, really, and not making me a healthier person.

I need to focus on other things about me, things I have been ignoring. Things I was hoping would either fix themselves or just go away. I have worked hard to identify these things, how they came about and how to address them now. I'm too shy to list them here but they are biggies, including how I treat myself and others. I intend to hit them head-on, no looking back.

Cheers for the new year!