Meeka's School Open House

Last night Meeka's Preschool had their Open House. The kids show off art work that they have been working on and then they sing a couple of songs. Meeka was so excited all day for "My Open House!" Here are some picture highlights form last night. Melina took the video of her singing, so thats a little shaky. She did GREAT!!

Can you tell from her smile how excited she was?

She LOVES her teachers!

Meeka and Mrs. Silvey

Meeka and Mrs. Proctor

Her friendship picture

Meeka the fish

A highlight from her portfolio

Her fish

Why I like Grounding my Kid!

Yesterday Logan and a neighbor boy did a VERY BOY thing (they thought it would be funny to throw tomatoes at cars). This action got him grounded for the next week. And secretly I am so excited that he is grounded! Not because I love punishing him, but because I love having him back to me. The strong lore of friends, who might be playing while he is not, is overwhelming at times. And to be honest it drives me INSANE! Yes, I like that there are kids in the neighborhood to play with. And I love seeing kids of all ages come together for pick up games of baseball and football. BUT, the fact is, his brain is sometimes filled with the urgency to play, play, play with friends instead of doing other things, even things he should be doing. BUT when he is grounded (or he knows no one is home) and the lore to play is not there, he loves to read with me, do art projects and go hiking, etc. He is still a little boy who loves to play with his mom! I cherish and love this time together and secretly wish I didn't have to always contend with friends. Don't get me wrong, I love a good playdate, its just the constant friends outside and at out door where he can always see and hear and smell the "fun" going on. So that is why I secretly LOVE grounding him. In fact, maybe I'll find a reason to ground him for another week…. or maybe not…guess that wouldn't be fair. Oh well, I will enjoy my week while I have it.

Outside Fall Decorations

My kids L.O.V.E. decorating outside for Halloween. 

Making ghosts for the trees. This has been a tradition for years!

Melina and I hot glued buttons on the pumpkin to spell Boo!
She then made several paper pumpkins with the leftover buttons!

Spider webs are another thing they LOVE!!

Our graveyard.

Finishing touches on all the bushes.
And check out our new cat!

The whole picture.
And see the spiders in the upstairs window? They glow at night!

Homemade Fall Decorations

The kids and I made some fall decorations for inside the house this year. 

I think they all turned out pretty cute! And they were all very easy to make with the kids, without looking like your kids made them.

Candy Corn Wreaths

I made these with Styrofoam wreaths wrapped in yellow streamers and hot glued candy corn on them. I hung them with a fun ribbon to add more flair! 

We put one in each window across our sunroom.

Up close view.

Candy Corn Decoration

These are made with Styrofoam cones and yarn….thats it! 

Wrap the yarn around the come and your done.

Up close view.

3 different sizes.

Fall Mantle

I did not make the wreath (wish I could say I did), but the girls and I did make the bean candles. 

I lit them on Friday night and they looked great!

View of the whole mantle.

Bean and Popcorn candles.

I just stuck a votive down in them.

No Small Potatoes...

We dug up our sweet potatoes from our garden this weekend.

LOOK….

Potatoes are one of those things where ya never know what your gonna get since they are hidden all summer…and we were pleasantly surprised!

Letting my Inner Diva SHINE!

Getting my make up

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and be in the Fashion Show at the Dayton Women's show. The Junior League of Dayton provided the models for this show and I thought, "What the heck!" I am going to do something I may never ever do again. So I got to have a day of pampering, getting my hair and make-up done with some other fabulous women and let loose and have fun! I was quite nervous, but it was also fun! 

On stage!

The whole gang!

September Foodie Pen Pal Reveal

Its that time of the month again…Foodie Pen Pal Reveal. This month by Pen Pal was Barbara form California. She has a great blog called Barbara Cooks and it is all about healthy and delicious food. Since she lives in an area of the county where fresh local ingredients are readily available all year round, she takes advantage of that in her cooking. She sent me a very fun package of all new things! 

 Her package included:

• Local Honey (always fantastic!)
• Dried Apples and Pears (The kids enjoyed these as snacks)
• A Bitchin' Bar (this was an organic fig based bar- yum!)
• Quinoa Polenta (I have not tried this yet, but I am looking forward to trying it)
• 2 of her favorite teas
• Meijer Lemon Marmalade (I LOVE lemon! Although I have not tried it yet, she says it is a great marinade for fish)

Thanks for the great box of goodies! 

Our family has enjoyed to so far!

What I sent my Foodie Pen Pal

My Foodie Pen Pal was Jenny from Oklahoma. She is a pastors wife, has 2 boys and is very busy in her community. She is trying to slowly take her whole family gluten free. The only "instructions" she  have me was that she does not like tomatoes and she is trying to loose weight, so healthy is good! 

So here is what I found (ALL GLUTEN FREE!)

• Dried Sweet Mago Chips
• POPCORN Kettle corn chips
• Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
• Butternut Squash pasta sauce (since she doesn't like tomatoes I thought this sound fun!)
• No Salt Lemon Pepper Seasoning
• Pomegranate crunchy granola snack
• Yum Yum Organic hard candies