Creative Scrapper: October 2009

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Star Wars Tent

I know that I have posted before about it being ironic that we bought a house with enough bedrooms for each of our kids to have there own, And, though that may be true, they more often than not end up sleeping together.

I have noticed that sleeping arrangements have become a sort-of "economy" at our house. Sarah uses the right to let Shane sleep with her as an effective bartering strategy. For example, if she has a friend over, she tells Shane that if he leaves her and her friend alone, then he can sleep with her that night. Or, if Shane has something Sarah wants, or wishes to trade for, then she gets her way by offering to let Shane sleep with her.

Manipulative? Yes.

Creative on her part? Yes.

Do I really care where they sleep as long as they sleep well and are not in my bed or floor?

Not really.

When Shane does not sleep with her, he often sleeps in his Star Wars tent which is on the landing, right outside of Sarah's room. It is a square tent, so his little legs stick out the door.

One night, when I went to give them kisses before I went to bed, I found both of them in this little tent. It is nice to see that they really do enjoy being around each other. I am glad that they find comfort in being together.

Texas Waffles

We love to stay at hotels that include a free breakfast, espeically the ones that have make your own Texas waffles. We found this neat waffle-iron at the Texas store at Grapevine Mills Mall. Since life is so busy during the school/work week, I usually cook breakfast (pancakes or waffles) on the weekend. Sarah and I have started adding blueberries to our mix! The kids love to help mix, stir, and of course, flip the pancakes!

Creative Drums

A musician in the making for sure.

Lots of noise, oh yeah!

Fun for a little boy!

Friday, October 9, 2009

Fun teaching First Grade

Job Update:
In September, I started another long term substitute job teaching first grade. I am still at the same school I have been at for the last 2 years. (Justin Elem) I will be there until Thanksgiving. After teaching 4th grade for so many years, first grade is sooooo different. Refreshingly different. We start teaching guided reading groups on Tuesday. After I master that, I think I will feel confident about it all. While this is fun for a short time, I am still thankful that I do not have to work full-time. (IF I ever go back, I still don't think I will do kindergarten or first.)

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Brownie Girl Scouts

We have started another year of Girl Scouts. Sarah is now a Brownie. We have 14 girls that meet every other week at our house. We work to earn Try It patches. The girls chose to work on Make It, Eat, Art to Wear, and Science Wonders. We are also completing scrapbook pages to go along with these badges and to document our year! They are a very craft, giggly set of little girls!

Hamster Derby

Who knew there was such a thing, huh?

Yesterday, we went to Petco, where Sarah's hamster, Whiskers, competed in the annual Hamster Derby. They divided the hamsters up into dwarf and regular sized and then they ran in heats to see who would go to the final round. (Side note...the regualr sized ones are called Teddy Bear hamsters and they are huge. Look much more like rats. Glad we got a dwarf one.)

Whiskers got second place in her first two races against other dwarf hamsters. Then she completed in the final round against one other dwarf and two BIG ones. She got third place over-all! We thought she wasn't going to get it because during the race, she got right to the finish line and stalled. Shane and I were screaming at her to keep going and cross the line! You wouldn't believe how exciting it was!

Pictures show:

the staring lineup (there were actually 14 hamsters there to race)
the race course
Sarah coaching Whiskers during the warm-up practice
Sarah giving a last minute pep-talk before Whiskers started the final race
Coach and Whiskers with their 3rd place ribbon and prize (a treat log)
Whiskers proudly displaying her ribbon once we got back home.

What FUN!! Some of you teased us because we have a potty-trained hamster. Now, you must really be jealous. :)

COWBOYS

Well, Steve's dream of being a Cowboys ticket holder has finally come true! He is super excited to have tickets for the 10 home games for the 2009-2010 football season. The new stadium is amazing. We have been to several concerts (Reba McIntire and Jonas Bros.), the Open House, and then to a few games. Since we only bought 2 tickets, Steve takes a different person to each game. Our seats are in section 201, row 6, seats 16 and 17. This is caddy-corner to the end zone. They have a great view of the field, the big screen overhead, and the cheerleaders. One of the pictures shows us all 4 sitting in our seats at the Open House. The kids were amazed at the vastness of the stadium and had fun going all the way to the top of the nose-bleed section. Another picture shows Steve with the tickets before he had to tear off the first one. Being the husband-of-a-scrapbooker that he is...he knew it was important to take a picture of the tickets before the picture was disrupted.

I enjoyed going to the Inagural Game against the Giants. I am not a fan, but it was impressive and exciting to be at the game. The enthusiasm of the fams was very contagious and we had a good time. One of the pictures is of a huge U.S flag that military service members unrolled on the field during half-time. Steve's sister Debbye bought a party pass for the game and had her picture taken with the Tom Landry statue.

"Hey Batter, Batter!"

Shane's first T-Ball game was this Saturday. He played last spring and liked it so much we decided to play with the local YMCA this season. His team is the Aggies and is made up of 3-4 year old boys. It was quite fun to watch. Here are some of the highlights: