A few of my Valentines

Here is Carolyn with her "locker" box.


Joel and his Sojourner - Mars Rover (named after Sojourner Truth....extra good name). The real Sojourner Rover wasn't much bigger than his box!


Anna and her box of hearts (that originally did have wheels....similar to Joel's).


Matthew doesn't have a Valentine box. While he did approve of a "Valentine related" picture, he asked I use a plain picture on the blog. I can respect that :)


Here he is modeling his look without glasses, since he was fit with contacts today. (our vision insurance is pretty good. It will buy new glasses every other year, but only changing the lenses on the off year. I think that would be a silly thing to do, since glasses are pretty cheap. Instead they do offer $105 credit toward contacts in the off year....so there wasn't much to lose on this contact trial. They will especially be nice for soccer. Matthew's vision is MUCH worse than mine, so I would love him to see well all the time. At the appt. he was able to get them in and out like a breeze - unlike me, especially originally. He will take them out each night before reading for the night, so that he never falls asleep with them in.....which Ken does every night, but shouldn't.....but of course I am not his mother :)

New baby in the family

Ken's niece is expecting a baby in August. That means we will be great-Aunt and great-Uncle....yes that feels old.

I have a baby boy quilt that I made to be "gender-neutral" but it really isn't. It is waiting in the wings if her baby is a boy. I started a baby girl quilt inspired by this post

It is harder than the work I usually do, because there are non-right angles and things intertwine. I had to make a pattern and I am designing the WHOLE thing on my wall before I start. It has taken more brainpower than my usual quilt!

(the red in the design will be pink in the quilt)


It is fun, because the baby's grandmother gave me some of this fabric and some is from Carolyn's quilt. (Carolyn was a bridesmaid in the mother-to-be's wedding.)

My favorite toy

Maybe there has been a post or two about this toy, but my memory fails me :)

Anyway I love Imaginext....not the new "young" Imaginext....the old stuff that was made to have 100s of pieces to mix and match among sets. It was more of a building toy, while "today's Imaingext" are more like Little People for slightly older boys - sort of an imagination play game where you can pretend to be different characters.

They changed Imaginext probably 5 years ago, so all of our Imaginext to date were Matthew's. Luckily he shares well, because all the kids (and I) love this activity. I got rid of a tote of Little People (we still have one tote :), but now will need a second tote for Imaginext. I bought 3 new kits online - one for Joel's birthday (coming Sunday) and one to share for Valentine's day (everyone will get pieces saying "you rescue me with love"....together their pieces will build the rescue station) and then this one. Normally we don't get new toys "just cuz", but today we made an exception and built this castle.

Back in the day, Matthew didn't like to build according to the directions, rather he just liked to build according to his imagination. By the time he was old enough that he liked to build according to directions, the directions already had been recycled. It was nice to get this set with the directions...although there was a piece or two missing. Since you can no longer buy "good" Imaginext new, I bought these sets used off of Ebay. We have enough parts from other sets we were able to build the castle without any trouble.

Like anything else on Ebay, you can get good deals or you can pay a fortune for other people's over-priced stuff. I think I got good deals :)

Here is our current tote of Imaginext. It might seem crazy like this, but once 3 or 4 kids build a "home", there aren't many pieces left.

My first Derby (family's seventh)

Sunday was Joel's second Derby. All the kids raced a car. All but Anna built a car. She raced Joel's 2011 car and won the Open division. I think Joel felt good because last year his wheels didn't work very well, but he learned a lot about being a good sport. I think he enjoyed seeing his American Flag car do well this year.
Here is Joel with his 2012 car - he won "Most likely to win the Big 10 championship" award.

Here are the Open Division contenders, with Anna's car (flag) on the far right, with Carolyn's "Hermione" car - winner of "Best Car with a Driver" award. Matthew's car was behind Carolyn's car - he won "Most Artistic".

Here are Den 7's racers.

Here is Anna winning her award for fastest in the Open Division (aka - non-scouts) She also won "Most Patriotic". After the Derby was done the kids raced for fun and Carolyn's car beat Anna's car, which was undefeated in the Open Division, which goes to show there is some wiggle room at the Derby!

I think the 2nd grade boys had the most fun after their race when racing down the handicap ramp in the hall.

Snow Much FUN

We have had a VERY mild weather here in Iowa. If it wasn't for the threat of global warming, I am sure I would have loved yesterday's 60+ degree weather even more. We also haven't had much snow, but the kids (at least the youngest 3) have enjoyed every bit of it.

just so I don't forget

My friend S.S. sent me a little reminder of my word of the year. Check it out (left) - I posted it here as a reminder to myself.

Since 2012 started I do feel more like I am thriving rather than treading (water)! It helps to be down to one job and to have figured out the school "thing". For the first time in over 13 years it has been great to have more "weekend time" with the family. It helps with the thriving goal. Of course this week's spare weekend time has been dedicated to TAXES. (actually I like doing taxes - except when I hit a snag and have to call in the EXPERT (aka my Dad) Not too many snags this year - yeah!)

Comparison Kills Contentment

click on this link for an inspirational post about comparison!

A friend from my mother's group sent this to the group and I love it. Such a good reminder to love the place where God has placed you. It is so easy to look at how much others have or how clean their house is :) Better to love your own life!