Sunday, June 27, 2010

She said WHAT????

Cali had on a little short dress today. We were headed out to eat so I told her to put some leggings on with her dress. She asked me "Why?"  I told her "Because I can see your booty!"
She said "You're just jealous 'cause my booty is cuter than yours!"

Seriously, she said that!  :)

Friday, June 25, 2010

The Nicest Kind of Mother's Day

Scott was out of town this year for Mother's Day. It's not entirely unusual. It kind of works that way here in Alaska, for many families.  Lots of Dads and husbands work week-on, week-off. Or even 2-3 weeks out like Scott often does. This year just happened to be one of those years where he was away.

I didn't give it a lot of thought as I am not prone to worry about it. I know I will figure out something to do with the girls and life will go on.

I didn't realize, with our hectic schedule he had been unable to take the kids to buy a gift. He is usually pretty good about it, although as I think about it, it's often last minute.  :)

I guess the kids had in mind to call Amber and have her take them to the store but I foiled their plan when I took them to the beach the night before. It just never occured to me that they needed to go anywhere and they were trying to keep things on the down-low so they never mentioned a thing.

I was having such a wonderful time on the beach that we ended up leaving late. Needless to say there was no shopping time.

Being that I have such amazing kids, they were quite ingenious about things and this is what they did. They set their clocks to wake up early. They took things we found at the beach and made the most wonderful gifts for me.  Have a look.

This is a book of quotes they researched on the internet. The stick is a special one Cali found  me at the beach. She tells me we are going to make some art out of it.
















Cali also made me this pin.  She was quite proud of this jewelry.
















I am quite proud of these. The smaller one on the right is the center bone of a vertebrae bone from a fish. the rocks are wrapped with wire to hold them together.
















This is another photo holder they made for me out of a piece of wood we brought home.

So what do you think?  Pretty cool, huh.  Sometimes you don't need any money at all, just a little love!

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of you who are mother's. I hope you had the most wonderful day.
2010-05-09

Ninilchik Beach- My new FAVE!

I have been a beach bum for a l-o-n-g time.  I grew up a great part of my life in Florida. I moved away for a short while but made my way back before finishing high school.  I didn't move to Alaska until I was about 24.















Even once I moved here I immediately feel in love with the beaches. I visit them throughout the year, even in the winter as long as the snow build-up will allow.

There are a few on the Kenai that I especially love as do my girls. Recently however we have decided we have a new favorite. At least I do. There is the drive factor to consider but given that I love to drive as well, it's a win-win! We can walk for what seems like forever. It's really that beautiful.















Ninilchik beach is fairly quiet. I like to go down to the village to access it and there have never been more than a couple people there at any given time.















There are some really odd light weight orange rocks there too. I hear there is a name for them but I am uncertain what it is. I have been collecting them for a while and would love to have a whole load of them but it will take some time.





















We also seem to find lots of sea glass there. We have challenges to see who can find the most. My girls have become quite the rulers of the sea glass and have found some beautiful pieces there!

The girls  love to climb the rocks. And I love all the cool things I can find there.

















And, an added bonus, Booger loves it there too.  Mostly because the girls tote him around when ever he wishes.



But I think even he likes the drive; I hear it's the view!  :)
2010-05-08

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Gulf Oil Spill- In a Child's Terms

Last week we attended the annual local Kenai River Fish Festival. While we were there the Kenai Watershed Forum (I think) had this experiment going on for the kids to try.  I thought it was too great a lesson not to share here.

You will need a large bowl full of water (I thought glass worked best for visual purposes)
a piece of yarn or string that will almost circle the bowl
oil for the water
LOTS of cut up paper towels














Although Cali did this last week at the festival I am glad I did it again with her. It brought up a lot more discussion and I enjoyed her problem solving dialogue.  It also reinforced why we were cutting up our old towels and t-shirts and mailing them into craft hope.  The big picture was clearing up a little more for her and the big girls. 

I put the oil in the water before I took her outside. Once outside I explained her mission was to get all of the oil contained in one area and to remove it from the water.

She already knew what to do but as she worked at it we talked about what the oil is doing to the animals in the Gulf.  It was very hard for her to contain the oil and she asked for my help. Even when we thought we had the string in a good place, she would begin the oil clean up and the string would shift causing seepage.















We went to Florida last summer and she remembers the ocean and beach there so we talked about how hard it would be to get something to contain huge amounts of oil in the ocean.















It caused her most concern when we finally decided to stop the project and she tried to clean her hands off. they still felt yucky of course and then we talked about the animals would couldn't really scrub themselves with dishrags and had to rely on humans to help them. And even with wiping them off, they would probably still feel yucky like her hands.















Regardless of your opinions on the oil spill and why it happened or who is to blame the one thing we should all be able to agree upon is that it is and will be devastating for a long time to come.  It is causing hardship to families, businesses, animals, and the environment. This lesson helps the kids understand the impact of the tragedy on terms they can comprehend.

Wordless Wednesday 06-23
















 This is what happens when your kids get into your makeup!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

amongst friends #34

Orange~













 It's a hard thing to fathom but I'm posting early this week.  And can you believe how great some of the pictures are. I think this week may possibly be some of the best contributions we have had in a while.  Either color is great theme, folks are fond of orange or we are all finally finding our photography groove.  Whatever the reason I am impressed with the outcome.  What about you?

I've got a feeling next week will be a challenge with FAMILY as a theme. I hope everyone continues to think out of the box. I can think of several options at some creative pictures. Do you have it in you to test your creativity? Think about it and start searching. Lets see what you come up with. Happy hunting!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

amongst friends #33

Food~
















Lots of interesting kinds of food on display this week.  :)  And it all makes me hungry..well not the dog food really.    I want to tell you, the front page of our Sunday paper had the exact same picture  this morning, just a different kid!  :)  I was feeling pretty full of myself!  (I'll try to add it to this post later so you can see how close it actually is.)

We have lots of interesting themes coming up.
Next week is orange THE COLOR, don't limit your self to only the fruit but if it works for you, so be it!
The following 4 themes might be tricky so be sure to start giving them some thought now.  I know I am.

Family
Scent
Memories
Pink (the color)

I do hope some of you who've been thinking about joining us will.  It's a bit addictive and if you train yourself to think about it, there are some rather creative pictures to be taken!  Enjoy the ride and after you do, add your photographic efforts to ours. I'll be watching my inbox.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Wordless Wednesday 06-08
















When I looked back, this is what I saw.  Do you see a devilish resemblance?

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

amongst friends #32

Round~

I am a bit behind again in posting.  I actually had my photo before Saturday but Cori, without knowing about my picture, spoke of taking one somewhat the same. So when I noticed my photo at the beach, I thought I'd leave the other opportunity for Cori. Unfortunately, she hasn't taken it yet. If she ends up getting one done, I will edit our collage.

I found the choices of this week's photos interesting.  No one took it very literally. I really like Kelly's picture this week. There is something about it that I can't explain that I really like. Sandy's photo actually crossed my mind but I was too lazy to go back and get my picture. I suppose it's a good thing or we would have duplicated each other. Do you know what it is?  Jenny and Jocelyn stepped out of the box a little and I think they were both very creative. I like my own photo but wish there was more color to it.

So what about you?  What did you photograph this week that was round? Was it more literal or did you stretch your ideas as well.

This week our theme is food and the following week is the color orange.  Feel free to join us anytime.


Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Wordless Wednesday 06-02
















I had to explain, less you thought i'd really let my child sleep here!
I had to wake her up really early. I got her dressed, brought her downstairs and sat her on the bottom stair.(She was awake!) I went to get her tennis shoes and when I came back I found her like this. And she is OUT!  :)

It's Time for a Haircut

I finally took the girls to get their hair cut today. Cori has been bugging me for a while and we just haven't had much time to get there.

Interestingly, Cori's hair looks the least different. She wanted to cut a lot more off but i wanted to take it slow. She has (or did have) the shortest hair in the family.  I was afraid she'd start middle school in August and have a little fit and there would be nothing I could do to help her. I did tell her if after a week she is still wanting to cut more off, I'd take her in again. After a day however, I think she is more interested in getting highlights.















Cassi took a big plunge and cut off about 10 inches. We are sending her hair to Locks of Love in hopes that it will bring some joy to someone needing a little.She was a bit nervous and wouldn't hold the hair we saved. She didn't even want to look at it.



I think she will like this new length. Especially for soccer. I am hoping it will be brushed more often.















Cali (who is the one who likely has the shortest hair now) cut a little off and it gives her a shorter pixie look. It's not a bob, but still cute.  She's been flipping it around everywhere since we left Miss Abby's.















Now it's my turn but I need a LOT of work.  :)  More hours than I have to spare right now.