A Giving Heart

Commander in Chief hard at work.

I suggested he work on some school.

He countered with "activities"

I have never seen him color this much before.

Every one who visits him in the room seems to get a picture.

Some even get to pick one out for themselves before hand.

I suggested he just keep coloring, instead of using his red phone to summon

the receipents when their picture was done. 

For now, he is content and busy

Much to be grateful for.

Thank you Aunt Sharon for all the colors and books.

 

 

The Perfect Gift for a Teenage Boy!

 

With the family gathering coming up fast, Aunt Sharon asked,
"What would Hockey Player like for his birthday?"

 

Not such an easy question to answer.

 

Hockey Player wants new club(s) from Golf Warehouse

 

Itunes gift cards

 

Net for practicing hockey in the driveway.
Now this can't be just any net!

This net has to be strong.

Really strong.

We have even talked about buying him steel trash cans.

This is why ~

He hit the puck so hard he put holes in his first net.

Then Daddy O recommended he hit at the trash dumpster.

Well he hit the puck so hard, he put a hole in the side of the dumpster.

AND...

the puck bounced off and went flying towards the vehicles.

Fortunately no damage to the cars.

Anyhow, a net for this kid to practice is going to pricey.

We have shopped and looked.

 

Hmmm, what else would make a good gift.

 

The kid likes food

 

food

food

food

 

The amount he can consume in one sitting is astonishing.

 

Golf time with Uncle Terry and Grandpa would be cool.

 

Aunt Sharon sighs and says good bye. 

Nothing overwhelming exciting and affordable to choose from.

The kid has expensive likes, hobbies and preferences.

 

Then the weekend came and we celebrated with the family.

 

Aunt Sharon presented him this huge box with various theatre candies

attached to the outside. 

I laughed and said there was probably a small little gift card down in the bottom.

 

Nope!!!

Instead there was food!

Can you see the smile on his face?

This smile says it all.....IT IS ALL MINE!!!!!!

ALL MINE!!!!

 

 

Oh yeah, Aunt Sharon scored.  Scored really big.

In our house that would be called a Hat Trick!

Something that makes me smile!

 

These 3 brass pumpkins have been around for as long as I can remember.
They came from Turkey. 

My dad was stationed there. 
Some of my earliest memories are of when he was stationed away from us.

These were one of the treasures he brought back home.

I have kept them stored away for most of my adult years.

Mostly because of the controversy of Halloween.

My kids saw them for the first time this year.

After I welcomed the shelves into my dining room, I had a spot.

I remembered these 3 guys.

Then after our trip to the pumpkin patch,
Dad's Bud added his Boo Pumpkin. 

It works, I like it.

Growing up, my mom stored them in her cedar chest.
When they came out, I always assumed they were mine.
My birthday is afterall, on Halloween.
Made perfect sense to my child's mind.

Recently, Dad visited and saw my shelves.

Next, he asked, how I came to have them.

He frowned, when I told him, they were mine and Mom gave them to me.

That is when the story came out.

3 children.

3 pumpkins.

Sigh, I took my brother's and sister's pumpkins.

Silly childish mind and memory.

Sorry SiS!

My Grand-Neice!!

Find It Games

My kids are in love with this game.  I recently bought it for my Granny.  She is wheelchair bound after falling and breaking her hip.  Her memory is fading.  Yet she likes to look at things.  After reading several reviews on various websites regarding memory loss I figured we would give it a try. Unfortunately, we are battling illnesses and have yet to deliver it to her.  But my kids have tested it out to see if it was the bees knees or not. They gave it two thumbs up.  I am thinking for trips in the car, times when we are visiting Granny and the adults are doing more visiting than children this will be a good distraction!  We just might find one or more of these in the mail or under the Christmas tree.



(if you want to quickly find this item on Amazon, click on the photo or click on the tab "My Amazon Store")
My website uses affiliate links. Please see this post for more information.

Suprises from Grandmama and Papa

I received an email this past week from my Mom and Dad.  They wanted to know if we would be at the family reunion.  They had a surprise for Little Princess.

She was suprised.

 

Her first wheels

 

Grandmama's bike

She isn't riding anymore, so they thought of Little Princess!

Helping Papa put it back together.  They had to take the wheels off to get the bike in the trunk.

 

and finally testing out the wheels.... her legs are long enough!

 

 

 

Such a blessing to Little Princess.  She has outgrown her bike and well, we have been busy and not searched out a new bike for her. 

THANK YOU Grandmama and Papa!

Hubbie is a little tired today...

Our Parent Teacher Conference was canceled today. 
Hubbie was a bit tired. 
I wouldn't care to guess why...

This is what we did on Saturday:

Up and deposited Fun Girl at work first thing in the morning &
Hockey Player to the church for training.
Yard Work
Trip to the store to :
Search for special lightbulbs for the basement....gotta have light to do school
Parts to repair the stairway gate
Curtain rods for his daughter's rooms
Pick up Hockey Player, cause shopping took just that long!
Meanwhile I am taking pictures for Ebay
Running the dishwasher (mind you...we did 4 loads of dishes on Saturday... there were some left from the night before...breakfast, then we did a massive leftover feed for lunch and that alone produced enough dishes for a load)
The laundry machines are running as well.

Hung the curtain rods and curtains !  What a guy. ;)
Fixed the gate
Replaced the basement lightbulbs.  The Man enthusiastically noticed and said a glorious Thank You to his dad.
Due to a lack of rain and childish curiousity which led to unplugging the sump pump, our sump pump has not run all summer.  Not a good thing.  The water has become stagnant.  Thankfully, it was discovered before the house started to smell.  Stirring the water to flush it out, there was some odor, but the house vented really quickly. 

Trip to the nursing home to see Granny.  Her birthday was Friday.  84!
Cheesecake and a song were on the agenda.









Lots of Smiles.  If we didn't reflect back on the happenings of the day or stop to look at the photos.  An hour of smiles and relationship could easily be lost in the business.


Home to work on Home School Planning and Preparations.  We managed to get through 4 kids' studies. 
While Daddy O was working on all the above, I was cleaning...purging and recycling old school stuff and.........
packaging up Ebay items we have sold.
Kids worked on various chores and played games together. 
Hockey Player cleaned up all his old hockey gear.  The younger brothers have found their own paths and no longer desire to follow big brother in hockey.  So it is time to sell brother's stuff.
Stomped down the recycle bin more than twice....and filled it some more. 

Picked up our Fun Girl from work. 
Dinner. 
More work.
Showers...cause church is in the morning and we can't have smelly children. :)
Kids folded all the laundry from the weekend! 
Daddy-O reserved an hour to watch the fastest men in the Olympics.
And then we crashed....

Nintendo Mario and K'Nex Meet! !

Oh my goodness I am soo excited!  This year, I am way behind on my Christmas shopping.  No time, no ideas, until tonight!  I made myself do some shopping and looking around tonight.  Look what I found ! !
K'Nex Mario Kart sets.  My gamer/builder is going to love this !  Good thing he doesn't know about my blog.  Well he knows about it...but he doesn't go online yet.  If you are one of the big siblings reading this, "ZIP YOUR LIPS AND CLOSE DOWN YOUR WINDOWS!" No sharing what you know.