a little ART CAN'T HURT

happiness is a wagging tail

The sun is shining.

Birds are chirping and bees are buzzing.

Caterpillars are inching along and the grass couldn't be more green.

Happiness.

inside the fort - wall #1

Super-bright, super-colorful chalk!

Comes in real handy when you have a wall you can draw on!

I consider chalkboard paint to be in the Top 10 Best Things Ever!

So do the kids!

(the feet in the pic belong to me - I was reclining on the couch and taking in the sun)

The fort is so relaxing...

I think I might just have to claim it as mine.  :)

hopscotch

Chalk and a rock.

Who knew it could be this fun!

Even dads like this game!

Nice shoes honey!

box tops

Does anyone else have cereal boxes in their cabinet that look like this?

It drives me nuts that the boxes won't close compeltely once you've hacked off the box tops.

When we come home from grocery shopping all I ever hear is "there are SO MANY BOX TOPS!" 

And then out-come-the-scissors....

The things we do for our kids!

the best dog ever

You know that pet you get when you're "all grown up"?

The one that is your first child? The one that has a super-special place in your heart?

This is mine. Meet Tobi.

(Tobi and girls circa 2007)

The world just lost the best dog.

Today we had to put my beloved friend to sleep.

He's been living with my parents since my divorce as right after the split I didn't live in a place that allowed dogs. He became part of their family too and so he stayed.

They were so good to Tobi in his aging days. My heart hurts for their loss as it is also mine.

Tobi had a kind soul that just made you relax.

If you were upset he'd come to you and rest his head in your lap.

He used to lay on our bed and I'd rest my belly on him when I was pregnant with girls - he was the best furry body pillow.

When he slept he held his front paw in his mouth just like he was sucking his thumb.

He new the word 'treat' even if you spelled it out t-r-e-a-t. He still knew and his tail would wag.

He was always so gentle with the kids but loved a mean game of tug-of-war with his rope tugger.

I went through so many vacuum cleaners because of his looong reddish hair - but I'd do it all over again if I could.

Today was so hard. The keyboard is wet with my tears right now.

I haven't really been able to function since this morning's trip to the vet. 

But we held him long after he was gone. He knew he was a good boy. He knew he was loved.

My loving husband just got done burying him in our side garden in the middle of a thunderstorm.

But he's worth it. Tobi was that kind of dog. The best.

(Tobias the Great XIII, 1998-2009)

class project

Mamie's teacher was in my shop a few weeks ago and saw a little project that Mamie and I had done. It is a simple way to turn a sweet drawing into a treasure that loved ones can display anywhere. She asked me if I'd come and help her class do this project for Mother's Day and I said yes.

Here are the steps (as photographed by Mamie while I was working with the kids):

1) draw something....anything! The kids drew pictures of their moms and rainbows, flowers with butterflies - make it your own.

2) you need to cut your picture out. You can get creative with the shape of your piece by cutting around each of the edges and even seperating some flowers or clouds to sit seperately. The only rule is that the bottom of the picture must be flat, so now is when you can get a ruler and exacto knife out (parents, this is for YOU to do) and trim the bottom edge so it's flat.

3) then you mount the picture onto foamcore. I use pre-sticky board from the shop but you could just put spray adheasive onto a regular piece and lightly rub the picture onto it. The foamcore needs to be at least 3/16" thick or it will be too flimsy.

4) an adult can then take a sharp exacto knife and cut the foamcore alond the edge of the drawing. Get right up next to it so that there's no foamcore showing around the image. This part is tough - it takes muscle, patience, a really sharp blade and a mat of some kind. Self-healing cutting mats are amazing and are worth their weight in gold!

(In the pic below you can see my one cotton glove. That was so my hand holding the images still didn't smudge any of the marker on the drawing)

5) then I took black foamcore (1/4" thick) and cut it into strips. I glued two strips on top of each other and cut them down to fit each drawing.

6) using a hot glue gun I glued the bottom of the drawing (the flat side) onto the middle of the double-up strip of black foamcore. The black foamcore becomes the base of this 3-D drawing.

Here is one of the finished projects. You can see some of the others in the background on the window sill. You can glue seperate flowers or rows of grass or butterflies onto the black strip in front of your drawing to give it more depth but there is no way to go wrong with this simple and fun project!

Supplies needed:

crayons or markers or colored pencils (for drawing)

paper for drawing (I use cardstock because it doens't crinkle when the kids cut their drawings out)

white foamcore

black foamcore

spray adheasive

sharp exacto knife

ruler

glue gun

sweetness

There are a few things around our house that just scream SUMMER...

and making smores is one of them.

Our littlest chatty-cathy here has got marshmallow roasting SO mastered that she can roast with one hand while she makes a dramatic presentation of why she thinks High School Musical is SOOOOO awesome and then gives me the you-just-don't-get-it-mom look the next second. 

LOVE IT!

There's nothing wrong with the good 'ol fashioned kind but we've also come up with our own incredible concoction. 

Let's go over the list of ingrediants needed:

creamy peanut butter

chocolate bars

chocolate graham crackers

marshmallows

and if you're REALLY wanting to put the yummy-factor over the top, then use THESE...

Are you salivating yet??? Yes, these are marshmallows covered in TOASTED COCONUT!

I'll warn you, they're addicting to munch on plain....but toasted they are unbelievable! 

to. die. for!

The kids usually stick to plain mallows which is fine with me - leaves more of the coconut ones for you-know-who!

You can't see the chocolate bar I'm about to put on this smore, but it's there!

And THIS is the result you can expect...

This is the face of sheer delight!

Try it. You WON'T regret it - although your hips and thighs might after 4 or 5 of these.  :)

Summer is just around the corner and I can't wait!

home sweet fort

So little time and so much to share...

It will have to be a little bit at a time.

Yes, the fort is 99% done.

It's got a red door too. Had to do it - couldn't resist.

The green leaves are popping out all over and starting to create a veil around the fort.

Planted the gerberas that our lovely neighbor gave the kids as fort-warming-gifts!

Shoes come off at the door. It's a rule.

Otherwise the carpet would get really messy -

 - and on that note I must say GOODNITE!

Sleep beckons and my cold feet are just dying to attack my sleeping hubby!

Interior fort photos coming soon!

3.1 miles

That's how long a 5K run is - 3.1 miles.

And that's what our entire family just did!

The day started out WINDY and OVERCAST and cold!

Trev wanted to run his first 5K on his birthday so we all did it to support him.

it. was. amazing!

Each of the kids was so attentive as we did stretches with all the other runners.

In all there were over 650 people in this race so we decided to stick together and not let them each run at their own pace.

Here's Mames running up to the 2 mile water station.

I told them all how to pinch the cups shut at the top and sip out the end of it so it doesn't splash all over their faces. They all did UNBELIEVEABLY WELL!

I wanted to be at the finish line to get photos of each of the H's crossing the line but Trev decided at the last second he wanted to race me....so here's his almost-finish as we sprint side by side.

So like an 11 year old - YES! YOU'RE ELEVEN TODAY! Happy Birthday!!!!!!

It's REALLY difficult to snap pics while you're running and to run up ahead of them to turn around to snap pics and then back behind them. I swear I must have run more like 4 miles just doing all the back-n-forths!  :)

Mames was really feeling the burn there at the end so Doug helped her through the last 1/2 mile. 

I got choked up a couple of times - again, not easy to run that way!

Watching each of the kids shout support to each other and stay positive and NOT GIVE UP...omigosh!

It put me over the edge as a mom! I was having PPM all over the place! (PPM = Proud Parent Moment)

Only three other 6 year old ran this race! Heidi was AWESOME!

Such a natural, such drive and focus - she could have run at her own pace and come in around 30 minutes! REALLY!! 

(see that overcast sky...it began to drizzle at the finish line)

They were so proud of themselves and deservingly so!

The yucky weather couldn't even dampen their spirits. 

I think they wore their medals for 24 hours straight!

MY KIDS ROCK!!!! *heart sigh* 

The kids couldn't believe all the goodies you get after a run.

Really the spread for this race was NICE with bagels & go-gurts, fruit and freebie waterbottles...I can't wait for us to run this one again next year!

Happy happy parents here! 

So proud of our kiddos!

**4 hours after this photo was taken 11 children under the age of 12 converged on our home for a birthday party/sleepover. seriously. but that's a different post.  :)