Presidents' Day

Happy Presidents' Day to you!

Hope you enjoyed your day off, if you got one. I, myself, had an Elementary Plan Day. So, no school for Madison today and a quiet day at work for me...cleaning my classroom and ordering supplies for the next school year.

I can't say I've ever "celebrated" Presidents' Day before. I should do something since my kids all have presidential names. Just think of all those scrapbooking opportunities I've let go by over the years....hmmm? Well, we did have Cherry Pancakes tonight in honor of our first fore father of our country, George Washington. This wasn't my idea, but that of E-Mealz. A food program that I am still loving. Of course, the cherries were suppose to go on as the topping, but we (Andy and I) thought it would be more adventurous to put it in the pancakes or panpakes like Grant likes to call them.

The batter does make for a nice looking Valentine pancake, I think.

And boy do those cherries retain their heat!

Here are recent photos tonight of my favorite
Commanders in Chief

John Tyler - 10th President of the U.S.

James Madison - 4th President of the U.S.
(Interesting fact: James Madison married Dolley 206 years earlier on Madison's birthday, which is September 15th.)
Now you are probably wondering why I know that weird fact?
Wikipedia, of course!

Ulysses S. Grant - 18th President of the U.S.
Wouldn't Ulysses be proud of a character like Grant?

The pancakes were good, but I think that there would have been better flavor if I would have left the cherries for the topping. I'll remember that next time! ;)

February Blahs

I've been having the February blahs lately, so I turn to crafting. I created this wall art out of a kit from Archiver's. I can't take any of the credit, it's designed by the Archiver's people, but I did adapt it to fit five pictures instead of three. I love the color combination. I think I may make another one too. It was fun and pretty quick to put together.

Part 1

Then I found the cutest classroom valentines off of a craft blog. I bought all the supplies and found two cute girls to make them. I helped a little, but did more of the photo taking.

To complete the project one needs Smarties, Lifesavers, Gum (long stick kind), string, labels and rubber bands.

Then the assembly begins...

Kate is a neighbor and friend of Madison's.

Madison and Kate were busy for over two hours.

They made the cutest airplanes!

Part 2

This is Tyler's Team B Basketball Team.

They look thrilled. I like how one (Nate) hid from getting in the photo.

Teenagers are awesome to photograph...not.

Tyler's team played on Saturday and lost 19 to 39. Only one more game to go.

Part 3

Today was Youth Sunday at church.

Madison gave the Pastoral Prayer...

in front of several hundred people.

She was a rock star! I am very proud of her!

Part 4

We are on week 3 of E-Mealz. We did skip last week and I regretted it. It's been very helpful in creating quick, healthy choices for the family. No more..."What's for dinner?"

We have noticed an increase in complaints from the minors in the household.

Apparently, we've feed fish sticks, corn dogs and chicken nuggets to our kids for too long.

Above is a picture of Beef Pot Pie. It was good and brought me back to memories of those frozen Chicken Pot Pies my mom use to buy from the store.

This was a lot better!

Tell me what you are doing to keep busy in this technically short (but seems forever long) month?

Snowdays = Productive Days

I so love snow days! I like that I can't really go anywhere and I'm not expected to. I dislike having a school year where I never get to use even one up. However, I am hoping we don't exceed our 5 snow days or we will have to make them up like last year. That's a bummer!

I haven't blogged in a while and I'm thinking I'm losing my touch to keep it up. There's just so much to do and so very little time it seems.

Here's what we've been busy with lately....

Tyler decided to try his hand at basketball. I was a little shocked that he's not decided that this is the sport for him in the past, but I believe a beautiful, young girl had something to do it. Tyler has a girlfriend who loves this sport, so of course, Tyler does too. How sweet, huh?

Tyler is number 42.

I love action shots, but terrible at taking them. I so want a Canon Rebel and a photography class to go with it. I wish cupid would bring me one for Valentine's Day.

Tyler's played two Saturdays now and hasn't done too bad.

He scored 4 points in his first game and 2 points in the second.

Madison got to attend a free girls' soccer clinic at the University on Saturday.

Madison had no problem going alone, knowing she'll have a blast.

Madison dreams of playing soccer at the University.

I tell her...live the dream, work hard.

I'd just be happy to know that she could play at a high school level.

I am delighted that she LOVES something this passionately, especially since it's not BOYS!

Andy and I got tickets at the last minute (okay, in the last 12 hours prior to the performance) to the Blue Man Group.

It was PHENOMENAL! I find that kind of humor...hilarious!

I also won my second charm from Two Dog Pond.

I feel a little embarrassed now, so I guess I won't be playing the game for awhile.

It is so darling! Thanks Rachel!

Yesterday, snow day #1, Andrew cleaned out cupboards and organized my spices alphabetically. I did laundry and cleaned toilets. Too bad this neatness can't stay this way!

I also made chocolate chip cookies. This is how many are left.

Then I organized some layouts from my last crop.

This is the most recent picture wise layout.

It was taken on January 10th, which was our very first snow day.

I love to do sport layouts. I am glad Tyler decided to try basketball.

I needed some more variety.

This is my favorite layout.

I love Halloween and the color combinations in this design.

Andy's cousin, Janelle, called me this afternoon. She works for the Community Blood Bank.

She told me that they are in dire need of O negative blood.

So, I went and gave. I got an awesome t-shirt and a free whopper at Burger King.

My snow day is now complete!