Go Packers!

Jordis started her first activity this year.....cheerleading! She started taking cheer classes at the local gymnastics center, but we didn't feel like she was getting much out of it so we signed her up for football cheerleading with our local Optimist Football league. She was put on the Packers with 16 other girls and now she's learning how to cheer, as well as understanding when and why cheerleading is used. She was a trooper when it came to her three practices a week in August. Then she got to go to her first spirit night where we had pizza and cupcakes and painted banners for all of the games.

Her first game was a little shaky. Grandpa, Grammy, Maw Maw and Paw Paw all came to watch, and she refused to participate. People were looking at her, the pom poms were too scratchy and there a lot of pouts and faces like this.

Jason and I both had a few "chats" with her...

...and finally, after being bribed with $1, she cheered during the 4th quarter. After all the grandparents went home.

The second game went a little better. She got to be a banner holder that day so she had something to look forward to.

Nanny Mo and Mr. Brian came and she said she'd cheer as long as Mr. Brian didn't look at her.

Little did we know it would be 99 degrees that day and the girls would be spending almost half of the game sitting under a tree eating popsicles.

After a bye week we had a really good day this past Saturday. It was much cooler so we had to bring out the sweat suits. Grandpa and Ba Dee were able to come this week and Jordis not only cheered, but looked like she was having a good time, too.

We couldn't be more proud of our little girl and can't wait to see how she does the rest of the season.

Parental Celebrations

So I'm a little behind with my posts for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Yes, I realize it's now mid-July, but I figured better late than not at all.

For a long time now I've been wanting to go to the paint-your-own pottery store to make a family birthday plate. I thought it would be a neat tradition for the birthday person at our house to get to use it on their special day. My mom's group went there for an outing but I knew I'd never have time to complete one, so I ended up making this plate....

I love it, but it doesn't fulfill the purpose I needed, so for Mother's Day my mom and I went to a different pottery store to each make something. We had lots of fun painting as we drank big fountain Coke's and ate Arby's. No one at my house likes Arby's so sometimes it's my special treat to eat when I'm with my mom. My mom made a plate to match her kitchen and I made my birthday plate. It took me 6 long hours, but I'm happy with the result. It takes a lot of coats to get that paint dark.

The kids made each of their grandmas a decoupaged vase and we went to Jason's parents for a cookout. Jason and the kids also made me breakfast in bed. I forgot to take pictures of all that. I remembered to take pictures of these though.....

For Father's Day the kids painted some canisters and we made all the grandpas some cinnamon-sugar popcorn.

We went to dinner for gyros with my step-dad and mom and then Jason's parents, his sister and boyfriend and my dad and step-mom came for a cookout. Jason treated himself to some private fishing time and the kids and I made him a few gifts.

Not sure where we're going to put the stepping stone, but I made sure it was LSU colors.

Kids in the Kitchen

The kids and I have been busy lately, because around here there is a lot of truth to the saying "idle hands make for devil's tools." If the kids don't have something structured to do around here, more than likely they are getting in trouble.

Last Friday we made some yarn pumpkins. The kids got a kick out of wrapping me up with yarn and then Xander took my remnants and made his own art.



Today we were supposed to be making trees, using the side of our hand as the trunk and our fingerprints as leaves. Jordis started out as a willing participant, then decided the leaves needed to be smeared all over. Xander decided to paint a bug. I like my trees though.


We also made a new snack. I found a recipe in the September issue of Wondertime magazine for Powerballs.


It's a fairly healthy snack and Xander had lots of fun dumping the ingredients into the mixer.


The kids enjoy eating them and I had plenty to freeze, too.

http://wondertime.go.com/life-at-home/article/powerball-cookies.html

Around the house

We haven't really been doing much of anything fun lately, but we have tried to make a few changes around the house.

Jordis has been in her big girl bed for over a year now and we decided the time was right to finally put the frame on, as the mattress and box springs had just been lying on the floor. She has started amassing a few collections that she refuses to part with at night, even though there is barely any room for her little body in there. Books, dolls, cars and hats are her favorites, and she knows if you sneak a few things out. The twin beds we have were built by my grandpa and have a shelf on the headboard, so we thought maybe this would be a way for Jordis to keep her prized possessions, but perhaps NEAR her and not so much all crowded in WITH her. However, once it was up we realized that we can no longer attach the guardrail. It's been a few weeks now and she hasn't fallen out once, but she still refuses to sleep without her things.



Jason has also been painting the office while he's up overnight on his days off. I love to paint and would normally want to help, but there's such limited time to be up in the office without the kids being unsupervised that it's just easier this way. Our desk tops are a speckled pattern of black, brown, white and gray so we got a brownish-red color that is similar to the color of cherry wood. I think it kind of looks like Dr. Pepper. We really like it next to the white woodwork and we're planning on getting white shelves when it's done.



Alas, I'm having issues with my plants. My vegetable plants continue to grow but there are no vegetables. So I'm not real sure what the problem is there. And then there are the gladiolus. I agonized over what colors to buy and kept them separated so I could plant them alternately as to avoid clumps of color in one spot. I've been eyeing them since May and got real excited one day last week when I noticed there were going to be flowers. Upon closer inspection though, I realized they looked pink, and I detest pink. Luckily they have ended up more of a coral color, but the bulbs I bought came from bins that were labeled as being purple, yellow and white. So I guess I will have to live with this combination instead.