Dinner and a Movie

We went to Grandma & Grandpa's for dinner last night...corned beef and cabbage...yummy! After we went to see "UP". I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was...Mary had said it got 4 stars, and it really deserved them. It was such a fresh story line and was truly hysterical. I was laughing to the point of tears on several occasions. There is one part with a dog...I won't ruin it, but when you see it you'll know what I'm talking about....hilarious! Definitely a must see even if you don't have kids. :)

And the award goes to...

Madeleine won an Academic Achievement Award for creative writing and was presented with a certificate at the school assembly today. There were only three students who won this award. She was also asked to read one of her original works of poetry. She was very nervous because it was in front of the whole school, but she did an amazing job. We are very proud of her!

This picture is with her teacher Mrs. Wilner.






Reading her poem.

Fun at the park

Strike a pose

Dane ~ hilarious.

Movie night

We took Mom and Blake along with us to see Night at the Museum on Saturday. Great movie! I got a kick out of the singing cupids...hilarious. :)

For the love of hats

My hair is finally long enough to pull through a baseball cap. I forgot how great hats are. No bad hair days!

Yum Yum

	Eating slushies at the park.

Loyalty Park

Playing frisbee at Loyalty Park.

Uggh!!!

My computer is on the fritz again. I hate that piece of poo! Apparently it needs a new fan, which is like $60 bucks...awful pricey for a fan. :/

Dane-ism

After picking Dane up from school. "I was bored out of my mind at school today so I was spacing out, but my ears were listening to everything everyone was saying." So I guess that means just his ears were listening and his brain was turned off. :)

Ginger the Hunter.

Dane is 11!

Dane turned 11 on Friday. So he is officially a tween. Teenager-land here we come. :/

Madeleine's Legend

In school Madeleine's class is doing a writing project on Legends. They had to write their own legend or folk lore on a topic of their choosing. Madeleine chose fire. Her legend is as follows:

HOW FIRE BECAME RED AND ORANGE
By: Madeleine Pfeiffer

A long, long time ago when fire was white and cold, things seemed a little sad back then. First of all when the fire didn’t have the color it has now life was not so good for the Indians. They had no light to see in the dark and their food was always cold. The Indians always ate raw food, the only thing they had to eat was fruit and vegetables because they couldn’t eat raw food, and they could get sick. But sometimes they did eat the raw meat because they got tiered of eating fruit and vegetables. Then one day when the sunset was red and orange, everything changed for the Indians and animals. Suddenly while some Indians were cooking some raw cold fish over the white cold fire, a pack of big gray scary wolves came to the Indians. The Indians were frightened because they didn’t have their spears or weapons with them, then suddenly lightning came and struck the Indians and by a miracle they were not hurt, but rather they could now talk to the wolves. So the Indians started talking to the wolves and they said “Oh please, Oh please, help us. We have raw food, we can’t see, and we have to eat vegetables all the time.” The Indians waited for the wolves to say something. Finally the wolves said “Wait until the next sunset to turn red and orange, even if it takes many days, or even years. When this happens makes sure everyone lights their fires.” Then the pack of big scary wolves left in a flash and the Indians did just what the wolves said.
They waited and waited until the sunset was only red and orange. Many years past until the sunset finally turned red and orange. The Indians started shouting and screaming with excitement for the wolves to do something. Then finally when every single Indian in the world had their fire already made the wolves stated to howl louder and louder. The howling was so loud that a piece of the red and orange sky fell off and shattered into tiny pieces and landed into every single fire. The Indians and animals were so happy because now their fires were warm with the power of the sun. Never again did they have to eat raw food or struggle in the night to see.
And that is the legend of how fire became red and orange.

Madeleine has been asked to read this at a Young Author's Tea on June 2nd. Space is limited for the event, but I will be sure to post pictures for all to see.

Finally saw Star Trek. Super good!

Why when crappy things happen do they all happen all at once? And why won't it stop raining?!!!

I just learned how to send blog posts from my phone. Very cool!

Shopping at the greenhouse.

Madeleine gets the job!

Madeleine's class has recently implemented a monetary system at school where they can earn "class money" to spend at an auction that will be held at the end of the year. They earn money for doing extra tasks in the classroom and for excellent behavior. They are fined for breaking rules or not turning in homework. The teacher posted a job opening last week for classroom banker. The banker is in charge of managing all of the classmates accounts. Interested students were required to fill out an application complete with qualifications and references. They were also interviewed by the teachers. It was announced yesterday that the position had been filled...Madeleine got the job! We are so proud of her. She worked really hard on her application and is very excited to be the banker. She has always had a knack with money and is extremely frugal. She currently has $120+ dollars in her personal savings account which she has earned through allowance and profits from her artwork online. In addition to this the students were asked to submit designs for the class money to be voted on. Madeleine's designs won 2 out of the 3 currencies to be used. Way to go M!

Dane-ism

Waiting for Dane outside the bathroom at the Shell station. Me- "What took you so long?" Dane, without skipping a beat- "Oh, I was dancing in the bathroom to pass the time. I thought you'd take longer then me." So in true Dane style let's all take a minute to dance in the bathroom today. It just might make your day a little brighter. :)

Master and student

Dane has never shown much interest in the piano whereas Madeleine took to it like a duck to water...so I found it quite intriguing this morning when I awoke to find Madeleine giving Dane a piano lesson. I couldn't believe it...he was listening intently as she told him how to hold his hands and went over the notes with him. It was a very sweet moment. Oh, isn't it the most wonderful thing in the world to be a Mom! :)

Mind your own business!

We got a letter from the home owners association saying that we couldn't keep our garbage cans on the side of the house. Are you kidding me! Where the heck are they supposed to go??? Brent doesn't want them in the garage, which I completely understand. Who wants stinky garbage around when you are trying to work on something? So they are currently residing in the backyard, which completely sucks because I have put so much time into making the backyard my little "sanctuary" and now there are garbage cans back there! So to the big mouth who reported us to the home owners association..."Why don't you mind your own business. I'm sure our garbage cans weren't hurting you. Seriously!"

Busy Weekend

We started off the weekend by going to the pancake breakfast at McClendon's with my Mom. Sounds weird, I know. They do it every year...it's a big local tradition I guess. Anyway they have a giant garden sale and serve pancakes, sausage, coffee and juice. It was packed! The breakfast was actually pretty good too. Then we met up with Nonya who was in town to meet her new in-laws. We had lunch with her and Nik and Tiff at the Olive Garden. It's funny because I seem to never go to Olive Garden unless Nonya is in town. :) Sunday we went to the special assembly day to see my cousin Nick get baptised. I was really proud of him, but it also made me feel old...LOL. I remember watching him when he was just a baby. He was so cute! Big blue eyes and blonde curly hair. After the assembly Bob and Mary took us to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Bobby and Allani and the kids were able to join us too and we went to that new Greek restaurant by the movie theaters. No one had been there before, but Brent has really been wanting to try it. It was excellent! Everyone enjoyed the food. The service was good, but a little slow. Not somewhere to go if your in a hurry, but if you just want to relax and have some good food it's great. Yummy. :)