Perfectly ordinary days

This one was a huge tear jerker for me. I love my children so much and just can't imagine life without them but I know it will happen all too soon. Just take time to enjoy them while they are young, I know I'm trying to!

Things I have done.

I saw this on my friend Three countries, one family blog and decided to do it also. Leave a comment if you do it so I can read yours!

Things I have done....

The things I have already done are highlighted in red and the things on my bucket list are in blue (a bucket list is things you want to do before you kick the bucket)

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo's David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie- only home made movies though

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching - I kick myself all the time that I didn't do this in New Zealand

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book - I was published in a magazine but not a book!

81. Visited the Vatican

2. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a Baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Read an entire book in one day

Iridescence and ice cube colors

Start with salt

Cover the ice with salt

Drop food coloring onto the ice and find which color is iridescent

Makenzie found that a CD is iridescent

Kylan found that bubbles and sea shells were iridescent

First we started out with a bowl of ice then we added salt to it and then dropped food coloring drops onto the salt covered ice. We were looking for iridescent colors and we found that 2 of our food colors had an iridescence to them but we had the neon food colors so if you use the four regular colors you will find 1 has an iridescence. The kids loved this experiment and went around the house looking for items that were iridescent. They found that CD's and DVD's, water, some of our glass bowls, mom's pearl necklace, sea shells, bubbles and cellophane all are iridescent. For more info check out SciScape, Causes of Color and Wikipedia.






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The Laundry Quandary

I've been busy with home school, cooking, cleaning, Taxi driver to my kids, and I've had a headache since Sat. so I've just let the laundry go. I know I should just get in there and do it but I haven't and so today I opened up my laundry room door and found that Mt. Washmore(if you are a flybaby you KNOW what I'm talking about) had grown over night. Have you ever conquered Mt. Washmore? Today is that day, I must climb to the top and separate all my colors and then wash and wash and still wash more until I succeed at conquering Mt. Washmore...wish me well on my journey! I'm so very thankful for my high capacity washer and dryer!!!!! Oh, how I wish I had stuck to my laundry routine but I didn't and now I'm paying for it. Do you ever do this to yourself? I don't do it very often but when I do it's quite a quandary because today Kylan didn't have any pants to wear so I had to hand wash and then dry some so he could go to hip hop tonight...as you can tell I'm getting the Great Mom award!!! I'm so thankful that I just watch the Duggar family on TV and that I don't have 19 kids and counting....I can't imagine that mountain of laundry, it would fall on me and they would never find me!

Super simple pancakes

Our family loves pancakes so I usually keep a batter bowl from Pampered Chef in the fridge with some mix in it, this will usually last 2-3 days and I can just make a couple for breakfast, lunch or dinner depending on when we need a quick meal. I mix it up and seal it with the lid and presto they are ready for when we need them! The recipe I use is at the bottom of the page

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon baking soda

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS FOR PANCAKES

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS FOR BLUEBERRY BANANA PANCAKES

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 medium ripe banana, mashed
• 3/4 cup blueberries

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 6 months. Yield: 6-7 batches of pancakes (about 6-3/4 cups total).
2. To prepare pancakes: In a bowl, combine egg and milk. Whisk in 1 cup pancake mix. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle; turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes. Cook until second side is golden brown. Yield: about 6-8 pancakes per batch.
3. To prepare blueberry banana pancakes: In a bowl, combine egg, milk and banana. Whisk in 1 cup pancake mix. Fold in blueberries. Cook as directed above. Yield: about 6-8 pancakes per batch.

This post was in honor of National Pancake Day! Betcha didn't know about that one did you??? If you go to IHOP today you get a short stack for free!!!

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Kylan's tale about Adult Movies

We are sitting around the table enjoying dinner one night and Kylan pipes up and says, "I have to tell you the truth about something, I've been watching adult movies." Kevin and I look at each other with large eyes and say where have you seen adult movies? Kylan says, "On TV, mom won't let us watch it and it's called 'adult swim' (these are adult cartoons that we don't allow our children to watch like Family Guy and King of the Hill) on Cartoon Network" we had to excuse ourselves from the table and go into our room because we were about to lose it and if you laugh at him he gets VERY offended. After we finished laughing we had to go back and talk to him about NOT watching adult swim anymore and what the consequences would be if he ever did it again. Kylan has such a sweet heart and we've told him that God is watching him all the time even when mom and dad can't see what he is up to and he is always telling on himself and it always starts out with, "I have to tell you the truth about something" and we NEVER know what this kid is going to tell us!

Who's that in the laundry basket?

Kylan trying to hide

Makenzie's new hiding spot

I had just asked Makenzie to take her pink laundry basket full of clean clothes up to her room and put them away and I noticed that it was laying upside down in the living room and called Makenzie to ask why it was upside down and not up in her room and then I hear, "Hi mommy" I look around and can't see her and then notice she's hiding in the laundry basket, that girl is so flexible! Kylan tried it out too but I could see his feet.

Dance party

The kids were so excited because on Thursday they had a dance party to celebrate their win at competition last weekend. They watched all the videos and just played and played with their friends. Kenzie and I made cookies for each team. Kenzie did most of the decorating since she wanted the practice for her girls club, they turned out cute and were gone before we knew it!
The parents started discussing fund raisers for Nationals if you have a great fund raising idea let us know! We are thinking about selling candy, flower bulbs, scented pencils, snack mix bags, beef sticks and maybe even trash bags.

Piggies and Paws giveaway!

"This week Piggies & Paws Owner/Creator Jennifer Thomas is featured
as a Hybrid Mom of the Week! P&P is honored to team up with Hybrid
Mom for their Win It Wednesday Giveaway! Make sure you visit Hybrid
Mom's website
If you would like to have your child hand or foot print made into a precious work of art please contact me at jwedemeyer@piggiesandpaws.com

Old pictures

This is my sister and myself I think in 1977

This was when Kevin and I went to Colorado on Spring Break in 1992 before we were married...for all of my family to meet him!

This was my bridal picture

Since my last post I've had a lot of people email me and ask for more pictures of when I was younger. Sorry the pics look a little distorted, I'm taking pictures of scrapbook pages because you know all of my pictures are scrapbooked (NOT) only the early years before I had kids and had plenty of time on my hands! LOL!!

Boxcar children diorama

Since we've been reading The Boxcar Children we decided to make a boxcar diorama. Makenzie is making hers from book #20 Mystery Ranch with a log cabin and everything. Kylan is making his from book #1 with the kids living in the woods in the box car and they are still a work in progress, we need to get some twigs and stuff but it's too muddy and icy out right now so we are going to just wait until it dries out a little.

Valentine fun!

Today is Valentine's Day but I'm posting earlier in the week because we are going to have a super busy weekend. Both Kenzie and Kylan are in dance competitions this weekend. We had a lot of Valentine fun this week because we knew it wouldn't happen over the weekend.

On Wednesday we had a Valentine Party with our home school group!

Makenzie and her friend "M" one of her special BFF's

Some of the mommies I mean teachers

Makenzie and Lil P

We made rice crispy treats with sprinkles and pink food coloring in it

The dessert table

One boy made his box look like a turkey, this was so creative!

His sister made hers look like a peacock

Kylan's group exchanging cards

Kylan and his buddy Cameron

On Thursday mom made a special Valentine lunch of pink bow tie pasta with spaghetti sauce and homemade pepperoni cheese bread and for dessert vanilla pudding that was pink!

Uhhm, dessert! I fooled Kylan he thought it was going to be strawberry, I only had vanilla so I just tinted it with beet juice (we can't use red dye because Kylan is allergic)

Ok this doesn't look very appetising but it looked cute in person!

Fearless Force dance team

The name of their dance song was Victims of Erosion. Their teacher Shayna had a dream about them doing a zombie dance so she choreographed it and this is the final result. This is Kenzie's dance team and they rocked it last night at competition. They won 4 awards and one of them was 1st place over all of the other teams!!! Ok, I have to warn you that if you have little kids you might now want them to see this because they look a little freaky with their costumes and makeup! We are so proud of the whole team because they gave it all they had last night after much name calling by other dancers and horrible comments to them for their costumes and makeup. When it was all over other dancers came up to them and congratulated them on how AWESOME they were and some even told them it was the BEST dance they had EVER seen!

For some reason the video was removed from You Tube but it will be back up in a couple of days but if you want to see if now leave me a message and I will send it to you on Facebook!

Valentine's Day popcorn

Happy Valentine's Day to you! Just wanted to post this a day early in case you want to make it for the loves in your life. We crushed up all the candy canes that we had left over from Christmas...I know it's 2 months later and they should have gone in the trash but this was more fun!

Candy Cane Chocolate Popcorn Crunch

1. Pop some popcorn
2. Melt some white chocolate or almond bark
3. Mix in with popcorn
4. Mix in crushed up candy canes
5. Lay out on wax paper to dry
6. Melt choco chips and pour over top of popcorn
7. Let harden and then ENJOY!!!

Kenzie won!

These are before the comp. started

Kenzie has been practicing her solo dance for months and months and months and all that hard work and dedication paid off big time! She won 1st place for competitive hip hop 9 and 10 yr olds and is going to Nationals in July. I asked her how she felt when they called her name and she said, "All I could do was smile and smile" her dance is Circus by Brittney Spears and she's a Jack in the box and dances on and off a big box.
Her friend Eythan also did a hip hop solo and won 1st place for intermediate hip hop for 9 and 10 yr olds and her friend Kelsey from hip hop team won a TOP 2nd overall for the whole competition and diamond first for her lyrical solo. They totally rocked because this was all of their first time to compete in the solo division. They made Shayna (dance teacher) proud!

Now, we start all over again tomorrow for the team categories! Kylan is so excited because this will be his first competition and he can't wait!!!

Walking out to the car they were yelling and screaming because they were so pumped up!

Shayna with her soloists and their trophies!

They worked hard and WON!

Kylan's Door Jamz Basketball

For Christmas Kylan recieved the coolest basketball game that you hang on a door and it's called
Sportscraft Door Jamz Basketball and we've had the best time trying to beat each others scores! What a fun gift and we highly recommend it to everyone!