Boys Only

I lead the music for the children at church, called Primary. (You can watch this delightful video to learn more about Primary and to see my adorable niece and nephews. It brings tears to my eyes, so be forewarned.) I get 25 minutes of singing time each week. I try to bring a fun activity, especially when we don't have a new song to learn. We did one of my favorites yesterday. I take all my metal bowls (6 of them, and they range in size from 1 cup to 4 quarts) and put a little sign in each one. The signs read: Boys Only, Girls Only, Teachers Only, Hum, Fast, Slow....you get the idea. Each child has a Popsicle stick with their name on it, which I draw for turns (I can't pick fairly). The person I drew got to throw a bean bag and in whichever bowl it landed in determined how we sang the song. So the older boys (8-12) really had it out for the girls. They tried hard to land it in the "Girls Only" bowl. We sang several songs and the girls had a turn singing alone when Emery was drawn. He was thrilled. He got up there with his beanbag and said, "Mom, which one says boys only?" I pointed it out and he threw his little heart out. It landed right where he wanted, directly in the boy bowl. All the older boys groaned loudly, as Emery said, "Yay, now just the boys get to sing." He was thrilled to make it so just the boys could sing. It was so cute!

Uncle Jason (two of them)

Clint's brother Jason was here two weeks ago. Today Emery drew a very impressive picture of a spider eating robot. He said, "This is for Uncle Jason. We need to send it to him because he misses me."

Remember this post about my brother Jason? While in New Orleans I happened upon this book at a toy store. We found it today at the library. The kids are totally digging it.

The Big Easy

We had a whirlwind week last week. Clint's brother and his wife came for a visit. It was so fun to have them here and I don't think we stopped moving at all while they were here. Clint gave a pretty great description of the week here with some good pics, so check that out. I have other insights and pictures to share. We left the kids home (which worked out perfectly, and I owe my friends in a big way!) which was a bit hard for me, as I never leave them, but it was so nice for us to sneak away for two whole days.



We drove out early Wednesday morning, after dropping off the troops. We stopped first at Oak Alley Plantation. The view from the second story was quite amazing. Just beyond the oaks is the bank of the Mississippi River. When the house was built the levy was only 8 feet tall, so they could see the river from the porch. Now, the levy is more than 20 feet to protect from flooding. Lunch was delicious. I had a small salad so I could enjoy bread pudding with praline pecans.



From there we went on to New Orleans to check into our little hotel. These houses make me think of New Orleans, bright pastel colors on every little one. They are called shotgun houses because if you shoot through the front door, it will go right out the back door. The trees outside the hotel were in full bloom, and were very pretty. We walked down to the French Quarter and strolled and window shopped before dinner. We ate at a new little restaurant (I can't remember the name) that served fried pickles, chicken and seafood.



On Thursday, we didn't spend all our time wasting away in Margaritaville. We divided up. Jason and Desiree went on a walking tour of the garden district. After a delicious breakfast of beignets, we walked down to Canal Street. I'm married to a bug guy, so we spent our day at the Audubon Insectarium. They had some cool displays and my favorite was an art gallery filled with pinned insects. They used the insects to make flowers and other cool things. I didn't take any pictures because I was so wrapped up in the art. If you ever go there, know that it is housed in a federal building and you will have to pass through a metal detector. Bringing a pocket knife would be a bad idea.

We headed for home in the late afternoon, and stopped at an outlet mall. I've been hunting for some brown peep-toe heels for a while, and I found the perfect ones. Then we headed home to gather up our kiddos.

On Friday, Clint had to work and attend graduation, so we just stayed around Orange. We ate at Clint's favorite Taqueria. On Saturday we drove down I-10 East again, this time to Avery Island. It's called "the island of salt and pepper." It's not really an island, but a salt dome. It is privately owned and the only Tabasco factory in the world is there. We were able to go on a tour and have a taste of Tabasco flavored ice cream. It was awful, don't try it! We also drove through the the Island Gardens which were pretty amazing. They had alligators (we got close) and egrets and a 600 year old Budda. All in all, it was a pretty great trip. Thanks for coming to see us, Jason and Des. When I catch up on my sleep I'll let you know that I'm ready for round two!

AM Radio.....Texas Style

So this article caught my eye yesterday in the news. This morning on the local AM Radio talk show, the two men who run the show were talking about it. This is a direct quote. "They may call it a scholarship program, but it's not. People who watch the Miss USA Pageant, do you tune in to hear the girls talk about world peace, or do you tune in to see the dual powered kizinkis."

Preschool program

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Emery finished his first year of preschool on Thursday. For the program, the kids each recited a nursery rhyme. Emery picked his and then two other kids gave up what they had picked and also recited Hey Diddle Diddle. I guess Emery is a leader. The teachers have been letting Chani attend most of the time as well, and so she recited Humpty Dumpty. She doesn't memorize as well yet, but she did a great job. Emery's favorite part of preschool was making his animal train. Each week they learned a letter, coloring sheets, writing sheets, and a train car with an animal matching the letter. A: Alligator, B: Bear, etc. It was a great project and Emery loves that the train runs the walls in his room. I think next year we're doing a letter quilt.

Here are a few of the train cars. Two of my favorites were the monkey (it's Emery's handprint) and the elephant (also his handprint). They made animal stripes by dragging wet noodles through paint and then dragging it across the animal. On the zebra, they rolled a marble in black paint and then rolled it across the cutout.