Trenda's Blog

New Friends

Posted 1 day, 4 hours ago at 9:04 pm.

We had dinner last night with Georgia & Steve and their 3 cute kids.  Georgia & I are in BSF together, Mari & Zoe are in the same AWANA class and Tobin & Ella in the same BSF kid class.  Kelly made an awesome steak and yummy sweet potato wedges (and other stuff) and we all had a lot of fun.  Mari & Zoe were off by themselves the whole night having lots of fun making jewelry, playing games, doing science experiments and Mari even made her first animal balloon hat (which Zoe thought was super cool!)

Ella pushing Tobin on our downstairs swing (also a crowd pleaser)

and Ezra & Jaymen (don’t know how to spell his name??) chasing balls (both their favorite toys)

I’m a mean mom (or a brilliant one)???

Posted 1 day, 4 hours ago at 8:57 pm.

The kids have another cold-not a bad one, just some runny noses and they were BOUNCING off the walls on Saturday afternoon so I sent them outside!  They didn’t grumble about it (although Kelly commented how cold it was outside when I suggested it).  Mari said there was no snow, true but you can just march around, soak up the sun, (and give me just a few minutes of peace).  They jumped on an old snow pile for a few minutes and then got the baseball & bat out:)  Ezra was pitching to Mari, it wasn’t working very well because Ezra throws fast & low and Mari (out of practice) doesn’t hit that well, so I ended up pitching balls to them for a few minutes.  I think we’re all ready for spring!

can you see the yellow tennis ball coming?

Ella Bella Hair Clips

Posted 2 days, 4 hours ago at 9:47 pm.

Check out these super sweet hair bows, clips & bands at my friend Kristen’s site:  www.ellabellahairclips.com  , she’s on my blogroll too!  Becky-Hannah would look super sweet in these!

Kelly’s winning chili

Posted 2 days, 4 hours ago at 9:06 pm.

Last Saturday we had our annual church meeting and “Men’s Chili Cook-off”.  Kelly won again, it’s a very complicated and precise formula for declaring a winner-whoever’s chili is gone first:)  He won a silver ladle (from the basement kitchen).

Next year he may be able to win just by reputation because not everyone was able to get his this time.

I’d provide a recipe but he doesn’t really use one specifically and he never makes it the same way twice.

Fun Friday

Posted 1 week ago at 9:05 pm.

Just a layed back, hanging out, Marian didn’t have school fun Friday.  I let each kid pick 3 things to do for their “agendas”.  We actually did 6 out of 9 of them, which is better than I usually do with my own agendas.

We celebrated Mocha’s birthday-she’s 5, made birthday hats & birthday treats

Tobin has just a bit of a sweet tooth as he watches the brownies bake

Noah & Heather came over in the afternoon, they played “garbage”-I believe this was a new one to Noah but Ez & Tobin play and they basically use the big containers to gather stuff and then dump it all in a big pile (why are boys so fascinated with garbage).

They did clean it all up too

We got some playdoh out

I was quite impressed with Mari’s fruit display

Getting the boot

Posted 1 week, 5 days ago at 9:15 pm.

Well, I got the boot-the “aircast” boot that is for the stress fracture that I’ve been walking around on for the past 2 weeks.  This will be my view for the next 3 weeks and hopefully no more than that.  It feels good to not have it hurting while I walk but my calves are already tight from the unusual stance I have to take.

I’m bummed that it’s broken but really grateful to know what’s wrong and that it’s fixable.  I can’t run, bike, swim or play volleyball but fortunately can still do laundry, housework and take care of the kids-lucky me;)

Yes, but . . .

Posted 1 week, 5 days ago at 9:27 am.

Kelly was giving the boys a bath when he noticed the furnace wasn’t on-it was 64 degrees in the house and dropping.  I watched the boys while he went down to check out the furnace, I was thinking about how we just had to get a new one last winter, there is no way it should be broken.

Kelly comes back up “Tobin, did you turn the furnace off?”

“Yes, but . . .” and a string of words that didn’t really make a lot of sense to us but I’m sure were some sort of explanation, then he threw Deb (our nanny) under the bus . . .

“Nona said I could play in there”

It was interesting to us that he knew exactly what we were talking about.  He does stuff like this all the time, there doesn’t seem to be any deliberate disobedience just this unquenchable curiority.  And, seriously, do they need to put an ON/OFF switch right at 3 year old eye level?

Ear infection prevention?

Posted 1 week, 5 days ago at 9:10 am.

The boys are both at the end of a cold-it has not been a bad one but we’ve been giving them this Zinc Elderberry stuff that has really appeared to help Tobin.  It seems like the last couple colds Ez has had have turned into ear infections.  So, I’ve been doing saline in their noses (which they love), massaging the area around their ears (I think I read that somewhere).  I decided to have them blow kleenex balls across the kitchen floor through a straw (I’ve heard that ”blowing” is supposed to help keep drainage moving).  Any other advice??

On your mark . . .

Go!

Ezra (the super competitive) won.

The "cowboy fairy frog"

Posted 1 week, 6 days ago at 8:02 pm.

Reading

Posted 2 weeks, 1 day ago at 4:17 pm.

This entry is in response to a challenge , a challenge to look at things from a different perspective, see beauty where you least expect it, “shoot” from angles less familiar.  You won’t believe how interesting and “cool” a laundrymat can look (check out that link!).

 http://www.mycharmingkids.net/2010/01/lets-look-at-this-from-different-angle.html

Since my foot still hurts (yes, it seems to be better but not fixed-I see a podiatrist in my near future-I’ll take any recommendations!), I decided to try this at home with Marian.  She has finally turned the corner on reading-where her desire (and stamina) has caught up with her ability. 

This is the shot I most naturally take

but I love how this one shot with me on the floor sort of looks like I’m sort of “spying” on her

and this one is so totally Marian (like me, she can’t sit upright with feet on the floor)

and a few detail shots

So, I need some book advice, this one is a Magic Tree House book-I read it and I’m ok with the “magic” of getting to another time/place and this one seemed fine.  Anyone familiar? She really liked it and read it in about an hour!  I like the historical aspect of it but some of them looked to contain too much magical/fantasy/wizardry stuff.  HELP:)