My Peeps surprise me again.....

Ok so today is actually my little brother's birthday...happy birthday again Scott. But my peeps, Amie, Summer, and Mel surprised me today with a mini birthday party as my birthday is on Saturday. Initially it was planned that we would be having "therapy" at my house at 1:00...this is not uncommon for us together and work on projects so I thought nothing of it. However when they showed up they had food and presants!! And since Amie and I are doing weight watchers the snacks were picked appropriately...lots of veggies, fruit, our fav low fat crackers, and angel food cake with fat free cool whip. It was all sooooo yummy. Now the presants....were awesome....they gave me a gift card to Kansas Sampler (new store that has everything KSU you could want), a Calvin and Hobbes book of comics (the story behind this is I made a comment one day jokingly wondering how wrong it would be for me to order this book from brett's scholastic book order for myself...hahaha...), and below are my handmade gifts....Summer made me a personalized wine glass (FYI...she is getting ready to start selling these in a store in Andover called Pink Boa along with her Etsy store.... check her stuff out...she does good work... www.sugarbritchesdesigns.com). My glass says "sassy lil wildcat". Miss Amie made me a frame for my room that says... "Let it be a flip flop day" and Mel gave me a box of milk duds wrapped in duct taped with a note that says..."do not open until Easter" as I gave up milk duds and chocolate for lent. It's obvious these girls know me all to well, they gave me all my favs...milk duds, wildcat/ksu, flip flops and FOOD. It's not even my birthday yet but today sure felt like it. Thanks again for a great day ladies...you're the best.

Spring Break 2011

We just got back from our spring break travels. Nothing real exciting but just a quick trip to Omaha and Kansas City. We left Monday afternoon making a stop at Gpa and Gma Theye's for supper. The boys love to go to the farm and Gma had one of my favs...hot beef sandwiches...YUMMO. As she does whenever my parents or us tell her we're coming for a visit she calls the rest of the fam to let them know and whoever and can come, comes over to see us. It's nice that Gma's is home base....my aunt and uncle along with several cousins came over and the boys had great visit as did we. Next stop was Omaha, NE.

Tuesday morning we headed to the Children's Museum.
This was a cute exhibit, apparently not for my boys as they were not interested in it, but there were lots of little ones 'grocery shopping' and then running their items thru the checkout.

Brett and Blake the firemen. This was the first area we visited and also the first (and only time this trip) we lost Blake. Actually we didn't even know we lost him until I heard my name over the speaker. We weren't even here 10 minutes and my name is announced and that a little boy named Blake was looking for his mom. Marty and I looked at each other and thought...no way. Again we didn't even know we were missing him as we had both just seen him run into the fire truck/house play area. It's almost as if he wanted to see if it would work....telling the lady at the front desk he was lost and seeing if we'd come get him. I walked around the corner and there he was with the front desk clerk. She did say he was very easy to talk to and knew both of his parents names (of course he does as sometimes that's what he calls us at home). Marty and I just laughed and he acted like no big deal....again I think he was testing the system, plus it's probably my payback as I used to do this all the time to my mom at stores....she would drop my brother and I off in the toy section (something NO ONE does today) and go do her shopping. For whatever reason I was sure she would forget us and with in 10 minutes I'd have my brother and I at the customer service desk paging my mom......she would get so mad at us for that.

And of course a merry-go-round ride.

Brett was "very expressive" with his photo ops this trip.

The boys did sit in on a "science exhibit"....they learned all about bubbles, shapes etc. and then got to be in a bubble themselves. Blake did this too however I didn't get his picture uploaded to the blog.

Next stop Coco Keys. The boys and I went to Coco Keys in the afternoon while Marty stayed back at the hotel to catch up on some reading. The boys had a good time.

Brett coming out of the tube.

Blake going down the slide.

And even though it wasn't exactly swim weather outside it's always balmy inside at Coco Keys so therefore one must have ice cream afterwards.

Wednesday we headed to the Omaha Zoo. Unfortunately it wasn't exactly zoo weather, very windy and a chilly 50', it didn't stop us from going. Luckily I found my supply of KSU football mittens, gloves, and ear warmers for the those chilly football games I always keep in the van. Luckily the Omaha Zoo has a couple of very large and really neat indoor exhibits. So we were able to go from one to the other.

Here Brett is petting a boa. Yuck!! Blake and I chose not to partake in this activity.

These benches were outside the butterfly exhibit.

Brett going across the swinging bridge in the Jungle exhibit. Blake chose to go around on solid ground....no way he was crossing that.

Again Brett with the expressions...inside the "cave".

As we were making our way to the next indoor exhibit Brett says..."mom take a picture of me lifting the world".....

Brett being animated again and Blake being Blake.

Monkeys on the monkeys back. Just once you would think the boys could smile nicely....

Baby gorilla and her mama.

We did venture to a few outside exhibits...sea lions being one. They were very active and were happy to see us I think. We were the only ones that walked far enough to see them. This one here was a mother that was very vocal to her young one swimming in the water.

We finished off the week heading to KC Thursday morning as Marty had a meeting in the afternoon which is when the boys and I took in a movie....Rango. We were the only ones in the theatre so it was nice to be able to let Blake run the aisles when he got bored with the movie. Then the boys and I visited the pool at the hotel until it was time to meet Marty for supper. Friday Marty had another meeting in the morning and the boys and I hung out at the hotel and made a trip to Barnes and Noble until it was time to head home.

As usual with vacations we ate really good and I'm still full. I can't wait to get back to the Y and work off all my extra calories. I'm also looking forward to getting back to our routine. The boys both have games tomorrow....Brett has his first flag football game...double header and then Blake has a soccer game.

I hope everyone else who got a spring break enjoyed theirs too.

Orders signed, sealed and delivered....

Things have been a little slow in my room lately....not sure what that's all about maybe it's because spring is approaching and we've been able to go outside... I'm in the process of cleaning out our mulch beds and preparing to spread new mulch. I love to mulch as it's instant gratification and everything looks so nice when it's done. However before that can happen one must remove the dead leaves and WEEDS....I barely see any green from my bushes but yet there are green WEEDS in my beds already. All of my grasses got haircuts last week and so now things look "naked", however we are getting some rain today so I'm sure it won't be long and they'll be green again. So that's my excuse for lack of posts and projects....HOWEVER I do have a few to share.

I posted previously a WSU candy jar that I did for a friend who is helping with the WSU Shocker Auction coming up in May. I have since then done a few more things for her to add to her list of donations. I am by know means a Shocker fan but it's free advertising and who doesn't like FREE!!

This is a mirror Mel brought me and said "here do something with this so people will bid on it".... .....so this is what I came up with.....

A frosted mirror with the WSU logo in the middle. It turned out really cool and pretty easy to do so I am definately going to be on the hunt for a mirror so I can make one more "my style"...."ksu style" that is.
She also found this cooler and said she needed it "WSU'ed" too.

And another candy jar.

Another mirror

Then I received and an email from a friend of my SIL that wanted two name frames (one for a shower gift and one for her parents). I haven't done name frames since Christmas so it was nice to do a couple of these. And it worked out that I was able to get them both done and deliver them to her last weekend when I was headed to my in-laws. I thought they turned out nice and Julie was excited to "gift" them. Thanks again Julie for thinking of me for your gift purchases.

And last but not least something totally random.....the other night Marty went to check on the boys before he headed to bed and this is how he found Brett (who is 8 1/2)...all cuddled up with his "Blankie" and "Blue" (his purple afghan and blue bear he's carried around since he was a baby). Now if this doesn't scream blackmail to use at his high school graduation or to show his prom date I don't know what does.

Blake also had a "Blankie" and "Cow" that he carries around so I will no doubt have a blackmail photo of him too.

Hope everyone that has a spring break enjoys it. We are headed to Omaha, NE to visit the zoo, Children's Museum, and Coco Keys. We will be able to stop at Gma and Gpa Theye's on the way Monday for supper and then end the week with a visit to Kansas City as Marty has a meeting on Thursday. The weather doesn't exactly scream spring as it's going to be chilly but at least we won't see any snow....I HOPE!!

3 posts in one day???!! What's the dealio!

Apparently I'm on a roll with my posting today. Just a few items that I completed in my room this week. As much as I love making things for people as gifts or requests I'm really kind of enjoying doing things for myself these days. Who knows I may break out my scrapbooks and work on them...I haven't touched them in over a year....it's almost overwhelming to know how many pics should be scrapped.

Again some of you may not understand these next two items unless your a pet owner or animal lover...but I was able to bring Bailey home this week. Yes, I had my dog cremated. I put her picture and a poem that a friend sent me the day she died on the box that holds her ashes. I also cut her name out of vinyl with the dates on the front.
The vet also made a print of her paw which they gave me and I put it in a small shadow box, with her collar and a picture of her.

Onto more fun things...I found ceramic football and basketball banks (two on the right) in the dollar spot at Target and Brett was in need of some new banks. So to make them more 'his' I added a powercat and his name to each. He enjoyed going thru his money and putting them in the banks....he keeps his "funny money" as he calls it (money that Marty ends up bringing home from his trips to England, Switzerland, Austrailia thus far) in the basketball and his "real money" in the football.

Blake's banks are the ones on the left (KSU player and football). I didn't have to add to much to his fooball player except on the back.....

I added "Albright". Nothing too exciting just quick, simple and personalized and what kid doesn't love their name on stuff.

A sports filled Saturday with Wins all around!!

We started off our Saturday with Brett's last basketball game. They won!! Brett had a pretty good game...even made a free throw shot (even though it didn't count since he stepped on the line...darn it)....but the highlight was when he went to the line....Jacob Pullen style...yep put the ball around his back before the shot.....he's been threatening to do it all year and I guess since it was the last game it was time.

Here's a few pics from the...nothing too exciting as it's hard to get good pics. Brett's #5.
Brett bringing the ball down the court.

After Brett's bb game we came home to catch the last half of the KSU men's game and watched them beat ISU for the seniors last home game. Jacob Pullen went out with style....leaving the court with seconds left giving the powercat at center court a kiss goodbye. Classy!! Can't wait to watch them next week in the Big 12 tourney. Marty will be there with his buddies as he and another guy from work have a suite for the tournament. I'm sure your wondering why I won't be there and well.....it's a guys only event.....plus that's a lot of stinkin' basketball and I do have kids in school so....I'll watch from home. Either way....GOOOOOOO Cats!!

After the KSU game was over we headed to Blake's first soccer game. He was needless to say pretty excited...once we woke him up from a nap he decided to take.

Here's Blake warming up with his teammates. He's the first one on the left.....and yes one of 3 of the smallest boys.

Game time...Blake's in the middle.

Here he is in action...front right.

Blake played 3 of the 4 quarters and got to rest the 4th one.

Lining up to shake hands.....

They won 2-1.

After Blake's game we grabbed a bite to eat and headed home to watch the KSU women's basketball team play KU. At this writing they just finished with a WIN!! Needless to say it's been a pretty good day for us.....4 games 4 wins!! Can't wait for next week when the women kick off Big 12 tourney play on Tuesday and the men play Thursday night.

John Wayne aka Brett

The 2nd graders at Wheatland Elementary put on Wax Museum on Friday afternoon. There were 72 famous wax 'people'......all the way from George Washington to Miley Cyrus and everything in between, including John Wayne. They had to research their person finding out, where they were born, where and when they died (if applicable), find 3 important facts about them, and what their contribution to America was. They then had to memorize this information and come up with a costume/props that would help them portray their person.

Here's John Wayne aka Brett. Notice the red dot on his hand....that's the button you pushed to make him talk.
A visitor listening to Brett.

Here's Betsy Ross.

Christopher Columbus.

I would have liked to take more pictures of the kids however the hallways become quite congested and it was hard to get pictures. The kids did a great job....their costumes were great and they had to recite their information for about 50 minutes.

I'm still working on uploading the video of Brett aka John Wayne.....however I'm techno slow so it'll have to be in another post......providing I figure out how to get it loaded.