It's never easy to tell someone you are sorry. You've done your wrong, realized you were wrong and now you feel embarrassed as you tell that person you are sorry and why. It's probably even more confusing to children as it is them who has to do the apologizing.
Yesterday Shelby had her friends over. Jenna and Gorja from across the street and newer friends, O'Keria and Lexa from next door. There's a about a 3 year age difference between Shelby & O'Keria as she is 4 years old. Really sweet girl but after playing and getting along for hours of play, Shelby and her friend Jenna decided they wanted to play alone. O'Keria noticed this but still she tried so hard. All I could do was sit on the porch and watch. I actually had to yell across the yard telling my daughter to be nice. I was very upset at my daughter when she said (right in front of O'Keria) that she didn't like having 2 sets of friends over. Now I knew that was not true as she loves playing with all of her friends and probably counts the minutes until she can see them again.
So Shelby goes inside the house with Jenna and poor little O'Keria sits under the bush in our yard crying. I had to go sit next to her, trying to talk to her - even offering to hold her - because I felt so bad for her. Why did my daughter think it is ok to treat someone like this when I know she has been treated like this through other friends. It's a stage in like of a 7 year old but still it is no excuse. So after O'Keria's aunt came and got her and took her home, I let Shelby continue to play with her friend Jenna knowing there was no point in pulling her aside until I knew things were calmer between everyone.
Finally the talk came. Eric and I wanted Shelby to understand that what she had said to her friend and the way she had treated her was not right. Even just saying she was sorry to her parents for what she did - did not make it right. She had to apologize. So I held her hand and we walked next door where we found O'Keria and her cousin playing. Shelby said she was sorry and I even apologized to the family and explained what happened.
I know that kids go through this. But teaching them to apologize when they are wrong is the right thing to do. Otherwise - well, I don't even want to think of how they would grow up without acknowledging their faults.
Happy news is that Shelby and O'Keria played again after dinner. And something that I have noticed that all of the girls need are princess crowns. We'll make Lucas the Jester since he's the only boy haha.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Mother's Day
This has been the best Mother's Day - and it's not even officially Mother's Day yet! From school my kids made me special handmade gifts from a jewelry box (Lucas) to a "Dime-On" (haha, get it?) necklace from Shelby. Two different schools - two great children - and they seemed to have sync it all too well. I swear (and I mean this), I do not want any "bought" gifts for Mother's Day until my kids are older. For years and years and years to come I want only handmade gift. Moms out there - if your baby is still just a baby or just not even in this world yet and you've never received a handmade gift - there is no other greater feeling in your heart when your son or daughter gives you your gift that they had made for you. It's just awesome!
Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's out there, especially to my mama. Mom, I love you very very much. We might have our differences from time to time but nothing could make me stop loving you.
Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's out there, especially to my mama. Mom, I love you very very much. We might have our differences from time to time but nothing could make me stop loving you.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Science 101
Shelby has always had a soft spot for science - thinking of her future: Shelby always talks about being a nurse. Thinking of now - the child that she is: Shelby likes to make "potions" of water & Popsicle juice. I can't wait for Shelby to have an actual science class at school. She's so smart and I know that this will be a subject that she succeed in and enjoy.
This being Shelby's first year in the Science Fair, she did an easy (and popular) subject: a volcano. A little bit of baking soda, vinegar, red food color and dish soap (just a few drops) and some paper mache around an empty bottle. Not winning any prize this year, Shelby already has plans to try what won 2nd prize. Sitting next to Shelby's volcano, the study of Carnation flowers in color water. This was won by a little girl in the 2nd (or was it 3rd? still young though) grade. 1st prize went to a solar system project.
Shelby has 22 days of school left (Lucas a little less in pre-school) and I have no doubt of her better success next year in everything she does and that little brother will follow in her footsteps entering the Science Fair in Kindergarten - a year earlier that Shelby. Monkey sees, Monkey does.
A very cool thing at the Science Fair was the green screen. I wish I knew how to create something like this for Shelby & Lucas. As long as I have the right equipment and some kind of green background, it should be easy to do. For the green screen at the fair, they had the weather radar on. Anyone could get in front of the camera and tell about the weather. Here's Shelby & Lucas. Best picture I could get since I was taking it on the TV screen.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Zelda Skyward Sword
Some day we will catch up in the video game world. Sort of there now with the newest Zelda game (Skyward Sword). Back in February we bought the kids an Nintendo Wii and we're really starting to get into it. I love this game system because of it being so active. Was hoping that we could play the Gamecube games on it (b/c our GC quit working) but since we bought the black one, it doesn't have a spot on it like I guess the old original white one did.
You ever hear people say that today's kids don't know what a cassette player is, vcr, record player, that cameras took film, no one had cell phones just house phones or anything about the old Nintendo games on how you had to blow into them if they weren't working? Well, we don't have a camera that takes film (and I actually used the term "picture developed" last week to one of Lucas' pre-school friends after I took his picture. Told him I would have to get the picture developed (and it was taken with a digital camera lol) and yes, he gave me a funny look. But up until a few months ago Shelby & Lucas played games on my old Super Nintendo until it quit working and we do have a vcr (works but not in use at the moment) and we do still have some cassettes. Mostly use dvd & cd's now adays but we're not that far from the past in our home.
Anyway, back to Shelby's obsession game: Zelda. When we first started playing it about a month ago, I meant to start writing a little review about it on what we have accomplished. We're on the 3rd main part of the game (Lanayru Desert - my favorite part to play at so far) with 2 bosses down (defeated by me --- go me!). Here's how some of it has been so far:
Beginning of the game we meet Link and Zelda. They attend the Academy together with Zelda's father being the headmaster. It's been 25 years for the academy (coincidentally the game series anniversary too) and Link is about to set out for a little competition that will skip him ahead to a senior. (I'm doing this all by memory so sorry if I'm a little off or so.) You fly Link on a bird in this game and he has a special rare red bird. After meeting with Zelda up at the top of the mountain, she shows you her special dress that she has made just for this special occasion. With the special anniversary upon them, Zelda has dressed to look like the goddess and even has what used to be called a harp. Zelda asks Link how does she look and of course we make Link lie because we know that Link and Zelda have a thing going on. Yes, Zelda you look very pretty in your long white dress even though in a few minutes when her father (the headmaster) comes along and she stabs Link in the back right in front of him! "Oh daddy, I don't think Link can win this competition because he hasn't been practicing". Way to bring your boyfriend down Zelda! But ha!, we prove wrong and win the damn competition on a bird that I had the hardest time struggling to fly. If you would have looked in my living room window that night you would have thought I was having some kind of fit - waving the controller up and down, side to side try to get the bird to fly right. It's not easy!
Oh and before the competition after just being stabbed in the back by her "highness", she pushes Link off a cliff. Loving boyfriend Link: "wait Zelda, I can't sense my bird. Wait Zelda no, don't push me - I will die if you push me off this cliff. Zelda I love you, please don't push...." oh but too late and Link is falling to his death (thanks to Zelda who then realizes what she has done and has to save Link).
Next after winning the competition, we meet back with Zelda again and retrieve the sail. To use it you have to jump off the cliff and in the first time using it you have to jump exactly into this little target. Again, not easy. All I kept hearing in my head every time we failed (like 30 times) and met Zelda back up top giving us a minute long speech about how to do it right (you know what Zelda, why don't you do it your own damn self!) I could hear Spongebob saying "oh, try again....oh, try again....oh try again". Finally Eric came to our rescue and got it right.
I missed what happened next but according to Shelby a big tornado comes along and takes Zelda away. At this point I'm like Grumpy cat, Good!
So we have to save Zelda from evil (sure she wasn't that already? lol) and now we have a servant who helps us along. The kids say she is Midna from Twilight Princess (never finished that one yet) so that's what we call her. We are her Master (and I like it because we are playing on my saved game and so it's always "Master Mommy" .... yes! lol.) and she's always popping up saying there is new enemy around and there is a 95% chance we will die (confidence). No she doesn't really say that but you feel like she is. She even tells you that our hearts are running low and then gives us a percentage fact that we're going to die. This morning before taking Lucas to school the car made a beeping noise. Lucas asked what that noise was and I said that we were running low on gas and explained it like Midna would: there's a 95% chance that if we don't stop for gas along the way, we'll be walking.
All along we've been in the sky (SKYward....) and now we're on the ground of ancient times. There have been myths and legends about the ground but no one truly knows. I guess Zelda is somewhere in "spirit" and we're trying to save her before the bad guys really have their hold on her. I really like it when Midna pops up and says something like "I sense a 95% chance that Zelda has passed through this area" and I'm just like, So there is a 5% chance she hasn't? :o)
Fought 2 bosses so far. I don't know if this skinny guy is Gannon(dorf) (as he's called now) or he just works for him. I haven't done my game research. Took a few tries to beat him. He likes to bitch slap us a few times with the back of his hand (seriously) and if can, will take our sword. After dying a few times I told Shelby that she had better get me a new wooden shield (he broke ours) and fill our jars up with fairies. She did, and I beat him! Didn't kill him, he just ran away like "he" was doing "us" a favor. Then next came a big fire monster spider (2nd boss). I finally killed him yesterday afternoon and yes, I was dancing around, jumping up and down in excitement. Now we're on the 3rd part of the game. Lanayru Desert - my favorite so far. It's been a little easier and fun so far and I hope that goes for whatever boss we will face next.
And that's as far as we've been on the game.
We HEART Zelda
You ever hear people say that today's kids don't know what a cassette player is, vcr, record player, that cameras took film, no one had cell phones just house phones or anything about the old Nintendo games on how you had to blow into them if they weren't working? Well, we don't have a camera that takes film (and I actually used the term "picture developed" last week to one of Lucas' pre-school friends after I took his picture. Told him I would have to get the picture developed (and it was taken with a digital camera lol) and yes, he gave me a funny look. But up until a few months ago Shelby & Lucas played games on my old Super Nintendo until it quit working and we do have a vcr (works but not in use at the moment) and we do still have some cassettes. Mostly use dvd & cd's now adays but we're not that far from the past in our home.
Anyway, back to Shelby's obsession game: Zelda. When we first started playing it about a month ago, I meant to start writing a little review about it on what we have accomplished. We're on the 3rd main part of the game (Lanayru Desert - my favorite part to play at so far) with 2 bosses down (defeated by me --- go me!). Here's how some of it has been so far:
Beginning of the game we meet Link and Zelda. They attend the Academy together with Zelda's father being the headmaster. It's been 25 years for the academy (coincidentally the game series anniversary too) and Link is about to set out for a little competition that will skip him ahead to a senior. (I'm doing this all by memory so sorry if I'm a little off or so.) You fly Link on a bird in this game and he has a special rare red bird. After meeting with Zelda up at the top of the mountain, she shows you her special dress that she has made just for this special occasion. With the special anniversary upon them, Zelda has dressed to look like the goddess and even has what used to be called a harp. Zelda asks Link how does she look and of course we make Link lie because we know that Link and Zelda have a thing going on. Yes, Zelda you look very pretty in your long white dress even though in a few minutes when her father (the headmaster) comes along and she stabs Link in the back right in front of him! "Oh daddy, I don't think Link can win this competition because he hasn't been practicing". Way to bring your boyfriend down Zelda! But ha!, we prove wrong and win the damn competition on a bird that I had the hardest time struggling to fly. If you would have looked in my living room window that night you would have thought I was having some kind of fit - waving the controller up and down, side to side try to get the bird to fly right. It's not easy!
Oh and before the competition after just being stabbed in the back by her "highness", she pushes Link off a cliff. Loving boyfriend Link: "wait Zelda, I can't sense my bird. Wait Zelda no, don't push me - I will die if you push me off this cliff. Zelda I love you, please don't push...." oh but too late and Link is falling to his death (thanks to Zelda who then realizes what she has done and has to save Link).
Next after winning the competition, we meet back with Zelda again and retrieve the sail. To use it you have to jump off the cliff and in the first time using it you have to jump exactly into this little target. Again, not easy. All I kept hearing in my head every time we failed (like 30 times) and met Zelda back up top giving us a minute long speech about how to do it right (you know what Zelda, why don't you do it your own damn self!) I could hear Spongebob saying "oh, try again....oh, try again....oh try again". Finally Eric came to our rescue and got it right.
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| my very own photoshop handy work, can you tell? lol |
I missed what happened next but according to Shelby a big tornado comes along and takes Zelda away. At this point I'm like Grumpy cat, Good!
So we have to save Zelda from evil (sure she wasn't that already? lol) and now we have a servant who helps us along. The kids say she is Midna from Twilight Princess (never finished that one yet) so that's what we call her. We are her Master (and I like it because we are playing on my saved game and so it's always "Master Mommy" .... yes! lol.) and she's always popping up saying there is new enemy around and there is a 95% chance we will die (confidence). No she doesn't really say that but you feel like she is. She even tells you that our hearts are running low and then gives us a percentage fact that we're going to die. This morning before taking Lucas to school the car made a beeping noise. Lucas asked what that noise was and I said that we were running low on gas and explained it like Midna would: there's a 95% chance that if we don't stop for gas along the way, we'll be walking.
All along we've been in the sky (SKYward....) and now we're on the ground of ancient times. There have been myths and legends about the ground but no one truly knows. I guess Zelda is somewhere in "spirit" and we're trying to save her before the bad guys really have their hold on her. I really like it when Midna pops up and says something like "I sense a 95% chance that Zelda has passed through this area" and I'm just like, So there is a 5% chance she hasn't? :o)
Fought 2 bosses so far. I don't know if this skinny guy is Gannon(dorf) (as he's called now) or he just works for him. I haven't done my game research. Took a few tries to beat him. He likes to bitch slap us a few times with the back of his hand (seriously) and if can, will take our sword. After dying a few times I told Shelby that she had better get me a new wooden shield (he broke ours) and fill our jars up with fairies. She did, and I beat him! Didn't kill him, he just ran away like "he" was doing "us" a favor. Then next came a big fire monster spider (2nd boss). I finally killed him yesterday afternoon and yes, I was dancing around, jumping up and down in excitement. Now we're on the 3rd part of the game. Lanayru Desert - my favorite so far. It's been a little easier and fun so far and I hope that goes for whatever boss we will face next.
And that's as far as we've been on the game.
We HEART Zelda
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Happy Easter
Happy Easter everyone! This year we did the eggs different by going the Koolaid way. The Koolaid Eggs have been floating around on Pinterest for a while now and I am told to never ever to do it again. Came out great - colors were really nice and bright. Don't do Lemonade - barely even see that it changed the color of the egg. Even tried adding just a little vinegar (had just enough room in bowl for about teaspoon) but even then - nothing. Did start taking a few eggs from Yellow (Lemonade) into the Orange and came out with a Golden color (so if you want Golden eggs - dip into Yellow and then switch to Orange). Why not do this method again? Sticky (even after eggs dried they still had that "spilt koolaid sticky feeling). But this was our result - I'm sure since a lot of people have probably tried it through Pinterest - all results vary.
Dinner today was nice. Invited my parents over and after the rain, had our Easter egg hunt. Lucas won 21 over 20 eggs against Shelby. 42 plastic eggs with a piece of chocolate in each one - do the math and yes, one egg is missing. Oh well, I'm sure we'll find it outside eventually (just won't eat the chocolate lol).
Starting a new thing - using just black and white photos for my blog. Different look
Dinner today was nice. Invited my parents over and after the rain, had our Easter egg hunt. Lucas won 21 over 20 eggs against Shelby. 42 plastic eggs with a piece of chocolate in each one - do the math and yes, one egg is missing. Oh well, I'm sure we'll find it outside eventually (just won't eat the chocolate lol).
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| Lucas at school |
Starting a new thing - using just black and white photos for my blog. Different look
Friday, March 29, 2013
33
Happy Birthday to me! I am now officially 33 years old. I love it so far - like every birthday I get teased by everyone asking if I feel old and making my age older than I am (Eric). But I never feel old. Yes when turning 30 I was like "But I'm leaving my 20's behind!" like turning 30 was a horrific thing. Then I seen, it's not so bad. I have 2 wonderful kids who keep me going despite adding the gray hairs to my head.
Spent my day a little with my mom (had to get that birthday hug) and ended up with a great leftover spaghetti lunch because I forgot to eat lunch before I left home. Funny how you just end up making sure the kids do this and that before leaving somewhere but we ourselves forget to do for ourselves. Wondered why my stomach was growling lol.
Then for dinner Eric cooked (breakfast for dinner - french toast and bacon mmm...) and I caught up on a little Doctor Who marathon with a few episodes I hadn't seen before (the ones with the Silence aliens)
Now we have Easter weekend and a whole lot of new episodes of tv shows that I love including a season finale (Walking Dead) and season premiere (Game of Thrones). Hopefully a trip to the park tomorrow if the weather is even nicer than today.
Spent my day a little with my mom (had to get that birthday hug) and ended up with a great leftover spaghetti lunch because I forgot to eat lunch before I left home. Funny how you just end up making sure the kids do this and that before leaving somewhere but we ourselves forget to do for ourselves. Wondered why my stomach was growling lol.
Then for dinner Eric cooked (breakfast for dinner - french toast and bacon mmm...) and I caught up on a little Doctor Who marathon with a few episodes I hadn't seen before (the ones with the Silence aliens)
Now we have Easter weekend and a whole lot of new episodes of tv shows that I love including a season finale (Walking Dead) and season premiere (Game of Thrones). Hopefully a trip to the park tomorrow if the weather is even nicer than today.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Happy 5th Birthday Lucas! (Angry Bird Theme)
You're not 4 anymore, oh no you're not!
And you're going to like being 5 a whole lot!
Sunday was a happy, happy day for a little boy turning 5. We had a great party with family who adores Lucas. Everything was Angry Bird themed (I did my best handy art
work haha - can you say Pinterest NAILED it!?). I wanted to do so much more in creating party favors but was only able to make little notebooks and print out a ton of
Angry Bird coloring sheets. Kind of ran out of black ink...oops. But Lucas picked out other party favors at the dollar store and even picked himself out the biggest
birthday party hat ever to be found for himself.
We did Pin the Beak on the Bird (found on Pinterest) and I did my best to make my own version by hand. Of course I forgot a blindfold so hoping the kids would just
close their eyes and not peek did not happen. They totally cheated! And then with two of Lucas' large Angry Birds big red bird and Princess Leia the kids knocked down stacks of green plastic cups (piggies) and of course beat each other up with balloons until it was cake and
present time.
The above "you're not 4 anymore" was on a card from Lucas' Aunt Terri. I hope Lucas does have the best year at being 5. There's definitly fun time to play with his new
train table and a new dart gun picked out by his big sister. While we didn't have 20 kids running around, there was lots of fun with family and friends who love Lucas very much. We all love you Lucas Monster - it's good to be 5!
Now looking back at the pictures, I wonder why I didn't get more group pictures of family. I got with family in background but none with birthday boy. Maybe it's because he wouldn't stay still! lol
And you're going to like being 5 a whole lot!
Sunday was a happy, happy day for a little boy turning 5. We had a great party with family who adores Lucas. Everything was Angry Bird themed (I did my best handy art
work haha - can you say Pinterest NAILED it!?). I wanted to do so much more in creating party favors but was only able to make little notebooks and print out a ton of
Angry Bird coloring sheets. Kind of ran out of black ink...oops. But Lucas picked out other party favors at the dollar store and even picked himself out the biggest
birthday party hat ever to be found for himself.
We did Pin the Beak on the Bird (found on Pinterest) and I did my best to make my own version by hand. Of course I forgot a blindfold so hoping the kids would just
close their eyes and not peek did not happen. They totally cheated! And then with two of Lucas' large Angry Birds big red bird and Princess Leia the kids knocked down stacks of green plastic cups (piggies) and of course beat each other up with balloons until it was cake and
present time.
The above "you're not 4 anymore" was on a card from Lucas' Aunt Terri. I hope Lucas does have the best year at being 5. There's definitly fun time to play with his new
train table and a new dart gun picked out by his big sister. While we didn't have 20 kids running around, there was lots of fun with family and friends who love Lucas very much. We all love you Lucas Monster - it's good to be 5!
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| my mom (Lucas & Shelby's Maw-Maw) |
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| Game: Pin the Beak on the Bird |
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| taking a break from the fun |
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| playing a game |
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| pizza time |
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| opening up the train table with big sister's help |
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| Shelby got Lucas a dart gun |
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| Lucas and his Paw-Paw licking the icing off the props for the cake |
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| the gift bags |
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| Party favors: little notebooks that I turned into Birds and Pig |
Now looking back at the pictures, I wonder why I didn't get more group pictures of family. I got with family in background but none with birthday boy. Maybe it's because he wouldn't stay still! lol
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