Tyler

(there's a new post below)

I like to be IN FRONT of the carpool line when I drop Tyler off at school.
(I refuse to stop and go)
This means we park and wait about 15 minutes for the doors to open.
This is how Tyler entertains the both of us.

I love my little goofball.

Boise State vs. Virginia Tech

On Labor Day we had Dave, Susan and kiddos Ian and Eric over for the big Boise State v. Virginia Tech game. (We actually had them over before the game started because kick-off was after bedtime for the kids.)

Dave went to Penn State and Susan is Marshall so of course they route for VA Tech. Matt went to the University of Washington and y'all know I'm an Oregon Duck...so naturally we route for Boise State. Obvious isn't it?! No? oh well....

I made dinner.
Tortilla Stack from Family Circle magazine and Mexican Rice.

Susan brought homemade salsa and dessert.
Tres Leches Cake
holy Yumm!
(that's a pic of Susan...not the cake)

Matt drank Margaritas

and Dave took pictures.

Who gave Dave the camera?
(that is a knee brace...my knee has been bothering me and the doc wants me to wear it as much as I can)seriously, who gave Dave the camera?!
(actually I may make this one my new FB profile pic)

The children played
Eric finished up his thesis
and Lauren made her artwork masterpieces.

We didn't actually watch the game until Dave, Susan & family left for home and L and T were tucked into bed. Matt and I made it until half-time. We didn't find out who won until I logged onto Facebook the next morning. Great game. Way to go Broncos.

Sunday's Friday Night Pie

(make sure you check out the 2 previous posts from today below)

Before I get to the Friday Night Pie on this Sunday evening let me talk about Sunday morning.
We went to church and it was amazing!
I should mention that we've recently started attending a new church. Crossroads (where we used to go) moved to a bigger and better building. We loved Crossroads and our friends there but the bigger and better Crossroads is located further and farther from our house. Poor excuse, but after they moved we just didn't go. A few weeks ago a friend invited us to his church to check it out. I was sold after one service. The pastor, Andy Stanley is why (well that and the rockin' band.) He's such a great speaker. After listening to him that first visit I knew this was where our family needed to be.

And now on to the Friday Night Pie. An old friend of mine who I recently connected with friended on Facebook started a blog with her family. I love to stalk people read blogs so I added her to my Google Reader. I'm glad I did. (I also learned how to strike out text.)

Her Friday Night Pie recipe was awesome. I printed it out and followed it word for word...no matter how wordy it got. (Thank goodness I have Seinfeld OnDemand.)

I used the same tomato paste but went crazy and changed up the pasta sauce.

The ingredients of my pasta sauce seemed decent but a little confusing.
Does "natural flavor" grow in the ground or on a tree?

Anyhoo, here's my pizza before the oven.

And after the oven.

Survey says:
a collective YUMM!

Matt said, "That's a nice hand tossed crust." (he worked at Pizza Hut in the late 80s and early 90s so he knows his pizza stuff!)

And our neighbor/frequent dinner companion, Mike (who critiques all of the free food I serve him) said the pizza was "very good."

So there you have it. Sunday's Friday Night Pie is a hit.

before I go,
How about my Ducks yesterday?! I say 72-0 was obnoxious....we should have stopped scoring. Matt says the 2nd, 3rd-10th string who got to play deserved to score as much as they could. Your thoughts?


(FYI: I'm out of pictures so this is the last post of the night)

Instead of Homework

(there is a new post (about HOMEWORK) below)

Instead of Homework
I'd rather Work at Home.

I play with my kids.
(or watch Daddy play)

I help them make home-made play-dough.

Even though it gets tough to stir.

Tyler makes ORANGE.

see? ORANGE

Instead of Homework
we work at home with our home-made play-dough

Tyler makes some fantastic TOES!

Instead of Homework
I like to search for Halloween costumes.
Tyler's choice (for today at least) is Luigi.
Lauren's is a Littlest Pet Shop cat.
I'm still undecided about mine.

When the kids go to bed I like to play Scrabble with my friends.
Both on-line and the old fashioned board game way.
This is enough Homework for me.

I love Working at Home.

Homework...bleh!

Above is Lauren doing part of her weekly homework. It looks like she's doing a great job on HER homework. But she's actually doing a great job on OUR homework. In order for her to do her homework I (the parent who already went through school and thought she was forever done with homework) had to do a lot of prep work to get her started.

See, I had to make up this worksheet for Lauren to practice her sight words. My instructions were to have my child practice "sight words" by writing the vowels and consonants in different colors.

I also was instructed to have my child practice her "spelling words" by putting them in ABC order. (another worksheet! ...well actually 2 because I have her do each assignment twice) My third homework assignment was to have my child practice her "vocabulary words" by using flashcards. (I have to make up the flash cards and then quiz her on them daily.) This is a total of 5 sight words + 10 spelling words + 10 vocabulary words I have to teach my child each week. It's been so long since I've done any math homework so I can't tell you how many words total but it's one heck of a lot.
Why teachers (and I know a couple of teachers read this...*cough *cough Anne, Ellen) do you assign us parents so much homework? I wanna be dun! I've lurnd all I want two.

I guess I should mention that after 3 weeks of school, Lauren is doing fantastic with her spelling and vocabulary and with learning to read. Who knows for sure if this is due to parent involvement, the awesome teacher she has, or if my girl is just super freaky intelligent like her Momma?! Maybe all three.

(I still don't like homework but I'm not going to tell Lauren that.)

insert creative title here

Last weekend we tried out a new baby-sitter. Matt and I, along with some friends went to see the Bon Jovi TRIBUTE BAND at the amphitheater. One of my "social media" friends had recently posted that her daughter wanted to baby-sit to earn some extra cash. I'm not one to EVER turn down an eager baby-sitter so I scheduled her in for the Bon Jovi (SORT OF) concert.

We had fun at the concert but L and T had more fun at home. I'm still hearing daily how much they want "the new baby-sitter" to come back and play with them.

Who wouldn't want to play with someone talented enough to draw awesome pictures of my sweet darlings?!

All weekends must end and school must start again.

Lauren is at such a great age. She dresses herself however she feels most comfortable. To school today, she wore flowered biker shorts with a sequined purple shirt...oh and pink flowered socks with her favorite pair of sparkle toe Sketchers.

Pattern on pattern, shirt hanging over and beyond her shorts, red with orange, she doesn't care. She dresses how she wants to dress and I'm completely happy with that. (I know it's just a matter of time until she wants to dress like Everyone Else.)

This outfit from yesterday does not do her creative choices justice but she looked cute so I had to snap a pic.

After school, on most days, our house is Play Central One. I LOVE IT. I love having everyone hang out at my house...so I can keep tabs on them all. =)

Today, Tyler and I made Scented Play Dough for his Pre-K class. Well actually, I just spooned out the ingredients into bowls and Tyler poured them and mixed them up. He did most of it. Let me know if you need a play-dough recipe...this turned out soft and smooth and took all of 10 minutes to make.

And that's about it...insert a creative closing line here if you like. *wink

Go Vikings!

Yesterday Daddy took Lauren and Tyler to the Vikings first football game of the season. When I told Lauren she was going to the game she said, "My teacher is going to the game too!! That will be totally cool if I see her" (Remember when we were young and we thought it was special/odd/weird when we'd see our teachers outside of school?)

It had rained earlier so Lauren wanted to be prepared.
Hello Kitty rain jacket and boots

Matt said they had a great time at the game. Lauren found her teacher and sat with her for part of it. She was very excited that she got to ring her teacher's cowbell. ???

And Tyler had a blast as well. I wonder if this will spark an interest in playing football.

At halftime it was 28-7.
We were killing them!

About then their 4 and 6 year-old attention-span ran out and Lauren and Tyler headed to the big grassy area...

for their own game of tackle football.

Next home game is in 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to going to that one!