Living Rosary

Today at school, the school was doing their rosary prayers together before going to class after announcements.  They practiced yesterday so that everyone would know where to go.

 

 

All of the kids were in a circle with tea light candles in front of them. 

 

 

It was a very special experience.  I almost missed it so that I could rush to work. I just decided that I was going to stay and enjoy the time in prayer before starting the day.  It was really wonderful.

 

 

Just think about it.  All of these children prayed together, at school, before their school day really even started.  The principal was brought to tears by the beauty of it all. 

 

 

It freaks me out a bit to think that next year, the school will be double in number of students!!!!  WOW - What a blessing to be a part of something so special.

Daddy Penguin

Mikayla has had an AWESOME learning experience at school the last couple of weeks.  They have been doing an in depth study about penguins and a bunch of species within the penguin group.

 

She has had a blast!  To my great dismay, they were building their diorama at school :(  but I was able to send in some supplies that we made together, I only managed the hot glue gun, she did the work... but loved that I got to participate with her.  On the way home from school we were discussing the habitat that her penguin lives in....she had started building hers before realizing it was a rocky living penguin versus the ice berg kind of penguin.  So we stopped at the trusty dollar store to get everything we needed to make what she wanted to make. 

 

Here is a small sample of what we came up with.  The penguin is made of Styrofoam balls, the nests are made of floral wrap stuff, the water is saran wrap, stapled to paper and painted blue, the penguin eggs are speckled jelly beans, along with some rocks and paper that looks like sand.... voila there we have it.  She is THRILLED with it now :)  I can't wait to see it!!  She made two nests, three penguins and is ecstatic.

 

 

Yesterday all the kids in her class were "daddy penguins" for a day and had to protect their eggs just like the real daddy penguins.  Mikayla had a hard sided lunch box, filled it with some blanket remnants, more of her nest stuff to make a good home for it.   Her egg made it ALL day.  She did tell me that it sure is hard work watching a baby.... baby eggie that is.  There were only about 4 kids that protected theirs all day :)

 

Here is her egg now.... she got a face when she got home.

 

 

Such a cute little momma!

 

 

It's been Chilly!

Mikayla's school had their first big fundraising event at school and it was a Chilly Cook Off. There were SO many people, so much chili, it was a really great time. Mikayla and her friends were W.I.L.D.!

 

 

 

 

They had a hay ride.... Holy moly the kids were CRAZY on there, I'm sure the neighbors that back up to the school property line were wondering what in the world was going on!

 

 

These little girls are awesome!!!!  So much fun!!  

 

 

On the last ride of the night that I was going to take, some of the kids were throwing hay all over...so when I got off the ride, I had all kinds of hay all over me, I tripped getting off of the truck, went flying, almost fell on my head.... managed to get my balance all while being run over by a bunch of 3rd and 4th graders...it was intense.  I must have had some kind of crazy look about me because when I came back inside, one beloved teacher fell over laughing at me.... hard.... another one came running to me to put me back together.... she put my jacket back on straight, pulled the hay out of my hair, dusted me off a bit, put wild wacky hair back in place, patted me gently and sent me back into the party.  WHEW  - it was hilarious..... wow.....

 

 

 

 

The Choir got to sing for us and entertain us.

 

 

 

WOW!!  What a great night!!

 

We have been able to enjoy some of the fantastic weather, it was so nice to get out for some fresh air!!

 

 

 

 

As always, my little poser :) 

Game Room do-over

Remember Bob?

 

This is how he had the game room (the very first thing we did when we moved in was take those curtains down *shudder* *ick ick ick*)

 

 

We move in and the room has kind of been like this for awhile while the construction dust and moving and settling in and all that stuff needs to happen happens.

 

 

 

Seriously look how big/bulky this tv is, it is soooooo big and heavy, Michael and I together can barely lift it... it's horrible and takes up SOOOOO much room.

 

 

 

We also changed out the massive glass top table we had up here and I refinished an old trunk we had in the closet.  The top was water damaged and scratched up.

 

 

Not very moderny at all.....

 

 

 

I wanted to try out this product, it's chalk paint.... it's supposed to be easy to work with and no sanding previous treatment of the wood is necessary.

 

 

 

See how big that glass table is...it's two of this trunk 

 

 

 

It took several coats and then something super cool happened, it developed it's own natural crackle finish.

 

 

 

It's awesome!!!  I couldn't be more pleased with the finish of it. I put one coat of the wax on it after it dried thoroughly, put on some new legs  and there we have it, our new coffee table.  1/2 the space and triple the usability - (storing stuff inside!)

 

 

 

So the room isn't too much to write home before about but not terrible either.

 

Until!  Paint!!!  She's all fresh now!!!

 

and OUR beloved Scrappy cabinet of goodness, freed up these babies.... so they can have their forever home!!

 

 

 

 

 

So this room has new blinds, fresh paint, new to it furniture, a working and NOT massive tv.... ahhhhhhh it's good.  Just a few more tweeks to do in here and it's all set!!!  WHEW!!!!  Now we'll enjoy spending more time up here for music lessons or watching old movies!

 

So far the scrappy cabinet of goodness dramatically changed three zones in the house.

 

Zone #1 - The craft/functional room of blissful organization.

Zone #2 - The fully utilized and organized former Monica closet - now housing Michael's office stuff

Zone #3 - The almost built in look/feel for the much improved and more useful game room tv center, music center, stereo center.... etc.... we officially have a place to house all of that stuff!

 

Whew!!!  We've been busy!!  Next stop downstairs.... paint paint paint.... (yikes, those tall walls.....we'll do it...but yikes all the same) 

The Craft Room

This is Bob's room (remember Bob?  he used to live here):

 

 

Then it was ours......

 

Then it flooded three days later.....

 

 

Then I sort of pulled it together :)  it worked for a little while.... but wasn't really as usable as I need it to be to be creative...I spent my time looking for stuff instead of doing stuff....so then I stopped doing stuff :(

 

 

then the cabinets got too full....little too disorganized.... messy, cluttery, you name it...I was OVER it! I had already moved one of the three cabinets upstairs to the game room.

 

 

Then we got the most magical craft cabinet ever!

 

 

I had a Monica closet (from Friends...) seriously - I have NO idea how this happened.

 

 

 

It then became this.....

 

 

and is now this....

 

 

This is the top part (I put a bookshelf up there so we could have more vertical storage)

 

 

and now my craft room - the most functional room in the house..... is now this......

 

drumroll......

 

 

 

Before:

 

After:

 

WOW!!!

 

We still need to paint and my throw rug is on order, and decide on wall decor but I couldn't wait to show it as it is now!!  LOL

 

WOW......

 

seriously - WOW!