Forget the Academy Awards

Our end of the trimester awards and we accomplished our goal of Honor Roll!



What do you wear to an awards ceremony? The latest fashion trends...Superman.
He definitely got the most attention for his great fashion sense.

Our Journey Ends

I feel like we were just cut on American Idol. Our science fair days are over. We needed Ryan Seacrest to console us. We did not win. I think she was a little sad, but we came far. I told her at least we were not televised in front of millions of people that our dream is crushed.
Here is some looks at the competition. I don't get why some people needed to put two science project boards to make it huge. If it fell it could really hurt someone. Law suit.

This one had a digital photo frame on it flashing photos of the project. Surprise no one stole it. Note to all... don't attach anything over $100.00 to science fair project.

Taylor, your project was amazing...look how many people you beat out. Come back next year. Isn't that what you say on Idol to try to ease the pain.

No More Parenting Books

The more kids I have and the older they get...the more I realize they are all from a different "EGG"! Parenting books make me feel bad for yelling at my kids. They never have a chapter on when all else has failed...then by all means go ahead and yell. I seem to have one girl that was receiving most of my yelling. Clearly this was not motivating her and I was sick of listening to myself. She is the type of child to stay in her room for 3 hours not cleaning, but as soon as I say I am leaving in 5 minutes to go to Disneyland it will be spotless in 5 minutes. Why can't you just clean it in 5 minutes instead of dinking around for 3 hours? We started calling her molasses because she was so slow and last to do anything. Homework would take her 3 hours except for when a friend came over to ask her to play...miraculously it would be done in 5 minutes. One day she asked what molasses was, so I went and bought some to show her. Great...trying to motivate her by a mean name and she does not know what it is. Such a good parent. What to do? Parenting books would tell you to take activities away to motivate them to do what needs to be done. I knew if I took away activities that would give her more time to waste. Against all parenting books I decided to over schedule her so she had no time to waste. When she knows she has to get it done she does it.
It worked...she has totally impressed me. What does her schedule look like?
Basketball 2 times a week, soccer 3 times a week, piano lessons and practicing 20 minutes a day, activity days with church, take care of her bunny...feed, change, walk. Just to make sure she is really busy...she is doing a play at school that requires after school practice 2 days a week. She is amazing. She does all this and comes home and focuses on her homework like I have never seen her focus. She even pulls some late nights, but knows she has to get it done. No time to waste and I have no reason to yell. I cried when she brought home a note that said she was going to make honor roll. My parenting books are in the trash.

I have not figured out one thing though...with her being over scheduled than I am over scheduled. Plus, I have 3 other kids with schedules. I guess I need to go get my parenting books back out of the trash.

Flexing

I have two brothers who never wore a shirt all through high school. They always walked around the house proud of their 8 packs (Yes, 8 packs) I swear I never saw them wear a shirt until they left home for college or the navy. I knew this day would come, but I thought I had a few years. I walked in on him flexing in the bathroom. At first I thought how cute...then I thought how does he know how to flex?

I know that I don't flex in the mirror. I am sure the girls do not flex in the mirror.

That leaves one person who I think is flexing in the mirror in front of his son. I have no evidence to prove this. Just a feeling.

Science Fair

Everyone in Taylor's science class is required to do a science fair project. Both of us didn't want to put that much effort into it. A girl in her class did one with a lie detector. I did not want to grow plants or make some explosion...so she came up with a great topic...How permanent is permanent marker? We looked around the house for products and thus began our science fair adventure. We did what we thought was a good job for a good grade but was not shooting for the stars. She turned it in and was glad to be done. The next day her teacher announced that 5 kids of the 40 in class were chosen to be judged in their Jr high. The first one...Taylor...she looked around to see if there was another Taylor....nope. She came home and we both cracked up that the teacher thought it was so good. I was just glad to know we got an A. The the next day she came home and said it was chosen out of her whole Jr high to go to the district science fair. WHAT!!! This is starting to get really funny until I saw that we have to set up the project for judging and go to a 3 hour awards night. We barely wanted to do the project and now we are up for awards. Imagine if we tried. The dad of the little girl with the lie detector test came and talked to the teacher about why she was not chosen. I told Taylor to tell him that he can come set up your project for you if it means so much to him. I will let everyone know how we do at district after our 3 hour award ceremony...yeah. When I take Taylor to school I keep telling her we can take this to state and nationals...

I forgot that many of you probably are dying to know the results of our project. Then you may come to the 3 hour judging and awards night too:)

GO TAYLOR!!!!!!!

Our latest Addition

I added our new pet to the back of my car. I just wanted to see Carly smile.

Cream Cheese Pizza Dip

This is a new dip to me that my family loved. I thought it would be great for super bowl food.

8oz cream cheese
spaghetti sauce
mozzarella or cheese of choice
pepperonis and anything else you add to a pizza

In a 9 x 12 pan spread cream cheese on the bottom to be the crust...Then act like you are making a pizza. Add sauce, cheese, toppings. Bake at 350 until everything melted and hot.
Then use wheat thins, small bread or anything you think would be great to dip in the dip.

sooooo good!!! Everyone who has had this asks for the recipe:)