Career Day

My mini Steve!!! Was SO delighted to get his own primo shirt to wear.  Even took his lunch in a plastic shopping bag like his daddy.  And should anything break in his classroom today, Sam should have it covered.  I think the tool belt weighed 15 pounds!

 Little Miss C. Overduin artist.  She made the palette, I made the beret.

 Mr. C. Palentologist.  He's had his shirt and pants picked out since the notice came home, notebook in the front pocket.  But once he googled palentologist costume, he was sure he needed to have a hat and vest!  Sleeves from a tshirt that was cut up the middle became the vests pockets, sewed on last minute.  His teacher gave him enough national geographic pictures to write a mini book and his carrying case has all sorts of necessities in it.  His hat was formed by cutting the middle out of a paper plate, then stuffing a nice plump balloon into the ring so I could tape and glue tissue paper into a roundish shape.  After that was somewhat secure I taped the whole inside to make it a bit more sturdy.

 Once Cam decided to be an astronaut (hopefully you could tell without my telling! :) ) there was lots of work to do. He found his own white shirt downstairs, then asked Aunty Krista if her dressup box had any white pants.  Thankfully it did and thankfully they were MILES too big so Cam could end up with "puffy pants."  Next came the helmet, first we created the see through glass by making a square of packing tape doubled over... (the worst part of the whole thing - that tape doesn't have any desire to go straight or unwrinkled!)  next we blew up a balloon and started taping white tissue paper over it.  Lots of tape involved.  Last we added the chin strap and decor and taped the whole inside for sturdiness.  

One of my favorite parts of a day like this is how the kids are so willing to make do with what we have laying around the house. Sure, they would have loved to visit the dollar store but they jumped wholeheartedly into making it as fantastic as possible with whatever they could find.  So, need white boots?  put them in white grocery bags and tape them on!

 Daddy found just the finishing touch when we asked if he had any kind of hose to finish off the "back pack" Old plumbing hose that screwed right onto the pop bottle!!  Bit of tape, sharpie and buttons to finish everything off.

After all those hours I'm just hoping the hats make it through the rain into the school building!

And my pretty teacher (old fashioned in that she wore pearls and pencils in her bun) declined to have her photo taken.

Haircuts

I know I shouldn't be surprised. They're children after all. But isn't 8 a little old for self hair cuts?

mom: where did you cut it?

Cam: in the crawl space

mom: where's the hair?

Cam: in the crawl space

The mice in the crawl space are probably so happy to have some padding for their nest :}

Ps. No I actually don't have mice there. Spiders, maybe. 

Boxes, Scissors, Tape

It's always a good idea to have lots of boxes around. 

We'll call him Franklin. 

After breakfast one morning Cody noticed the Best Buy flyer and his dinosaur loving self was so intrigued. Being a bit naïveté he asked if he could please go to the movies. When I explained that it was actually an ad from a stores for tvs he immediately went to work making himself one. 

He and Cara found an old outlet cover, a box and tape and went to work. 

As soon as the tv was ready they went to work getting the movies ready they wanted to watch. Cody has a movie about dinosaurs and "how Lego came to be". Cara's is about horses :)

They added a screen. But now what? Their audience couldn't watch their movies/plays/puppet shows with a screen in the way.

No problem! Steal the lamp off Cody's bed and put on a Jaws show.

Imagination is such a wonderful thing!

A Girl and her Dog

They are delighted to see each other 

And smother each other with affection

And there are no hard feelings not even if Missy sticks her tongue out. 

Also, don't be deceived by the the title.  The dog still does belong to Gramps and Gramma.

Western Day

If you wear a uniform to school every day, ending a themed month long read a thon with Western Day is a VERY big deal!!!

The boys crowed around google images to pick out their new look - provided with an old eye liner pencil.

They used kinex and tin foil to add spurs to their boots.

Cardboard + tin foil + sharpies + glue gun + safety pin makes for a right fine belt buckle any cowboy would be proud of!  And I was very thankful for cowboy hats for 75% off at Value Village.

Egg Cartons

The kids are always cutting up stuff to make something new. Pretty sure this is the best way I've ever seen an egg carton reused! Thanks to Cara for plucking my mum by the back door :)

Thoughts of a Seven Year Old

I simply cannot afford to forget this conversation...

Cara's favorite place is still in our bed, smack between Steve and I, as cuddled up as can be.  If she wakes up in her own bed and we've already left ours she begs for a few moments of cuddles. These cuddles often lead to great conversations.
Other fun facts about Cara.  She reminds us so much of young Shelly that we do call her "little Shelly" from time to time.  She's quite pleased about it! I'm not sure what came first, Cara's desire to be a nurse or her delight with being a "Little Shelly" but somehow I can't help wonder sometimes if she thinks she has to be a nurse to be like Shelly more than she actually wants to be a nurse.  This morning's conversation added to those musings.

Cara: You know how I really want to be a nurse? I'm just not sure if I really want to.
Mom: Oh, why not?
Cara: Cause MOST I want to be a Gramma.  BUT THAT'S A PROBLEM!!!!!
Mom: Oh, how come?
Cara: Because then I first need to have kids.
Mom: True....
Cara: But I DON'T want to get married!!
Mom: Well, I think I used to think that to, now look at me! I used to think boys were icky and now?!...
Cara: What's icky?  slight side trail to the conversation about definitions and boys in general
Cara:  Well....why didn't God plan that we could all just be like CHICKENS????!
Mom: What do chickens have to do with anything??
Cara: Well, there's LOTS of chickens and they don't all get married to the one rooster!!!!!!!!

(Yup, there's new hens and a rooster on the farm and there is talk about chicks... should she ever get a husband he will need to be a willing listener.  This one is a ponder out loud child!)