reward!

Mitchell had his retainer stolen out of his backpack on Friday. On a whim I went to the 3 classrooms in his hall and offered a $20 reward for anyone who found it. Low and behold this afternoon 3 kids came to claim the reward, retainer in hand!! WOO HOO!!! I still can't believe it! Yeah I know one of them probably took it, but hey it's better then paying for a new one! Mitchell has had a hard time this weekend, he blames himself for it getting stolen, no matter how many times we've told him it's not his fault, he still can't understand why someone would go thru his stuff. He sure has had some hard lessons to learn this year.

Memorial Day

Thank you!

Chicago - Field Museum day 2

Here Matty is trying to move a block the same size and weight that were used to built the pyramids.......he said he got it to budge just a little :)

Saturday was back to the Field Museum! we were starting our day off with the Real Pirates exhibit. This is a traveling exhibit about the Slave Ship turned Pirate ship Whydah Galley. SOOO cool!! I highley recommend seeing it if it comes to your area. No pictures were allowed but you can get more information here just so happened that evening the special was on tv so we got to learn even more about the Pirates. The boys loved the Egypt exhibit so we went thru that and the Earth Evolution again. Very cool place!!

Chicago - Field Museum day 1

On Friday we spent the day at the Field Museum. Brian was speaking at a conference there so the boys and I had a great day exploring. We had never been before. Sue was uber cool!! We saved the two special exhibits, The Real Pirates and Underground adventure for Saturday. So we went thru Earths Evolution....that was the COOLEST!!! We learned so much!

Chicago-MSI

I had planned to post pictures and blog all about our trip each night while we were still there....well you know what they say about the best laid plans. My card reader didn't work....and not thinking I didn't get another one until we got home. This trip couldn't have come at a better time. The boys have had a rough school year (which makes mama have a rough school year) and things were pretty bad the week we left. The Harry Potter exhibition had just opened at the Museum of Science and Industry and if you love HP (like me), and you're bummed the story is over (like me) and you can't wait until July 15th (like me) and you keep re-reading all the books (like me) you won't want to miss this! They have all kinds of original props from the movies and the setup makes you feel like you've entered Hogwarts and you WON'T want to leave! The boys just love MSI and having the traveling exhibits is such a bonus!

NSD

I went to a NSD crop over the weekend at Creek Bank Creations it was a GREAT time! they had some amazing prizes...but I didn't win....well not a prize anyway but since I got 48 pages done that makes me a huge winner!! here are some of the pages I got done. I worked on a lot of older pictures of the boys it was nice to remember these trips and events.

MS walk

the boys and I participated in the local MS walk. Our PTA raised $930 to present to Helen.....GO PTA!!! it was a gorgeous day and the boys had a lot of fun! here is my POTD for yesterday

Impromptu photo shoot

On Friday as the boys and I were walking out the door going to school I grabbed the camera.....on our backporch I got these...or I should say the boys got them......each taking the others photos. I think they turned out pretty darn good! I hope they always remember how much I love them.

NSV

That's Non Scale Victory for those of you who don't know....I just found out myself when my friend Amanda refered to it .....I had to ask what it meant :)

For a while now people have been commenting on how lose and baggy my clothes are. I just didn't really think they were THAT baggy and sure didn"t want to go out and spend money on new clothes but since I was going to a 2 day NSD (National Scrapbook Day) whew lots of acronyms in this post!! anyway out buying new pants......I went to the local goodwill store and had a hard time finding something in the size I thought maybe I could squeeze into but there weren't any...so going down a size and another and ANOTHER until I found a pair of capri pants, thinking well trying them on will at least give me an idea of how close (or far away) I am to that size still a long way off in my mind......I wish I had a picture of my face when they slid right on!! I had even picked up a pair of button shorts....feeling pretty good I decided to try them on too and OMG!! I got them bottoned!! WOW what a moment I had in that dressing room!! So I bought both pairs! So I'll leave you with the picture of my new capri's on top of my old pants.....this was a happy day!!

MS Walk

On Sunday May 3, I'm joining in to walk for MS. I have two very dear friends that have MS and I'll do my part to help......will you help out too?

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/ILDWalkEvents?team_id=149962&pg=team&fr_id=10955

Project 365

Some of my project 365 photos.

<----Matty is always leaving his guys "hanging" around. I love finding them all over the house....most of the time :)

Here is the bird, sitting, protecting her nest

<---- I wasn't sure the tulips would bloom this year, we had snow after they sprouted. But so far 2 have bloomed.

birds!!

On Friday my friend Amanda came over to scrapbook/card make with me. Brian was out of town and I love having her over. Flash back to a week or so ago, one of the boys mentioned a bird nesting around the front of the house and they took the nest down. I didn't really pay much attention to the details. So it's around 10pm and Amanda is leaving, I walk her out and as soon as she is on the front porch a bird is flapping and squawking, hovering right around her head! It was crazy!! So she ducks back into the house and we get the door closed before it can get in the house.......but not before we scared the *crap* outta the bird :( It flies away and Amanda can get safely to her car.......then Mitchell says this is the bird that he was telling me about earlier. I went out and took a couple pictures of the nest. On Saturday we got up early to go to the free movie and there she was sitting in her nest. I don't know much about birds but I'm pretty sure there are eggs in there as she doesn't go far from it and goes right back when the coast is clear. Amanda came back after the movie to craft some more but was very careful to come and go from the back door! Brian got home in the late afternoon and we told him about the great bird adventure.....he said he's taken the nest down twice! Getting back to our craftiness Amanda says oh B just walked by the window with a broom......so I fly up the stairs to rescue the mama!! I dont' want the nest knocked down if there are eggs in there. I tried to look out the upstairs window but couldn't see into the nest. So we left it alone for now.