Spring has Sprung!

So Last week Master C was with us For the first half of the week. Monday when we got home I gave them rides up and down the hill, which they love. Sis used the ZuZu pets as the keys (yes…I make car sounds). Hehe. Sis helped make dinner and plated the food. We played in the back yard for about an hour I think. Sis had a restaurant where she served up natural dishes that were outstanding. She was Nanny Mcphee and very serious about her restaurant. Christian was my wild child that ran rampant and threw things in the restaurant. We then went for a short walk before it got dark. She was again Nanny Mcphee and Kelly, Lionel, and Christian were bad kids. She would freeze and move Kelly and Lionel around w/ her stick, but for some reason the magic had no affect on Christian. Hehe. Sis and I played Copy Cat on the way back. I ran their dirty little bodies thru the tub, they had a snack along w/ the ZuZu pets while finishing up Bee Movie, and it was off to bed. Sis peeled me a carrot for snack time. I declared that she is now officially in charge of dinner and snacks at our house cause she serves up super yummy food. : d Kelly and Lionel took a field trip to Harimuka on the way home Tuesday night. MaryJane whipped up some more goodies again when we got home. She was MeMe this time and she served real food. She made me a yummy banana and cherry smoothie and a veggie and fruit salad. Yummy. We watched part of Wall-E before taking a break to go for a walk. MaryJane rode the skate board down the road and did impressively well. C rode it all the way back….except he was on his belly w/ me pushing him. Hehe. We finished our movie before bed. I like that movie more every time I see it. Wednesday we went to Memorial Park in Bentonville. It a very interesting park. It has a slide w/ no sides, spider webbing, and plenty of other things you won’t find at your typical park. We had a real good time. Monday and Tuesday we had not jumped on the bed and I knew C was missing that so we cranked up the radio and did our thang. Before bed Sis grabbed a bunch of change and they competed to see who could grab the most money (I even dumped money on there heads which they seemed to enjoy). and she taught some from an old homeschool book. A cool, fun 3 nights the gurl and the dude. : ) Thursday was Treehouse. She finished another lapbook (baseball), is nearing the end of the alphabet in A-Z Animal Science, made some sort of chocolate whip cream in Cooking, and my class sent great. We did Wall-E. We played basketball w/ trash and made boots which we planted flowers in (recall the plant in the boot from the movie).

After Treehouse we went to McDonalds to eat and pay. We always go to one of the two w/ a play place. She had a restaurant in the baby part of the play place that had a drive thru from which i ordered and we played this game we do where i have to guess which slide she going to go down by going to it and then seeing id she comes out of the one where i am at. Before i took her to her mothers we went to the Bentonville library where she got books and we spent some time in one of the private reading rooms making animals in books say funny things. We love doing this and always laugh so much. Friday night we went to CeCe's Pizza for dinner. Yummy food, nice people, games, and prizes make this place a hit w. us. When we got home i had to mow. She worked in the garden, helped me mow, and placed a ton of dandelion seed in one spot of the front yard so a bunch of sunflowers will grow there. Before bed i took Margaret and Charlotte to the doctor/hospital. Charlotte was good and got a treat while Margaret was bad and got shots. hehe. Saturday a lot of fun. We started our day of by playing Polly Pocket for over 2 hours. We could have played longer, but had to get ready for our trip to town. In the car we played a game we do where we make Pokemon cards talk and do things and she spent time reading Judy Moody, a new book series she is loving. We went to a book swap at the mall. She traded in close to a dozen books for i think 9 or so really good, nice books. It was better than i could have imagined. Next was Wilson Park in Fayetteville. Havent been there in ages. We had a short little picnic when we got there and then headed for the castle.

While there we discovered a lot of clues. We pieced clues together and came away knowing we needed to find out more about a jewel bird. We also found a secret code, E S 6 6, that we needed to figure out what meant. We then headed over to the play ground area where we ran into Haden and Haley. MaryJane and Haley had fun playing together. We did her Math, Reading, and Science when we got home. She id doing great in all 3 subjects. We watched some of the last Beethoven movie and then went outside. We did some gardening as Vikings and played this game we do where we set up we set up shops out side. She sells good items and i sell junky items. I went to her shop and stuffed animals went to our shops. None of them wanted anything to do w. my junk, but they all enjoyed buying nice things from MaryJane s shop. Sunday morning we meet up w/ Grandma Gina and Poppy for Church. I think we are going to start going w/ them every week which is awesome. Sunday afternoon was packed w/ games. We played like a million different things. A few mentions are more detective work. We figured out more about the clues. We uncoded the secret code and got "rose" so we know now it is a red jewel bird. We also played Scooby Doo and caught the bandit puppy who stole the clementines. We colored too. She did a fabulous job on this Groovy Girls picture and i did a Peanuts page. Another awesome week.

This is a card she made for me the Friday prior to last week in the art class she is taking at The Jones Center.  What a sweetheart.

A cool coloring page she did Thursday night in the car....

...and the cool back.

A cute kitty cup she made and drank from.

Happy Easter!

We started of our week w/ a trip to the library. We have recently become frequenters of the Bentonville Library. While the selection is not as vast as the Springdale Library it is very nice and very close. We enjoy our visits there browsing, reading to each other, and Sis has even helped shelve books. Kelly and Lionel visited the doctor and dentist on the way home and we finished up the 5th, but not final Beethoven movie that night. Sis says its her favorite and I have to say it is really good. There is one called Beethoven’s Big Break that we will have to check out next that is not in her collection. We hit McDonalds for a bite Tuesday night. She made a friend as she usually does. They played and Lionel chased them a bit. We went for a walk later to pick up trash around the neighborhood. It was relatively already clean this trip. We ended up down in the back yard of Jessica’s old house. There are some chains that a board used to lay across that made a swing, but the board was gone so she just held on to a chain and I pushed her that way. I told her there was some wood in the shed behind the house that we could use to make a new seat. She said the one before was painted black; that she was going to paint this one. So when we got home I drug out a good board; a 1 x 8 I guess is what it is. I set up some benches and she cut herself a swing seat. She is a really good at sawing. She then laid it on the porch and painted away. She finished the top of the seat that night and it looks so cool. She painted a picture of Toothless, the main dragon from the new How to Train your Dragon movie. She only lacks about a quarter of the back to go before she’s done. I’ll have pictures of her, her swing seat, and likely some swinging this week. Wednesday Christian came to stay w/ us. With the warm weather I thought I would take them down to the boat drops. This is a good size almost island like area made of dirt and rock. Master C and I spent time chunking rocks into the water and MaryJane and I played a game where she was an Orphan Indian. Can’t wait for the water to be warm enough to swim. We later jumped on the bed. Thursday was Treehouse. Wow…so lots to say here I guess. Last week was one of the final four sessions. MaryJane is loving it as always. She is taking 6 classes. Poetry in your lap (she makes elaborate lap books based on things like pirates, butterflies, baseball, etc.), A-Z Animal Science, The Nancy Drew Book Club (She likes Nancy Drew a lot. Each week they talk about and do things related to one of the books), Art Exploration, Cooking, and Pixar Playtime. If you didn’t know (which you probably don’t) I am teaching her last class there this semester. Each week we talk about one of the wonderful Disney Pixar movies and play games and do activities related to the movie. I have MaryJane, her BFF Eliana, and 4 other children in my class. It’s a real joy to teach and the kids really enjoy themselves. We are doing Wall-E Thursday. So after Treehouse I always take her to do something and last time we went to see How to Train your Dragon; the latest movie from DreamWorks. We went to McDonalds first. They have Dragon toys. Her new Dragon challenged Lionel to races and jumps around the restaurant. There was basically no one there so we ran circles around that place. It was much fun. I’ll get a preview here… I have had a love for Dragons for a long time now so I was equally excited about seeing this one. It was a very good movie. It had an awesome story. It was a great week. Check back tomorrow for details on the great weekend.  I picked up MaryJane Saturday morning. A couple things I found out. 1. that she had learned how to write in viking language and 2. that it was Kelly’s sisters birthday We then headed to Home Depot to build. She made a Butterfly house. She was really on her hammering game I tell ya. We then grabbed a bite to eat and then it was to Wal-Mart to get a few things, including cupcakes for Kelly’s sister Tina’s birthday. When we got home Tina (middle) and their mother Blue Kelly (right) came out.

MaryJane wrapped a snow white video (Tina’s fav movie), I made a card written in viking language (becasue she can onlyu read viking), and Kelly had a SpongeBob card for her (also in viking language). After cards and gift we sang and had cupcakes. Tina had a very nice Birthday.

We had a lot of fun coloring eggs. We colored 24 eggs. With 12 colors to choose from, a wax pencil, stickers, and 5 coloring swabs some very nice eggs were produced.

We played a game where MaryJane was another girl named Tina and I was a boy named Jack. We were viking children that had lots of work to do. Kelly and Lionel wanted to be Vikings too, but were to busy playing hot wheels. Hehe. We also practiced karate Saturday. She is a karate master; ouch. Hehe. MaryJane wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny and placed it along w/ two carrots and an eggs on a plate for the Easter Bunny before bed. Sunday morning we awoke to find an Easter basket filled w/ goodies. Here she is w/ her Reeses Bear.

We then got ready for Church and headed out to meet up w/ Grandma Gina and Poppy at Fellowshiop for the 8am Easter Service. It was very nice. Bill invited us to come to there house for Breakfast and to visit so I accepted of course. MaryJane made scrabbled eggs and Gina made pancakes and bacon.

It was super yummy. MaryJane and her grandma spren some time outside picking flowers afterwards while Bill and I cleaned up and visited. Gina asked MaryJane and I to sign her wooden table w/ a wood burner. Here is a picture of the great job MaryJane did.

Later Jessica's sister Lisa came over with MaryJanes cousind Haden and Haley. MaryJane and Haley had fun palying outside and in the basement. They are great friends. We all had a wonderful time together. Next it was off to Nana and Grandpas. On the wasy MaryJane taught Kelly and Lionel how to do some Karate moves. She got a basket from her Great Grandma and Grandpa when we first got there, shortly after we had a delicious lunch, and then it was time to hunt eggs. Nana had stuiffed a ton off plastic eggs w/ candy and money. Trenda hid them all and then MaryJane and her cousin Brena hunted. They both had much fun and made a haul.

MaryJane hunted real eggs once and hid them for Brena a few times. Dad, Cody, and I played a few games of washers. MaryJane was my cheerleader which i just love. MaryJane and i spent some time outside playing on some wood boards and practiced more karate. Did i mention shes a karate master. hehe. It was a very nice Eater afternoon. We got home in time for her to hide our eggs around the house for me to hunt before bed. What a great Easter 2010.

Back Home!

Well, well, look who’s blogging. Not only getting back into my routine here, but coming back w/ a new look and more dedication and desire. Did not plan on a three month absence, it was just one of those things where I just did not do it and after a while that became my routine. I’ve missed posting as I am sure you have as well. So here we go… I guess I will start off w/ a rundown of last weekend’s festivities. Started out Saturday morning w/ a Hello Kitty Club meeting. This is a club w/ MaryJane, Kelly, and Lionel in it. I got the last question wrong on the entry test not long ago so im not in it. Lionel was being his cranky self and with him not wanting to follow the club rules and eat his healthy celery he was left in the bedroom when we made our way to the living room. He later ate his food…and the napkin . Silly kitty. Next up was creating Spongebob’s out off sponges; what else. Hers are Queen Sponge and a kitty and mine is a green Spongebob. They turned out great. Our washer broke about a month ago and we finally got a new one Saturday. MaryJane and I helped get the old one moved out. We had lunch while he was gone taking the old one away and bringing back the new one. Upon his return we helped bring the new one in. Then I did some laundry and actually enjoyed doing it. Haha. A good part of the afternoon was spent writing letters. We have mailboxes we made from sandwich bag boxes that she set in the kitchen. I received mail from Plants and Zombies and I wrote to them. There is a game called Plants vs. Zombies that she likes; that is where this comes from. A ton of mail was sent and it was really cool and really fun. Bye the way…Plants Rule and Zombies Drool. Hehe. We later played a game where the 6 main Disney Princess stuffed dolls competed in singing, dancing, and moves and before we left for mommies work we did a quick game…it’s the one where the pet shops sell bread…hers sell the fluff and do great and mine sell the crust and do badly. Its classic and always a good time. I picked up Gurly in time to make the late service at Fellowship Sunday morning. Being Palm Sunday it was an emotional service. After lunch we broke out the Care Bears for the first time in a long time. We played a lengthy game of school. We put together families in the living room, the clothes basket bus picked up kids, school was held in the kitchen, and we had a great and hilarious time w/ it all. : ) Once school was out we played a game of America's Got Talent. Our two giant Care Bears and Her or I were the judges and one or two Care Bears at a time put on performances. There were some great acts i tell ya. We later jumped bounced on the bed while listening to music and played a game where she is a princess on the bed before hitting the tub to get washed up and play Barbies. She got some foam soap last week and it has made for some great playtime w/ the Barbies. It gets pretty silly...and very pink. Hehe. Before bed we started the 3rd Beethoven movie of the weekend. Another fun weekends in the books.

Birthday and Christmas Fun!

With a Birthday and Christmas I have lots of pictures and lots to say.

Woke up Friday morning, my Birthday, to wonderful gifts from Gurly. She made me another sweet card, a super cool visor, and this neat picture that I put in the frame she decorated. What creative and wonderful gifts from my sweetheart. MaryJane and I spent a majority of the morning on the folded out futon playing LPS, coloring Garfield pictures, and reading a Larryboy book. After a relaxing morning (well…except the part where we went nuts on the bed..hehe) we headed out to live it up on the town. First stop was Shogun’s in Fayetteville where we meet up w/ my work peoples for the annual Christmas Luncheon. We enjoyed the food, show, and company. Afterwards her and I enjoyed ice cream and a book upstairs in the lounge. Lovely. Next was the comic shop in Fayetteville; Rock Bottom. We browsed the huge store and each selected a fine comic. She got Pokemon #4 while I got Wildcats #2. Then we went to the Springdale Library to pick up 3 more Larryboy books and a new book by the DragonLance authors that we had put on hold. Liking the whole “hold” thing. After that we were off to FastLanes in Lowell. Kinda like Locomotion, but bigger and better…and more expensive. Hehe. We loaded our cards (you swipe a card vs. using coins) and went crazy. We racked up over 350 tickets and MaryJane scored 2 stuffed animals out of one of the washing machines. We traded our tickets for prizes and headed to the mall for a cold stroll and some pictures. After grabbing me a much needed pair of shoes at Hot Topic Missy posed and posed for pictures. What a doll. After warming up briefly at Build a Bear Workshop we made our way back to the car and went just up the way to Golden Corral for another feast. Love that joint. Anywhere that has all you can eat steak is a winner in my book. Haha. Finally we made a pit stop at Wal-Mart for a few necessities…and 2 Pokemon packs. Hehe. A wonderful 30th birthday spent w/ the bestest daughter ever.

Saturday we spent a good part of the day playing at the house. We got out a bunch of stuffed animals and put them on the floor in front of the futon and played washing machine. One of us would get on the futon and put quarters in a bank to be able to control the other person, picking up and winning stuffed animals. It was a blast. We played Littlest Pet Shops on the Futon too. We got into this game where some of the pets controlled by me had a pet hamster that gnawed on wood pencils. She would take a pair of tweezers and scrape the outside of pencils off and pretend the hamster had done it. She told he she wanted to write a book called something like "Michael and MaryJane Mysteries". We were to solve some mysteries and then she would write them down in a book we would make together. We went on what was called something like "The Mystery of the Bird Bath" outside and discovered that the statue we thought might have been a predator trying to catch birds was merely a pigeon. Mystery solved. Hehe. We played an Orphan game where she was an orphan that lived in a Treehouse (the futon) and I was a rich man that discovered her and did things for her. After a game of Barbies in the tub we got ready and headed out to Dad's for my birthday party. We had a great time of course. Here is MaryJane playing w. there new puppy. They are both just precious. Oleta made my requested meal of crawfish jambalaya and fried potatoes and she did a wonderful job. It was soooo delicious. Cody and Robi, G and G Danforth, and Grandma Mary were there and visiting with them was a pleasure. I got a Wii for my birthday and we are loving it. Dad and I have played Bowling and some golf almost ever time we go out there so now i can practice and maybe, just maybe stand a chance against "the pro". Hehe. While we played on his Wii MaryJane constructed this super sweet graham cracker house. Nice.
Sunday morning was traditional Church followed by a special visit to Grandma Gina and Poppy's house. Bill and I spent most of our time downstairs watching football on the big screen, chatting, and eating the delicious array of goodies Gina had prepped for us. This is how watching football should be done. We we soaked this up Gina, MaryJane, and her cousin Hallie played together. They colored pictures, played outside on the swing set and trampoline and MaryJane and Hallie discovered there is a ghost in the house and they saw a shooting star while we were there. We all spent some time together as well. A great time was had by us all. MaryJane and Hallie are best friends and she cant wait to see her again.
Thursday morning we played around the house before setting out to Walgreens to pick up wrapping supplies for all the gifts we had purchased the night before. We got in our game of Santa's workshop when we got home and it was fun. A Santa bear was Santa and two stuffed animal reindeer were the elves. I wrapped and MaryJane checked the gift and applied the bows, ribbon, and tags. I loaded the trunk w/ gifts and we made our way to Aunt Cheryl's for the family Christmas Eve get together. Every one accept Rachael, Matt, and there children was there. We visited, ate, listened to music and opened gifts. MaryJane got lots of goodies including a Neopets plush, Pokemon game, and a cool bracelet craft. I got a desperately needed new coffee maker. Hehe. Upon returning home we quickly put out Cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and hurried of to bed. This is a picture of her saying Merry Christmas
Christmas morning we awoke to find that Santa had filled our stocking and brought MaryJane a bunch of presents. She got a Three Musketeers Barbie, Pokemon cards and games, books, a Neopet, a My Meeba, and much more. We spent the morning and afternoon playing with all her new stuff before picking up Christian and going to Mommy's. MaryJane opened the gifts and emptied her stocking. She got a new bike, a Wii and DS game, a calculator, and much more. I spent some time playing w/ the kids and and visiting w/ Jessica before heading home. It was a wonder white Christmas.

Saturday morning I picked up MaryJane and we went to Dads to continue our celebration of Christmas. We visited, opened gifts, and played. We got another Wii-mote and Super Mario Bros. Wii. and we each got a couple other nice gifts. After playing with her fashion designer kit,some Wii action , and more we left to go to Grandma Mary's. There we hung out w/ Cody, Robi, Mam, Branden, and Grandma Mary. We visited, ate, and opened some gifts. MaryJane did a neat Butterfly craft. Another fun day.

Sunday morning we attended Church and then came home to recoup and play at home after all the running around. We took a whopping 3 hour nap, played Neopets figures, stuffed animals, and babysitter. Kelly and Lionel visited our restaurant and learned a little about cooking. We also played Wii and watched Ghost Busters while eating dinner and doing art.

MaryJane's Art Gallery!

Thought i would put up some of my little artist's masterpieces from the weekend. Enjoy!

This is an ornimate she made Tuesday night at the Library. Pretty!

MaryJane gave this to me this afternoon. It is the 1st of my 4 birthday gifts. What a sweetie!

Tis the Season

MaryJane and I are just a little excited about Christmas…NOT! We are so anxious we just about can’t handle it. Every day she asks me “How many days until Christmas”. So in the spirit of Christmas we did lots of Christmas stuff over the weekend.

We started prepping our Christmas cards Saturday night. She picked out some awesome cards at Wal-Mart and it all about doing them all by herself. She’s writing all the inside verbiage, putting the to and from addresses on the front, putting the pictures inside, marking where the stamp will go, and will surly seal, place the stamps on, and put them into the mail for you all. She did all the writing in cursive by the way. My only involvement is cutting out pictures and signing my name below hers on the cards. They will be done and in the mail later this week so keep an eye out for yours. : )

We made Gingerbread Dudes and Friends Sunday afternoon. We had much fun decorating them and playing w/ them.
















We watched 2 Christmas movies. Thanks Netflix. The first was the DVD of Santa Buddies. Very cute and funny. We did the traditional “chase” during the credits, we danced to the music video, she rode on me during the sing-a-longs, and we enjoyed some sneak peeks too. We got our monies worth out of that one…hold on…it was free…hehe. The second was the Instant Online of A Nightmare Before Christmas. As creepy and weird as usual.

She made these cool Christmas crafts. They are sticky foam characters, acessories, and letters on foam frames. Very creative designs by a very, very creative gurl.
We had planned to play Santa’s Workshop as well, but didn’t get it in. Sure we play it this week. Love that game.

Also, going to get our Christmas light up this week. Still scheming on how I want to do it this go round.

Best Bud’s!

Well as scheduled we meet up w/ the Camacho family at Home Depot on Saturday morning. MaryJane was thrilled to see Eliana. She is also buddies w/ Mailia. They built there helicopters, flew them around, and attacked me w/ them. Haha. They invited us to brunch w/ them at Village Inn and we gladly accepted. Of all the B-fast joints that one is surely the yummiest. Some of us had breakfast, some of us had lunch, and we all had a very nice time. MaryJane, Eliana, and Mailia chattered, looked and Bella Serra and Pokemon cards, and colored. Cutest part had to be when MaryJane and Eliana did one of those clapping hands thing…not sure what you call that?...anyways they did it to the tune of that “Mrs Susie” rhyme…the one where Tiny Tim tries to eat the tub and they call the lady w. the alligator purse….they clapped and sang so loud, but Aly and I just sat there b/c it was just to precious to interrupt. Before we left I just had to get a picture of those two cuties together.