busy busy busy

Things here have been busy to say the least. Last Wednesday Nathaniel had his winter recorder concert! He did wonderfully and hadn't told me before that he was doing the advanced songs!!! I am so proud of him!

Then Friday we got report cards. All of the kids were excited for us to see them! and all I could say was.. Wow my kids are smart LOL.

Brianna received all 3's (the best she can get for kindy). She needs to work on recognizing the uppercase letter Y, and the sounds for Y and TH. They say she has mastered everything else!

Alex received just about all 4's (that would be exceeds standards of learning 94% of the time). His handwriting has gone from a 2 (yeah he is an 8 year old boy.) to a 3. I am just blown away!

Nathaniel has raised every grade he got except math.. that went from a 91 to a 90.

Lets just say I am so very happy with them!

Today we painted Christmas ornaments for gifts,

The kids had alot of fun :)

Oh and on the table I rescued some packing paper that came in a package from amazon... It is PERFECT for covering the table LOL

Yay! The ornaments always come out so cute :)

Seasons greetings!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had such a good time at my parents house. We all loved seeing all of our family and enjoying the company of loved ones. After our little vacation we came home and first had a small thanksgiving dinner on Saturday with Steve. Ham, sweet potatoes, corn and pie YUM. Then we spent Sunday cleaning and putting up our tree! After baths I decided to try and get some pictures of the kids, except the camera lens was dirty... so all the pictures turned out blurry..

I figured out the problem cleaned it up and I get a picture of Caitlynn picking her nose..... sigh....

So maybe we will try again tonight LOL

Yummy yummy Yummy Earth review!!!

 

Our very first review here at Once upon a time!

And oh what a review. We got to try what is easily the BEST lollipops I have ever tasted. 

Yummy Earth Organic lollipops, made with no corn syrup, no artificial dyes, They are Nut free, soy free, GMO free, wheat free, gluten free, Dairy free, Casein free. They are 100 % vegan, Certified organic, and use all natural fruit extracts for flavor.  

A real down home company started by two dads who wanted a good treat to feed their children, not just another artificially flavored dye filled piece of junk

I have to say as a mom I love the ingredient list... It includes ingredients that I KNOW. That I would be happy to use in meals/ treats for my children. 

As a candy connoisseur, yes I have a sweet tooth, I prefer chocolate, Dark chocolate but I also chew gum all the time and indulge in good hard candies from time to time. These were hands down the best hard candies I have ever tasted. They actually tasted like fruit! They weren't overwhelmingly sweet  and just one lollipop satisfied that craving for sweets!

Now from the children....

From Caitlynn(age 3): Yummy, good, I like it!

From Brianna(age 5): Awesome, and um... I wish we could get more!!!!

From Alex(age 8): Awesome! My favorite is the blueberry because it is the Best!

From Nathaniel(age 10): Heaven!!! They are really good The cherry taste like real cherries!

So go out and get some really good candy!Share with your neighborhood Trick or Treater's this Halloween. Or just use that as an excuse to buy some ;)

We received a family sized bag of Yummy Earth  Organic lollipops for the purpose of this review,

The thoughts and opinions are our own!

YummyEarth Organic Lollipops, Assorted Flavors, 30-Ounce Cont…

Wordless Wednessday: My daughter the mime.

Happy Birthday Alex!!!

Yesterday my baby boy turned 8 years old! Lucky him it was on a Sunday so he then had all day to play with his new toys!!!! 

(BTW those lollipops are the absolutely best lollipops ever Yummy Earth organic lollipops, review coming soon!!!)

First thing in the morning it was time for presents!

After presents at his request we had pancakes (chocolate chip) eggs, and bacon!

He had an absolutely wonderful day Hanging out, playing with new toys and video games!

For dinner he requested spaghetti, I've noticed all of my kids choose either spaghetti or pizza for their birthday LOL.

Then it was cake time... I'm not so pleased with the cake... But Alex loved it..

I set cookie cutters on the cake and poured colored sugar into the shapes. But he liked it! Next weekend we will be doing another cake when my parents  and mother in-law come to celebrate :)

He is the goofiest child :)

apparently I should have made him change his shirt LOL

Oh the BEST part of the cake... It wasn't just a plain old boring cake.....

 Yeah it was the most awesome cake ever!... I didn't get the stripes just right but the kids loved it anyways! Alex choose the colors blue, orange, and green!

Happy Birthday buddy!

Play dough!

Play dough... Oh how wonderful it is, I am ashamed to admit I had forgotten the wonders of such a simple thing. Yesterday for the first time in too long I made play-dough for the kids to play with and (not kidding) they spent over 3 hours playing with it. So today when the two three year olds'  requested more pink play- dough I happily obliged!

All the play-dough from yesterday is now rainbow colored LOL

Squish!

working on fine motor skills decorating pizza!

Making a play-dough bunny face :)

Of course mama had to add something educational to it !....

So how long till I get tired of cleaning it up????

Play-dough-

2 cups water

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

2 TBS oil

Mix everything in a sauce pan heat over med heat until you have a ball of dough. remove from pan and knead. 

Yesterday I split up the big ball of dough and kneaded in food coloring. Today I added food coloring while it was cooking and the pink came out much brighter and nicer!

School has begun!

And it started on Tuesday, it has been a fun/hectic/interesting week so far. The first day of school went off with out a hitch. Brianna shed a few tears walking into the school not from fear but from being overwhelmed at the amount of students :).

The second day she had me walk her to the door. Then told me "I can go by myself mom!"

The third day she left me at the corner yelling "I can go by myself! Go home!!!"

She has had an awesome week at school her favorite part is the coloring and recess!

Nathaniel is really enjoying his class, he is most excited about reading The BFG By Roald Dahl

He has spent a lot of his summer reading   His reading list has included  

The Alchemyst , The Hunger Games,

 and a brief venture intoThe Odyssey.

This boy blows me away sometimes!

Alex is LOVING his class.. He already knows all the girls LOL!

 He also spent a good portion of his summer reading His list was shorter but very impressive for a new second grader

 The Last Dragon,  The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1). 

Along with with several pokemon, magic tree house, Junie B Jones books and so on.

The girls have absolutely fallen in love with  The series Ivy and Bean this summer

 Ivy & Bean (Book 1) (Bk. 1)

I am loving that our Library has almost the entire series on CD and that we can put the books on their MP3 players!!!

 The first day of school went well for Caitlynn I was babysitting so she had a friend to play with. Wednesday I was babysitting again so she still had a playmate. Thursday was her first day with just mommy and daddy... I have to say she was a little lost in her own world

For a while she had no idea what to do all by herself. So we went outside found a BIG sheet of cardboard and watched it fly around

We talked about the wind and enjoyed the nice breezy morning

Then we hung out by noon she was more than ready to go get everyone from school LOL.

She was beyond happy to go get the kids from school!

Today we have had a nice quiet morning, did some cleaning up then we made a bird feeder

And for the most part Caitlynn did this all by herself

And she has spent all morning watching out the windows for birdies to come eat their snack!

Now I NEED more ideas for the weeks to come!!!

I hope everyone else is having a great start to the school year too!!!