Baseball 2010

Bug played baseball again this year. Lil' Coconut did not. This makes me doubly (is this a word?) sad that we lost all of the pictures from last year. We did get pictures from this year though & you can see them in the slideshow below .above. (Because every time I try to label my slideshows it makes them not show up...this makes me insane!) This year, Daddy was Bug's coach. This was both good and bad. Good because Daddy is a great coach. Bad because we don't think Bug played to his full potential because Daddy was his coach. Plus, Dad had to umpire either the game before or after each of our games. For some reason they couldn't get official umpires this year, so the coaches were supposed to fill in & they would get paid. Well, they didn't get paid, most of the coaches didn't bother to umpire which left Dad all by himself on the field sometimes, & holy heck batman can some adults spoil a good time! Daddy's not sure he wants to put up with all the negatives of coaching again next year, but he has a few months to think on it.

This year was also totally different because Bug went from coach pitch to the minors. It went from being really fun & learning how to play the game, to MLB intensity with the addition of score keeping. We were shocked at our first game when the other team spent the entire game stealing bases. Some kid tried to steal home on a walk. Yeah. Wasn't just that team either, it was every team but ours. Oddly enough, we hadn't taught our team to steal bases. We thought 8-11 year-olds should still be learning the fundamentals of baseball instead of just learning how to win. Who knew?

At any rate, Bug seemed to have fun, and THAT is the whole point!!

I Will Survive- Homeschool Version

I received the link to this video from our home school group leader, and as today is our first day of school (plus one of my favorite songs EVAH...did I mention I saw Gloria Gaynor perform this live once?) I thought it would be appropriate.

1st Day of School!

We started the main part of our curriculum today! Last year's curriculum was great, but not for us. It involved way too much time on my part & lots of reading aloud, which sounds really nice, but didn't work so well with two little people running around and screaming. Very hard to concentrate on history, science and whatnot with all that commotion.

Now we are using Switched On Schoolhouse (SOS) by Alpha Omega. Bug and Lil'C are most excited about having their own computers & doing school on them. I am most excited about the absence of papers and paperwork. We STILL have paperwork from last year all over my desk & the family room.

We have other "electives" like handwriting, art & life skills that we will be starting later. I will try to take pix of everything and post them. Pinky Lee will also be starting some preschool things, but for now she is learning her colors and counting by playing Candy Land, the Winnie the Pooh edition! Here are Lil'C and Bug hard at work.

(Please excuse the messy craft room...the new arrangement is NOT working out)

Coupon Sorter

If you're a coupon user, you've probably seen those advertisements for coupon sorting mats. They look really cool, but they want like $20 or more for them. I think this is silly. So being the frugal crafter I am, I decided to make my own and it was super simple!I used the Printable Journaling Cards from Jessica Sprague, adding the titles that I use to divide my coupons. Using packing tape, I put 4 open file folders together (you may need more or less depending on how many categories you have), then covered those with 8 sheets of coordinating chocolate brown scrapbook paper. Evenly space the titles & give everything a good cover of tape to hold it in place. Then try to figure out how to fold it all back up & VOILA! A coupon sorter on the cheap!
Happy couponing & crafting!

5:56 AM

I'm awake! I'm awake! I just wanted to have at least one post in my life that showed that sometimes I get up before 9 am!

The Big 1-0!

A Decade! Double Digits!

Bug turned 10 last month! It was fairly traumatic for me, but he thought it was the coolest thing ever. I can still remember the day he was born. Like it was yesterday. Wanna hear it???

We celebrated with pizza & cupcakes after baseball practice one night, but I forgot the camera.

On his actual birthday, Bug helped make this Marshmallow Cake from MADE. The first night we made it, it was only so-so, but after sitting in the fridge all night? SOOOO good. My pictures do this cake no justice. You MUST go see hers. I'm sure this isn't the only yummy thing you'll find there. Daddy & Bug lighting 10 candles!!

My handsome young man!

Make a wish birthday boy!

My cutie-patootie crew sharing in Bug's birthday joy!

BTW, why is that when little boys turn not so little, all we can think of to get them is money? Hmm, there must be a solution somewhere! Gotta figure out something before Christmas. Any ideas?