Keepin' it real

Tag I'm it!

Katie from A Listmaker's Life tagged me to play along.

Here are the rules:

Take a picture of yourself right now.

No primping or preparing.

Just snap a picture.

Load the picture onto your blog.

Tag some people to play.

I first read her post where she tagged me on Sunday-but my husband was at the park with the girls and no one was home to take my picture-wish they were, I was dressed, had my hair done and make up on! I forgot about it until this morning and although I really wanted to cheat and really, really, really thought about cheating, I couldn't. So......my 8 year old took my picture before school-no shower and no makeup-how's that for real :)

Focus on the cute baby

Focus on the cute baby

Focus on the cute baby

(I'm using my hypnotic powers on you and deviously using my children to take the attention away from me)

Now for the fun part......Tag you're it!

I'll tag....

Coutney @ Sister to Sister

Jackie @ The Combs

Kris @ JesseKate Designs

Melissa @ Three Prince Designs

Sara @ Happy Brown House

Have fun and have a great day!!

Update on April Fool's Day

I didn't get to do as much on April Fool's as I planned-we ended up with an earlier softball practice that I didn't find out about until after school-little crazy at our house for the next hour :)

We started off with the colored milk in the cereal-my older girls loved it-the look on my 8 yr old's face was funny. It backfired a bit-my 6 yr old would not eat her cereal-no convincing her :) My girls really got me first-they switched the cereal bags/boxes and totally got me!


We had colorful cupcakes for dinner-my oldest daughter missed it, but we surprised her when she got home from practice. We made a "cake" though-I forgot to buy foil lined cupcake holders-I think I was at the store almost every day last week too buying snacks for school because the kids had state testing (our PTO supplies snacks to all the classes during testing)-hate when I'm at the store and forget something. My 8 yr old helped me make the "cake" and she "frosted" it. She loved telling everyone we were having cake for dinner. The 3 yr old cried because she wanted food not cake and once again, my 6 yr old was not touching colored mashed potatoes :) Overall, though, they had a blast and loved tricking my oldest when she came home later.



The funniest part of the day though was after dinner. My husband was playing with the girls, who were tired and not feeling well, trying to entertain them while I cleaned up. He gave them his cell phone and had them call me for April Fool's, prompting them what to say beforehand. My 8 and 6 yr old called me up and asked me if my refrigerator was running. I said yes and waited for the punch line. They just said ok and hung up. Too funny!!

You never know what they're thinking......

or what they'll come out with !!!

I was talking with my 6 yr old before she went to school today and she asked me how old I was -I said 42. I thought she'd come back with something about me being old but instead she said so you're 42D. Now, I know I'm still breastfeeding but I'm not that bodacious :) I was definitely taken aback and asked how she knew about D. She then replied (and you have to imagine her sounding this out) 42 D D D D Dawn

Oh, my gosh, too funny! She doesn't like when you laugh at anything she says but I could hardly contain my laughter! Boy, was I on a totally different wave length than her :)

April Fool's Day!

April Fool's Day is Wednesday and I've been looking for some cute, harmless ideas for the day. In the past, I've just done little things like switch the cereal bags into different boxes but I know my girls would just love to make a day of it :)

I'm definitely doing this for breakfast-easy and quick for the morning-just what I need!!! It reminds me of the after school St. Patrick's Day pudding snack from JesseKate Designs that my girls loved and still talk about!

These riddles will be cute for the girls' lunches.

This looks cute for an after school snack but this one is also adorable! Served with this drink would be so fun.

Dinner is going to be Colorful Cupcakes with Shamburgers for dessert.

All of this looks pretty easy and not too complicated-always key when you're not sure what's going to happen during the day.

Here are some other ideas for April Fool from Family Fun. I'm liking that messy room sign for my daughter's room :)

Here's our meal plan for the week-I totally missed it last week. I had it in my head but never posted it. Meal time is a bit crazy this time of the year with spring soccer and softball in addition to our other stuff. That's the big plus to meal planning though, I sit down ahead of time, check what we have for the day and plan around it.

Monday Roast chicken, broccoli rice, green beans
Tuesday Spaghetti and Meatballs
Wednesday April Fool's Day Colorful Cupcakes and Shamburgers (see above for links to recipes)
Thursday Chicken Cordon Bleu
Friday Fish, potatoes for younger girls and hubby, my oldest daughter and myself are doing the Relay for Life at our high school (we only go until 10:00 pm with the 4th, 5th, 6th grade).

Check out orgjunkie for more great recipes and ideas.

Have a great day and I'd love to hear if you have any other fun April Fool's Day ideas!

Ultimate Blog Party 2009!

5 Minutes for Mom is having the Ultimate Blog party and we're all invited!!

Welcome to those visiting from the blog party-thanks for stopping by!! My name is Dawn and I'm an elementary school teacher who is now home with my 5 kids-4 girls and one boy. They range in age from 12 to 1 so I've got it all-the tween to the first birthday!! They're getting ready to move on to junior high, take their first steps and everything in between! Life is busy-right now I have 3 playing softball/tball and 2 playing spring soccer-but it's fun!

I haven't been blogging that long but I've found that I enjoy it. It's my little bit of me time each day. I started my blog when I was one of YCMT Thrifty Under Fifty-a wonderful experience for more than one reason. I love reading other blogs-the blog world is a wonderful, caring and sharing community-I've already learned so much and gotten so many great ideas. I hope that with my blog I can one day help someone out with creativity, an idea, recipe or just something that works for me and my family.

There are some great prizes being given away at the party-check them out. If I won, my top picks would be

Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand MixerProvided by: Moms Who Think

Gift certificate to Target Stores Provided by: Shoot-Me-Now , Agoosa , Beginner Baby Blog , Little Miss Hannah and Mummy Deals

$25 gift certificate to Happy Panda Provided by: Happy Panda

$20 gift certificate to Ladybug Limited Provided by: Ladybug Limited

I'd also love 50,79,99,104,118,intl 50,usc 11 and the list could go on and on :)

I've already visited some new blogs and am looking forward to visiting more. Leave me a comment and I'll visit you too!

New Season......New Website!!

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush."
~Doug Larson

Happy Spring!!!

The website You Can Make This is launching a new website in April-You Can Quilt This-projects, tutorials and patterns all brought together on one quilting website. I love the YCMT website-the patterns are easy to understand and follow-and you download them right from the site. I've made lots of cute things for my kids and for presents. I also get their sewing and yarn newsletters and there are always lots of great tips, project ideas and free patterns. To celebrate, you could WIN a Marie Osmond Quilter’s Companion sewing machine from Janome! Check it all out here!

Oh Boy, I am not ready......

and I want to go on record as stating I'm not ready and don't think I like it.

We had our first meeting for Junior High tonight. I've known it was coming but hadn't expected it to be so soon. My oldest daughter will be leaving our elementary school and going to a regional junior high in August. Oh dear, it's alot to handle and mom is having a bit of a hard time.

I've heard all good things about the junior high and I'm sure she'll love it. There's also a lot more activities/clubs and she'll love that-she's all into singing, dancing, performing-things a smaller school can't offer. So, I am very excited for her but at the same time......

All this having to decide classes/schedules/levels-I'm used to her whole class always being together-there's only one sixth grade-and they just all take the same stuff. It's a lot to absorb and get used to.

Sniff, sniff, I could have cried at the meeting, I think this is going to be the first of many tears this spring and summer. I'll get used to it all but in the mean time, I'm not ready.............