Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I swore I'd NEVER buy it again, but I did.....

Pin It Now! PLAY-DOH. I guess I am going to have to recant part of what I said about it here.




You see, we now have a table in our backyard that is far away from our house, so I thought just maybe I could bring this stuff back!

I was trying to think of new ways my daughter could entertain herself while I am busy home schooling the boys, and I saw some play-doh at Fry's while grocery shopping. I just couldn't resist. What kid doesn't like to play with it?



I am happy to report that the current arrangements seem to be working out just fine. I keep the play-doh in a basket on a very high shelf, and when the kids want to play they take it OUTSIDE!! When they are done they put it all away and bring the basket back inside to me, and it goes right back on the high shelf.


My only OCD complaint is..... Why, why does Shiloh insist on mixing the colors?!!!!! But, just so you know, I let her. It's hers. I don't like it, but it's hers. She is having fun and that is what matters.


Sunday, April 26, 2009

Fun Lunch

Pin It Now! My child, who usually loves to read, has been going through a "reading funk" lately. Nothing seems to be of any interest. This can make home schooling a bit challenging, to say the least. So, last week I told Mullin he could pick any genre he wanted for the subject of Reading. He picked cooking.

We found a few neat books about food at the library: a book about healthy eating, one about disgusting foods ( very gross book--yikes, people in Cambodia actually eat tarantulas!), and finally a book with a few fun recipes with the history of certain foods included.

Today, we made all kinds of fun characters out of eggs...


Mullin learned how to make hard-boiled eggs, and he really did do a lot of these eggs himself. I just wasn't ready for him to chop any fingers off using a sharp knife to cut carrots. We actually turned this whole project into a wonderful Sunday lunch that consisted of eggs, cheese, couscous, lettuce, tomato, chives, carrots, and a fruit bowl. Creating all of the eggs with Mullin was really fun!!

We made a mama hen with her baby chicks. Aren't they adorable?

Some toadstools, a rabbit, and a mouse. You know what's missing, right? A giant gnome as the centerpiece!!! Oh well, I don't have one...yet. Still looking for the PERFECT one.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Toddler Math

Pin It Now!

A few days ago I mentioned in passing that I needed to make banana bread with our over ripe bananas, but I also said that I didn't know if I had enough of them. Shiloh wanted to know how many we needed, so I checked the recipe. We needed 4--I only had 2.
In her cute little voice, she said, "Mommy, we can just cut them in half, then we will have 4."
Call me crazy, but I was a bit shocked that my 3 yr. old could do fractions in her head. On the other hand though, she didn't get the fact that we needed 4 whole bananas. Anyway, we made 1/2 a recipe, and she was happy!!!






Shiloh's First Dental Exam

Pin It Now! I told Shiloh this morning that her teeth were going to shine like princess teeth after the dentist cleaned and brushed them, to which she replied, "Mommy, princesses don't have to brush their teeth, they're just like that."

Cori was so sweet and gentle and made great princess conversation with Shiloh. Afterward, she gave Shiloh a pink and purple Belle toothbrush.

Not scared, one bit! She did a fantastic job. Plus she watched Mommy get her teeth cleaned first.


Both Cori and the dentist asked if Shiloh sucked her thumb--she has the kind of overbite they see in thumb sucking children. Shiloh does not suck her thumb, it is just the way her teeth came in. She probably inherited the overbite from me. So.... all 3 of my kids will end up with braces sooner or later. :(


Yea, no cavities! What a beautiful, princess smile!!


Monday, April 20, 2009

Easter Sunday

Pin It Now! Mark led worship for the sunrise service, so he wasn't here for a family picture. My cute kiddos by our beautiful Yellow Bells.

Still trying to get that perfect picture, but ya know...

I interrupted band practice when we arrived for the 9am service and snagged Mark for a quick family pose--thanks Staci!!

***If I were famous and this pic ended up on some trashy magazine, I am sure there'd be a circle drawn around my middle and the words, BABY BUMP, inscribed. Yes, it is a baby bump, but not b/c there's one in there. It's just the souvenir my 3 babies left for me to keep forever. I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings by getting rid of it now would I? ;) Okay, really, I am working on it, but M&Ms just keep magically appearing in my closet.

Our Most Memorable Egg Hunt Ever

Pin It Now! This past Saturday was definitely the most interesting egg hunt I have ever experienced!! First of all, it rained of all things. It rarely rains in the desert--it had been sunny and pleasant for like the past 90 days. Not only was it wet, it was cold!! We have been in shorts for quite a while--I've had the air on for a month for goodness' sake!!



We thought the hunt started at 10 am, but no, that was just when the event itself began. It was too cold and windy to wait outside, so we enjoyed some egg and sausage burritos at a McDonald's nearby. The little ones didn't mind since it had a neat playground.



On our way back to the park, we were crossing our fingers that the dark, billowy clouds would hold off on the rain until the hunt was over, but just as the 2 year olds took off with their baskets in tow, it began to sprinkle and within minutes it was POURING!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The twins were so cute, and they didn't mind the rain one bit.





By the time Shiloh's age group could hunt, it was really pouring, but how could we not let the rest of the kids hunt when they had already waited so long?

I couldn't even get pics of Mullin and Lincoln it was raining so hard. We had lunch at my dad's and Grandma supplied us with dry clothes while we waited for our own to dry in the dryer.

Gettin' warm on the couch.



Yep, we are wearing my dad's pants, and my hair is frizzy and wavy. One reason I do not miss Memphis too much----HUMIDITY.


My brother
Mullin is holding some kind of earpiece here, and the picture is a bit blurry probably b/c I was laughing so hard. Here comes the funniest part of our Easter egg hunt...
Okay so, while we are all waiting for lunch, Mullin and Lincoln decide to go in the back room and open up their eggs. (They were sealed with some kind of plastic wrap.) They came out extremely disappointed b/c there was zero candy in them. All that fuss for eggs and no candy. In some of the eggs there were silly, little aliens and stuff like that, but the more we opened the more interesting it got.
We found an old New Kids on the Block pin, a rusty, corroded, American flag pin, tons of those old-timey, puffy McDonald's stickers that were folded up and already sticky, a dirty snake that smelled like shoo shoo, lots more pins (real safe for the little ones), lots of teeny, tiny toys the size of pennies (again real safe for the babies and toddlers), lots of folded up patches--the kind old, rough guys would have sewn on a jacket or something--I forget what Mark and Blake called them, and last but not least, the real humdinger of 'em all was the ear-piece Mullin found. Looked like it had come straight from someone's hairy, crusty ear, too. As sick as it was, we couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of it all. The products said MADE IN CHINA, but who knows from which warehouse all those eggs came. We were beginning to wonder if we were gonna catch some kind of plague after touching some of the grosser items. It truly was an interesting experience, and a good laugh is about all we got out of it because we made the kids throw ALL of the trinkets away. And then we all SCRUBBED our hands, just in case.

Friday, April 17, 2009

How'd You Get Here?

Pin It Now! Sometimes it's fun to see how folks ended up at Autumn's Attic via the google search bar. I'm not short on blog content, just TIME. I am one of those weirdos who could find something to post about twice a day if I just had the time. I am sure many are thankful that I don't have much spare time. :) So, since I don't have the time right at the moment to sort all of my swirling thoughts into posts or to wait for images to load, I leave you with a few google searches that have led to my site:

Diaper Trivia I have actually seen this one quite a few times. I think all mamas have experienced a few diaper episodes worth blogging about!

Princess Toes Someone actually typed this in, huh?

Disinfect a sponge Yep, and I still do it in the microwave. Makes me feel better.

Excema and yogurt Even though this person left out the "z" they still got to read my post. And boy, do I know a thing or two about this yucky skin condition!

Alternative to Lysol Spray Anything to clean in the green!

Attic Spiders So sad that other people have had spider issues--glad I could be of some comfort.

Grapefruit tastes like methol I can promise that I have never had a grapefruit that tasted like methol. To be quite honest, I don't even know what that is or what it would taste like.

Sinus Infection Grapefruit Seed Extract I am sure I have written about GSE a few times--gotta love that potent stuff!!

Treasure Tree Another common search--it really is a great book. I love reading it to my kids.

Pinkalicious Birthday Cakes Well, I have made pinkalicious cupcakes but not a cake. Also a super-good, girly book!!

Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing Seriously, I should be featured in a cooking magazine over this one. Not a week goes by that I don't have someone stopping by to view this recipe.


As all can see, I am quite the interesting blogger!! Guess I need to find some spare time around here somewhere...

Alright, so why do strangers show up to visit you??

Sunday, April 05, 2009

School is Cool!

Pin It Now! Just posting some of our latest goings on at Rivendell Academy...



Mullin spent all last week at Calvary Christian School taking achievement tests. He had a blast. Since it was at our church, he felt at home and knew some of the kids. He thinks he did really well, too. Can't wait to find out!! I think I am more nervous than he is.

He sure is handsome in that navy shirt!!

This was the very first time ever that I had to pack a lunch, make sure a backpack was ready, and get the family out the door to drive to school. Since we are very early risers anyway, it wasn't that difficult. Getting sick Tuesday and staying sick (and still being sick) is what made things a bit more challenging. Sigh.

I try to get creative every now and then for my kid with the kinetic learning style. So, we took a break from book work and had some fun with adjectives. It is a bit hard to tell, but I taped different objects to a piece of paper and he had to use one of his senses to come up with an adjective to describe each item. That last one is a purple skittle--he liked that one, and it is no longer on that piece of paper!! Somewhere in his large intestine by now I am sure. :)

For art this week, we had fun with templates. I have a lot of them from when I was a Creative Memories Consultant.

Lincoln is using symmetry here, something I am very fond of as well.


Shiloh is sorting her numbers and arranging them in numerical order all by herself.

Ta-dah!! I printed these from www.fisherprice.com.



Big Girl Bed

Pin It Now! Yea! Shiloh finally has a big girl bed, and boy, was she excited!!!

I participated in my mom's garage sale a couple of weekends ago in hopes of making enough money to purchase bedding for Shiloh. I made about $85.00 and was able to buy the Madison Room in a Bag from Bed Bath and Beyond. With my 20% off coupon, I paid about $86 for all this.

It doesn't quite make me salivate like Pottery Barn's stuff, but it doesn't break the bank. I won't freak out if something happens to it either. Those are 2 very good things!! And, the bedding really is rather charming and oh, so feminine. I was hoping to find something with a touch of lilac in it, but oh well.


She already had the furry, pink heart pillow. I bought that a long time ago with the intention of it being a decorative pillow, but that is the one she prefers to sleep on. Silly girl.

She's had the white pillow from birth. It, and the delicate, wispy, white curtains still hanging in her room, were made by my sweet friend, Emily.

Now I need to have another garage sale to sell her crib and diaper changing table, which we are using as shelving for the moment. She piles the Carebears on the top and calls it Care-A-Lot. So cute!!



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