Project Break...

Much of today was spent running around. I took Sean to Crafty Scrapper because it's like treasure hunting for him. Enjoyed lunch with his Grandpa and Ms. JuJu (who has now been renamed JuPa, since Grandpa calls him Seanpa). After lunch it was to Home Depot for a bucket (a project supply Sean needed for an artsy trash can)
http://bravegirlsclub.com/blog/archives/735
This one is kind of girly, but Sean will make it his own. He just needed the directions.


Then off we went to Ikea for some much needed supplies to organize his art studio space in his room. I spent 20 minutes in line for the play area, because Sean didn't want to shop with me. Then he proceeded to ask me to take my time shopping so he could play for the full hour he was allowed to be there.

I don't know if either of us is going to make it to the ball drop tonight. We're exhausted!!! All the running around and no nap. Looks like the New Year will ring in without us.

Thursday's Christmas Break Project - Foil Art

Sean received a gift card for Toys R Us and we found this foil art kit. It comes with (12) 5x7 posters and (40) sheets of foil. You peel away sections on the poster to reveal the adhesive. You then place the foil over the exposed adhesive and rub. The color comes off and you just repeat the process. It's a nice, mess free craft.

Sunday's Christmas Break Project - Wind Up Robots

Sunday's project was a wind up robot kit that I found at Michael's. It has stickers that Sean can color and use to decorate the robots. The robots have to be built using the pre-cut templates, adhesive foam, and wind up mechanism. It includes all the stuff to make 5 wind up robots.

Waffle Addicts - 3 days and counting

Nana & Papa gave us a waffle iron for Christmas so naturally Sean wanted waffles Sunday morning.


We've had waffles for breakfast for the last 3 days. I actually don't mind making a hot breakfast now, since waffles are WAY easier than making pancakes.

Monday's Christmas Break Project - Bouncing Balls

Hobby Lobby has their kids activity kits 2/$10. Yesterday I let Sean pick out a couple to do this week to give him something to look forward to each day.
http://www.hobbylobby.com/weekly/entire_ad.cfm?menu=1

Monday he made his own bouncing balls:The activity only took about 20-30 minutes from set up to balls being ready for him to bounce around the house. Because he made them, he's been playing with them for the past 2 days. Alot longer than had they been ones we bought.

Today's Christmas Break Project - Tie Dye

Sean asked for Tie Dye kits for Christmas. He saw a kit one day several months ago in Barnes & Noble and thought they were so cool. Here are some of the shirts he made with a camo tie dye kit he got.

He has another kit he got from his cousins, but we need to buy more shirts. I didn't realize how many shirts you could do with one kit.

(I still need to add the graphics to the blank area)

(Sunburst) (Random) (Stripes)

Easy Quesadillas

I don't pretend to be a great cook. I'm proud of myself just for cooking at home. I leave all the fancy recipes and cooking to my BFF Kimberly (http://www.eathomelive.com/). I aspire to be like her one day in the kitchen. But for the rest of us slackers... I was pretty impressed with this AWESOME easy recipe from E-mealz



1 package of flour tortillas (10 count)
1 package of shredded cheese (whatever your preference... I use cheddar or colby jack)
1-2 containers of Oscar Myer southwestern flavored chicken strips (found where the prepackaged deli meats are)

The rest is simple... place one tortilla on a microwave safe plate spread desired amount of chicken and cheese. Cover with a second tortilla and microwave on high for 1 minute. Ta-da!!! Just serve with some sour cream and salsa.

This is a great lunch or snack for kiddos. No more canned pasta meals for me!!!

Sean 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Building His Lego Sets

In the past Michael and I were usually the ones that had to put Sean's Lego sets together, because he didn't have the patience or attention span to complete them. This year he built the two sets he received for Christmas, by himself!!! He was so proud. I showed him how to use the instructions to figure out each step and he built both sets during the Cowboys game (3 hours). Not bad for a 6 year old.

Sean working through the instructions

First set completed

Christmas Eve

When your children are babies and toddlers you expect them to be more into the packaging and the wrapping. At 6-1/2 years old you'd think it was all about what was in it. Apparently not... Uncle Chris and Sean ended up playing with the styrofoam and cardboard from Sean's art desk he got for Christmas. This is what they made...

Comparing Pregnancies

I've been pretty bad about taking belly pictures with this pregnancy. Fortunately Michael's mom has a few that she is going to send me. I was going through my belly pictures from my pregnancy with Sean and realized that I had some from this same day of the month.

So here they are... these are belly pictures exactly 7 years apart. Both taken on December 14th (one in 2003 and one today). Not much difference other than I'm older. I can tell that I'm carrying higher this time, which would explain all the horrible indigestion.

Sean 26 weeks 2 days

Baby Boy Simmons 27 weeks 2 days

Sean's Christmas Piano Recital

I am SO proud of how well Sean did at his recital. He played his piece perfectly (you could actually tell it was Jingle Bells). He has improved so much since his recital in May.

eMealz

Okay Michael turned me onto this since we listen to Dave Ramsey ALL the time now :)

I signed up for it and we're on week 2. For those who know us... we eat out more than we do at home. This plan actually has me cooking dinner every night and we only had one menu item we didn't like.

Thanksgiving With Family

What a wonderful Thanksgiving. Nana & Papa's house was filled with family and friends today. We ate lots of great food, spent time together laughing, and had fun playing a board game with the kiddos. It doesn't get any better than that.


This time of year is a wonderful treat, because Sean gets to see his Uncle Chris. Although he only lives in Fort Worth, with everyone's busy schedules we don't see him as often as we'd like. There's no competing for Sean's attention when Chris is around. It's nice to know that he loves his Uncle Chris SO much.

What A Way To Start Thanksgiving...

We're dog sitting for the holiday weekend, while some friends are out of town. Sean was helping me out by trying to get one of the visiting dogs in the laundry room. Apparently said dog thought Sean was trying to take his rawhide chewy and big Sean in the face. Fortunately he was an old dog and only scratched and bruised Sean's check... it could have been ALOT worse.

Sean did spend some time milking the situation after he calmed down.

Green Belt Ceremony

Sean tested November 20th for his green belt (so did Michael) and had his belt ceremony on this week. Since this moves him to level 3 his ceremony was with the other higher ranked kids and the adults. So for the first time he received his belt with Michael. It was great to watch both of them get their belt together. Master Aaron was nice enough to seat them together during line up so I could get pictures. Now mommy just has to catch up after the baby is born :)

Master Aaron giving Sean his new belt

A proud Sean, showing off his certificate

My boys with their new rank

Sean & Nick on Halloween

Halloween

Sean went trick or treating with his buddy Nicholas this year. Sean was an Air Force Jet Pilot and Nick was one of the dragons from How To Train Your Dragon.

The boys did great this year going up to doors without being scared. The funniest one was when they (including Nick's twin siblings) bravely went up to a house, not realizing they passed someone dressed up in a chair. Once they were passed the person they said "Boo!" and the look on Sean's face was priceless. He was scared and tried to make a b-line off the porch, but he was the first one up there so he was blocked in my Nick and the twins. Fortunately he got over the fear quickly when he realized it was just a person dressed up.

Halloween Candy Idea...

If you're like me you don't let your kiddos have all that candy that got on Halloween. Here are some ideas from Parenting magazine on what to do with it:
http://www.parenting.com/new/blogs/show-and-tell/25-things-do-all-halloween-candy?cid=enews110210

Never Forget To Send Another Card...

Okay I'm not big on sending out cards for birthdays and such. Frankly they've gotten to be very expensive and just end up in the trash. However, for those that love sending snail mail to brighten someones day, I saw this in a magazine... jackcards.com. You create a calendar with the important dates and select corresponding cards. They will send the card stamped, addressed and ready to go right to you, so all you have to do is sign it (and/or put your little note on it) and mail it... pretty cool http://www.jackcards.com/

Lego Station

In a never ending effort to find a better way to keep the house clean and organized, I FINALLY created a Lego Station for Sean. YES - he has that many Legos. The picture only shows the loose Legos that aren't part of a set. The sets are put together and on his shelves in his room. Maybe one day he'll be one of those Lego Engineers that builds the massive Lego sculptures :)

I LOVE Ikea's Trofast Series (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/series/19030?pageNumber=0). There are a ton of combinations. This took me 20-30 minutes to build and it was only $73 for all the bins and the shelf unit... not bad!! I may use this furniture series to make Sean an Art Station next.

Texas State Fair 2010

Our annual trip to the state fair was Friday. We actually did really well this time. We always go expecting to blow a bunch of money, because it's just EXPENSIVE. We've never taken Sean in late in the day so we could be there at night when everything is lit up, so we decided to do that this year. We ate WAY to much bad food. However, we did pretty good this year on how much we spent. Our membership to the Science & Nature museum paid off, because they sent us a voucher for (2) free adult and up to (4) free children tickets. That saved us $40, we just paid the $15 for parking... that was a deal!!

The best money spent... Sean wanted his face painted, so we did splurge and let him do it since it was better than the cheesy face painting on his cheek of some unrecognizable animal (LOL). The is was well worth it just for the pictures and of coarse the reactions Sean was eating up from the grown ups pretending they were scared of him.

Elementary Newsletter

http://www.stjamesepiscopal.info/newsletter/aug/stjames%20news%20elementary.html

Just had to share the elementary newsletter, since our little ham is in one of the pictures.

What A Change...

Well 4 days into the new private school and what a change!!! Friday was the first day and was pretty much a free day. However, Monday the work began. Sean has had homework every night... (15) math problems, (12) spelling words, and (10) mins of reading (on his own). Tuesday they threw in the first project of the year. A creative writing folder that we have to make a collage for each letter out of pictures we find. He will write stories about the pictures throughout the year. Then there's Tae Kwon Do every day after school and piano practice. My little man is busy and mommy thought she was done with all this homework when she graduated - LOL

I've been pretty impressed with Sean these past few days. With as much as he struggled at public school last year, I was really scared how he would fare at private school. He's breezing through his math problems faster each day. When I gave him his practice spelling test he only missed 3 of the 12 words. And he's able to read basic books to me with little or no help. It is the best money we've ever spent!

First Day of Private School

While everyone is preparing for the first day of school tomorrow... Sean's was actually Friday. Sean was rockin' his uniform. He didn't have to wear the shirt and tie (only required on Wednesdays for chapel), but I guess the novelty of wearing a tie was too appealing.

Summer Vacation

As the summer wound down and pregnancy progresses. We took the boys for a little summer vacation to San Antonio. 100+ degree weather, so lots of water play was a must. We toodled around San Antonio and spent a day at Sea World. The boys spent alot of time getting wet (and so did I). Kind of a bummer when I didn't realize til we were at Sea World... you can't go on any of the rides when you're pregnant :(

What's Long & White with Two Blue Stripes?

Yep... not exactly what we were "expecting" either - LOL.

Sean is going to be a Big Brother. Most of the family already knows and some close friends. Since this was a total surprise and we are WAY more excited than we thought we'd be we thought we'd share (we really didn't know if we wanted to have any more children).

It's still REALLY early. I'm only 5 weeks and our first appointment is scheduled for July 26th.

So I guess for the next nine months the blog will be pretty interesting.

Sean is SO excited and keeps telling us he wants one of each (a boy and a girl). We finally got him to pick one and he's asking for a brother. We'll see...

Making Music

Sean had the headphones plugged in while he played his piano. We could hear him making up songs, but he didn't know we were listening.

Choices & Consequences

Well Sean got in trouble yesterday for arguing with his summer camp teacher for 45 minutes (while in his underwear) about whether the shorts they told him to put on were his or not. Sean was certain they weren't his, even spouted off "They're not mine, I don't wear size 6!" He got his newly aquired yellow belt/black stripe taken away. He got a spanking when he got home, no tv and no toys.



Today on his summer camp field trip he took a kids money and gave it to someone else, then lied to his teacher when he was asked about it. He got ANOTHER belt demotion (he's now down to white belt/black strip). He got another spanking, no tv for the rest of the week, no toys and...

Sean's 1st Piano Recital

Sean playing Happy Birthday for his recital

Sean's Yellow Belt Black Stripe Board Break

Sean breaks a 3/4" pine board with a front thrust kick

Reminder... Sean's Belt Test & Piano Recital

Just wanted to remind family and friends that Sean and I will be belt testing for our yellow belt/black stripe on Saturday May 22nd (I think Sean's is at 7am). Then Sean has is piano recital at 3pm. Please come and support Sean if you don't have plans.

Private School "Interview"

Sean did his 1/2 day at St. James Montessori today and LOVED it. The program direct was at the front door doing pick up and said Sean is definitely in. We should see the acceptance letter next week. As expected the teachers in the elementary class loved him and he made some new friends. He won't go til the fall, but he'll do a couple weeks of camp there during the summer to make friends. They will also pair him up with a summer buddy. We're really excited for Sean.

As Promised... Sean & His First Custom Board

First Skateboard

Sean got his first custom skateboard from Zumiez today. I'll have to get pictures of him on it. He's very excited because he got to pick out everything for it and watch the guy build it.

Bad Day...

Some of you have heard the story, but for those who haven't...

Saturday was our scheduled delivery day of our new washer. Our 3rd one in 12 years... yes, I'm a little hard on washers. Our dryer has managed to last the entire 12 years (knock on wood). As with most home deliveries of large appliances there was a 4 hour window. Ours... 10-2pm. At 12:30 we get a call to advise us that the driver is running late, due to a difficult install. To shorten the story... it didn't get to the house til 6:15... PM!!!

After the fiasco, we decided to go to IHOP for dinner. We sat for what seemed like 10 minutes and 3 waiters had passed us numerous times. Nobody stopped to get our drink order. There were only about 4 other parties there. FINALLY someone comes by and since we were waiting so long we also knew what we wanted to eat. Sean finally asks, "How did they get their drinks first?" pointing to a table that was seated AFTER us... again to shorten the story. The food arrives BEFORE our drinks and Michael's order (Nutella crepes didn't have the Nutella in them... I'm guessing that was a key ingredient) was wrong. We were both irritated when Sean piped in very calmly while he continued to color... "Y'all aren't have a good day are you?"

THAT... was the highlight of my evening. I LOVE when Sean manages to make all the bad stuff easier to deal with.

Day Out with Papa

Sean got to spend the night at Nana & Papa's with his cousins last night. Apparently he and Tristan got up at 5am to start playing video games.

Then Papa broke the bank and spoiled the boys by taking them to Adventure Landing. (Sean wasn't originally supposed to go, but I think Papa might have felt bad leaving Sean behind.) By the looks of it Sean had a blast.

Little GQ

Dallas Arboretum

Romeo & Juliet (Sean & Lauren)

Dallas Arboretum

Sean's 6th Birthday

It's hard to believe he's 6!! Last weekend Michael and I took him to buy his birthday present. It was supposed to be a new bike since he out grew the one Nana & Papa got him. However, we couldn't get him to stay off the Razor Sidewinder long enough to really look for a new bike. So still no bike, he got the Razor instead.

Dylan - just LOVE this pic :)

The future couple - LOL

The Lego Cake

The infamous Tickle Monster - Christopher hid inside the bounce obstacle course scaring and chasing the kids, who of course LOVED it.

Sean's 1st Tae Kwon Do Tournament

Sean had his first Tae Kwon Do tournament Saturday. He came in 3rd in sparring and 3rd in forms. He's very proud of his trophy and medal.