Adventures of Flat Stanley

Last fall, Noah's class did a series on Flat Stanley. Have you heard of him? He's a character from a children's book and a bulletin board fell on him squashing him to half an inch thick. From there, he gets rolled up, mailed off, and folded into a kite.

Noah created a paper cut-out of himself and sent Flat Stanley to Grandmother and Granddaddy's house for a grand adventure.

He visited the Arkansas State Capitol building in Little Rock.

He also spent the week of Thanksgiving down at the farm and hung out with the kids a lot. He got a few rides on the Ranger ATV and went on all the trails! 

He also got to ride in the pedal boat on the pond. Everybody has to wear a life jacket, including Flat Stanley. His was a zip-top baggie full of air.

He also went to the hospital to meet new baby cousin Stella when she was born. How lucky was he!

Grandmother and Granddaddy sent Flat Stanley back through the mail to our house so that he could go back to school. He'd written a letter about his adventure so that the class could learn about where he went. 

He went on a long adventure and learned a lot along the way. 

Noah's teacher shared Noah's Flat Stanley adventure with the class last week and then sent Flat Stanley home to stay. Maybe we need to go on more adventures with him?

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Staying Warm at the Movies

It was a very cold day, but we were warm and toasty inside at the movies this afternoon. We went to see The Greatest Showman, a musical about PT Barnum. 

I loved the movie and thought it was wonderful but I think Noah was a little bored. It probably didn't help that we went during his nap time. He was laying down in his chair pretty much the entire second half of the movie. 

I don't really blame him though because we were in a theater with the heated reclining seats. I used my coat for a blanket and had a nice, cozy time at the movie. 

On the way out, I snapped this selfie with one of the promo posters in the lobby. Pretty sure Emily was mortified. I wanted to get a pic with her in our reclining seats, but she declined. I guess it's just the age, right? 

At least I still have Noah. He'll still take a picture with me ... for now.

Have you seen The Greatest Showman? Thumbs up? Thumbs down? 

Have you ever sat in a heated recliner at a movie theater? 

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2018 Winter Olympics

Hey!  How are you? Has anybody been watching the Winter Olympics?

We've recorded the opening ceremony to watch with the kids and we watched some figure skating and skiing last night. I think international events like the Olympics offer a lot of opportunities to talk to the kids about things that are going on in the world or things that have happened in the past. Did you see that North and South Korea marched in the opening ceremony together? Hopefully that's a sign of peace between the nations.

I've been trying to think of some Olympic treats and snacks and crafts to do with the kids and my Sunday School kids.

Courtesy of the Candiquick Blog

I love these little snowman skiers for a cute kids craft/snack combo. I might have to pull that out for Sunday School in a week or two but I don't think I'd be able to let the kids put them together. I'd probably have to do it all in advance.

I think these cheetos torches are super cute, too. I think the kids would get a kick out of the ice cream cones and cheetos. But would they recognize a torch? Do kids even know what that is?

These Olympics cookies with M&M candies are really simple and fun. I think I could let the kids spread their own frosting and put the M&Ms on them.

What are you doing to celebrate the Olympic games this winter?


What's your favorite winter sport?

Any predictions on the USA medal count? In the 2014 Winter Olympics, USA had 28 medals. 

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Peter Pan Jr

This afternoon we went to the theater to see Mason perform in Peter Pan Jr. He was Captain Hook. Obviously!

I thought he did a great job and very much looked the part!

Noah LOVES going to plays. He sits perfectly still the entire time. Before the play starts and during intermission, he’s constantly asking me what time it is and how much longer until it starts. He keeps the program book in his lap the entire time and follows along with the scenes.

Maybe he wants to act someday? He’s already been in one play at school and he loved it.

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Fun at the Ball Game

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I get going and post a lot but I have a hard time keeping it up. I guess I don't feel like we do a whole lot that is exciting sometimes. But I know I need to write because the kids love seeing all the things we've done and the silly things they've said in the past.

This afternoon, we went out to an OU Women's Basketball game. Mike's boss's daughter plays for the Sooners and she had a really good game. She lead her team in scoring in their win.



Noah and Emily and I even made it onto the big screen at one point. Noah was acting shy and Emily was pretending she didn't know she was on there, so I just smiled and waved all by myself!


It was the Pink Out Game in support of cancer research. They had quite a few different things in honor of cancer survivors and the team wore pink.

At first, Noah was disappointed that we were on row 7 but once we got there he found out that he could see just fine from his seat.



The halftime show was some kind of crazy juggling unicycle riders. It was definitely entertaining although a bit odd!


You'll have to check back to see what fun things we're doing tomorrow.

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Fall Adventure in Central Oklahoma - Toy and Action Figure Museum

Our third and final stop on our Fall Adventure in Central Oklahoma was the Toy and Action Figure Museum in Purcell.  Now, this was a fun stop!  They have so many toys. Everywhere you look, there are toys stacked upon toys upon toys. It's amazing. 

Noah didn't know where to go or what to look at first. Most of the pictures I got of him were blurry because he was moving the entire time. They did have a section of toys that kids could play with though. Noah had a lot of fun in this area. 

It had costumes and cars and blocks and a "Batphone". It was all really cool. 

There were quite a few Lego toys, which was neat. They had the toys organized by themes.

I think Emily and I both agreed that we would have liked to see more girl toys. They had a few girl toys in one section, but the didn't have a lot of toys that I remembered from when I was a kid. 

They had a lot of Star Wars items and a lot of super heroes. They also had a whole area with an army men setup. 

I thought this was well-worth the stop for it's kid-appeal as well as nostalgia. 

Now, on to the next adventure!

Here are the other posts about our Fall Adventure in Central Oklahoma:
Part 1 - Arbuckle Wilderness
Part 2 - Chickasaw Cultural Center
Part 3 - Toy and Action Figure Museum

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Fall Adventure in Central Oklahoma - Chickasaw Cultural Center

Our second stop on our Fall Adventure in Central Oklahoma was the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma. We'd never been here before, but they have a lot of Native American artifacts and art pieces. 

There were some exhibits that cost money to view and we did not go through any of those, but we went through the art exhibit and a few others. I thought the authentic Native American headdress was very neat to see. At certain times of the day, they have Native American dancing but we were there too late to witness it. 

In one area, they had a Lego Native American village set up. Noah though this area was really cool. It was a DO NOT TOUCH area though.

I tried to get a closer look at it. It was very detailed and cool. I think Noah was trying to get some ideas on how we could recreate this setup at home. 

They also had a nice pond with a water fountain in it. It had a couple docks in it and we went out to feed the fish. There were some huge catfish that came up to eat! I didn't get any pictures of the fish because I have this weird phobia that I will drop my phone into the water and it'll be gone for good. I wouldn't even get my phone out of my purse while we were out on the dock. That part was fun though. 

Here are the other posts about our Fall Adventure in Central Oklahoma:
Part 1 - Arbuckle Wilderness
Part 2 - Chickasaw Cultural Center
Part 3 - Toy and Action Figure Museum

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Fall Adventure in Central Oklahoma - Arbuckle Wilderness

We had a really fun weekend trip through Central Oklahoma.

When I woke up this morning, I told the kids that I'd had a dream that we were out in a boat fishing with Tyler and Carter and we were catching shoes instead of fish and we were eating Cheez-its. They thought this was hilarious.

So, late-morning we packed up a picnic lunch and got ready to go. We stopped by the 7-11 to pick up some drink then went and found a little lake to stop and eat our lunch. It was not much of a lake and the water was really dirty but when Mike and Emily opened the bag of drinks, we found that they'd gotten a bag of Cheez-its for each of us! I was so surprised and excited that my dream was coming true.

After lunch, we headed to Arbuckle Wilderness to feed the animals. We always enjoy doing this. We usually buy a big bag of feed and just start passing it out. 

They had a new baby llama on this trip. It was so cute! It was just sitting there so still. 

This kid here is pretty cute, but he tends to dump half of his cup of feed at a time. You can tell that he's really proud of himself!

The fall colors were really pretty. They had a lot of these bright yellow flowers that I just loved. 

The emu are always fun. They can be pretty aggressive at going after their food. I usually try to give them some but I only open the window a crack because I don't want them pecking me!

The donkeys are pretty crazy. Hey kids! This is what'll happen if you don't brush your teeth!

Emily's favorite animal is the giraffe. We couldn't get close enough to the giraffe to feed him this time, but we stopped to watching him for a minute. 

I think the zebras are pretty cool looking. 

And the camels are always fun. Emily fed this camel some food out of her cup and he jerked it out of her hand and threw it on the ground. Haha! I tried to get a picture of it but he was too close to the car. 

Next time, I'll be sharing the next stop on our adventure. Be sure to check back to see what we did next. 

Here are the other posts about our Fall Adventure in Central Oklahoma:
Part 1 - Arbuckle Wilderness
Part 2 - Chickasaw Cultural Center
Part 3 - Toy and Action Figure Museum

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The Curious Case of the Missing Rubber Mallet

For the last few months, I've been missing my rubber mallet. I've needed it for several projects around the house like putting up the tent in the backyard and installing the flowerbed edging, but I could not find it anywhere. We've even cleaned up the garage and I was sure it would turn up somewhere out there, but it never did. 

Well, I finally found my rubber mallet today ... in the laundry room underneath the cabinet in a tub full of kitchen gadgets. GAH! How did it even get in there and how long has it been there? I have no idea.

The good news is that I found a spot for it on my very organized garage wall so I should never lose that thing again!

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Back to School

School started for my cool kids on Friday. We had such a fun summer that it's going to take some time to get used to our new schedules.

Emily is at the junior high now and she leaves for school super early. The bus comes by at 6:45am. This weekend, I got Emily her own alarm clock so that she can wake up as early as she needs to wake up. Tomorrow will be our first test so we'll see how it goes.

I didn't manage to get a picture of Emily on her first day of school because of how early she left, but maybe she'll let me snap a quick pic one day this week.

After Emily leaves for the bus stop, I plan to go ahead and get my walk/run done for the day. By the time I get back home, it will be time for Mike to leave for work and Noah to wake up for the day. Noah's bus doesn't come until 8:40am so we have plenty of time to have breakfast together and then he can work on his daily reading before school. 

We're all going to have to make adjustments, but I think it's going to be a good year for both kids. Noah got a teacher that I met when I went to Camp Classen with Emily a couple years ago. She seems like she's going to be a good fit for Noah. He's so happy to go to school every day and I hope that excitement is something that continues for him.

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game

The day after we got home from the beach, I had to jet off to Wisconsin for a work trip. I was supposed to fly up one day and fly home the next night, but the first flight of my return trip got delayed because of weather in Minneapolis. I ended up missing my connection and having to get a hotel in Minneapolis for the night. I know this kind of thing happens all the time, but when it happens to me it's really not cool!

I finally did make it home, just a day late. I was SO glad to be home!

A few days later, we went to an Oklahoma Dodgers baseball game. The Oklahoma Dodgers are a Minor League Triple-A affiliate of the LA Dodgers. We got free ball caps with our tickets. Not everyone wanted to sport their new cap, but I did. 

We bought tickets through our church and there was a whole section in the upper deck that was full of people in our group. There were a lot of sections down lower that were pretty much empty.

After the first inning, we went to get some hot dogs to eat. I didn't actually see any peanuts and cracker jacks, but the kids were more interested in the Dippin Dots counter. 

After we ate our hot dogs, we went and found a seat in one of the empty sections so that we could have more room to spread out. We were sitting right above the visiting team's dugout. 

A few foul balls came close to us, but we didn't actually get any of them. 

During one of the later innings, I took Noah to walk around a bit because he was getting restless. They had a few different kids areas. There was one where you could play giant Jenga and Connect Four. There was also a bounce house area and a playground. 

Next, I walked around with Emily for a while. We walked all the way around the concourse. The kids got their Dippin Dots, too. 

We stayed until the bitter end because Noah wanted to run the bases. He had fun with that, but it was very late when we got home!

I was beyond tired, but we had a good time. 

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Beach Vacation 2017 - Parting Thoughts

This is one of my favorite pictures from the beach. Daniel took this picture of Noah before we took family pictures one night. Isn't he so handsome?? 

One night, a sea turtle laid her eggs on the beach behind our beach house. Really early the next morning, the turtle rescue folks were out digging up the turtle eggs. They moved them up further on the beach behind the sand dunes so that they would be safer. 

Later that night, the turtle rescue people came back by to put up the signage on their relocated nest. We happened to be outside and I asked them a bunch of questions. They said there were 89 eggs in our nest and that they would hatch in about 45 days. I thought that was pretty cool. I would have loved to see a sea turtle. 

A day or two before the sea turtle hatched on our beach, Heather, Stephen and I went walking after supper and we saw a couple cars with a turtle rescue sign on them in front of one of the houses down the beach from us. We went over and peaked beyond the sand dunes and we could see a nest that was roped off and it had a trench coming out of it down toward the water with a plastic slide for the baby turtles to use to get back to the water.

One night, we were walking along the beach looking for shells and there was a couple fishing from the beach. We walked past them then we were heading back to our house when we passed them again and they'd just caught a baby shark.

The woman said this was a tiny baby one, but they caught one the other day that was 4-5 feet long.  She also said they are really tasty. Hmmmm. 

We celebrated Noah's birthday at the beach. We went and got him a Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake. He was really excited. And the cake wasn't half-bad either. 

Speaking of food, we ate at our beach house pretty much the whole time we were there. We stopped by Walmart and Sams on the way into town and got a lot of the food for breakfasts and lunches. We had most of the dinners planned ahead of time. Each family picked a meal to cook on an assigned night. It worked really well to do it this way so that everyone got to relax on vacation and didn't have to spend all their time in the kitchen.

We also had lots of ice cream, popsicles, fudge bars, cookies, and soft mints. 

We had plenty of food, but we'd eaten most of it by the end of the week. We didn't have too much leftover. 

The beach was a wonderful time with family and I went home feeling relaxed. I definitely want to go back to the beach sometime. 

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