DIY Pizza Lunchables

I found a recipe for a Do It Yourself Pizza Lunchable at this site:

Mommy's Kitchen: DIY Pizza Lunchables {Another Back to School Lunch Box Idea}

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to since my boys love lunchables, and they look mega easy to make. This is a great site to surf through...she has a lot of fabulous recipes...and I've tried a lot of them.

A New Book Series

My boys love being read to in the evenings and I love sharing different books with them. Some books are old friends of mine and some books are new and exciting that we can discover together. New and exciting is where we discovered are newest series: The 39 Clues.

This is a series of books, each written by a different author, but all covering the exciting adventures of 14-yr old Amy Cahill and her 11-yr old brother Dan. Orphaned at a young age and recently losing their beloved Grandmother, they attend her will reading and are handed a choice: they could accept 1 million dollars each or gamble that money and search for the 39 clues. The 39 clues that lead to the greatest Cahill treasure of all time and might bring them ultimate power, or cost them everything.

They are competing with other Cahill cousins, since only 1 team can win, but during this journey they will not only learn to depend on each other, they will also learn about the Cahill family...they will find famous cousins from the past (like Benjamin Franklin) and secrets (like what really happened to their parents) along the way. It's going to be an exciting trip.

We've finished the first 2 books: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riorden and One False Note by Gordon Korman. Our current book is The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis and I can't read it fast enough for the boys. They get a chapter a night and once that chapter is done they always beg for another! I love reading to them and they love being read to...even my 13 yr old! If you don't already do this with your children you should try it! You will love it as much as I do!

1st Day of School

The boys have started another exciting year of school! I have a 1st Grader and an 8th Grader...it's hard to believe that they are growing up so quickly!

They are soooo excited to get back to school and back to their friends.
1st Grade: Reading, Language, Math, PE/Music, Science/Social Studies, Computers, & Writing

An emphasis is placed on reading with some spelling and beginning grammar thrown in, math and writing. It's going to be a fun year with a brand new 1st year teacher!

8th Grade: Biology, Band, Home-Ec (unless it's changed to Debate), 8th Grade Science, Plane Geometry, Language Arts and Social Studies (US History to the Civil War)

Biology and Geometry are both High school level classes, he tested into Geometry and Biology is a class his school offers to 8th graders during 0 hour, which means he has to be there an hour before school starts to take the class and he still has to take the science for his grade level.

So cheers everyone! Have a Happy New School Year!

'Twas the night before school started...

'Twas the night before school started, when all through the town,
The parents were cheering. It was a riotous sound!
By 8, kids were washed and tucked into bed!
Where memories of homework filled them with dread!
New pencils, new folders, new notebooks, too!
...New teachers, new friends...their anxiety grew!
The parents just giggled when they heard of this fright!
And shouted upstairs: Go to Bed, it's a School Night!

I don't know who wrote this, but it was posted on my facebook this morning! This is a toast to all the parents out there sending their little ones off to school for another year! :-)

Pandamania! VBS

Our church had their VBS the last week of July, my son and his cousins had a great time and I enjoyed the quiet time at home. With the temperatures hovering at 105F the boys hadn't been out much this summer so they were all happy to get out of the house and play with friends...and learn about God!

Cousin J, Cousin J and my Youngest at Pandamania!

The decorations were great!

The sanctuary!

The church put on a great VBS. They had 40-50 kids everyday and the Adults & Older Volunteers did an excellent job. My son had soooooo much fun, we will definitely do it again next year.

My New Roof

Back in June, we had a huge hailstorm...the last in a long line of them over the past year and a half. This one finally did enough damage that a new roof was required. So I broke down and made arrangements for a new one to be installed. It was finished on Sunday.

Before

Before...close up.

After

After...close up.

It's beautiful isn't it! It's darker than the original and so the house doesn't look so worn out. I'm very happy with the new roof and our contractor was a very nice man. Thanks Ben!

July Records Broken

Oklahoma is in the middle of a record breaking heat wave. And man is it hot! Here are some of the statistics for July 2011:

89.2F, the Hottest Average Temp for July on record (avg. months highs and lows)

102.5F, the Hottest Average Max Temp for July on record

27 days in July with temperatures over 100F, the most ever for a single month

Every day in June and July has reached a temp 90F+, the first time ever

38 days of 100F+ temps (Beats the old record by 9 days)

71 days with temps of 90F+ temps (Beats the old record by 11 days)

August is our hottest month and this week is set to prove it, we're scheduled to have 106F-110F weather all week. The hottest summer on record posted 50 days where temperatures reached 100F+, we are on the path to blow that record out of the books by next week.

I'm praying for rain and cooler temperatures, will you please join me? Thank you!