Another taste test

Kid Essentials had a great promotion going on recently. When you signed up you received a coupon for a free package of Kid Essentials. We let Robbie test it out. He said it was DELICIOUS!! He has been drinking one a day since they came in. He said they are nice and creamy and don't taste like powdered yuck. If he drinks it.. it must taste pretty good. He can be a bit finicky sometimes. I always worry that he isn't getting enough nourishment with his eating habits. Sometimes he eats great, other times he goes without eating much of anything. If he can't find something good to eat, he skips eating sometimes. Now, with one of these a day he just might make it :)

Snow in Florida?

Of course way down here in SW Florida we don't normally get snow...

My deep freezer was getting too much ice in it so I had the kids scrape it out. I let Robbie make snowballs out of the fluffy stuff. There was also a bunch of ice chunks that he just tossed around the yard. The fenced yard in the background has three kids (baby,2,5) living there. They happen to be outside playing with Grandma when Robbie was making snowballs. He passed a few over to them to play with too. Their house is set much higher than our house (due to new code regulations) and the adults can stand near their backdoor and easily see over the fence. Actually, we can see them from the waist up from our side. Anywho....When I went out to check on Robbie, the Grandma was standing on the hill and laughing like crazy at silly Robbie playing in the snow.



This one is when Robbie was done playing with his "snow" and just started tossing it all around the back yard. Even down here in Florida we still wear gloves for a day or two a year so Robbie was well prepared to play in his "snow".




It was getting too slushy to make snowballs so Robbie went ahead and just dumped it all out.



I have seen some gorgeous pictures of snow on other people's blogs....but this is all I can offer for now.

Free toys

My oldest son Justin (20) found a need to buy a new car stereo. He seems to find this need every year or so. This time, he installed it himself at home. Robbie (9) was right there with him helping out wherever he could. In other words....getting in the way and asking a bunch of questions. Luckily, Justin didn't mind. Maybe Robbie will pick up a few hints along the way.


When the installation was done, Robbie had a new "toy" to play with! I let him keep it for 2 weeks. It was too large to keep around any longer!

He turned it into a monster cave...a store ( a way to get money from Mom)...a secret hideout...and a few other things I'm sure. I think it was a boat on top of his bed at one point too. Who knows, he has a great imagination.

Just like the old saying I always heard when the big kids were little ~ Why spend lots of money on toys, when all they want to play with is the boxes?


This counts as a homeschool activity too! He drew pictures inside and made up wonderful stories to tell Mom all day...for many days!

Things that came in the mail

The UPS man stopped by last week and surprised me with the 2009 Crochet Pattern a Day calendar! I submitted my snake scarf for the 2008 calendar. SURPRISE!! They put it in the 2009 calendar :) I am October 7th...YIPPEE! There are many patterns contributed by fellow Crochetville members.

Then later in the week, the mailman brought me this goodie. Now, I knew this one was coming. I was just waiting for it to get here. I won this as part of a blog give-a-way. Forgive me for forgetting which blog it was from. I seem to be losing my mind as I get older. It doesn't help when you read 148 blogs daily. I love Bloglines . It really helps me keep track of my fave blogs. Of course those blogs send me off to other blogs and my list gets longer each day!

Anyways...this is the box set of the first year of Craft: . Craft: has been on my wish list for awhile now. I love the articles and the projects. We already made the play doh. Robbie (9) had fun making and playing with it. It is still squishy 3 days later. We store it in a ziploc baggie.

Halloween quilt

My youngest Robbie (9) always wants one of anything I make. This month, he decided he just had to have a new quilt because I was making them for the kids next door. Every weekend he has been hounding me to see if I had finished his quilt yet. He picked the fabric from my stash and I decided to try making half square triangles. Without much thought or plan, I just stitched a bunch together. Then, I let Robbie help with the layout. Surprisingly, we were able to get a few designs out of my random cuttings.










I think this quilt will last him for a long time. It will take a few years for him to outgrow one this size.



I decided to use embroidery floss to make a few outlines of bats in the orange squares. I also used the word BOO because of course it works for Halloween and also that is his nickname that Momma gave him a few years back. Then I just added some random squiggly lines that are one of my machine's stitches. I used glow in the dark thread for the squiggles. I wanted to machine quilt the whole thing, but I need some more practice before I can get a handle on that. It was actually relaxing to hand stitch even the small amount I did. I might need to practice on a smaller quilt and try hand quilting....


I also let Robbie pick out the back fabric. We just used a sheet we found at Walmart. I actually like this color.


Full size view...

I love how colorful it looks in his room. He was so cute when I first gave it to him Sunday afternoon. He wouldn't let anyone else touch it. He wouldn't even use it while he was playing video games. Normally, he likes to wrap up in a comforter because he says his room is too cold from the air conditioning. He told me he wanted to keep his new quilt "new" feeling until bed time. How sweet!