100 Days Minus a Few...

Or somethin' like that... Let me explain...

For me not being much into time, and my writing a post about it a few posts ago, and my having mentioned it again in a post after that post... I seem to be writing about it a lot lately. Yes, I'm posting about it again. Maybe my **word for the year** should be, in an ironic sorta way, 'time'. Or maybe you should just call me a lunatic and we'll move on.

Alrighty then...

Caitie's school is celebrating 100 days of school today. Although, technically, Caitie hasn't been to school a whole 100 days yet... remember the ol' strep throat fun she had the last few months? Well, that sorta put her behind a bit; I'm guessing she's around 90 days, or somethin' like that. But I decided to let her go ahead and celebrate today anyway... that's the kind of mom I am. um, yeah... Anyway...

Caitie's 100 day celebration is only in her Enrichment Class, which is in the morning; they focus a lot on math, and thus, the big thing about the number 100. Each student was to take a small snack item to school today... such as m&ms, skittles, chocolate chips, cereal, pretzels, etc. Caitie chose to take spice drop candy; those small sugar-coated gumdrop candies. We tried to think of something that others may not think of to take, and that's what we came up with. They are to count out 100 candies in a cup, or some kind of activity like that.... and then I'm not sure, but I would guess they eat 'em? If so, I'm glad she's doing this in the morning class, I wouldn't want to pick her up in the afternoon after having eaten that much sugary goodness... except, maybe I could have just asked her to fly home after school... ya know, because of her sugar high? *tapping monitor* You still with me?!? Moving on now...

Here are some pics...

This is the 100 day project Caitie did for the class. The purple paper was sent home with a note on it asking that she find 100 small items around the house and put them on the paper and return it to school. It's not as easy as it sounds... it took me (yes, i get into these projects... remember the turkey and Christmas tree projects?) almost a week to come up with something Caitie wanted, and would work without falling off the paper when being hung on the classroom wall. I wanted to put 100 pennies on the paper, some in the shape of 100, the others bordering the paper... and I looked and looked for pretty, shiny ones from all over the house... I found up to 70 of 'em, but found that they would make the paper too heavy, and it would probably tear once being picked up and especially when put on the wall, so after seeing how frustrated and distraught I had become, Michael came to the rescue... he had to, I was driving him crazy by asking him to do crazy things like go to the bank and get the coins so they would all be shiny and new, but I came to find out the bank doesn't have new coins very often... I then asked him to ask his dad if he had any shiny, newer pennies layin' around... his dad's into coins somewhat, but he just gave me a funny look... and as I said above, I figured they would be too heavy once they were all on the paper... Anyway... Michael suggested 100 cotton balls... I wasn't amused... way too plain... (caitie did say that someone brought that in though. ha), he also suggested q-tips... again, I wasn't amused... q-tips, really? So finally Michael said to use toothpicks... and with that, and the thought of many colorful beads Caitie has, I put together what you see in the following picture. I pretty much did the project... it was the night before it was to be turned in, so it had to be done asap. Caitie did put her name on it though, which were stickers. She wasn't really into the project, so she didn't mind my doing it. She liked how it turned out. I was thinking of the toothpicks and beads bein' fireworks... you know, to help celebrate the hundred days, but Caitie called them snowflakes... which was cute.

The 100-day project... fireworks snowflakes.



Here's Caitie holding the spice drop candies... and Bailey trying to go off and play before we head to school... we were running late as usual, so this was a bit stressful.



Hopefully Caitie had a great 100th 90th, or somethin' like that, day of school today. She also had share bag in her afternoon class... more on that in another post... Here's a pic of what she took... can you guess what it is? The answer will be in an upcoming post, so be sure and check back to find out.



Just in case you're wondering...

**word for the year** : Some people choose a word for the year to try and learn more about it or become more like it instead of doing new year's resolutions.

A Glittery, Glowing Experience

It was that time of year again... last weekend we went to the annual Glendale Glitters & Glows Block Party in downtown Glendale. We go every year, ever since Caitie was born... it's tradition. It was nice weather this year, not too cold, not unseasonably warm... it was just right. We left at a decent time, but parking was TERRIBLE! There must have been a record crowd there this year... LOTS of cars, lots of people... just lotsa! Anyway, it probably took an hour to find parking. After searching for quite a while, we decided to go get something quick to eat, since the food at the block party is always sooo very expensive, and once we returned some time later, we finally found a parking spot. We then went and enjoyed the glittery, glowing experience that the block party has to offer. Here are a few pics...

I didn't take but a few pics of the hot air balloons this time... this is the only decent one to share with you.



Here's Caitie with her non-fearing of heights daddy... She tried to get me to go down the very high slide with her, but I just couldn't get myself to do it, even though I have gone down such a slide at the Arizon State Fair before. I just couldn't get myself to do it this time... I'm not real fond of heights. Caitie talked me into going down the high slide with her next year though. It's always easy to say yes when there's a year for her to forget she made the request. ha



I did go on the helicopter ride with her though. It's similar to the Dumbo ride at Disenyland, which we both love. It's a tame ride, which is about all I can handle these days. Here she is at the controls.



Here is what was in front of us... a bright, orange helicopter.



Caitie loved the slide the most. She went down it three times with her daddy. I got a quick pic of Bailey while waiting for them to come down the slide.



Caitie played a dart game and won a cute monkey. She hit one balloon out of three; you get a prize no matter how many balloons you hit.



Michael brought along some glow in the dark thingies (I forget what they're called) to give to Caitie while at the block party. Caitie loves the glowing thingies for sale all over the place when going to these kind of events, and instead of spending a small fortune on one of the thingies sold at the event, he bought some cheap ones at Target and carried them in his pocket and gave them to her before we left. Here he's putting the glow-in-the-dark bracelet on her monkey at her request; Caitie has the glow-in-the-dark necklace on.



I saw this when leaving the block party. I had forgotten that on February 14th of this year Arizona will be 100 years old. It's not really that big a deal to me, as you know, but I thought the sign would make a nice pic. And that was our Glendale Glitters & Glows Block Party experience this year.

Gimme a Break

During Caitie's winter break from school, she went to winter break camp at a nearby school. It's similar to summer camp, except it's for only two weeks instead of ten weeks. There were crafts, a sports game called 'catch'; it involved teams and being outdoors. There was 'free time', where the kids all played around on mats on the gym/cafeteria floor. There was playground time. There was computer lab. There were games. There was cooking. There were theme days where movies were shown, pj's worn, etc. Caitie really enjoyed it. The camp hours were from 6am to 6pm, but you could drop your child off anytime during that time. I usually dropped Caitie off around 10am and picked her up around 4pm. She was there for around six hours each day; that's the time she's usually in school, around six hours, so I knew she would be okay being there for that amount of time each day.

This is her first day at winter break camp. All the kids had been taken to different classrooms, etc. for activities. There were Kindergarten through sixth graders at winter break camp; they divided them up. Caitie was in the Kindergarten/first grade group. They sometimes had activities going on in the cafeteria when dropping Caitie off in the mornings, this is where you sign the kids in and out each day. There wasn't anything going on in the cafeteria the first morning I dropped her off. She went to put her backpack/water bottle/lunch away before a camp instructor took her to the Kindergarten/first grade group that was in a nearby classroom.



Bailey came along to drop Caitie off at camp.



After dropping Caitie off, Bailey and I went to a nearby park; it's just across the street from the school.



Later in the day Bailey plays in the big mess left after the Christmas holiday. This is how the house usually looks... even when there isn't an excuse for such a mess. ha



It was pj day. There was a movie, popcorn, etc. This time I made sure she wore regular pj's instead of a sleeper (i mentioned in a previous post about her wearing a sleeper to school for pj day). She got the pj's and slippers for Christmas from relatives; she loves Tinkerbell stuff. The sleeping bag and dog pillow was also given to her by the same relatives for her birthday, and the Tinkerbell pillow was given to her by the same relatives. It was given to her on Thanksgiving. Nice relatives, wouldn't you say? :) I put her tennis shoes in her backpack to change into for outside play, along with her jacket.



Another camp day... Off to camp we go...



This time there were activities going on in the cafeteria when I dropped Caitie off. Caitie's trying to hold Bailey back; Bailey wanted to join in on the fun.



The girls having fun after picking Caitie up from camp.



The girls love playin' outside.



Bailey loves her new red push car... and the old beach ball as well.



The last day of winter break camp. Caitie really enjoyed it, and Bailey did too, even if she only walked her big sister in and then out later in the day.

Happy 4th

Not of July obviously, and it's not the 4th of January either, but...







...as you just read in the first pic above, it is the blog's birthday... Happy 4th Birthday Blog. This occurred on January 10th, but I put out the previous post on that date.

As I said in the previous post, I'm not much into time, so birthdays don't really stand out for me, but I would like to thank all of you that stop by and take time to read my many ramblings and view the low quality pics (for about a year or so) I share (it really is the camera's fault... really), it means a lot to me. It doesn't seem like it's been four years since I started this blog... boy how time flies, eh?

Again... thanks for stopping by. :)

Just in case you're wondering... we bought Bailey a new red push car for Christmas due to the straps and horn on Caitie's old red push car breaking off. Caitie still fits in her car and has races with Bailey in her new car; this provides a form of exercise for the ol' man and me, of which the ol' man and Caitie in her beat up car always win. I bet I could beat the ol' man in typing though... doing this blog gives me plenty of finger exercise. Yeah... I'm feeling better already... *big sigh of relief*

Happy Living

I'm not much into 'time'... meaning... I'm not much of a New Year fan. To me, it's just a stretch of living, if you will; 365 days means nothing to me, which means birthdays, anniversaries and the like, don't really stand out for me. So my saying Happy New Year wouldn't mean much (i'm so not conventional). But since we do most things with time in mind, I think each one of us should live each 'day' (same stretch of time for me) like it's the last. That's cliché, I know, but it's so true. Would you be ready to face Jesus today? Have you been living your life for God? My answer to this would be... No! I'm not ready to face Jesus. Oh, I've accepted Him as my personal savior, but have I been letting Jesus live through me? Have I been living for God? Not really. I don't want to be a disappointment to God. When asked what I've done as a "good and faithful servant" to God (in reference to a verse in the Bible), I don't want to hang my head in shame. I want my 'stretch of living' to make an eternal difference. I have a long way to go, which concerns me, especially since I seem to have some bitterness inside that I need to deal with. But with God's help, I know I can overcome this and then hopefully I can be the good and faithful servant God wants me to be.

So, instead of Happy New Year, I say Happy Living to you during your 'stretch of living' here on earth. :)



The Bible verse in the pic above:

Lamentations 3:22-24
The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!"