The kids' ballet

Friday night was the kids' ballet performance. Unfortunately most of my pictures are blurry. This little camera of mine just doesn't take good action shots. I'm figuring blurry pictures are better than no pictures.

movie

I went to see a movie by myself tonight. I saw Remember Me. It is so very sad! I don't like those types of movies.

Braxton and Dalton's 7 year old birthday party

Sunday we went to Braxton and Dalton's pirate birthday party. Here is Dalton. Here is Braxton.

I love this picture of Treyton helping himself to a cupcake.

He is such a cutie!

So I had this material I got at Goodwill. The price was $3, but I probably got it for half price. Anyway, I thought it would make a cute dress/outfit for Ashley. Well when I found out Braxton and Dalton were having a pirate party I knew I had to get on the ball and make the outfit for Ashley.
So on Saturday, I took the material to church with me where some of my friends were scrapbooking and I made the dress in about 2 hours. When I got home, I realized it was too short to be a dress.
And the front looked too big. So I stayed up until 2AM and fixed the lining on the top and created some pants.

When she got up in the morning and put it on, the pants were too little. Silly me used some of her stretchy pants as a pattern for non stretchy material so they were too tight. UGH!

After church I had a little bit of time and I made her new pants and fixed the top while she was there. It is so much easier to do when you have the person with you- I should try that more often rather than just making it up as I go.We went to the party and when we got there at the last minute I created this do-rag. I think it totally makes the entire outfit!I didn't make anything for the boys. I thought about making them shorts from the same material, although there would have been no pirates. It would have just been the white with blue waves. I thought it might look too girly so I decided not to do it- not that I had any time anyway!

The weather outside was perfect!

Happy birthday kiddos!

Scrapbooking again and it feels good!

Well I got to help Jenni Bowlin pack kits this month. I needed the outlet to be amongst friends. Shoot I would do it even if I didn't get compensated, but when you help you do get compenesated. You get to take home that month's kit. I've missed scrapbooking! I haven't scrapbooked in so long! I've already created 4 layouts with the kit and I'm sure I could get 2 or 3 more out of it. Here are the 4 I created over the last two days:

zebras

OK so I've told many people about the zebra thing, where they did excellent in determining different barcodes. After the 3rd or 4th person asked me if it was a joke, I decided to ask the source again. So I called up Steena...and...it's true. She has seen and heard about it in a few places, but she sent me this very short reference.

I did a little research myself and found that all zebras have different markings. They are like fingerprints, no two are alike. Therefore, the zebras can tell each other apart by their markings. Also, if you painted one wall with zebra stripes and put zebras in the room, the zebras would all gather around that wall.

Microwave popcorn

You know when you open a bag of microwave popcorn and you smell that 'wonderful' smell of butter?

Well guess what?

It is terribly bad for you. It contains a chemical known as diacetyl, and it is in several seasonings and processed foods, including the artificial butter flavor used in microwave popcorn.

And if you are exposed to it a lot, it can cause something called popcorn lung. I'm not kidding. The fumes can trigger a respiratory condition. Many people who work in popcorn factories are getting this. One of my really good friends is a safety consultant. She has gone to these factories and has seen them first hand.

She has warned us NEVER to eat microwave popcorn.

Even though this mostly effects workers who smell this day in and day out, there has been a recorded case where a consumer ate 2 bags of microwaved popcorn a day who was diagnosed with popcorn lung.

Why should we subject ourselves to these conditions?

We can very easily make homemade microwave popcorn

at home for a fraction of the cost AND it is much much healthier!

If you are a popcorn lover- this is too easy NOT to try!

There are several recipes on the Internet, some have lots of pictures to go with them.

For some reason I couldn't find the one I was looking for but here is the recipe as I remember it:

1/4 cup popcorn

1 tsp olive oil

a little bit of sea salt (or whatever seasoning you want i.e. cinnamon, jalapeno, cheese)

Put these into a small paper lunch bag.

Fold over 2x.

Staple the bag 2 times.

1 is not enough and 3 is too many--2 times is not enough to cause any damage.

But I have heard you can tape it shut.

(I can't imagine this actually staying shut, but you could try it.)

Then just pop it for 2-3 minutes- depending on the microwave.

Make sure to watch it, mine tends to be done before the 2 minutes is up.

Enjoy! Yum Yum Yum!

At the ZOO.

About 2 weeks ago, we went to the zoo. I used Steena as an excuse to actually see the animals. Usually the kids will go and all they want to do is play on the playground. And well...the playground is impressive, however I wanted to see the animals. So we picked up Steena and I wheeled her around. I got some good pictures of some of the animals.

I love these zebras. Steena told me something fascinating. Scientists have studied zebras to see if they could tell differences between colors and shapes. They did terrible at telling the difference between colors or shapes, BUT they did fabulous with telling the difference between giant sized barcodes. Pretty cool, huh? The zoo workers brought out meat and placed it all around the caged area. When they let the wild dogs loose they went crazy. It was interesting seeing the dogs so active. They are very pretty.
The lemurs.

The beautiful and regal white tiger.

The relaxed tiger

The stork...it didn't even bother to ask if I wanted more children. Sheesh!

I think this is the first time I've seen a porcupine this close.

Here is Steena, the kids and Flat Stanley in front of the massive playground.

This is a guenon.

The meerkat- still a favorite amongst the kids.

Mason on the carousel.

The lynx

So guess what happened at the zoo? Flat Stanley got lost. But thankfully he was turned in at the front desk. There he was just waiting for us to return. He was a good sport. He didn't complain at all..

So I decided to take him on the carousel.

My babes in the meerkat bubble.

Flat Stanley also got to go in the playground. Here he is WAY UP in the UPPER window.

I believe this is the bongo.

I think this is the cassowary.

Bamboo chicks!

He is ALWAYS trying to get away with something.

It's a different picture than up above.

Watch out Flat Stanley you're on the nose of an alligator. I guess you are used to that since you are from Florida.

The end.