This happens but once a year…

the day when I can say,

May the Fourth be with you!

Enjoy your day!

A Sunday Afternoon in the Park

Ok, so Punky and Hubby first started out in the park, but then they moved over to the large field behind our church… I just liked the title.    (I love that painting at the Art Institute in Chicago!)

Punky was so excited to fly his kite with Hubby!  They had so much fun!

It was a perfect day!

100% All Boy

Punky had so much fun in the newly rototilled garden in our backyard.  I gave the boy a hose, and away he went…creating a mess.   He had so much fun!

 

Clean-up was quite a process… but so worth it!

Where did I go wrong?

I sat in the back of the minivan with PUnky on our way back from IL on Sunday.   At one point, I reached over and rubbed his newly cut (SHORT) hair.  I stopped.   There was something in his hair.

Me:   Hey, what’s in your hair.

Punky (dead pan):   A Booger

Me:  What?!  How did that get there?

Punky:  I put it there.

Me:  We don’t do that!

Punky:  Mama, where else I supposed to put it?

Me:  In a kleenex!  Who taught you this?

Punky:  I just thought it myself. I have nowhere to put them.

I was mortified!  My kid puts boogers in his hair!  WHAT?!?

The next day, Punky comes home from daycare, and there are three more boogers resting comfortably, dried up, in his hair.   I reminded him AGAIN that this is not what we do with our boogers.   I called Kelly and asked her if she sees him doing this.   She said, “I thought that was what was in his hair today!”    We had a discussion with Punky that Kelly will give him a kleenex for his pocket when he goes outside to play.

Yesterday, Punky came up to me after I’d started making dinner.   “Look Mama, nothing in my hair today!”

THANK GOD!  I’m crossing my fingers that his head continues to be booger-free each day!

Gross.

Where did I go wrong?

My Melting Heart

I’ve been quiet for awhile as I was so afraid I would let out the secret.

Let me explain.

This is a photo of my Mom’s dad, my Grandpa Hill.  (Harold Hill, Jr.)   You’ve read about him before, remember?

Well, for Mother’s Day this year,  my sister and I orchestrated grandchildren Sailor photos like Grandpa’s for my mom’s gift.   I went home to Chicago this past weekend and gave them to Mom, so now I can post them on here!

Here’s Punky:

Any my nephew:

And my all-time favorite photo from trying to get Punky’s pose…

He looks so grown up, like he’s going off to war!  My heart just melts when I see this photo.

A COOL GIVEAWAY!

It’s no secret that I HEART A Touch of Whimsy Designs. Gina has an awesome giveaway today for a lucky reader!  Just hop on over to her blog, follow the directions, and leave a comment!   Easy!!!  (Click on her button below!)

Excuse me?

I overheard this on the radio this weekend:

Radio Announcer: We are here speaking with Patsy Cline’s daughter.   Say, how ironic is it that one of your mother’s last big hits was “I Fall to Pieces” and then she dies in a plane crash?

Yes, you read that correctly.  I almost dropped the milk carton I was carrying when I heard that!

WHAT?!?!?!?!

That was so tactless.

A new fave….

Bananagrams.

Have you played it?

My students and I LOVE it!

Check it out!

Happy Birthday…

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Life Lessons

You may have thought I didn’t see,
Or that I hadn’t heard,
Life lessons that you taught to me,
But I got every word.
Perhaps you thought I missed it all,
And that we’d grow apart,
But Dad, I picked up everything,
It’s written on my heart.
Without you, Dad, I wouldn’t be
The woman I am today;
You built a strong foundation
No one can take away.
I’ve grown up with your values,
And I’m very glad I did;
So here’s to you, dear father,
From your forever grateful kid.

By Joanna Fuchs

Thank you Dad for everything you have taught me in life… (including…..Click here!)
Isn’t it amazing as we grow older and watch our parents with our children?  I love to watch my dad with Punky.   It just warms my heart to see them together… passing on traditions, knowledge, and love.  Here are my favorite “Dad and Punky” pictures through the last few years.

Thank you for being such a wonderful Grandpa!  Punky’s lucky to have such a super Grandpa!  I am even luckier to have an awesome Dad!  I hope you have a very special day, Dad!   You deserve it!
I love you!

Happy Easter!

Punky started out the day BRIGHT and EARLY to see if that crazy Easter Bunny came!   Punky was in awe of the Bunny eating all the carrots he left out (except he was bothered by the 2 nibbles the Bunny left on the plate).(I think he’s a bit like his Mama, who used to be SO GROSSED out by Bunny-spit left on veggies on the plate!   Ewwwwww!)

Punky loved his Easter treats…..

He was a stitch as he tried to find the TEN eggs that the Easter Bunny had “hidden” in the living room!

With a little prompting, he found all TEN!  

After church, Hubby set the timer on the digital camera to take a family picture….. we have some great laughs….and one nice one!  

Happy Easter!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…

1 Peter 1:3

All Aboard!

You know where I have been the past 15 hours? (ok, minus the 7 hours of sleep)

That’s right……

GeoTrax Hell!  

Just kidding!  Don’t let me fool you…. Mommy and Daddy have just as much fun as Punky with these trains!  I just won’t admit that “aloud!”

Punky was so excited when I picked him up from daycare and I told him that I got an email, and his package was delivered!   We raced home…and there was a HUGE green Rubbermaid tub on my front step (wrapped with strapping tape)…but who knew you could just mail a tub like that?!??!.  Okay, off topic….

We brought it inside and unloaded the treasures.  Right in the middle of my living room floor.  It took me an hour to get a really cool track up and going.  THREE LEVELS of track for those trains to explore!

Long story short, Hubby picked up the track before dinner because Punky was being a turd.   I was a bit pissed that I spent that much time on a very cool layout, and then Punky had to be a turd.   After dinner, Hubby went to church choir practice, and Punky decided he wanted to play GeoTrax again.   Go figure.

So, I spent another hour or so designing a new layout….

…and then we had FUN!   Punky and I had three or four trains going…..and the airport, and it was so much fun!  Hubby came home and joined in our fun, too!

It was a tad bit difficult to pry the child away from GeoTown to go to bed… but somehow we managed with only a few tears. 

Two guesses where Punky is this morning while I type this?  

Now, has anyone seen my living room?   I seem to have lost it.  

Ahhhhhhhh. A mini-break.

You know, I loved my spring break….but the end made it a bit….er….. stressful.

So, I am so looking forward to this mini-break.

Four whole days off.

I can’t wait.

I know I’ll be busy with Punky… cleaning… making Easter dinner, etc.

But, I won’t be at work.

And that to me sounds

Heavenly!

In fact…

only

64 days 1561 hours 93670 minutes 5620214 seconds until summer vacation! 

Not that I am counting. 

I wonder….

if I’ll see this when I pull up at home today……

What do ya think?  LOL! 

My Oh-So-Sweet Son

This happened at church on Wednesday night after our dinner.

Punky wanted another Rice Krispie Treat, so I told him he could have one if he got another one for Mommy too.

He came back with two Rice Krispie Treats.  He held them both out and said, “Mama, which one bigger?”  I selfishly wanted the bigger piece, so I told him the smaller one was the biggest one.  (I know….Bad Mama!)

Punky then turns around and says, “Here, Mama, you get the bigger one!” and he hands me the one I had just identified as the bigger one.

Karma.

or God was telling me I didn’t need the bigger one! 

Another Hit!

This is another very cool toy.

I found these on Amazon when I was Christmas shopping.   Santa happened to bring them to our house… and they were an instant hit!

Now, I see that they released a new mini-set in February, so the Easter Bunny has also picked up these for Punky:

The cool part of these cars?   The part that keeps punky occupied in church every Sunday…

The cars come apart!  Each and every piece!

Punky designs new cars over and over again……and when he’s all done, they are color-coded so he knows which part goes to which car!   It’s great!

Check them out... these are Automoblox minis.  The regular sized Automoblox are quite larger for bigger kids (quite a bit more spendy too!).  Enjoy!

Punky’s Week of Train-ing

You all remember that my son has no toys, right?!?!

I guess he has realized that that statement was so very untrue.  Punky is nuts about his GeoTrax trains and planes.

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with these.  They really are very cool…and they lend themselves to great creativity with setting up “GeoTown.”  The tracks just snap right together and you can create new layouts each time!   Punky can even snap them into place.  He usually asks Hubby or me to set up a layout; but then he has no qualms about switching tracks out to change the layout the way he wants it.     (Which I LOVE!  This means someday, he’ll be building his own layouts!)  Punky can play for quite awhile by himself with these sets.  I like the remote control train sets, but Punky really enjoys the push cars too!

Unfortunately, the GeoTrax supply on store shelves has been dwindling quite rapidly.   There is little to no selection in most stores.   So, I turned to ebay.

Punky saw me scrolling through GeoTrax items on ebay.  Man, you do a search and over 500 – 800 hits come up each time!   It’s amazing!

Anyway, the “I want that”s started.

So, I watched several huge lots go on ebay.   Many over $200!  Some start at $300!  It’s insane!

I then found one that had 146 pieces, and shipping was reasonable.  So, I placed a bid.

I then told Punky that on Saturday, or Pancake Day in his language, we would see if we won it.

Saturday morning, he woke up to see if his package was here yet!

I. felt. terrible.

I then had to explain that we did win it, but it was all the way in Ohio (far away—even further than Chicago) and the lady had to ship it to us.  So, we would have to wait a few more days.

That didn’t go over so well at first, but he adjusted.

So, here we wait… thankfully, the seller shipped it out to us on Saturday morning…so at least it didn’t sit there the whole weekend waiting to be shipped out!  That at least gets it here another day or so sooner! 

Here is what we won:  (most pieces are now retired…. the retired pieces are the coolest, hardest to find, and most expensive!)

Needless to say, Punky is very excited!

But, this should be a great week of train-ing for him….as the Easter Bunny is also well aware of his GeoTrax “needs.”   E. Bunny has been seen with the following sets for our little boy:

Just think of the track layouts we can build!  The Clock Tower (from my ebay shipment) and the Rescue Tower (shown above) allow for three levels of track!  How fun is that!!! 

Now, I just need a bigger house.

Ohhhhhhh, I likey!

Check out this website.

“Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.”

I love it!  Think of what you could do with this….

Scrapbooking

Lesson Plans

Blogging

Gifts

Homework Assignments

Etc….

Go on, go play!   Let me know what ya think! 

WTF?

Read this.  (It’s VERY short!

Are you kidding me?

A year ago…

Remember last year’s WORST APRIL FOOL’S JOKE ever…..  I so wish it had been an April Fool’s Joke!

I woke up so crabby today.  I wonder  if subconsciously this had something to do with it… or the fact of dreading to go to school and teach middle schoolers on April Fool’s Day!    Either way, I need some “uncrabby” potion.

News on our homefront.  Punky has been wearing underwear!      He’s such a proud “big boy!”  He asked to go potty standing up the other night.  I said, “Sure, let me show you how….”  Hubby called out from the living room, “Oh, this ought to be interesting!”     I didn’t even think of the irony!     But, Punky did it….. and was on cloud nine!

We’re heading home to IL at the end of the month for my nephew’s 3rd birthday.    I can’t wait!

It’s state testing time again at school.   Ugh.   Remember my feelings on that?

Man, I am crabby today!  See?!?!?

Punky painted my nails last night (using his orange bath tub crayon).  He told me “they the color of Cheez-Its, Mama!”  Made me laugh!   He helped me scrub that off before we drained the bath tub!  My fingers looked like they had been in a bag of Cheetos for 2 hours!

In an effort to bring a smile to this crabby face….I’ll leave you with some of my recent  favorite photos from my 365 Blog...  (If you haven’t been over there…..go take a look)

Punky enjoying the Hot Tub at Grandma and Grandpa’s House

Learning how to pedal on Grandma & Grandpa’s “bike”

Playing with water at the Kohls’ Children Museum

While in Chicago, Punky, like his mommy did in her younger years, likes to wait for Grandpa Ed to come home from work.  So he waits near the corner of the cul-de-sac and waits for Grandpa’s car to come home.  Then Grandpa lets him “drive” to the house.

Have a great day…..I feel better already! 

Cute daycare story…

Kelly emailed me this story this afternoon.  It totally made me smile…..

The boys were playing.

Punky:  “Geez, Will!”

Will:  “I’m not Jesus!”

Ethan:  “Kelly, Will said ‘Jesus!’”