Children's Museum

The kids and I went to the Children's Museum again Tuesday. I love having a membership! We can go whenever we want, but Tuesday might not have been the best day to go. I forgot most of the local schools are on spring break. IT WAS PACKED! And to top it all off, there was a special unveiling of an artifact that will be part of a new exhibit that will open next year. There were actually 2 news crews there. We actually met some friends there too. (The youngest blonde boy was actually one of my regular babysitting kids. His mom has since stopped working so I have lost that babysitting job. Oh well.)

This is the first time that we have been able to go outside and see these statues. It seems live every time we have gone, it was rainy or too cold.

The current exhibit there right now is Bob the Builder. Isn't he cute? Daddy's mom is jealous, I'm sure. Rolly, Lofty, Wendy, and many others were there too.

I actually took some other pictures, but I'm sure that by now--most of you could give me a tour of my museum just from looking at all my pictures!

Last picture

Here is one picture that I forgot to post on my living room post. This is the last wall that got done. It took me forever to find something for either side of the picture. I have never taken so many things back in my life! Throughout this whole process, I think I have taken back things at least a dozen times. I have one little spot beside my front door that I need to touch up the paint and then IT IS ALL DONE! Everyone is welcome to come see it!

MY LIVING ROOM IS DONE!

AWANA Olympics

Yesterday was such a long day! We left the house before 8 am and didn't get back til almost 8pm. C's Sparky Olympics was in the morning and then Daddy coached the TNT boys in the afternoon. After all was done we went out to eat (horrible, no-good, very bad service). So it was a very long day.

But! C's team won 1st! Yeah! And! Daddy's team won 2nd!

K was the official photographer today. So we have many of these pictures:

*blurry

*the back friend's heads

*other kids books

*feet

*a very blurry Daddy ref-ing (he got pulled into it at the last minute)

*etc

Rogaine anyone?

It must never get back to C that I told you this story, OK? Please keep it between us. We told him it was "over" and he needs to think it is. (Am I such a bad mom or what?)

So we were at the State Museum the other day. I had taken K to the potty. When I got back, Daddy said "Did you see his (meaning C's) hair?" No I hadn't noticed anything. Then I looked closely at the front of C's head.

Notice the little bald spot right in the front of his head? Daddy asked him what happened. "I don't know. I think it must have just fallen out." Really? That's the best you can do? He is so not a good liar. We asked him off and on for about 4 hours and he kept giving us the same answer. Seriously? He thinks we'd fall for that?

Later that night he had AWANA Olympics practice and Daddy had practice after that. During Daddy's practice he finally admitted what happened. But by this time it was way too late!

Here is his story. He had a craft that day in school. He was sitting at his desk, with his scissors on his fingers and his chin in his hand. Let's start with "not the smartest position to be sitting with scissors." Then let's move on to "how did that cut the top of your hair?" His answer "I must have moved my hand down to cut and closed the scissors as I crossed the top of my head." Hmmmm. A little bit of logic in there. It could have happened. That's the most we got out of him. If that's the truth, "just come tell us when it happened!" He would have gotten a stern lecture about how to handle scissors but not the severe punishment that he ended up with.

Once we all got home from practice, Daddy applied the stick of punishment to the seat of learning. Plus he gets no video games of any kind for at least 6 weeks (this can get longer depending on LIFE between now and then) plus he cannot do his art projects for school for that long. They will all pile up and he will have to take one day to do them all.

He has had issues with scissors before. And he is my somewhat responsible child. What am I in for with the other child? Lord help me! ABSOLUTELY NO ART PROJECTS FOR HER WITHOUT AN ADULT PRESENT.

Indiana State Museum

Currently there is an Abraham Lincoln display at the Indiana State Museum. Since Lincoln is Daddy's favorite president and thus C's favorite president, we decided to go check out the display.

The museum is really nice but a little over my kids heads. The Lincoln display was awesome, but again, over my kids heads. There were actually 2 displays. One was artifacts from the Library of Congress and the other display had artifacts from the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection. No photography was allowed in either display. So I have nothing to show except some programs.

However, throughout the rest of the museum (where photography was allowed) they had "hidden" different busts of Lincoln for a sort of treasure hunt. That was kinda fun to look for those. We found 6 and I think there were more.

My pictures start with the rest of the museum. There were a lot of interesting displays. There was a nice huge section on Indiana state history. When C has to do his state notebook I think we will come back to get some information. The last few pictures show some of the Lincoln's that we found.

This was inside the "atrium" of the museum. Daddy actually video taped a wedding here.

That's one big turtle shell!

They had a few rooms with "stuffed" animals of all kinds. I think mostly animals or birds or fish that live or lived in Indiana.

Like the "do not touch" sign?

Thought this was some interesting information. Your useless information for the day.

Isn't that blue one pretty?

The kids got to go "fishing."

These were some toys from certain time periods. C liked the Star Wars ones.

I remember some of these! And K liked the Strawberry Shortcake stuff.

This was actually how tall Lincoln was.

Hiding among the birds.

In the room of Indiana celebrities. He actually lived in Indiana for a time so he deserves to be there.

In a type of cabinet that he might have had in his house.

Kinda a funny place to hide--in with the dinosaur bones.

Appropriate. In the outdoors.

This was beside the elevators to get back to the parking garage.

Even though it was a little advanced for my kids, I think they had fun. Daddy was able to take a half day off work and come with us. He really enjoyed it too. I'm really glad we went but I'll wait til they are much older to go back to that museum.

One really nice side note: I got in free since I'm a teacher!

PS: notice the bald spot in the front of C's head? Check back tomorrow for the story on that one.

Bus Conference

Monday and Tuesday night of this week our church hosted our 3rd annual bus and soul winning conference. It's amazing to see how it has grown in these 3 years! I haven't heard a final count, but according to "pre-reg" numbers we were supposed to have over 500 people attend! We went Monday night and I know the main floor of church was very full! We had people from IN, OH, KY, SC, and a few other states attend. One guy drove over 500 miles from PA!

The conference starts Monday night, there are sessions all day Tuesday, and a church meeting Tuesday night. This year, C's kids choir opened the entire conference singing 2 songs. They did such a good job! It's so cute to see all of them up there. He is in the group that is 4 year olds to 2nd graders. A big age range to work with, but once again our church secretary does an amazing job!

Here is just one picture from their singing. Our camera battery was blinking red. Oops.

After church, we always host a 3 on 3 basketball tourney. This year Daddy refed (umped?) and I kept score. It was a lot of fun! But a really late night. We didn't get home until midnight. The kids were in bed VERY FAST. Meanwhile Daddy was back at the gym looking for C's hat and coat which he had left in the bathroom when he was changing. Thankfully we found it. I really can't talk cuz for a few minutes I lost my keys. Found them too. What a night! Since Monday night was so late, we didn't go Tuesday night. What a week! My calendar just keeps getting fuller and fuller (more full and more full?) On that note, I think I'll end this post.

Mugsy

Mugsy

Our friends had to put down Mugsy this past weekend. He had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and went down hill quickly. He had been their dog for over 10 years! And he was a little bit ours too. I loved "dogsitting" him. He was such a sweet dog and so good with the kids--even when they (she) wasn't so good to him. I cried; C cried; K girl said "oh" and went to play. Typical. My friend said her kids are having a tough time, so they went and bought them rabbits. Does that mean I have to "rabbit sit"? We shall see.

BTW: we didn't tell our kids that our friends had "put him down"--didn't want to have to explain that. We just said Mugsy died.

C's new room

C's room is finally done! I painted it an amazing color--white! He wanted so much on his walls that it had to be a neutral color. It was fairly easy to paint because everything got painted the same--doors, trim, baseboards, walls. There are just a few little details that need to be taken care of (we want to put the Derek Jeter trading card in a frame; he needs an updated pix of K beside his bed) and Daddy is going to build him a shelf for his baseball collection--once it's warmer in the garage.

So here are the pictures to prove it is done.
Here his is new dresser and the TV that we hung for him to do school. Behind the TV on the wall are 4 pennants: Colts, Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Yankees, and Florida State.

Here is the wall of pennants and his school desk is right to the left of the lamp.

Behind his door we hung a bulletin board. I'll use it if I need to hang things for him for school. On the bulletin board, I stuck 5 of the trading pins that we brought back from Disney world. I'm also going to hang some of the AWANA ribbons that he has too.


This is the wall above his bed. Most of the pictures are signed by at least one Colts player. There are 2 signatures on the poster.

Here is my favorite wall. We bought a Fathead--so worth the money! There's no way I could've painted all that and made it look that good. LOVE IT!

All together, I think we only spent $200. That was for the Fathead ($100), paint, supplies, frames, and pennants. The TV and dresser don't count. He needed both and we had planned to buy both with this year's tax return anyway. Not bad.

My SIL is coming to visit in April. She commented that our house is going to look like a different house by the time she gets here. That would be the point. I'm not enjoying the painting, but I am enjoying the results. Check back soon for the living room reveal.

Almost done

This is what the kiddies were doing while Daddy and I were finishing up painting the living room. As we took the tape off, we gave it to the kids and they had the best time playing with it. Just like the box is better at Christmas than the toy that is inside.

The living room is almost done. I'm hoping to finish the touch ups tonight. Saturday I am going accessory shopping with a friend. Hopefully by Saturday night everything will be done! I am so excited! Daddy ordered a new recliner that won't be here for 2 weeks. That should be the last of everything! I'll post pictures when it's all done--even if the new chair isn't here.

Here's what I've been doing

Here is what I've been doing this week. And below, are some accessories. BUT you will have to check back for more info and to see the final product. Hopefully about 10 days from now. (to reiterate: I HATE TO PAINT!)