A Few Recent Pages

Nana needs a scrapbook fix - - here ya go:

Catching up....

Well, that's a little misleading. I'm not gonna catch up, cause honestly, so much has gone on since my last post. We're busy, busy, busy and so it's likely best if I just jump right in where we are today!

Last night, was super-fun at the Couch house. Our little ScoobyDoo fan has been anxiously awaiting the new ScoobyDoo movie which premiered on Cartoon Network last night. We made a whole "movie night" of it, and even had bone shaped sugar cookies. YUM!

During the movie, Camille was wiggling her loose tooth to the point that it was *almost* ready to come out. She was so scared that it was going to hurt, and she cried and freaked out a little bit. We offered to pull it for her, but she ran away to the upstairs bathroom and yanked that little thing out herself! She's now lost 2 teeth - - both bottom middle. She's the cutest little thing with that little gap in her teeth ♥



Several people have asked about what we're doing with homeschooling, and so I thought it might be fun to share what we're doing each day with this new unit that we started today. I'm going to try and post each day for the next two weeks and share our unit study with you!

ALL ABOUT PIGS!
Monday (Day 1):
- Calendar work/ 100s chart
- We begin our day with Prayer & Bible lesson
- Math
- KWL - what we know, want to know....and later what we learned about PIGS
- Read "All Pigs are Beautiful" and "Who am I?" books on pigs

- Added a fact book on pigs to our PIG lapbook
- Short science lesson on solubility with oil & water - experiment w/ oil, water & sugar
- Practiced drawing a pig with pencil & paper, then we drew a pig with oil pastels and completed the project with watercolors - discussing the insolubility of the oil pastel and the "relief" when painted over.

**done for the day**

But the learning didn't stop there- -
- Before lunch, Camille caught & played with 22 tiny snails in the backyard. We talked about their bodies and what type of habitat they needed (and that they would, in fact, die if she put them in the pool). {science, math}


- She also picked some veggies from the garden :)
- After lunch, we found a lizard in the backyard that had fallen in the pool. We caught him(or her) and put him in the habitat that we have. We observed the lizard for awhile and Camille did an entry about him in her nature journal. {more science, art, narration}

- Mommy got to do some crafting - - project to be revealed later {sanity}


- This was all before 2:30, so there's no telling what the rest of the day will bring. Right now, both the girls are having rest time. {peace, quiet, JOY!}

Zhu Zhu Pets

So Camille has been talking non-stop about this toy that she's been seeing commercials for. It always happens that I'm never in the room when the stinkin' commercial comes on, and of course, she *has* to have one of these things. So yesterday, I was getting out of the shower and she yells that THE commercial is on. I come to check it out, but it's ended. Travesty of all travesties.

So, I ask her if she remembered what the little thing was called. zoom zoom, or something? She couldn't quite remember. I asked if she could remember how it was spelled. Bad mommy for making such a terrible inquiry. She was completely beside herself. Not knowing the name of the blessed toy and certainly not knowing how to spell it. Precious Lord, help us.

So, being the computer savvy gal that I am....I googled it ;) zoom zoom - - was a loose translation of Zhu Zhu. Apparently these little robot hamsters are the next Cabbage Patch Kids. They're cheap, they don't poop....I'm game. And, why am I telling you all this you might ask?!?
Cause I'm entering a drawing here: http://bargainbriana.com/2009/08/zhu-zhu-pets-giveaway/ Maybe you'd want to check it out to. And, just so we're understood - if you win, I get your hamster. It's really only fair cause you wouldn't have known about the contest if it weren't for me ;) LOL!

I'm a bad blogger, but a good scrapper

My Thrifty Finds!

What a fun Saturday I had out garage sale-ing! I hit a teacher's garage sale bright & early and was able to score a number of books for Camille, as well as some organizational stuff for our Learning Room. No pics of that stuff.

At her sale, I bought this great birdcage for TWO dollars - yay! I've been wanting one for awhile and it's perfect! Thought it would go above the kitchen cabinets, but it's a bit big for that space. Not to worry.....she'll find a home soon.


There were some other odds & ends that I picked up - black double-matted frames for 30 cents each, a cobalt spoon rest, an outfit for Lily, but the real score was these finials. I spent a bit more than I normally would at a garage sale. Ten bucks. But, there were seven of them (the tallest is about 22"), and 1.42 each ain't bad.



Now, here's my question(s):
1) Should I group them all together? Or split this family of finials up?
2) Should I spray paint them or leave 'em as is?

Can't wait to hear what you gals think! Now go visit Miss Rhoda for lots of other great Thrifty Finds for her Thrifty Treasures Mondays!

Go VOTE!

Okay, friends, the voting polls are up! Click the link below to get to the poll - - and please vote for Heimann's Hotties :) You don't have to register or anything. Just click & vote!

Battle of the Creative Teams

Game ON!

The Battle of the Creative Teams is ON at Digiscrapaddicts.com! I'm competing with a group of talented gals representing Amanda Heimann - - we're Heimann's Hotties! word.

This week, our challenge was to use white space & for the entire team's LOs to be cohesive w/ colors, theme, etc. We chose a blue, turquoise color scheme with pops of orange, and our theme was beachy pics. I knew right away that I had to use one of the fabulous pics that Cheri had taken of Kohen during their Cancun trip.

I hope you like the LO, Cheri! You can check it out here & leave a comment if you'd like.


I think voting starts Sunday, so I'll link back up as soon as you can vote for us!

Something Fishy

Just back from vacation, I'm finally going through our pictures from the trip and wanted to share a few. Our visit to the Georgia Aquarium was actually one of the last things we did, but we had so much fun - and I didn't think anyone would protest the lack of chronologicality. Yes, I made that word up. And do forgive the photo quality - - I ended up taking my P&S camera with me and leaving my SLR at home.



Can I first just say that we loved the Georgia Aquarium. It's fab - - and the largest in the world. Being there made me miss Atlanta so much. So much to do, so much energy in the city....oh, I really do miss home.



One of the first things we saw were these amazing jellyfish. They were stunning! The girls were mesmerized immediately!




The next exhibit was super-awesome. We got to walk through a winding tunnel in this large tank. The sharks were amazing. The hammerheads darted back and forth and sometimes looked as if they were coming right for us.




And swimming right above us....this scary fellow! Check out those teeth!

Surely the most spectacular thing in all the aquarium was the wonder that Lily had upon seeing all those fish. It was incredible. I had not expected her to be so captivated by the fish, and I just enjoyed so much watching her.

We loved the grouper. They were seriously huge! (and, yummy if you must know)

To put that delicious, er, I mean, impressive guy in perspective, just check him out swimming above Brandon and the girls :) eek!

After our visit, the girls were completely exhausted. We headed from the Aquarium to search out a place for dinner. Something local & unique. As it turns out, several of my old favorites were not where they used to be.....alot changes in 10 years, I guess.

Because the girls had quickly fallen asleep in the car, we opted to drive around some of my old neighborhoods instead. It was so great - reminiscing, seeing how things had changed. Atlanta really is such a beautiful city. Brandon remarked that if he had to live in a big city, Atlanta would be it. Hmmm.....I think I'm gonna hold him to that ;)

Before & After

Since you gals asked, I thought I'd share the before and after of my master bedroom paint job. Now, the window treatments are still in the works - not all the decor is as it will be, but you can get the general drift.

The before was a really lovely pale sage color. It went great with the bedding I had when we had our queen size bed, but when I changed decor, it just didn't go as well.

So...BEFORE....
And, AFTER: This is "Muted Gold," and I'm really liking it. It's a little more orange-y than I would like in certain lighting, but it's on the walls, and I'm not changing it anytime soon~! LOL! ;)

I've got lots of pics to share from our trip, but I'm tired, and a certain little redhead is in need of some lunch :)

Engaged!

Brandon's sister, Melissa, and her boyfriend, Brian, got engaged this week! They're the perfect couple and we know they're going to be very happy together! We're so excited for them - no one more than Camille. She is crazy about Uncle Brian :)

Her ring (that I should've gotten a pic of!) is gorgeous. They designed it together and it has the coolest thing - a tiny blue diamond inset on the side of the band.

So, congrats, Melissa & Brian!! We love you guys and wish you every happiness together!

Pretty Little Clips

Jacque Larsen is among my digiscrapping idols. She's so amazingly creative. Her designs rock. Her photos are fantastic. Her LOs are gorgeous. And, she's about the sweetest thing ever!

This weekend, she's giving away some super-cute felt hair clippies. Go check 'em out and enter her contest. Jacque's BLOG & her designs at The LilyPad

I'm Her Best Mom Ever.

This post is a wee bit belated, but no less well-intentioned.... This pic is of the girls and me on Mother's day morning. So stinkin' cute :) And, yes, Camille frequently tells me that I'm her best mom ever. Being her only mom ever, I guess this makes me both the best and the worst.

Having been shopping earlier in the week with Brandon, Camille was insanely excited for Sunday to roll around. She kept dropping hints all week long and trying her bestest to get me to play a Mother's Day guessing game with her. She needs to work just a bit on her clue-forming skills as to leave just a bit of suspense in the game. Case in point:

Camille: Mom, when you go in the office, you're going to smell your wonderful present from me.
Me: Oh that sounds delightful, honey! I can hardly wait.
Camille: Don't you want to guess what it is? I'll give you a hint. It smells good.
Me: Then it must be perfume!
Camille: No, not perfume. But, it smells good and when you burn it, it will melt.

Just in case my deductive reasoning skills weren't completely in check with that little tidbit, Camille helped me along just a bit more by proudly announcing "We got your gift from there!" when we passed by Yankee Candle. Oh, the little darling! ;)

Another thing that's been totally getting me about Camille is her card-selecting skills. She is absolutely adamant about choosing her own for me. Now, she can read the cards just fine, but she doesn't always "get" the humor in some of them. This year, my card read something like:
"You're such a great Mom. You deserve so much more that just a card for Mother's Day!"
and inside: "So, I'm going to get you a card for your birthday as well." hee hee....

Hi Mom!!! Some new pics of your girls :)

I've been scrapping again & wanted to share a few pages: