Wordful Wednesday

Look at the garage sale bargain I got for my kitty! I only paid a dollar for this fine feline pirate ship! (And I don't think it was ever even used.)

I think Claire was a little jealous of Simba...she wanted the pirate ship for her stuffed animals!

To see more Wordful Wednesday posts visit: www.sevenclowncircus.com

Maid for a day!

Here's a funny story from our house this weekend. I made green and red jello. Each child had a bowl of each flavor. I told them they each one got 1 red and 1 green. Well, Nathan, who is 12 and has a bad habit of tuning me out, ate both green ones. When I saw him eating one the second day I asked him if it was a different color than he had the previous day. He said no. Claire was taking her bath at this time. I told him that she was going to be really mad and he would have to deal with her because he didn't listen. Well, the first thing she does when she gets out of the bath is head for her green jello in the fridge. The next few minutes went something like this:

Claire (yelling from the kitchen): Where's my green jello?

Me (pointing to Nathan): He ate it!

Claire (bending down with her hands on her hips and yelling): That was mine! Why did you eat my green jello?

Me (trying to keep her from totally exploding): I'm sorry he ate it. You can pick his punishment.

Claire (rather quickly): He can be my maid!

So, we told Nathan he had to be her maid the entire day on Sunday. Claire loved this! She woke up saying "Where's my maid?" She made him clean her room and play supermarket. Then, he had to make her more green jello. I ran to the store in the evening and when I got back she had him in the kitchen making her pancakes for dinner!


Bossing him around sure came easy to her!


We made him go along with it because he never listens anymore. I'm hoping this will help him remember to pay attention when I tell him something. I'm also guessing that he won't ever eat her jello again!

L.E.N.S. Photo Challenge

I discovered this little photo challenge hosted by Home is where you start from. (I'm having trouble with links in my blog again so if you can't click on the blog name in the text just go to my margin and click on it there.)


It looked like fun so I thought I'd join in. This week's theme is our animal friends. We met this little guy at the grand canyon last month! He stopped and posed on that rock just long enough for me to get a picture. Then, he ran off.

Online Homeschool Classes

The folks at MomSelect asked me to review an online learning site.

http://www.onlineschoolsolutions.com/


When I went to the site and clicked on my state (Texas) two online education programs popped up: IQ Academy Texas and The Keystone School. They are different so I will comment on them separatly. Please note: I have not had a chance to personally try any of the classes from either one. I just found out about them. They look very beneficial though so I wanted to share them with other homeschoolers. Follow the link above to see what is available in your state. These are the two available in Texas...

IQ Academy Texas:



Offers coarses for grades 3-8. This program is free, but requires you to take all of the core classes. This won't work well for us personally because I only need my son to take a couple of outside courses. I like making his English curriculum and choosing which books he will read in literature. BUT this is free. While looking at their website I kept thinking that this would be perfect for someone who has pulled their child out of regular school and isn't sure where to begin with homeschooling.



The Keystone School:



This is an online high school and middle school program. This one is not free, but you can take as many or as few courses as you want. They offer the courses online or through correspondence. I like this. I've been looking for an option for Algebra I for my son when he is in 9th grade and this just might be what I've been looking for!



Like I said, we have not personally used these programs, but I think we may in the future. If this sounds like something that might work for you please visit http://www.onlineschoolsolutions.com/ to learn more.



Disclaimer: MomSelect will compensate me with a Target gift card for this review.

Postcard Friendship Friday #53

Our next stop on or Arizona vacation was Flagstaff. We rented a cabin here. We loved it! The cabin was great. The weather was great, and there are lots of cool places to visit around Flagstaff. We just might have to make a trip back here again!


The San Francisco Peaks are beautiful mountains that you can see from anywhere in Flagstaff. They are snow capped most of the year. Very Beautiful. Everytime we were driving somewhere we just could not keep our eyes off of them!


More postcards from the great places we visited in Flagstaff next week!

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

To see all the postcards I've posted or read more about our vacation you can go here:
http://aimeesland.blogspot.com/search/label/Arizona%20vacation

Wordful Wednesday

This is VBS week. My kids love VBS! Yesterday was "crazy hat day". Claire isn't much on wearing hats so she chose a tiara...always a little princess!


Nathan volunteers. Yesterday they were asked to bring a teddy bear or comfort object to VBS for an activity. He brought his old Build a Bear. And he dressed him like a pirate and wore a matching hat! He has a lot of fun up there volunteering!


To join in or see more wordful wednesday visit: www.sevenclowncircus.com

Father's Day

Wishing all the dads out there a Happy Father's Day!

(Chris and the kids enjoying a laugh over the card Nathan got him.)

Postcard Friendship Friday #52

After Phoenix, the next stop on our vacation was Montezuma Castle National Monument. It was amazing to see what the people of so long ago could build with little to no technology.

To learn more about it you can visit this site: http://www.nps.gov/moca/planyourvisit/directions.htm


There was a Navajo family selling Navajo fry bread on the little road that lead to Montezuma's castle. We stopped and got some...It was soooo good!!!!

Then, we got back on the road to Sedona. It was beautiful...just beautiful!

Tune in next week for postcards from Flagstaff!

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

We have a winner!!

We have a winner for the $10 Racetrac gift card. Random.org generated the winning number to be #3! So congrats to Susan at Walking in Backwards!! Susan, I will get them your address so they can get your gift card in the mail.

Thanks to all who entered!

I now have 2 of these Freefill cups and WE LOVE THEM!!

wordful wednesday

I'm linking up with Amy at Keeping up with the Schultz Family today for Family Fridays. This is a post I did about my dad the week before Father's Day....

Since Father's Day is the weekend I'm doing my WW post about my dad. He is a very talented carpenter. He owned his own construction business for years. Now that he is retired he is doing all those projects he always wanted to do, but didn't have the time for.

He has ALWAYS wanted to build a roll top desk out of mesquite. He been collecting downed mesquite trees for several years now. He bought a small saw mill and milled his own wood. The funny thing is he doesn't even want or need a roll top desk. He just wanted to make one! He plans on selling it when he is finished.

The wood is just beautiful. The last time they came up to visit my mom brought pictures...







Can't wait to see it when he gets it finished!

To join Wordful Wednesday visit www.sevenclowncircus.com

Free Drinks for the summer!

MomSelect sent me a giftcard for a freefill cup from Racetrack. Wow, this is right up my alley! We are always stopping to get a drink during the summer. It's hot here in Texas, you know. :)

Have you heard about RaceTrac's Freefill cup? If not, read on for a refreshing decription of it from Mom Select...

If you're always on the go with a drink in your hand, you have to check out the new RaceTrac Freefill Cup. Available for only $6.99 at your local RaceTrac location, this cool cup entitles you to FREE refills from their impressive fountain for the entire summer. From now until August 1st, you and your family can be sipping all of the refreshing drinks you love, without any additional charges!

In case you've never fueled your tastebuds at Racetrac they have soft drinks, coffee, tea, and slushies!

Now, what could be better than a cold drink on a hot day?? A FREE cold drink! That's right. The folks at MomSelect have also invited me to hold a contest for a free $10 Racetrac giftcard for one of my readers. So one lucky reader will be selected to recieve that so they can try the freefill cup out for themselves.

To enter just post a comment below and tell me what your favorite drink on a hot day is. Your comment is your entry. One entry per person please. I will choose the winner using Random.org. The gift card will be shipped to the winner directly from MomSelect so if you win you will need to send me your mailing address so I can give it to them. I will choose a winner this Thursday...June 17th.

I can't wait to get my freefill cup. The location I stopped at today was already out of them. Apparantly, they are quite popular! I plan to try another location tonight.

Postcard Friendship Friday #51

Ok. I'm going to take you on a postcard tour of our vacation. I started last week with out layover in New Mexico. Our first real stop was Phoenix.



It was hard to find a "phoenix" postcard. I found mostly just Arizona ones there. I did happen upon this one though. Its of downtown Phoenix which is where we were. The back of it says that Phoenix is the largest capital city in the U.S. I didn't know that. It's population is greater than any other state capital.

So, there you go, our first real postcard stop on our Arizona Vacation. Stay tuned...our next stop was Sedona. :)

PFF is hosted by: The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

Wordful Wednesday

A little fun in the sun!

I took the kids to lifetime's outdoor pool for the first time the other day. They loved the slide! I even tried it out...of course there is no picture of me sliding down it! :)

Postcard Friendship Friday #50

When my husband and I first got married we said we wanted to see 50 states in 50 years together. We've been married for 14 and have only been to 10. I guess life just happens and we got a little behind! Since we were flying to Arizona for vacation this year that was only going to give us 1 state. Well, we had to have a layover either in El Paso or Albequerque. I chose Albequerque so we could mark New Mexico off our list! My husband said he didn't really think that should count. But I said we were getting off the plane and having lunch in the airport so it does count! To make it count even more I bought postcards in the airport too! I really liked these hot air ballooon ones. So, I've never been to one of these hot air balloon festivals, but maybe one day I will. For now, I'll just enjoy the postcards!

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted today by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy

Wordful Wednesday

I promise this post won't be as wordful as my last 3 were. :)

These are some of the cactus pictures I took in Arizona. I thought they were so pretty. Many of them were blooming while we were there too.





To join in Wordful Wednesday visit www.sevenclowncircus.com