Saturday Night

We have just spent a very enjoyable 'before bed' impromptu activity with the kids, and I happened to have the camera with me, so I got to catch the kids and Don having some fun. I'll share the pictures here. DJ & Jr are freshly showered, thus the wet hair look. So much giggling and laughing and fun!!

Don't they look like they are having a great time!! 

Wilsons through the lens of our 5 year old

Seems it was a pretty popular thing to have DJ's random pictures posted on our blog, so I've decided to let each child have a shot at taking pictures (which I then edit somewhat, it's not like I'm going to show off a messy house if I can help it!).

So, I gave Jr the camera and sent her on her merry way. Boy, did she have FUN! I'm posting as many of her pictures as I can...you'll notice she was very interested in getting a good picture of herself! She learned that pictures taken in a mirror with a flash just don't work out very well! LOL She had a few willing subjects (Tori and DJ), and enjoyed her time very much.

Kindergarten

Jordyn's been bringing home many papers from kindergarten so far this year, and I thought it would be fun to show a few of them off. Today her class read the book 'Chick-a-Chick-a-Boom-Boom'. It's about the alphabet and a coconut tree. The teacher said they were going to 'Alphabet Island', and they each got a plastic lai (hers is pink, I'm sure you're surprised!). 

I went to school today to have lunch with both Jr and DJ. I think that it was a bit more exciting for Jr than for DJ, 'cuz a mom IS a girl, after all! But, they both seemed pleased that I was there with them. 

Here's Jr after school today with her pink lai.

DJ's Bed

That's one happy kid! This bed is very sports minded (once we get the sheets), but, again, I made it very easy to remove the additions so that the bed can 'grow up' with him. 

It used to be the bottom bunk of the bunkbed set, so there are holes in each post. I got the foam sports balls, cut a small hole in them, glued a small stick inside of them, and stuck the sticks in the holes!! SO easy, but adds a fun touch to his bedroom.

Oh, and if you look closely, you'll see that the baseball was originally a tennis ball...they were out of the baseballs. A little Sharpie marker, and a baseball it was!

DJ's 'COOL' Bedroom!

DJ's Finished Room!!

Ok, I've gotten as far as I can get without painting the ceiling! We love the paint colors, they look just awesome! The curtains are heavy, and kind of too dark

 green for the room, but I'll make some later (maybe as a Christmas present for him). 

DJ's moving out of the 'Lightening McQueen' and 'Diego' age, so we're moving toward just sports. The switch will probably be complete around Christmas time when he gets new sheets for the bed and new nightlights to match the sports theme.

Donavan is VERY excited about his new room! The table is sort of temporary until we get him a 'real' dresser. Not that he minds, he loves it there! I think he'll soon realize that he can make a 'club house' under it by using a sheet on top of the table.

I'm attaching as many pictures as I can here, I'm still learning to use this blog thing, so some day I might learn how to do a 'photo album' type thing and you'll just click on a link to a bunch of pictures...but, for now, this is it!

We plan to paint the shelves, probably blue (unless I decide to just stain them and keep the wooden look...what do YOU think?). 

The clock and the lamp are 'creations' from mom. They are just foam stickers added to what was already there, but they sure make a fun addition to his room! The good news is: replacing a lampshade and a clock when he grows out of the sports thing is NOT expensive!

Room Make Over Progress!!

I spent much of today getting DJ's bedroom painted and cleaned out. I took the garbage that was left from Don's office and the A/C unit went to the garage. Then, I put 2 coats of the green paint on the walls. I think it turned out pretty well...so far. I have to accessorize it still, but I'm letting the paint dry overnight before I move anything in. I'll update the blog with finalized bedroom pictures when it's ready!

Spiders

OK, I'm not sure how Don's going to react to my posting today, but it was a pretty entertaining story, so I had to share!

Yesterday, Don was home from work not feeling well. When he finally got up, I was in the laundry room doing laundry. Both machines were running, and I often think I'm hearing someone talk when I'm down there alone (maybe Ariel leaves her music on, or it's just the way that all of the 'odd' sounds in the house work together). I thought I heard something, but didn't react as I was in the middle of something, and all of the kids were gone (so, how much of an emergency could it be, right?).

About 5 minutes later, Don came into the laundry room and said, 'You didn't hear me call you?' Of course I hadn't, or I'd have gone to see what was up, silly man. He said, 'There was a SPIDER, and you didn't come.' I giggled (he knows I find the fear of a tiny spider kind of comical for a 6'4" man!). He said, 'I had to kill it myself.' And then proceeded to explain how difficult this process can be.

He saw the spider near his closet door opening, and backed off to yell for me, of course, we know that I didn't answer him. So, he thought to himself, 'What would Tracy do?'. He grabbed a shoe...and threw it at the spider...OK, so my wonderful husband is no baseball player, he never claimed to be...and he missed it. The spider proceeded to run into the corner (self preservation at it's best). Don couldn't figure out how to get his size 13 shoe squished into the corner to kill it, so he takes out his Leatherman (multi-tool thing he keeps on his hip at all times). He opened it to it's full size, extended the longest blade and kept the Leatherman splayed open (I think it would have been close to a foot long at this point), and he proceeded to stab at the spider. Of course, the spider ran from this big metal 'stick', which panicked Don slightly. He moved the Leatherman to block the spider's escape along the floorboard. The spider doubled back for the corner, and Don blocked it's escape once again! I'm not sure what he thought he'd do once he had it stopped, but he says he played this game with the spider while it ran back and forth 5 or 6 times. Then, he got close enough that he managed to mangle a few legs, and the spider hurried itself around in a circle for a moment while Don figured out where the shoe that he had thrown earlier went to. Eventually, Don won, and the spider was dead!!

He had come to the laundry room to find me so that I could go get rid of the body! LOL

Well, that wasn't the end of spiders for him yesterday...poor guy! All of the rain must have had them searching for dry space. That wonderful flooring we just installed made it much easier for DJ & Jr to identify a spider as it crawled along the wall (it's not like these things march out into the middle of the room, announce themselves, and then challenge you to a game of dodge ball!). They came to find me...they have long understood that mommy kills the spiders, daddy gets rid of snakes and flying thingies. I went in to see this 'huge' spider, and called Don in to look at it to see if it was the same 'huge' spider that had 'attacked' him this morning. He identified it from across the room as a likely cousin to the one he had dispensed of this morning all on his own. He remained while I took a discarded piece of flooring and squished it against the wall. I threw the piece of flooring back into the garbage and Don wouldn't let me leave the room. 'Get rid of the carcass!' He said. LOL I tried to retrieve the tangled mass of legs, only to find that the piece of flooring was not going to do it. I pulled out the vacuum cleaner and sucked it up. Only then did Don let me leave the room, with a smug smile on his face.