School Choice ~ 31/365

It was National School Choice Week. The kids' school celebrated by writing thank you letters to their parents about why they were glad they chose this school and what they liked most about it. They got these fun yellow scarves and we took pictures. Can you find my two?

Up Close ~ 30/365

Try as I might, I can't seem to get a good picture of Koda lately. This goofy one is at least cute!

Earning It, Take Two ~ 29/365

Working to earn his Read to Succeed Ticket as well.

Out ~ 28/365

The night got away from me. There was basketball practice, and homework, and lack of planning, and someone needing an errand done, and a little bit of disciplining mixed in to all that, and then BAM! It's 8:00 (I know seriously late for a school night) and no one has eaten dinner yet. So off to Burger King just down the street we go for food and giggling and guessing movie quotes. And guess what? Late night on a school night or not, we redeemed our night out well.

Can you tell we had ice cream cones for dessert?  ;0)

Earning It ~ 27/365

My children participate in a program called Read to Succeed sponsored by Six Flags each year. They must read 360 minutes by the end of the allotted time and they can earn a ticket to a Six Flags theme park during the summer. Since we will only take them once a year and only if they earn their ticket, they are usually pretty motivated to get it done. The bonus is that I'm the school's coordinator so I get a free ticket too!

Wrap Me In Your Arms ~ 26/365

The kids performed "Wrap Me in Your Arms" in church today. Bethany is in blue, third from the left, and Elisha is behind the girl in pink. Unfortunately I couldn't get a better angle to get him in the picture too.

To see more from their performance, including the video, click here.

Bonus Picture:

Elisha had a great game today, it was intense, and he played hard. They still lost, by a lot unfortunately. They just couldn't get their shots to go in. :(

Beware! ~ 25/365

After discovering this on the desk today, he turned around and gave a little warning of his own:

Whew! Now we can all rest easier now that we know what to look out for!

Night Owl ~ 24/365

My intention was to take a photo of her after she had fallen asleep. I had planned it since the moment I said yes to my son spending the night at a friend's house. I knew she would be up late, with him not home she had full control of the tv and video games. But man! This kid! At midnight I decided just to snap this pic of her watching a movie and cuddling with the cat and went to bed myself.

Technically this picture was taken on the 25th since it was midnight, but I'm still posting it for the 24th since I planned it all out and she just happened not to cooperate! ;0)

Pie? Yes, Please ~ 23/365

Celebrating National Pie Day... yummy!

That's Just How She Feels ~ 22/365

Her feelings on homework probably reflect those of children everywhere!

Frienemies ~ 21/365

These are our three cats ~ from the left: Star, Lynx, & Sky. 

Star and Sky are brothers who are now seven years old. Lynx was found out by our church office as a baby 2 1/2 half years ago. Star and Lynx do not like each other, never have. But tonight he hopped up on the couch in between Star and Sky, and started licking Star's face. Star, with his eyes closed, enjoyed it until he opened his eyes and saw Lynx there. Surprisingly he didn't growl or jump down, he just sat there instead with his ears pinned back the entire time!

Enjoying the Sunshine ~ 20/365

We enjoyed a nice scenic sunny day at the Marina today!

More photos from today's fun can be found here...

Today's Crowd ~ 19/365

T had some special people in town today so they stopped in to watch the boys play. 

Yay! They won again too! The boys are finally on a roll. Too bad there's only two more games left. Sniff... sniff...

BTW.... Yohn and Elisha were half right about the Superbowl predictions...  ;0)

Gettin' Crabby ~ 18/365

Attending our church's youth crab feed fundraiser together tonight!

Super Bowl Predictions ~ 17/365

A quiet evening at home. The boys played the NFC contenders (Yohn - 49ers vs. Elisha - Seahawks) and then the AFC contenders (Yohn - Patriots vs. Elisha - Broncos). Their predictions for the Super Bowl? 

49ers vs the Broncos!

Let's see just how accurate they are!

Mmmmm..... Ice Cream.... 16/365

Family Night at Coldstone

We happened to have a gift card to Coldstone, so we decided to visit for the tail end of our family night excursion. We had to find snowboots for an upcoming trip and since we don't really live in a snowy area this proved to be a chore.

Science Homework ~ 15/365

For his science homework tonight he had to blow into bottles of water to hear the sound they made (it was obviously way more technical than that, but I'm just giving you the gist of it). We were supposed to use glass but only had plastic bottles to work with. Ah well, he still got the idea.

This silly face makes me smile. But boy, do I ever love those big green eyes!

The Evening Got Away ~ 14/365

Where does the time go some nights? I mean I know tonight was busy with basketball practice, homework and dinner, but that's typical. I took this photo at 5:15 ish, when it really was more dusk outside than dark, and this is the one and only photo of the twenty something that I took that turned out. The rest of the evening is sort of a blur after that. I hadn't counted on this photo of the moon being my choice for my 365, but since I didn't take any others here it is in all it's glory! LOL!

Twinsies ~ 13/365

Neither of us realized that we dressing in matching clothes today until someone pointed it out. Then we both laughed because it was totally unplanned!

Bonus Picture:

He may not match, but he certainly did not want to be left out of the picture taking. :0)

Game View ~ 12/365

The view from our seat for game #7. Elisha is on the right.

They got a much needed win today with the final score 43 - 41. Go Saints!

I Want In! ~ 11/365

I was originally going to title this "Please... let me in" but this is Lynx in the photo and I highly doubt he'd use his manners. If he could indeed speak I believe he'd be saying something more along the lines of, "Hey Dummy! It's cold out here. Let me in!" 

Yep, he's that bratty.

Chillaxin' ~ 10/365

Little sister is away at a friend's house tonight, so he gets his choice of movies without having to worry about if she would want to watch it too. Tonight's choice? Watching "Rudy" with his dad. 

Even at age 11, I still love to see his toes peeking out!

AAA ~ 9/365

I know it's hard to see here, but she got 100% on her music quizzes this week three days in a row! Yeah Baby!

Her Little Hands ~ 8/365

More than halfway grown my girly is and yet her hands are not quite grown. Not tiny anymore either, but not adult sized, I like to watch them as they work their magic on her beloved keyboard.

(Back)Side Splitting ~ 7/365

Yes, those are my jeans. Needless to say I was the "butt" of many jokes today with the fourth and fifth grade class, whom I split them out in front of while playing four square with them. Well, technically I wasn't "in front" of them when I did it, because none of them knew until I stood up really quick and yanked my jacket down over my backside. Thankfully I live so close to the school that the problem was easily rectified.

It was pretty "back"side splittingly funny! Ha! Ha!

Hello Handsome! ~ 6/365

Somebody got a haircut today. No more overgrown mohawk. This new do is sure to usher in the shaggy hair that he seems to enjoy this time of year. Had it not been for the hanging onto the 'hawk for so long, he'd probably already be sporting the longer look now. 

Game #6 ~ 5/365

Cheering on our son today for game #6!

A Puzzling Moment ~ 4/365

My girl was given a 300 piece puzzle the other day and she decided that today was the day the puzzle was going to get done. She also decided Mama was going to "help" her. Four hours later, and no thanks to a distracted kid who just had to keep doing "one more thing" somewhere else, it's done. We are definitely needing practice in the puzzle department apparently. :0)

Bonus pic: 

Just in case you wanted to see the finished product!

Nightly Special ~ 3/365

Lately this is what we have been watching in the evenings as a family. It'll be short lived as we're almost finished with season 5 and school starts back next week. But we'll enjoy it while we can!

One on One ~ 2/365

Our son and his best friend, going head to head this afternoon during basketball practice.

New Year's 2014 ~ 1/365

Happy New Year 2014!

This year's theme for our annual family photo was Duck Dynasty. And yes, my daughter had to bring her "gun" for the photo!

To see more from this "photo shoot" click here.