The Fort

The kids have been building a fort.

There is a lot of open land around our house and they think it all belongs to us.  They spend their afternoons rummaging construction sites and dumpster diving to find wood and nails.

 They love it!

Fan Cam!!!!

Took the kids to the Wolverine men's basketball season opener.  Our entire family rocked the fan cam, the kids made it on multiple times.  They had a blast!

School Field Trips

Qyntn and I got to accompany the girls to
The Aquarium...super fun!

I also went with the girls to the Dia De Los Muertos festivities
at Thanksgiving Point...not my fave!

Let it Snow!

Unlike their momma, these kids love snow!

Reflections

This year both Holly and Alyssa entered the reflections contest at school.  The theme for their project was..."The world would be a better place if..."  Holly has a sweet spot for animals so she drew this...

A duck being cleaned by loving hands

She did a terrific job!  She is already a much better artist then I will ever be.

Alyssa decided to enter a project in the category of photography.  I was thrilled that she wanted to participate but since she has very little experience in photography and our camera isn't real fancy I was a little worried for her.  I didn't want to dampen her enthusiasm so I asked her to fill in the blank...the world would be a better place if_____ and she said, "if I could eat home made bread, strawberry jam, and peach pie every day.  So, I got to work baking, we looked up ideas online on how to place the food for the shot and she took it.  To finish it off I taught her a few things on Photoshop and this is how it turned out...

Fantastic!  The judges must have liked it too, because it won for her age group and has moved on to the district level.  Congratulations Alyssa, good work!

YAY for Hair Tutorials Online!

I wasn't blessed with the talent for doing hair.  I think a contributing factor to my hair ineptitude is my lack of patience.  Another is the fact that I hate spending money on product or even on a decent hair cut.   Yep, I'm a Dollar Cuts kind of girl.  It does have it's benefits...I don't have to schedule weeks in advance, I'm in and out in 20 minutes, and never spend more than $15.  But as I get older and acquire more and more wrinkles and sunspots I find myself longing to have beautiful hair to help mask the effects of aging.  So, the other day I decided to put a little more effort into my hair.  Ben had mentioned in the past that he likes the beachy wave look, so I googled it and found a fantastic hair tutorial to help me get my desired look.  There were a few hiccups along my way that day.  I didn't own the product they recommended for one, but I didn't let that stop me.  I pulled out what I had and got to work.  My hair actually didn't end up looking anything like it was supposed to, but Ben loved it, and that's what matters most anyways.  Drum roll please....

Good news Alyssa and Holly, there may be hope for me yet.

And The Battle Rages On

I took a pummeling this week in the battle of middle girth.  Almond Joy, Twix, Snickers, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and skittles joined forces and put on a full frontal assault.  I'm down, but not out.  Hopefully I can regroup before the Thanksgiving onslaught.