Enjoying these People

Today was my favorite kind of day. We started early with some egg decorating. Here is Max with a GOLDEN egg he painted. We blew these eggs out and painted with metallic fingernail polish. I saw this idea on my friend Julie's Facebook with her extra cute kiddos. Max picked the dark golden color because he said all the other colors were too girlie--hehe. I love his funny duck lip pose. Then we took a couple of photos before we loaded up to take kamryn and Kimmi to their "Joseph" Musical practice in Summerville.

 Here is my just turned teenager and very handsome son Cole with his baby sissy Martha.

 Sweet Nona and Martha!!

Orange juice moustache and Jessie's dress before a meatball sub today: )

 While they were at musical practice we shopped at Tuesday Morning and I found some DARLING!! webkinz for only 2.99. I couldn't resist, so I'll be adding that to some already overstuffed baskets in the morning.  We then drove around in the country and looked at a few small acreage spots---ahhhh---I guess I'll just keep on dreaming about country life a little longer although I really do enjoy my city life. Then we hit Subway where the little people practiced folding their hands to aid in their self-control while daddy ordered the food. Everyone had really good manners. It was soooo funny. we ran into so many people we know today. In Subway, we ran into the beautiful daughter of the pastor who pastored the same church as Richard in NC. She and Karis are about the same age and have become good friends, so it was nice seeing her there. Then we went into Goodwill to look for one thing and found quite a few more things than we were planning to buy. (ex... a hot pink motorcycle scooter for Jessie, a mechanical butterfly net for Max and an insect home to match, and a formal dress for me so I can look snazzy beside my husband in his tux since we are PROM chaperones--fun!!) Thank you sarah for showing the dress to me: ) This brings up the fact that we saw our awesome friends the Eppes(8 marvelous kids) and the Bevins (9 marvelous kids) at Goodwill today. Yep, the Summerville Goodwill held us all plus more people. It was a really fun day. We really did miss our Cason though!! Looking forward to having him home tomorrow.

 When we returned home we did a little more egg dying. Martha is asking..." you made that mommy?" That's one of her favorite phrases: ) Precious precious girl!!

 Kamryn transferring a picture to her egg. Love this really funny girl.

It's funny--I just noticed Martha assumes she is the center of this picture. She's just too darned cute: )

Decoupaged Nature Clip Boards

 I always select my photos in a "backward" order from how I would like to show them. Why?? I don't know!! I'm not going to re-arrange them this time because it's just too hard.

 So, Here is the finished product. Yayyy!! We LOVE them. Nona is up bright and early today putting the  Mod Podge glossy spray on our decoupaged clip boards before she even gets ready for the day. She is on a mod podge mission!!

 Cole's is simple because after he put on one paper he was pretty much done. He gave me the go ahead with the strip of porcupines and a little name addage.

 Jessie LOVES crafts, and she really did a beautiful job picking her look!! She has butterflies and a baby deer and some sweet words like "Happy Day".

 Sweet smiles!!

 Cole trimming the edges.

 Nona thinks I am the best mom because we made these. What a precious girl!!!

 My sweet Kamryn was not feeling well here, but had a fun time anyway. You might notice that she has some flair!!

 We bought a packaged set at Wal-Mart for $15 that had all the papers and letters and stickers, etc....
I liked it because it had a nature/forest theme, and these are our Nature clip boards we will be using on hikes and strolls around beautiful Charleston. Nona is using the bottom of the box to keep the table clean. Oh, it also came with a cute photo album I didn't realize was in there. Bonus!!

 Max did an awesome job. This is his unfinished product. Remember , we are going backwards: )

 Everyone worried about the thick decoupage glue coating. It really looked like we had messed up.

Kamryn  thinking about her theme and look. This was lots of fun and now we can't wait for all our sickness to pass and for some beautiful Spring weather. Looking forward to lots of strolls and some sketching along the way.

I LOVE THIS MAGNOLIA WREATH!!!!

Okay!!!! Soooo, I'm seriously not crafty. I just really wanted a wreath that I like and can afford. I have to admit that I am just a little bit obsessed with wreaths. Our door at this house really needs a wreath or something, but most wreaths I do deeply abhor. I've had one since we have lived here that I could tolerate. It was very simple and was dark brown covered in brown anise pods--BUT it has seen it's better days because someone----and I don't think it was the mailman---picks off an anise pod every once in a while. Actually, I'm not convinced it's not the mailman. He is actually another reason I really need a wreath or something to cover those little openings: ) We have made eye contact before through those windows---bahaha!! I hope he is embarrassed by that. I'd be tempted too, though,  if I were a mail carrier I think: ) Did I mention the fact that our mailbox is attached to the front door. Also, did I mention that although I'm committed to doing better, we sometimes have our jammies on for the better part of the day. I mean.... we do homeschool and that IS a perk: )

  I have seen other wreaths I like. I am a straight line girl, so I saw a wreath well above $100 that was square and covered in boxwood leaves----seriously LOVED it BUT, how nice would I be when the mailman picked stuff off my over $100 wreath. I sure wouldn't be nice at all.

 Also, in Mount Pleasant, ONCE, I saw a Magnolia wreath that also was above $100 and I kinda liked it. It bothered me though because of 1. the price and 2. the leaves went in all sorts of crazy directions. If you notice, my leaves all go obediently in the same direction.

 So, I just bought a $5 styrofoam green kind of angular wreath at Wal-Mart along with this burlap ribbon that was about $6 per roll. I wrapped it around and glue gunned it once at the end. Then, I tucked in these beautiful Magnolia leaves.

 Here is the burlap ribbon.

 Here is my beautiful assistant Jessie Carol!!

 And again---Jessie!!

 Nona Klare really helped alot too, and she is a beautiful model!!

 And again--- Nona!!

Oh, I almost forgot to say that about a week ago, I was sitting on my front porch looking at my Magnolia and thinking that if I did make a Magnolia wreath I'd have to find the leaves somewhere else because I would not pick leaves from my own gorgeous tree. On Saturday, Max and I headed out for some shopping and spotted a neighbor up the road trimming guess what----their Magnolia tree. They were happy for us to have their limbs, and  Max and I loaded them into  the back of the car. That boy is sure one sweet helper!! Love my Max!!

 So, there you have it....my $11 wreath that I absolutely love!!

Hands-on Learning is more fun!!

We are matching uppercase to lowercase here.

 Martha is in her usual seat. She loves to climb onto the table, bar, desk, barstool, etc...: )
Little cutie!!

 This is a good math facts practice. 

 Here is our number line made form glass tiles. The  package was under five dollars from Michael's. I  picked out the white and purple tiles. The ten's are in purple.

 The three is missing--hahah!! We corrected ourselves. 

Hands on numbers and a snack!!

Max is helping Jessie! 

Organic Spelt Pancakes for Eleven Anyone??

 My sweet sweet Nona loves it when her helping chore for the day is making breakfast. Everyone, almost, loves this chore. Here is Nona making pancakes for her whole family. Here is the recipe:

We triple this recipe.

1 3/4 C  Spelt Flour
1 T baking Powder
1 TSP baking soda
1/2 TSP salt
(mix dry ingredients then add) :
2 eggs
1/4 C melted coconut oil (or really any kind of oil)
2 Cups  milk
(mix this all together)
Cover griddle in butter and make your pancakes people!!!

I wish I could convince my people to eat something other than the really worse kind of topping for pancakes you could think of..... If I want to see mutiny here then I will  suggest fruit or apple sauce or even maple syrup with our pancakes. haha They are fine when I switch us to organic spelt flour or even all natural p-nut butter, but just try and pry Aunt Jemima out of their sugar addicted little fingers: ) It's really not funny!!

Here is Martha!! She is busy "dumping it out!!" That's what she does! She is very busy and VERY adored by many people. Anyways,...she was busy "dumping my wallet out" under my watch while Nona made our pancakes. Love our mornings here at the Brown household. Oddly, Mondays are my favorite. Guess I love my job!!