Crafty

I've been wanting to get more art on the walls.  Things that we've done...not the store bought kind.  We have some prints that we got right after we bought the house.  I've been trying to get rid of them.  I tried selling them online.  I put them in the yard sale.  Nobody wants these suckers!  I decided to hang onto them instead of taking them to donate.  I was looking at one last night and decided to get creative.

I turned this:

 into this:

with Henry David Thoreau's quote "All good things are wild and free" as my inspiration.  I'm not sure that it's finished but I like it the way it is...with it's imperfections.  We have two more pieces to work on and I really hope the kids  help with them.  (They both want to.  It's just a matter of them being home long enough!  It's summer, baby!)  Bobby too if he can.  I'm thinking hand prints will be incorporated in some way :)

The day

We have a tradition.  Each winter, close to Christmas, we pick a day when Bobby's off work and head to Target.  We grab our favorite Starbucks' hot, yummy drink and walk around the store.  We look at every single thing anyone wants to look at.  We're not rushed and we laugh like crazy.

As an extra treat, we took the kids out to dinner.  I kind of had my heart set on Mexican, but they decided they wanted Chinese.

Cody decided we wanted to try crawfish.  I'm pretty sure I ate this once when I was younger.  We visited my aunt who lived in New Orleans at the time.  I remember a seeing a big pot of them on the stove...but that's all I remember.

Not sure about this!

Bobby helped him open it up and get the meat out.  Honestly, that was...gross.  I thought Cody might chicken out, but he popped that sucker right in his mouth.
 

Deciding...

Thumbs up!

After dinner, we headed to Target. 

Mmmm!

We looked at durn near everything.  Hats and gloves, shoes, electronics, toys, Christmas, sporting goods...

Had to get a shot of this.  I mean....that's just funny.

I started to head home after a very quick stop at Tuesday Morning when Bobby suggested we go to Walmart as well.  There were a couple things he wanted to look at there too.  So, off we went.

Things like this always happen in Walmart.

Nice, huh?

Bobby handed Brit a Zombie Hunter Destroyer Kit.  How fun!  She went on to tell us more stories about her airsoft outing at Heather's house.  She may have had a little bit of fun that day :)

I've looked at this picture probably 40 times and each time, I laugh.

We spent a good chunk of time in the sporting goods.  I looked mostly at the various day packs, water bladders and other hiking gear.  They have this nearly $80 pack that had me dreaming of hiking the Appalachian trail.  Seriously.  I want to do that.  It's on my bucket list.

Just call me Jayne

We got home and I think we were in the door for 2.3 seconds when Britney and I both saw something that reminded us of the 3D snowflakes Karen posted on her blog.  So we decided to make one ourselves!  HERE's a video if you'd like to make them too!  (Thanks Karen!) While I was squaring off the printer paper, Brit picked up the strip and started making a hexaflexagon .  She got REALLY into these not too long ago, but wasn't able to make one herself.  Not to her liking anyway.  She sat there and got it the first try!  She was GEEKED!  Hexaflexagons are so stinkin' cool.  Go check out THIS video to learn more!  Vi Hart has several videos and she's awesome!

My finished snowflake

After our crafty projects, we surprised the kids with Brave.  Bobby and I had secretly bought it while we were in Walmart and gave it to them as an early Christmas present.  We really enjoyed the movie.  Check it out if you haven't yet :)

Great day!

Frozen, Fresh Market, Galaxy of Lights, Paper Mario, Friends and Sleep Over

We had a night of surprises for the kids last week. We ate at Moe's, then we looked through Fresh Market, and then we went to the Botanical Gardens!

Um...sugar high anyone? :)

We had the construction paper out and Cody had a great idea! He wanted to make a Mario...that kid loves Mario!

He also put together a mushroom and ? block.

Jilayne invited us to watch Luke and Logan in their church Christmas program. They were SO cute!

Little Drummer Boys

12 Days of Christmas

After the play, they had a meal in their fellowship hall. We stayed so we could hang out with our friends a little longer. Santa showed up with a sack of goodies for all of the younger kids. After Santa handed out everyone's presents, he started walking around the room. He talked to Cody and gave him a present, too:)

The next evening, we went to Logan's to celebrate Luke's 5th birthday. I can't believe that kid is 5 already!

While we were at Logan's, Cody snagged a couple peanuts so he could play with this guy. The two of them made a mess in the kitchen! They did clean up after themselves, though.

We picked Sarah and Tori up so they could look at Christmas lights with us and spend the night. I love my girls! We had such a great time!

Party at the Lackey house!

All of my babies

Ooooo! Pretty!

In the morning, I made up a double batch of chocolate chip pancakes. So NOT healthy, but man they're yummy! Karen dropped Keilee off for a little while and everyone played and chatted. I took the girls home around 12:30 because they had plans that afternoon. When I got home, Karen was there talking to Bobby and soon they left too. It was just us, two days before Christmas...what to do? Make cookies of course!


That evening something amazing happened...but that story needs it's own post :)