Pull up your party panties!

Okay, folks, I went to the funnest, and funniest, Panty Exchange Party this past weekend!!

 It was hard to take many photos, while laughing so hard!

I cropped my friends right out, to protect the identities of those panty-owners.

Of course, the laughable 4X panties and the edible versions also made appearances. ;)
So.Much.Laughing.

Attendees RSVPed and our hostess handed out sizes to shop for.

The only rule was to keep the purchase under $10.

These panty exchange parties really ought to sweep the nation!

In the sunshine

My Girl took these photos, during our family hike on Sunday.

You can't tell now, what with snow crusting the ground,

but Sunday was absolutely gorgeous--

sunny and warm enough to remove jackets while scaling the hills.

 She captured some peaceful scenes along the way.

I love that she loves to see and capture the beauty around her.

She caught us examining crevices in the bluffs...

 She got some good shots of her little brothers...

 ...and snuck some of me, while I snapped my own pics.... ;) ...

 So, of course, I did the same, and caught her taking pictures.

This has become a family affair, and I LOVE that!

 I'm trying to spend as much time outside as possible, whenever the weather permits.
Winters are so very hard for me. I despise being cold. I NEED sunshine in a serious way. In fact, I'm thinking seriously again about a way to leave here every winter. This area is amazing for most of the spring, all of the summer, and the first part of fall.... but the dreary wet cold winters are simply painful.
Thanking God for every sunshiny day we get, especially when the temps climb high enough for family fun like this.
Love this random pic, below, with my kidlings and Man, all looking and going a different direction. It was the perfect spot for our afternoon, with plenty of room to explore, climb, slide down, and dig for rocks.

Elementary VDay Par-tay!

One of my favorite things about being the elementary coordinator is party-planning!

We had our Valentine's Party at the  local bowling alley again this year.

We had roughly 65 bowlers + parents and babies. Nice fun crowd!

As always, it's open to everyone, but geared to elementary kids (what with the exchange boxes and stuff, although some adults *ahem* still enjoy this part, too!)

My lovely girl, although a middle-schooler now, still regularly participates in our parties.

Love this kid.

 We encourage everyone to get creative and make their own containers to bring.

This year I helped my Littlest Guy create his "face to eat candy," below.

 Turned out fairly well, I think. One box + one oatmeal container, an 8x10 print (and a 4x6 print for extra skin to lengthen the jaw) and some clothes. He added the fedora, which was a nice touch!

 Love this adorable light saber valentine! We're big Star Wars fans over here.

 Hope your V-Day was as fun as ours,

filled with love from family and friends,

and creative delights.

~One of my favorite holidays!~

Sneak kitchen peek

We're all about games over here, every day, before, between subjects, and after school.

Go Ape is similar to Go Fish, but you collect three of each card, and must SHOW what you're asking for (stick out your tongue, cover your eyes, and so on...)

 And, behind this pajama cutie pie, you can see my now-white kitchen!

Makes the colors pop more, don't you think?

Really brightens things up on dreary days.

Family Photo Shoot--My Loves

Awhile back, I took some pregnancy shots for one of my sweet friends, as my shower gift.

On Sunday, she returned the favor and photographed my family.

Really, this thrills me!!

I don't think we've ever had professional-quality photos done before!

My own precious teen captured the one below, with my camera, before our photographer arrived on-scene.

15 years, guys.

15 years and every year gets better than the last.

Below, "sneak peek" pics that our photographer posted for us, on facebook.

Her words, verbatim, "Can't be the Adlers without something silly in store."

Indeed!

I love the evident personalities.

My Girl was cold and didn't want to uncross her arms.

Now, tell me, how you can jump straight up like that, with crossed arms? Goofball.

And My Oldest Boy, all mellow in his green shirt, plaid fedora, rather reserved leap.

Then there's Dash aka Middle Boy--

He went all out.

Leap for the sky. Throw your head back and have a good laugh.

And My Little Lad, styling in his signature fedora and tie, this time sporting suspenders as well.

And, of course, following his big brother's lead. And hovering somehow in midair.

Yes, very telling.

Very perfect.

Loooove the one below, too. Trang does such an amazing job.

Check out her Created for You page on Facebook.

This was an unposed shot.

My Little Lad was photobombing our couple picture, and Trang snapped it.

Love.

 Oh, this naturally gorgeous girl.

Curlers? No. Braid? No. She didn't want anything done with her hair.

She doesn't wear skirts or dresses.

I don't know where she got her tomboyishness, but it's just fine and dandy with me.

We may not have twinkie personalities, but I adore this girl and all of her natural ways.

I love my family so much, craziness and all!

She also caught one of me, with this absolutely amazing light.

The sun was starting to set, streaks of light were breaking through the trees...

Ahhh, this is why I love the Ozarks.

running off the meal!

About a week ago, we dined on fine Mexican cuisine à la Papaw.

(Can you believe my Man snapped a picture?)

Love the sweet little spontaneous cuddles from my "baby."

They're all growing up so fast, and I don't get snuggles constantly, like I used to!

Running off energy at Jump Zone, on half-price day.

Whheeeeeee

 I love the bright colors, dots, excited kids, happiness everywhere!

He shoots, he scores!!

I can't wait for spring, when we can get outside hiking every day...but this is sufficing for now.

Chores are the key

I was getting all overwhelmed the other day, trying to keep up with everything there is to keep up with. May have had something to do with the fact that one of my sisters was sent to the hospital with pneumonia last weekend. She's doing a ton better now, but really had us all worried for awhile.

Her white blood count was up over 20K. Crazy. Scary.

So I was all overwhelmed and a little weepy, and it didn't help when I made my To Do list for the next day. I forget things easily, so this is a standard nightly activity for me.

Anyway, I crumbled up and threw away the first list, as it was simply ridiculous. And decided to make a NEW list, of everything that *should* be accomplished in a day. Not things that MUST get done, like eating (wish I could add it to my To-do list, just to check another item off, but that kinda seems like cheating...), but rather things like sweeping and dishes. It won't kill me if it's left undone, but it'd be a lot nicer and more relaxed if these things happened.

Then I divvied up that list!

Why hadn't I done that before? I don't know.

The kids have always been expected to tidy their own rooms, put clothes away, etc, but the vast majority of house stuff was falling on me and I wasn't keeping up well.

After dividing the list, I wrote each child his/her own list, stuck them in page protectors, taped them on the fridge and-- voila-- daily checklists, to use with dry erase markers. Nothing fancy.  

Every day, everything on their list must be checked off.

So NOW, I have a kindergarten who vacuums every morning, scrubs the bathroom sinks and counters, takes out the recycling; a 2nd grader who empties all trashes, straightens the living room, and so on; a 5th grader who empties the litter box (ew, I know, but it's good for him to learn!) sweeps the living room and kitchen, gathers dirty laundry, etc. The 7th grader does the most- help with dishes, start laundry, sort and fold laundry, etc.

The best part? Most of them LIKE lists. They LIKE checking off their chores. (Well, except for that stubborn middle boy who doesn't care, but he doesn't need to like it to do it. Such is life.)

Look at that happy munchkin, feeling such a sense of accomplishment.

Makes me happy, folks!

(and, yeah, it's February and he's wearing a Halloween shirt. Whatev'.)

The "free time" we ALL have now in the evening is wonderful!

I don't sit still well, and without laundry to fold during a movie, I found other fun things to do. I painted myself a simple little "Laugh" sign for the kitchen, and papered the inside of my cabinets!

Simple, easy, fun. My favorite kind of activity!

I really, really like having my fun dishes visible now! {happy sigh}

Art Class~ Birch Trees

First, I had my little pupils paint "grass" along the bottom of their sketchbooks. We talked about using strokes to paint, rather than jamming the brushes down on the paper. Acrylics dry fast, so we mixed in some water, painted our grass and blew it dry.

 Next, we used watercolors to add sunsets to our backgrounds.

While our sunsets dried, we used another sheet of paper to start on the birch trees. 

That there, folks, is my expired wageworks healthcare card.

See? It's still good for somethin'.

The kids took a short break while we waited for everything to thoroughly dry.

Next, we cut out our birch trees and pasted them on our backgrounds.

 Look at their beautiful results!!

I'm so proud of my talented little students!

 Some of their birch trees didn't reach entirely across, and kids wanted to add leaves to the top.

So we fingerpainted!

(Simply because fingerpaint is fun and an easy way to add foliage!)

Recently...

My Mom ("Noni") came to visit. These boys love her to pieces.

I bought a juicer and started juicing!

The breakfast I had yesterday, below, consists of 1 peeled orange, 1 red bell pepper, 3 carrots, ½ peeled lemon. YUM!  

And I finished painting my living room and kitchen--

WHITE!

A big blank beautiful canvas for my crazy colored dishes and decor!

Color Wheel Bouquet

Teaching this little art class has become such a great source of joy. I love art!~~ it just makes me happy. And I love the enthusiasm of children doing art!

For our last session, we used this Color Wheel Bouquet lesson from Deep Space Sparkle.

Remember-- an artful mess is half the fun!

My precious little pupils, taking as much joy in art as I do...

 Colorful masterpieces!!