Showing posts with label just for fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label just for fun. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

What was in the Bag?

If you were wondering what was in my Mother's Day surprise bag...

Me & my cheesy grin, they know I love cake! 

(By the way, that's my Grandma's daisy-necklace, it was fun to remember her on Mother's Day).  Yes, there was cake :-).  And it was heart-shaped.  And pink!  Actually, that wasn't in the bag though.  That was hidden (very sneaky of them!) on TOP of the refrigerator.  Even these guys looked all over but didn't find it!

Gerbils, quivering as they sniff out the cake

The bag had ice cream.  Two kinds!  Moose Tracks and Mint Chocolate chip (with no added food coloring, yay!)  No, I didn't share with Stuart and Rocka!

MY icecream!
Ok, I DID share with Dave and the kids.  (Since they bought it & all!).  But it's not like the gerbils are hurting for food...  Look at all that's left of their house in just 2 days!

Stuart (left) and Rocka, now almost as big as the remains
of their once well-crafted home.





Saturday, May 12, 2012

Gerbils, Spies, and a Deprived Mother

"I've been a VERY good mommy this year!"

That's what I told my husband when I found this highly suspicious article in the freezer:

highly suspicious unnamed food item
"Tomorrow's Mother's Day.  Keep out."

Such cold-hearted words!

"You know, honey, if we followed the Jewish schedule, Mother's Day would start now."  Bat-bat (eyes).  Smile sweetly.

It wasn't working.  I tried the good mother bit again.

"How would you explain it to the kids?  They want you to be surprised tomorrow!"

"Easy.  Gerbils.  Stuart and Rocka can be VERY naughty boys!"  Now truly, this is a somewhat believable argument.  Oh sure, they LOOK innocent enough here...

Rocka (left) named after the Hero Factory hero,
and Stuart (right) for Stuart Little.
...but they could do it all right.  They're already eating themselves out of house and home:

Stuart sampling his house...
This was solid house before they got a hold of it, the true entrance is on the other side.  Shall we make little footprints in the (hopefully ice cream) in the freezer and be done with this?

Standing Guard...

"Hold it right there, Ma'am!"

"What?"

Secret Agent...

"Agent Gibbs?  Yes, I've apprehended the suspect.

Whatever's in there must be finger-waggin' good!

 "Uh-uh-uhhh.  Not this time!  Mother's Day doesn't start until tomorrow and by that I mean AFTER 12:00 noon!  Maybe 5:00 pm!"

I've been warned...

 "Go!"

Notice he couldn't resist a smirk!

Sigh.  Still no ice cream until tomorrow...

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Find out what was in the bag!


Friday, April 13, 2012

Funny Cats

My daughter loves cats (wish I wasn't allergic!), and my husband makes a hobby of finding fun or funny pictures online and collecting them in a file for her.  Here are a few recent ones...



funny pictures - I think I can...


















funny pictures - Now What?




Thursday, April 5, 2012

Dog Poo and Falling Too...

This might seem like a funny title for a "Thankful Thursday" post!  But my grandma used to say to learn to laugh at myself so I'd always have something funny to think about--and that works for me!

Yesterday I went for a walk, and was feeling kind of down when I started.  Then I found a penny and it reminded me of a friend who used to always throw pennies when he found them, thinking that it would make some little kid's day when he found it later!  And then it reminded me of Dave and shopping at Aldi's where you have to put a quarter in a slot to get a cart--and the joy he takes in giving his cart away to others without getting his quarter back!  So I started to smile and decided...this was a day to be thankful.

The green grass, blue sky, and sunshine--definitely something to be thankful for!

Then, a nanosecond too late to stop myself...you guessed it, I stepped in dog poo.  Then I laughed.  I'm thankful that it went "crunch" instead of "smoosh!"  Yeah, I can be kinda uncouth like that...

I walked a little farther and found another penny.  Ha!  The day's "2-cents worth."

I turned up one of the main streets in our town, and looked for a good time to cross the 5-lane road.  (My walk was doubling as a trip to the health-store for vitamins).  As I watched the traffic, I missed a foot-deep hole and face-planted in the grass.  (Am I the only person who thinks it's funny that I fell on the way to the health-store?!).  If you saw me, it's ok, you can laugh.  I did get up quickly, and hoped no one would stop!

The man at the store suggested this was a good day to be working outside, but I thought to myself, Not with my track record today!

The rest of my walk was uneventful and enjoyable.  I'm thankful I'm able to walk...remembering times when things like asthma and plantar fasciitis have prevented me.  And I'm thankful I didn't break my leg!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I'll take that as a compliment

Recently I was asked, "Where is your brother?" Meaning my 11 yo son Zach! How awesome is that?!!! I feel so young :-).

Ok, so I was actually asked, "Wa-yah yo bwudder?" by a 3 or 4 yo neighbor child, but hey, I'm stickin' to my story on this one! Merry :-)

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Look what my BABY did at camp!?!?!?!

Gee, I guess it really DOES pay to send those disposable cameras to camp with them. I just got the pics back today & amid the multitude of dark, grainy pictures, I found THIS:



Gives me the shivers, LOL!

I have TOUCHED a snake...but never CUDDLED one!!

Merry :-)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sighted!

On a church sign in our town:



"Live in such a way that the preacher doesn't have to lie at your funeral."

Friday, May 9, 2008

Kids Say...

The kids did some freewriting today on the topic, "What would you do if you found a magic wand?" (This was from the blog at http://www.bravewriter.com/). They had so much fun with these!

Zac's is ALL boy! He wrote:

I found a magic wand. I made 8 of every Nerf gun there is. Then I made 8 bikes that turn into speeders. I went to my friend's house and we had a dart gun fight. The darts flew through the air! Then more friends came and we teamed up and did what boys do best: fight fight and fight fight fight with dart guns. Then we had races again and again. And it was the Best day ever!

Anna wrote:

Where am I? There is so much sand here. I must be in the desert. I walked for miles and miles; then I saw it. It looked like the city of Egypt. I went inside the walls and saw a magic wand. It said, "make a wish and it will come true," so I made a wish: "I want to go home." And then I was home. And then I said, "Take away my Daddy's Lyme Disease." And after that I lived happily ever after. The end.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Bookworm Bookmarks


The kids and I have been playing with yarn! Zach and Anna wanted to learn how to crochet while I read stories, so I got them started on some basic stitches while I worked on these little critters before and after reading aloud. 

I remember these "bookworms" from when I was a child; they make adorable bookmarks. This curly critter is as nosy as my kids, trying to read ahead in our book! 

We started reading Calico Bush yesterday morning, and just as we got to the scary part where the "wild woman" grabs the little girl...the second Midwest earthquake of the day made our couches vibrate and knickknacks rattle! We missed the first one, but the second sure added some excitement to our day!


Crocheting was a nice way to relax after all the commotion.

Of course, the kids followed that up with a squirt-gun fight in the rain...

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Random....Kids' say...

My kids have come up with some doozies lately!

Praying for dinner one night, Anna (9) said, "Thank you God for this food which we are about to digest..." It took all of, oh 2 seconds for the rest of us to split a gut laughing!

Then today the car ran over a crooked stick in the road & it made a noise, so she asked what it was. "Just a stick," I replied.

"Oh," says she, "it would have been weird if it was an alien."

"Yes, it would have..." Where DO they come up with these thoughts?

The kicker was my son the other night as I got ready for a meeting.

"I like your hair, Mom."
"Thanks Honey."
"Not too much brown, not too much gray."

LOL! My Mom would disagree as she's much too young to have a daughter with this much gray. As for me, I'm in denial. Those are natural blonde highlights, aren't they?

Merry :-)

Friday, February 29, 2008

Here's what you're missing...


I thought I'd dedicate these pictures to my mom, who is someplace warm right now. Don'tcha miss this, Mom?!






We've shoveled a LOT of snow this winter! Here's a picture of a Fort they built earlier this winter.

Right now the kids are out having fun, throwing snowballs at icicles (and the house, and each other, and me until I escaped...) They won't be in for a long time; it's 34 degrees, and they know school awaits them!

Well, this beats the -2 weather we had for awhile!
Merry :-)






Monday, November 19, 2007

What is Farkle?


"I fixed your blog for you," my dh said this morning.

"Oh? What was wrong with it?" I asked, feeling a bit scared.
"It said you live in Afghanistan!"

Oops. I guess that's the first-on-the-list default choice, LOL! I wonder how many of the Afghani bloggers are really from somewhere else?!

Well, on to Farkle. Some call this game "10,000." Dh and I played in college, it's a fun, fast-paced dice game. I recently taught our kids, and they are hooked! There are several variations on how to play and score points (just google "Farkle rules"), but here are our family rules:

You'll need: 6 dice, a pen and paper.

Play: Each player takes turns rolling the dice. Each time you roll, you have to remove at least one die that is worth points (I'll list the point values below). Then you have to decide whether to score those points or roll the remaining dice, trying to get more points. If you get more points, you can keep rolling, but if your re-rolled dice have no value, you lose all points that you would have earned that round.

Point Values:
1-100
5-50
3 of a kind (in one roll, not cumulative) = 100 times that number (ie, 3 2's = 200).
4 of a kind = the above points plus 100 (ie, 4 2's = 200 plus 100 = 300)
3 1's is 1000
3 pairs (ie 2 2's, 2 4's & 2 5's for example) = 500 points
6-straight (1-2-3-4-5-6 in ONE roll) = 1500 points
Farkle-no points at all rolled, lose your turn.

Example: Role 6 dice & get 3 5's, a 4 and 2 6's. Set the 3 5's aside, that's 500 points. You can decide to stop and rack up 500 points, or you can gamble and roll the remaining 3 dice. Let's say you roll again, a 1, a 5, and a 2. You pull out the 1, that's 100 points, and the 5, that's 50 points, so now you're up to 650. You decide that's enough & stop, so you now officially add those 650 points to your written score. If you rolled again & got, say, a 2--well, you lose those 650 points, pass the dice to your left, so sad for you.

However--let's say you gamble, roll that last die, and get a 1--now you're up to 750 points, you've used up all 6 dice--you can pick ALL the dice up and roll them all again, and keep adding points!

Additional rule--we play that to get on the score board initially, you have to start with a minimum of 1000 points--so you have to keep rolling until you get 1000 or more for that first score, or until you lose your points & your turn. Once you are on the score board, you can stop at any point value you want.

To win: As you may have guessed by the alternate title, you need 10,000 cumulative points or to win. Once you hit or pass 10,000, everyone else gets one more turn. They have to roll until they can beat your point total (thus winning themselves) or until they don't score & get no points for that round.

This is a really fun way to encourage kids to use their addition skills, as well as teaching them about probability! Plus--it's just plain fun. Enjoy! Merry :-)