The Fairy Village faces the great flood

We (I) installed the fairy village!

It is fun and I love it and I'm not positive that the kids really care that much, but I love it so much.

And since the day I put it in the window well, the heavens opened and the rains haven't stopped for even a minute. Not even to give me a chance to get my groceries to the car.

But the houses seem to be holding up pretty well.

Birdseye view:

A water-logged house and swing set next to the pond:

The clock tower with white picket fence (I think we may have foundation problems):

I'm still working on a dock for the pond and a few seed-pod kayaks. Next project is gardens and outdoor table and chairs.

On the up-side, rain is really really good for moss. Which we love.

A few observations

1. Tonight during prayers with Anna and Laney I completely enjoyed their individual prayer styles. Laney starts off pretty "by the book" as far as childhood prayers are concerned but soon took a long and winding path down a path of hopeful wishes and desires for the Halloween costumes of herself and all those in her immediate circle. She has major concerns over whether or not her costume will be cute and and those around her will be nice about it. She is, however, perfectly willing to reciprocate and let all those around her that she feels their costumes are also very nice.

Fair is fair.

And now Heavenly Father knows it.

2. Anna, on the other hand had the current and future state of the raspberries on her mind. She let Heavenly Father know that it would be unacceptable to eat the white raspberries, but her mom said that the dark red ones are okay and hopefully there would be more of those soon. Just when I thought she was about to wrap it up, she went back over the whole thing just to be sure He was clear on the matter.

3. Everly has developed an intense need for her bedtime snack. I often give her one to make sure that she has enough energy to help her get through the night, but on the days that we have a late dinner or I know she has just had sipper of milk, I try to get her to go to bed without it, because I know she will be fine.

She does not share my opinion on this issue.

She is getting her bedtime snack, dangit!  She will yell "NUM NUM! NUM NUM!"  until I rectify the mistake and fetch her a cup of peaches or a rice pudding.

We may have created a bit of a problem here.

And I have absolutely no idea how to fix it because I am a terrified mother and I am worried about my daughter running out of fuel in the middle of the night.

That's not a combination that bodes well for the future.

4. Also, I should jot down here that it is absolutely, completely unacceptable to leave a yogurt/pudding lid pealed halfway back when feeding Everly. It drives her absolutely bonkers.

It must come off.

I am praying this is not a foreshadowing of OCD.

5. Mathew forgets something for school almost every single day. At first I figured it was just the transition to middle school and having so many things/teachers/responsibilities.

Now I think he's trying to break me....or possibly see how much I actually love him.

Either way, we are having a heart to heart tonight. Because office ladies and I are becoming very close.

I Co-op...do you?

This is Anna with her Preschool Co-op group. 

They are a cute little bunch. 

And they really really like to build train tracks. 

This is one of 3 co op groups I belong to.

I am currently co-oping preschool, Crossfit childcare and babysitting services from Monday thru Thursday.

I'm a believer.

Scenes from General Conference

I have never...not EVER....been a prepared, crafty, inspired type mother when it comes to General Conference.

Many LDS households across the nation are playing Apostle Bingo and we are playing, "Be QUIET! I can't hear a single thing he's saying!"

It's not a very fun game.

But something struck my fancy this time around and I decided I ought to tap into the powers of modern technology (pinterest) and use them for the good of mankind.

I printed out Conference Squares from lds.org (Bingo)....

I purchased Everly-approved bingo candies...

Which quickly turned into snacks and they started coloring in the squares...

Everly always opts for a pen. It does the most damage to furniture and walls.

The Bingo game lost its luster after one session, but the Tie pages hung in there till the end.

Next conference I will modify them a bit so that they can color in the tie (according to what the apostle is wearing during his talk, of course) and then write key words from the talk in the circles.

This one I liked because it helped the kids keep track of who the apostles are, when they had spoken and who was still to come.

We also did a "Conference Train" and I really loved it. Each child would write (or draw) something that they heard or that was meaningful to them and the connect it to the train. It got long fast and it was cool to read through them and see that they had listened! I think this activity is a keeper too. 

But as you might expect, 10 hours of Conference can be overwhelming for kids.

Eventually it was just Everly and me with a bowl of soup and a drawer of abandoned crayons.

The girls found someone to shower their attention on. 

It seems Tootsie was in need of a spa day.

Yellowbeard singeth

The day has finally come and Megan is all atwitter with pirate energy. She's prepared. She's memorized. She's rehearsed. She's committed to the role.

She's Yellowbeard.

I'm pretty sure only 4th grade pirates are this cute.

And I had to snap a photo of Mrs. Knox because she is the best elementary music teacher on the planet.

She is really something.  And I'm hoping she and the Principal, Mr. Kearney will hang in there long enough for Everly to get through fifth grade.

Then they can go ahead and retire.

Never let it be said that Huffords are beneath commandeering other children's electronics.

And with that....we officially get to sleep in and head to school at a reasonable hour!

Royals, Tony Taupe and Toddlerhood

1. When you have hours and hours of manual labor that needs to be done on your basement, it's clearly time to go to a baseball game. 

It's time to attempt to get through 6 innings with 2 lemonades and a bottled water....and a bag of smuggled Laffy Taffies.

Thank goodness for refills!

2. It is time to paint!!!

And paint and paint....

and paint.

The good new is that I never got around to painting the upstairs, so I had 3 cans of paint just sitting in the garage waiting for me. Score!

3. This is my baby.

I got my eye on the prize

The drywallers, mudders and tapers have come and gone. 

And the left quite a mess.

That isn't dust.  It was once wet and now it has dried and stuck itself onto the floor.

Here's a spot where a square drywall kept a spot "clean".

Time to get out the duct tape and face the music.

It took me two solid days of scrubbing, scraping and rag ringing, but I finally got to my last square. If I could have dug it up and framed it, I would have. 

It was hard work and I was glad to have it behind me. 

Next was painting the ceilings.

Not the funnest.

The girls were in for another couple days of playing on the concrete while I worked.

Everly dipped her finger in the paint and I thought it was sweet, so I didn't stop her....I mean, how bad could it be? She'll do a little finger painting!

Sometimes I wonder if I've ever met my children before.