SAUCER SCHNANIGANS

I don't post on the blog in "real" time for safety reasons. Daddy had to fly home today so we can start sharing our Saucer Summer Tour.                                                                                                       Sunday, May 27, 2012    Today we embark on our Saucer Summer Tour Adventure!! Please keep all hands inside the vehicle at all times and fasten your seatbelts!! First stop, Aunt Kristine’s house in Seminole, TX. We got to Aunt Kristine’s in time to rest a bit and have Daddy fire up the grill to make hot dogs and hamburgers. While Daddy was grilling Eddie helped Aunt Kristine mix up some yummy lemon cupcakes!! After dinner Alan helped her mix up some blackberry icing for the cupcakes a...

Wow double fundraiser this week!! The Cub Scout pack has started the Popcorn sales!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the microwave kettle corn :) They don't offer online ordering for our pack :( I will describe the items and prices for anyone interested in ordering you can call, email, or just leave a comment. They assure us this is the ONLY fundraiser for the Pack for the year!! The Great Southwest Council will receive 70% of all the proceeds from our popcorn sales!! Item A: 5 Way Chocolatey Treasures Tin $50 includes: chocolatey caramel corn, chocolately pretzels, white frosted pretzels, white frosted caramel corn and delicious morsels of chocolately covered peanut brittle 88oz Item B: 3 Way Premium Tin $40 includes: supreme caramel with whole and crushed almonds, peacans & cashews, chocolately carmel popcorn, and rich butter toffee caramel corn 40 oz Item C: 24 Pack Movie Theater Extra Butter Microwave Popcorn $25 Item D: 24 Pack Variety Microwave Popcorn $25 inc...

Alan and Eddie are selling Magazines for their school fundraiser. The cool part is you can order online and they can still get credit. Simply go to www.aphearst.com and click on "SHOP NOW" Then enter their school code: TAFIREBIRDS and click "SHOP NOW" Next you fill in either Alan or Eddiefor the first name and Saucer for the last name. Just click on SAVE and start shopping!! The orders much be placed by Sunday, September 11th for them to get credit. You can renew existing subscriptions as well as shop for other fun gifts!! Thanks for your support!!

When we got home from a month of travel we had 2 surprise packages with ALL the mail!! The first one I kind of expected. We were visiting my friend, Julie Henning. She is the coordinator for blog reviews for Motherlove Herbal Company and Dandelion Earth-Friendly Goods. Joey (age3) had a big scrape on his forehead and lots of swollen mosquito bites. Julie grabbed her Green Salve and we got him all rubbed down with it. The next morning the scrape was more than 50% healed and the bug bites where shrunk to almost nothing!! Thank you Julie for hooking us up with some fun stuff to review!! The first package was some Green Salve from Motherlove Herbal Company This all natural versatile salve quickly and effectively takes the itch out of insect bites, bee stings and poison ivy. It soothes and eases the discomforts of rashes, chapped and irritated skin. A must for every home! Motherlove’s green salve has a zero rating (zero toxins) on EWG’s skin deep database and is made with 100% c...

It's Joey's Birthday weekend (he is turning 4). So I thought the boys (and Mommy (who stayed at home) would enjoy a day at the ABQ Sci-Fi convention and to top it off it was free for them and me to attend (Mil ID). Parking was a surprising $10 bucks (normally free on weekends). So after two+ hours of looking at toys Daddy and sibling once played with; we made our way to the signing booths. We hit a Star Trek original (“Chekov” or Walter Koenig) right as he came back from his break with no line. Trying to explain who he was to the boys was challenging; so I finally said this is the show Uncle Tim and Aunt Augusta like (not Star Wars). “Oh, I get it” Alan Said. We did get a signed autograph but skipped the picture (you can tell three boys asking Star Wars questions was starting to bother him.) So we got in line for Darth Maul (Ray Park)! Alan’s Birthday is later this month, I asked him if he wanted a signed autograph, of course being the fan he is, he made it simple. So I...

I just finished my first year back to teaching after having the boys!! I was soooo blessed to get a part time position teaching K-5 Spanish at Cross of Hope Elementary when we moved to New Mexico. I had a lot of freedom in developing the curriculum to keep it age appropriate and FUN!! I used several resources from my past teaching experiences. Things on the internet have changed extensively in my 7 year break from teaching and I stumbled upon some amazing blogs about Spanish. One of my favorites is Mommy Maestra . It's written by a "Latina Homeschooler". I really enjoy all the Children's Literature and culture in her blog!! Go on over and check her out when you get a chance. Right now she is having a giveaway for a children's book about Pablo Neruda. I'm already thinking about the lessons I could teach next year if I win!!

It's that time of year when students have lots of FUN on the school calendar!! Joey's class had preschool graduation on Saturday at the zoo. He had to sing while the 4yr olds dressed in their cap and gown. Here are the video clips from the event. They had pizza and cake following the ceremony. We got to sit with our friends: Megan, Rick, Caiti, and Tori!! We also ended up exploring the zoo with them after lunch!! It was an wonderful day just Joey and Mommy!! Then today Eddie's Kindergarten class went to the zoo for a field trip. There were so many parents my group was just Eddie and his new friend Taylor who just joined their class this week!! We had a BLAST!! Pictures from both zoo trips can be found here in the 2011_May album on Picasa.

I finally got all the pictures sorted from Eddie's birthday weekend. We met up with lots of family to celebrate Eddie's 6th birthday AND cousin Thomas's 9th birthday!! We went camping near Carlsbad, NM and drove into Carlsbad Caverns National Park. If you haven't been to the caverns you are missing out on an AMAZING experience!! The pictures just can't do it justice. I could have spent days down there in AWE!!! I posted the pictures here Here is a video of the birthday song. We had a GREAT time with Grandpa Bear, Granny D, Aunt Kristine, Uncle James, Aunt Sherrie, Thomas, Lily, Aunt Nikky, Uncle Doug, and family friend, Mike!!

Eddie had to give a presentation about Mars to his class today. Here is the video of the presentation.

Eddie has been excited about his BIG 6th Birthday for what seems like forever. Well it's FINALLY here!! We went to dinner at Red Robin earlier this week to celebrate as a family. He was VERY excited to get the ice cream and even MORE excited to get the balloons!! Then we had the presents waiting to be opened at the breakfast table this morning because we are doing a very special birthday weekend with lots of extended family and leaving straight from school. Here are the pics from this morning. This picture was taken exactly 6 year ago today This is Eddie's 1st Birthday Eddie's 2nd Birthday Eddie's 3rd Birthday Eddie's 4th Birthday Eddie's 5th Birthday

Need some VALIDATION in your life?? This is a great video to put yourself in a more positive perspective.

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme TodaysMama and GameStop are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you. 1. What is your holiday wish for your family? for safe travels for all the family members traveling to our house this year :) 2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition? Trying to capture the moment the kids see the tree with all the presents on video then a late morning nap. 3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? Family Christmas at Disney World 4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money? Advent Calendar and Advent candles. 5. What games did you play with your family growing up? Rummy and Sequence 6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood? having the children sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on video 7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip? Disney World...

Happy Thanksgiving!! There are soooo many things to be thankful for this year. We are thankful the most for our family and friends. We wish you all the best Thanksgiving. Alan, Eddie, and Joey are very excited about Thanksgiving this year. We are celebrating just the 5 of us while we get some projects done around the house in preparation for all the visitors we are expecting for Christmas. Hope you enjoy these 2 video clips of Eddie getting ready for the big day.

Here are a couple fun clips of the boys playing Dominoes with Gramps. These are clips from Joey's 3rd Birthday Party at Aunt Kristine's.

Now that I have you up to speed with our Children's Choir. Alan was selected to sing the solo verse of the Alleluia part for this past weekend's mass!! He was sooo excited to get to sing into the microphone :) Here are the video clips from this past weekend.

The boys have been part of our church's Children's Choir since June. I meant to post these video clips from this summer a long time ago. They are really improving each week.

I just posted the pictures from Halloween in the October_2010 folder on Picasa. You can click here to see them. Here are a couple video clips from Trick or Treating.

We all know the 4 seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.  Well Albuquerque has a 5th season, Balloon Season.  The Balloon Fiesta is the first week and a half of October and a very exciting time!!  There are hundreds of Hot Air Balloons in the sky every morning for 10 days.  The weeks leading into and following the Balloon Fiesta have LOTS of balloons in the sky as well. This year Kristine and her friend, Talya, came to visit us and go to the Balloon Fiesta with us.  We got up at 4am to fight the traffic near the Balloon Fiesta Park and got to the Park around 6:30am in time for the 6:30am Morning Glo and the 7am Mass Ascension. Here is one of the Morning Glo balloons.  The boys really enjoy the FIRE!! Some of the first balloons off the ground the day we went were twin pink balloons to honor survivors and victims of breast cancer.  The balloons each had an American flag and the Star Spangled Banner was sung to start the ascension. I was ...

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Alan pulled out his front tooth after school on Friday and insisted I take his picture with my phone so I could send it to Grandma.  I couldn't resist sharing it with you all.  It looks like he lost it in a hockey game :)