Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes

My kids go to a school where they teach through Project Based Learning (PBL). I love it! The teachers find a way to incorporate the current PBL into each and every subject. Right now Kindergarten is working on Nursery Rhymes and 2nd grade is working on Fairy Tales.

My 2nd grader has been reading all kinds of Fairy Tales and several versions of each Fairy Tale. Keeping with the PBL they get to write a Fractured Fairy Tale, which means they get to choose the one they like and tweak it in their own special way. Trevor decided to do Robin Hood. To finish off the Fairy Tale PBL they have to come to school dressed as one of the characters from their story and bring a snack that relates to it. Trevor is going to be Robin Hood. That is when my journey began. I had to come up with a costume AND a snack. Well I found the perfect tutorial over at Make It and Love It....it's for Peter Pan, but will work in the case of a time crunch! And where do you find chocolate coins right now? Uh, not any of the places I looked, so I improvised. Trevor is bringing in Rolo's, they are individually wrapped in gold foil so he can take from the rich and give gold nuggets to the poor. Brilliant! I know.

Adam's PBL is Nursery Rhymes right now. They have to do something similar to end the unit. The kinders get to dress up as a character from their favorite Nursery Rhyme. Adam chose to be Little Boy Blue. So I guess he will be dressed in all blue since I don't have any clothing that resembles the picture below. I offered to make mini corn bread muffins, but he wanted real corn. The only problem is that finding corn on the cob is next to impossible. Sooooooo, I bought frozen corn kernels that I will heat up before we leave for school. I thought I was done with homework. Does it ever end? Apparently not.

A Little Bit of Wine and a Whole Lot of Running

So a week and a half ago I did the Wine Country Run in Paso Robles. It is one of California's many areas designated as Wine Country. My friend Michelle and I ran a 1/2 Marathon, which is 13.1 miles.

This is one of the many views we had on our run. Many, many vineyards and lots of hillsides to look at. Of the few 1/2 marathons I have done, this one was certainly the most beautiful.

This is one of the many tasting rooms we ran by. Oddly enough Michelle and I did some wine tasting here, J. Lohr. They had to be the funnest tasting room of all the ones we stopped at. The staff wore wigs and were very friendly. In fact I can't wait to go back, the atmosphere was so much fun.

So back to the run. When we got to the corner past J. Lohr we were just shy of 7 miles and we had run uphill for the better part of a mile. Fortunately it was a gradual incline so you couldn't tell unless you turned around. I managed to get through the rest of the race, but was mentally done at mile 11. Thankfully Michelle was there to egg me on, otherwise I would have walked the rest of the way. At the end of the race we got a commemorative wine glass, it's just too bad they don't fill it up as you cross the finish line. Let me tell you, that wine glass has seen a lot of wine since I brought it home. Now I need to start replenishing my wine stock.

I've been working my tail off........

......but it's not going away. At the beginning of the year I hired myself a personal trainer, who is also a friend of mine. She looks incredible, you can tell she works out hard for the figure she has. I want that figure, I want to look as good as I feel, I want to look amazing.

I have to give myself credit, I dropped my cholesterol 20 points since I started working out. When I say working out I mean interval/circuit training. Boy is that hard on the body. It hurts soooooo good. It hurts so good that I keep going back for more on Thursday's and Friday's. I have stopped my one-on-ones to concentrate on my running because I was training for a 1/2 marathon (more on that later), but I won't give up Thursday and Friday.

I know things are happening, I can see a little, I can feel a lot, but patience is not a strong point with me....never has been. I am not one for instant gratification, but I would have more faith if I could see MORE results.

This is what it comes down to. I want to go from this:

To this:

I would LOVE to look that good running. Someday....even if it is only in my dreams.

Wordless Wednesday - Wine Caves

Check out 5 Minutes for Moms for other fun Wordless Wednesday posts.

Every Day Starts the Same......

"Mom, I don't have any more socks to wear!"
"I don't have any more in my drawer!"
"You need to buy me some more socks!

I can find a little bit of my boys everywhere. Socks at the sand pile. Socks at the arena. Socks in the truck. Socks in the kitchen.....on the counter. Socks under the table. Socks on the floor of the laundry room.....NOT in the laundry basket. Socks in my room. Socks everywhere!

Dear Loving Hubby

I just want to give you an update on the fence. It has been 3 months and we still don't have a secure fence. I would like to let you know that you have about 10 weeks before I bring home a beautiful chocolate lab. I know how much you dislike having animals in the house, but if the fence isn't done the new pup will be spending time inside......getting lots of love, attention, and crate training. I do hope the fence makes progress between now and then.
Your loving wife.

This One Kills Me....

As much grief as Trevor gives me I love him to death.

He loves to tell me how mean and horrible I am to him, but when I am away for an extended period of time he is the ONE who will call me to check in with me. He wants to know when I will be home because he "misses" me. He doesn't tell me he misses me, but will tell me that he needs me to be home because he wants to be with me. A softie at heart he is....you gotta love it. And believe me I do!

It's Happened......

He doesn't want kisses and hugs anymore (at least not in front of his friends).
I have been waiting for it and was hoping it would take much longer than it did for this to occur. I just wonder how long it will be before his isn't "embarrassed" to get love from his mom in public.

Wordless Wednesday - Old Barn

Letterboxing in the USA

The boys and I discovered something in the Fall through one of their friends. It's called Letterboxing. There are 2 sites I go to when we decide we need to go on an adventure. Some of the clues are fairly easy, while others are very cryptic. We did this one over the Winter Break.

After reading the clue the boys went off to see if they could find the box.

The clue said something about a bridge........ and here it is. Now to find where it lies.

Oh, under the bridge. Trevor was able to find it no problem.

The contents of the box are a stamp and a note pad. We put our own stamp in the notebook and used the stamp from the letterbox to add to our notebook.

The person who planted this box made their own stamp. Very creative.

For those of you who are interested in Letterboxing you can go to these sites:
1. Letterboxing North America
2. Atlas Quest: A Letterboxing Community

Go on, take your kids out for an adventure and give it a try. It's like finding a hidden treasure.