THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Wanted to Share what our Pastor read during the Sunday Service last Mothers Day.

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each, for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports, and either take music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of "pretend" bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment. He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Emergency Room (weekend, evening, on a holiday or right when they're about to leave for vacation). He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.

There is only one TV per family and a remote with dead batteries.

Each father will be required to know all of the words to every stupid song that comes on TV and the name of each and every character on cartoons.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, which they will apply to themse lves either while driving or making three lunches.

Each man will have to make an Indian hut model with six toothpicks, a tortilla and one marker; and get a 4 year old to eat a serving of peas. Each man must adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep their nails polished and eyebrows groomed. The men must try to get through each day without snot, spit-up or barf on their clothing.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

He will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night without falling asleep, and then feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair each morning by 7:00. They must leave the home with no food on their face or clothes.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

They must clean up after their sick children at 2:00 a.m. and then spend the remainder of the day tending to that child and waiting on them hand and foot until they are better.

They must have a loving, age appropriate reply to, "You're not the boss of me ".

The kids vote them off the island based on performance.

The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice.

If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years...eventually earning the right to be called Mother!

Honey Nuggets Recipe

Honey Nuggets

This is a treat my mom made for my brother and I when we were growing up. We always had this on road trips in our motor home. They are originally called Cheerio Nuggets but Emry and Ayden have renamed them Honey Nuggets.

1c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
6 c. cheerios
1 c. peanuts

Heat oven to 250 degrees and grease 2 13x9 pans.

In a large bowl combine cheerios and peanuts.

Heat brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt in a sauce pan until bubbly--cook for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda.

Pour over cereal and peanuts, stir to coat. Pour into baking pans and bake for 15 mins. Cool for 10 minutes and loosen then cool for 30 minutes more. Break into nuggets and enjoy!

Thanks mom!

He's So Cute!

White boy waiting for a sunburn!

So do you get the idea that I think my baby is absolutely adorable? Well I do and I have thought that about everyone of our babies. I always think they have the best personalities and that I could not have thought up someone so cute and sweet on my own, so thank you Jesus.



Another photo of Brady in our backyard swing.



So cute--Brady is becoming very, very vocal and loves screaming as loud as he possible can, he's giving baby Emry a run for her money.



Checkout the cute little tongue in this shot.

Learning Through Life and Play

Well that is a strange picture to start off a post with but allow me to explain. I have kept big chunks of foam around so the children could use them for hammering in golf tees but at this particular time the foam became yet another building supply for Emry and Ayden. This is a picture of a sculpture they created of Brady, not nearly as cute as the real Brady Brayd but I will admit to liking the golf tee hair. A note about the foam it breaks down and goes everywhere, so be prepared for the mess if you decide to let your children play with it.



Kens, Kens building away with the pegs. For Tot School Kensley has been cutting straws, finding hidden animals in rice, dot painting and playing with our lid collection. Her current favorite book is The Very Hungary Catepillar. I hope to try our hand at some of Eric Carle's art this summer.




Ayden doing a little fort building during lesson time--he will always be our builder boy.



Ayden loves Wall-E. The above picture is more building with foam but this time he made Wall-E. He used toothpicks to hold it together.



This is another Wall-E creation Ayden made out of our math rods.

So where is Emry and Brady when all these photos are being taken. Brady is napping and Emry is sitting at the table finishing up her phonics and doing other lessons such as her Velveteen Rabbit unit study. We had a great time with that study this month. We learned the difference between hares and rabbits, learned about Scarlet Fever (strep throat), reviewed kitchen measurement by making carrot cake and personification. Then we followed up our study with Emry writing and illustarating her own story using her favorite stuffed animals.

We will be finishing up our phonics book and putting together our nature journal as we finish up our 1st grade year. I am looking forward to a summer filled with days at the park, river and beach with a little nature study, art, reading and scrapbooking thrown in. Learning is always happening and now is the time for less structure and more days filled with outside play.

90 Day Fitness Challenge

My baby is now 7 and 1/2 months old and I have 5 pounds still sticking around so before summer officially get here I would like to comfortably fit into my clothes. So I am as the end of my first week of a 90 day fitness challenge. I did this after Kensley was born and enjoyed the results from Kathy Smith's Project You. This time I am using Chalene Johnson's ChaLEAN Extreme. It is a 5 day a week program focusing on becoming lean through weight training and cardio workouts. I am getting up between 5 and 5:30 A.M. to do this, so I can be finished before the little ones are up.

My eating is usually pretty good but I am focusing on cleaning it up and fueling my body to build lean muscle. Chalene says think like an athlete, train like an athlete and eat like an athlete. I wholeheartedly agree with one exception, I MUST HAVE DESSERT EVERYDAY, if I don't I feel deprived and eventually blow it. So I am going to focus on eating sweets only once a day and not my usual 2 times. What else am I eating? Egg white scrambles, turkey bacon, yogurt, homemade granola, chicken, ground turkey, protein bars, protein smoothies, beans, veggies and fruit.

So join me and by midsummer you can be more fit and attain or be on your way to some of those goals you have been setting.

P.S. - Take a look at the program by watching Chalene's brief video clip.