First Day of School 2013-2014

Today was everyone first day at school for  2013-2014 school year hear in Houston.

We moved a couple of weeks to a wonderful house in Jersey Village (part of Houston) with a lot of older people...no more parties, no more parking issues, everyone speaks English and better schools for Erik and Kjell.  We are on a road that doesn't have a lot of traffic and is very quite. We moved into a 4 bedroom house with Family Room, Dinning Room, Office/Craft Room, Laundry Room, Living Room, Wet Bar , even a detached garage for Matthew. Here is the front of the house: 

Karl is still going to Jersey Village High School and marching band. They started marching the last week of July from 7am-4pm , Monday-Thursday and Friday 7am-11:30am. Now that school started; they practice every day after school but Wednesday so they all can go to church activities/work. October is going to be insane with all the competitions they have on the weekends. But he loves it. He still playing the euphonium. He all tan and has bigger arm muscles; they have no neck straps (the marching euphonium weighs about 12 lbs). He started Latin because the only other choices the school offers is Spanish & French.  It was crazy and rough morning...Karl had to go to  seminary this morning and with only one car we had to do a quick switch off to get him to school on time, they have only 15-20 minutes to get from the church to school so really doesn't leave much time to drop off the car. I'm hoping we can find a cheap car for him to drive soon. For now he takes his long board...Kjell loves to ride with him. He got new jeans and new shoes from Grandma's Moore, he loves his Jack shirt but I think it was the same one he used for the first day of school last year.

Erik is now going to Cook Middle School and is a sixth grader. Erik's bus driver missed his bus stop and he ended up having to walk back home; while I was at Kjell's school. By the time I made it home Erik missed his first two classes. He started Choir this year but unfortunately it was his first class so he missed it today. He is excited for tomorrow so hopefully it goes better tomorrow than today. He has a  locker and his classrooms are spread apart but he doesn't seem to mind it. It's dark now when I walk him to the bus stop, 6:30am; Kjell came with us and he wanted to be in all of Erik's pictures...at least I got one with him alone. Erik loves his Minecraft shirts Grandma bought him.

Kjell is going to Post Elementary and in 1st grade, his teacher name is Mrs. Yeppez. You don't normally see a lot a teacher's names that start with  "Y".  Kjell is excited to be in school again but misses having his big brother at his school. 

It hasn't rained for weeks now but of course today, of all days, it started to pour.  3 different schools and all starting about the same time... I know it would be a lot easier if I didn't have them 5 years apart. 

Kjell's Angry Bird Star Wars Party

Sorry, I know it has been awhile... Last weekend we celebrated Kjell's 6th Birthday. Kjell decided that he wanted Angry Bird Star Wars of course I said "Yes, that would be so easy to do Angry Bird Star Wars." Little did I know, it was a lot harder then I thought. I'm so glad for Etsy and Pinterest...it helped me out a lot. I used Cori Anne at The Design Dog for most of the printable stuff which worked out wonderful.

I found most of the stuff for the favor bags from JoAnn Fabrics & Crafts...only had to go to 4 of them to get what I needed for the party. I thought I would need 20 bags, but only 3 kids came. I never know how many to plan for anymore but I rather be safe then sorry. My nieces and nephews were sure glad that I sent the extra bags home with my sister, Teri Jo, who was flying to Washington the next day:). The favor bags had a dry erase board, stickers, markers, a roller stamp pen, a pencil, a eraser, glow-n-dark stars, and a notepad.

Kjell showing off his tattoo..."I'm so coool!" 

First they went on egg hunt. It was only 106 degrees outside ... I had to find candy that wouldn't melt. Still not use to the weather here in Houston. They got a special prizes for the gold eggs they had little Angry Bird Star Wars figures in them. There were at least 48 eggs to split been the 4 of them...they loved it!

 With the help of my sister, Teri Jo, Capri, & Carly the kids made lightsabers out of pool noodles, duct tape, and electrical tape . 

 The best part was watching them duel each other with their lightsabers. They did this a couple times throughout the party. They had a blast fighting each other.

 I was trying to not have a pinata because we had a egg hunt with candy but no luck. Kjell had the choice of the pinata or bouncy house and he choose the pinata. I'm glad because it would too hot to jump in the bouncy house. Maybe next year we can get a water one but I'm sure he still will want a pinata. I found this Angry Bird pinata at Walmart...added the hair and belt to make him look more Luke Skywalker and we used a lightsaber to hit it. It was so big and had about 8 pounds of candy in it...the kids took about a pound and half each home with them.  Carly walk around with it on her head and the kids loved it. They also played Angry Bird Star Wars BINGO...sorry I forgot to take a pictures of that.

The first picture is a "Matthew Look" at the same age...it made me laugh seeing this picture that I took of Kjell. I made the chocolate cupcakes...hopefully they tasted alright. Most of kids just ate the frosting and threw the rest away...I definitely had a lot of leftovers.

Kjell got a lot of Lego sets, water stuff, and money...which he spent already getting a Lego game. He still loves his Legos. If we didn't have that theme last year we probably would be doing that again. Thank you all that helped and made this special day for him.

Happy Easter!

I hope y'all had a wonderful Easter!

 

Early morning church and Matthew gone for the next couple of weeks for work, it was a little crazy this morning but with the help of my sister, Teri Jo we made to the church in time.

By the end of church, Kjell's Easter shirt was covered in Cheetos Puffs and chocolate but I can't blame it on anyone but myself; he came to my primary class.  Even the chocolate melts faster here then I thought it would. I knew my kids in primary would like Cheetos more then Goldfish Crackers. The kids loved it but for future reference don't use Cheetos when all the kids are dress in their new Easter clothing...lucky it was only my kid that made a mess.

 

The boys had a fun time looking for eggs.  Karl got the new One Republic cd and movies tickets. Erik got Rise of the Guardian DVD and Pokémon Conquest; the game he really wanted . Kjell got Wreck-it Ralph DVD and Bejeweled for Xbox 360. We watch both of the DVD's this afternoon, both of these movies are really cute.

 

Ate too much food at Easter Dinner :).We have so many leftovers and I even bought the smallest ham I could. We all had a wonderful day and hope your day with your family was wonderful too. Happy Easter!

 
 
 



Erik's Minecraft Party

Erik's Minecraft Party was a huge success last Saturday. I bought printable files for the invites, bottle water potion wraps  and chocolate bar wrapper on Etsy. We used powder drink packets to make are potions, but they were to strong for the bottle size I chose...it would be better to use MiO Liquid Water Enhancer, but I thought of the idea at the last minute. I couldn't find green square plates so I put the pig from Minecraft on the cake plates. Made a Ghast for the pinata, which I don't really know what it really looks like because I just learning about the game. The goody bags had Coal (Santa's Coal Gum), TNT (Lifesavers), Lava (soft fireball balls), a copy of the Minecraft Periodic Table, a Torch (light stick...a flash light would be cute) and they got the creepers t-shirts that I made. Erik is playing the part of Steve, he was even walking around the house like him. In this picture he said "he licking Creeper juice off his sword ".

I saw this on Pinterest. I think most people would just make would just make one for the Birthday's Boy/Girl, but not me; I made 20 of them...everyone was so excited to get one so I'm happy I did.

I was really excited that we were going to have warm weather for Erik's Birthday Party now living in Houston but that was not the case, it started to rain so I quickly brought it back inside. Karl was mad at me because I kept changing where I wanted it on the tree outside . After he spent so much time hanging it up, it had to come inside. We had to have in the Dining room, because the ceiling in Living Room is too high. It was a good thing I made it a pull pinata just in case.It went faster then I would of like...Juno, who was 3rd found it but they were happy with all the candy and toys inside so they didn't care.

I

Couple of games we play were "Digging For Diamond and Gold". I rolled Blue Raspberry Ring Pops and Hersey Chocolate Nuggets in saran wrap and tape into a big ball.  They had to get the candy out by unrolling or removing the tape, as soon as they got a "Diamond" they had to pass it to the next person. Next game we played was "Kill The Spider" We put toy plastic spiders in black balloons and they had to pop the balloon to get the spiders out. Last game was "Hot Lava" like "Hot Potato & Musical Chairs", I was just going to have the kids pass around one of the flame ball that I got for the goody bag but Erik said that " they would burn themselves" so we used small buckets because we don't want them to get burned :) . You had to pour the lava balls from bucket to another and when the song stop the person holding the lava was out. I found a Minecraft You Tube Playlist that we used throughout the party for games and party music, which the kids loved. Erik and Kjell were singing the songs...the watch too much You Tube.

My sister Teri Jo, made the "Minecraft Cake" which the boys were so impress that we had a cake that look like the one in the game. One of the boys at the party told his little brother when they came to pick him up;"They had a real Minecraft Cake...it was so awesome!" Erik was very happy with all his presents.

 

I made the pick ax & sword from a photocopy and glued it onto cardboard. Those were time consuming so I end up only making one set for Erik. Kjelly was so upset that he didn't get one so I just finished making one for him. Erik LOVED his party and everyone had a blast ....that is all a Mother could ask for.

Happy Birthday, Erik!

My little Erik turn 11 years old today.  Here are some pictures:
Erik wanted BBQ hamburgers for dinner which is his favorite beside Hawaiian Pizza. My sister, Teri Jo made marble cupcakes with orange cream frosting for my birthday that he used to celebrate with. He got the game he really wanted, Pokemon Rumble Blast 3DS. He also wanted to play Dominoes ...Matthew lost big time; he tried to do a " MOM", my mother-n-law loves to hold on her tiles until she gets a couple that matches...well I went out so it totally backfired on him. No, I didn't win the whole game; Karl did. So I had tried to play with just Erik and he won. I really a sore loser when it come to Dominoes. I would make them play until I won, but it already 10pm.
We are going a big Minecraft Party this coming Saturday for his friends so I will post them after then.
I love you Erik and hope you had fun birthday today.