The Magic Number

C, my 4 year old is AMAZINGLY savvy at recognizing symbols. He calls McDonalds "Ba-Ba" (sing it to yourself---"Ba ba ba ba ba....I'm Lovin' It!) and has for about 2 years now. It was one of the few things he would say that we could understand when he was just forming words. Once he sang it to us, that is.

Nowadays, he recognizes cars that are like Daddy's (Hondas--w/the big "H" symbol. All Honda's are like Daddy's car, even though the big boxy things are nothing like our 11 year old Accord), spouts off random letters when "reading" signs and can choose between Burger King ("cheeseburger") and McDonalds ("ba-ba") depending on which toy is available at the time. Never mind the fact that all he eats are the french fries.

But every number is "Seventeen." Looking at a clock, he'll tell you "It's Seventeen O'Clock!" If he's tired, he'll say, "It's seventeen o'clock--time for bed!" When he wants to go home, it's..."Seventeen O'Clock." He's the proud owner of a Finding Nemo book from Goodwill; one of those fun books where you push the button that goes with a picture in the story and a sound will play to support the action. This morning he came to us pointing at the price tag and saying, "Seventeen Dollars. Look, it's Seventeen Dollars."

Thank goodness it wasn't! And I hope the batteries run out soon. Well, after he's had Seventeen hours of fun.

Before and After

Before:

After:

Still getting used to it. It's the shortest I've had it since I was a Jr. in High School. I've got one uneven chunk on one side I'll be getting fixed this week. So far, I like how easy it is to take care of. I'm still figuring out the rest.

Some of my recent projects

I'm teaching two classes this weekend at Stampin'Cat (well, just one, since no one signed up for one of my classes). Here's some pics:

This is my Coaster Album for my Paper School class this month. Paper School is a year-long series of classes I've developed (well, am developing, since I just had a rough plan for the year after about May) where we combine a mini-lecture about some papercrafting topic (we've done Color Theory, Tools, Storage, and so on) with a MiniBook around that month's theme. In June we're discussing storage/organization of all the papers and stuff our kids bring home at the end of the school year. The MiniBook focuses on some aspect of your child's year at school; in this case this was a Kindergarten field trip for my middle child.

Here's the back:
The other class was an altering class using really ugly coasters from the Dollar Tree. This was fun for me--I punched shapes from product packaging to act as protectors for the photo. I sanded the edges to make them stand out, and then painted them w/my new Ranger Paint Dabber in white. I like things like this; there are a lot of different techniques here--paint, sanding, modge podge, and I used my QK to punch some foam letters. I'm trying to use my QK and Sizzix more to see if I can justify moving up to an electric die-cutter. So far the QK is winning! (and I haven't used either enough to justify the cost. I just don't think of using die-cuts when I work).

That's all for now! Enjoy!

School's Out!

And now the bickering begins! Whew! They've not been out of school even an hour and I've had to send them to their rooms! Time for a schedule! The fact that my oldest DD has entered the wonderful world of pms doesn't help things either.

I leave you w/a picture of my cutie patootie youngest and what he was last studying at preschool.


Are you sure I just can't lock 'em in a closet for the next 10 weeks? (just kidding!)