Easter in the Country 2014...

I completely forgot to do this post.  In my defense, I don't have a lot of spare time!!!

Last weekend was our annual Easter trip to the Country to see Granny and Peepaw.  Erin loves to go up there and we made the mistake of telling her we were going earlier in the week.  So, every day we heard "are we going to the Country today".  We had to tell her how many "naps" she would have before we went.  (She calls going to bed a nap.)

We got there first and it wasn't 5 minutes before Erin had Peepaw taking her for a ride on the tractor.  From there they got on the golf cart, then the 4 wheeler.  She also insisted the swing her on the swing.  Peepaw on one side and Daddy on the other.  She kept telling them to push her high in the sky.  Poor Peepaw must have slept really, really good Saturday night.

The kids were hopped up on sugar in no time.  They all know that there is a goodies stash beside Peepaw's chair and they hit it.  Luke wanted candy corn and couldn't understand why Granny didn't have it for him.  Wrong holiday Bud. Jake is sneakier.  He slips in and takes candy from a bowl on the counter and heads out before he unwraps it.  He hardly ever gets busted that way.  Luke and Erin on the other hand get caught red handed every time. They go for the stash in the living room right by Peepaw's chair in plain sight.  I guess they'll learn eventually.

The guys had to work on one of the deer stands and something on the house so they were gone about 2 hours.  We didn't want to hunt eggs before they got home so we tried dying eggs.  I brought all the stuff except for the vinegar.  Oops.  We let the eggs soak but they never did color.  It kept the kids busy for about 30 minutes and that was really the point of the exercise!

At last it was time to hunt eggs.  Granny had them all filled with candy and had 6 filled with money.  I had to explain that everyone got 2.  It still didn't work.  They were more interested in finding the eggs than listening about not getting more than two shiny eggs.  Of course Jake found the most eggs.  Luke did really good too but tended to follow Jake around and that didn't produce a lot of eggs.  Erin just ran around the yard.  She got the hang of it after a little while and did find some eggs on her own, but mostly Tommy had to help her.

Granny spread a quilt out in the shade and the feast began.  As expected, they were less excited about the money filled eggs.  They were after the candy.  The kids were introduced to Pop Rocks.  It was hilarious.  6 of the eggs Granny bought were pre-stuffed with Pop Rocks.  Luke was the brave soul to go first and I showed him how to eat them.  Erin went next.  Both of them made silly faces and loved the popping.  They were even more excited when they figured out they can bite them and make really loud pops.  Too funny.

As usual for up there, Erin had no nap.  She was going strong all day.  She had gotten up at 5:30 and never looked back.  We were not even to the Mize's community mailbox (about 2 miles from the house) on the way home before she was sound asleep.  We even stopped off on the way home for a coke and she never woke up.  She plays so hard when we go up there that she crashes just as hard on the way home.

And it wouldn't be a trip to the Country without calling the cows up and feeding them by hand.  Erin kept calling for them - "here cows, here cows..."  It was hilarious.  Tommy went out to the pasture to call them up and he had "helpers".  It made Granny nervous to have them out there with the bull.  He's young and a little on the squirrely side.  You can see in the pictures that the cows were more scared of the kids than the kids were of the cows.  They just run up to them wanting to pet them.  The cows are definitely not used to little noisy people!

Here are some pics from this weekend.

Unruly at Three...

Not that I think the daycare is the cause of all Erin's discipline problems, but I think some of them start there.  She is just a very inquisitive observant child.  She tends to notice everything and want to touch, hold or smell it.  I find myself saying "look with your eyes, not with your hands" more then I ever thought possible.

It's very hard to remain patient and in check when your kid tells you NO over and over and refuses to do things.  She has started whining like a baby and talking in baby talk.  She was never a whiner so this is really strange to us.  I think she picked that up at school.  I could handle it if it was just the whining, but it's the NO coupled with the whining that drives me up the wall.

Erin has gotten in the habit of talking back and telling us no.  She refuses to do what we tell her and sometimes runs from me.  I think the main problem is lack of follow thru on our part.  If we put her in time out every time she did something wrong she would NEVER be out of it.

Anyone out there have any suggestions for discipline that don't involve spanking or time out?  I need a positive reinforcement system.

They are on red, orange, or green at school and she understands the consequences of being on red will follow thru at home, but I can't use that system at home.  I've tried it and it doesn't work.  They also use a star system, but I'm not sure she responds to that.  I check the blackboard every day and she usually has one star while others in the class have 5 or 6.

I tell myself that part of it is just being 3 and pushing the boundaries, but man it's tough.  I don't want to come down on her all the time because with both of us working we like to have time in the mornings and evenings as quality time, not constant punishment time.

We need help!!!

Suggestions welcome, please just email me if you have anything....  angmize@comcast.net

Dressed for Success...

I was looking on Etsy for something special for Erin to wear to the family reunion in WA in May.  I saw some really cute stuff and some really simple stuff.  Most of it was priced a little high for as simple as it was.  I love the pillowcase dresses so I decided to make one. Most of them were $30 to $40 bucks on Etsy. They are simple enough to make that I knew I could do it.  I found some on-line instructions and went to the fabric store.  I got enough to make 3 dresses for $40 bucks!

Because I am so forgetful, I didn't take a picture of the first one I made, but decided to make Reese one in a different color.  Roy and Nanette are so nice to let us stay at their place at the Mize Camp that I wanted to make them a little thank you.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  (It's the yellow and pink one.)  I liked those so much I went to the store and got a pattern for a different looking dress.  I found some cute material at Wal-mart of all places and made her a 2nd dress.  (Its the blue one.)

From time to time I really like to sew.  One of my problems is that I buy too much material in case I mess something up.  So, I have extra most of the time.  It does come in handy every now and then.  I find that sewing really relaxes me.  I just sit up in the spare room with the door closed and my ipod blaring and sew my little heart out.  I have to do it when Erin isn't home because she would be pretty busy "helping" me.  That would not be relaxing.  I ended up with enough material from the blue dress to make another one just like it...Too bad I can't do boy's clothes - William and Erin could be twins at the Reunion!

Just An Update...And a Great Escape...

The flowers in the Kill Zone seem to be settling in.  Tommy got home from his trip to Dallas and said he really liked it.  I don't think my picture did it justice over the phone.

Headed to the Country today for our Mize Easter celebration.  I'm sure Granny will have the kiddos hopped up on sugar not long after get get there.  I found some white plastic eggs with a shell that you can dye.  They feel like they're filled with styrofoam.  Much easier then boiling real eggs (and much less fragile and smelly).  I bought the dye kits and will take them up there today in case the kids want to dye Easter Eggs.  I haven't done that in years.  In fact, we've never done it with Erin.  She does that at my parent's house every year.

I haven't updated you on Scooby lately.  He's moved in and a part of the family like he'd been here for years...He even ran away!  (Maybe that should tell me something about how happy he is at home!)  He really is a sweet dog.  So glad we got him.

I was moving the trash can out to the road while Tommy was gone.  Our HOA will not let you leave the trash can out where they are in view.  So, it's behind the gate on the side of the house.  The dogs were in the backyard and I didn't think much of it.  I opened the gate and started pulling the trash can thru.  (It's pretty big.)  They bolted out beside me and ran into the front yard.

They've been in the front yard before, so I wasn't too worried. I started calling them to put them up and Scooby took off for the neighbor's yard.  I called and called and he kept going, going, gone.  Mae was hot on his heels.  She did turn around and run back to me, but then she realized Scooby wasn't with her so she turned around and caught up to him.  They were gone...

This fat butt tried running up the street after them but they were just too fast.   I was never going to catch up to them.  So, I turned around and headed for the truck.  The last I saw them they were running right at the stop sign at the end of our street.  (We live on a cul-de-sac in a "no exit" section of our sub-division.)  They were running towards the main street.

In the truck I got to the stop sign but didn't know if they had gone straight thru the woods or right or left on the main road.  I drove right and after a bit of not seeing them I encountered a man that was walking.  I knew that he hadn't seen them because they would have attacked him.  I turned around and went the other direction.  Nothing.  I had one direction left to go.  I drove into the section on the other side of the woods.  They appeared to have vanished into thin air.

After about 30 minutes of driving around I finally spotted them.  They had run thru the woods into the section across from us.  The inmates were sniffing around a trash can.  I pulled over and called them.  Mae came running so I snatched her up and put her in the truck.  I called Scooby and he did come running...running, running, running and gone again.  He ran right in front of a truck, but luckily the guy had stopped and was going really slow when he saw me with Mae. It gave me a heart attack.

I got down on all 4's calling Scooby and he finally came running.  I tackled him and wrestled him to the ground in some random front yard.  In my haste to leave the house I had forgotten to bring a leash with me.  So, I had to carry him back to the truck. I've never been to happy and so mad in my life!

The minute we got home they ran to the water dish.  They were very thirsty after their adventure.  I'm just so lucky and thankful that Mae stuck to Scooby.  Surprisingly she is better behaved outside than Scooby.  It's so totally the other way around inside the house.

It's never dull at our house.

The Kill Zone...

We have a nice flower bed right outside our window in the back yard.  Problem is that nothing manages to live there!  I have dubbed it the Kill Zone.

It's got sprinklers in it and it gets shade and sun so I can't figure out what the problem could be.  We had azaleas in there since I missed my East Texas Azaleas, but they were looking like sticks when I dug them up.

I decided to take back the Kill Zone.  I researched some hardy plants for that area and went to town.  I picked Bougainvillea and Lantana.  Both are "tropical" and hardy in really hot climates.  The back of the house gets full setting sun so it gets scorching hot back there in the summer.  Bougainvilleas are supposed to be very hardy.  They're a vine, so I bought a little trellis so they can climb.  Tommy failed to see my vision when I was explaining it all to him.

I bought all the stuff and did the whole thing myself.  I had to weed it first because it gets grass in it from the yard guy.  He mows and blows all the grass seeds into that bed and for some reason, it's always full of grassy weeds.  The other flowerbeds all look nice, this one just gets full of weeds.  I guess it isn't a complete Kill Zone since the weeds like it!

Here are a couple of picks of the Kill Zone.  I hope to shoot some more later this summer with them in full bloom and nice and big.  In fact, as I shot these pictures there was a butterfly circling around the Lantana.