Back to school for the kiddos

Today marks the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year in our household. 

The last 2 nights we have had open houses at the kids' schools. Tuesday night was at the boys' elementary school. Last night was open house for Rebecca at the middle school. Yep, Rebecca is going to the middle school! Can't believe she is that old...

Anyhow, back to school was today. In our district, the first day of school for the middle and high schoolers is just for the incoming 6th graders and 9th graders as they get acclimated to the building, etc. So Rebecca had school today! She was so excited but very nervous as well. (It didn't help that my van wouldn't start this morning when Bill left to take her to school! Aarghh…)

After she left, it was time to get the boys up. They were so full of energy this morning-- more so than they normally have. LOL We got them off to school and unlike last year when Ben cried every day for a week when we left, today he gave Bill and I a hug and ran into the building ready for the first day! 

This afternoon, I had lunch with a good friend and then was home when Bill brought Rebecca home. She had a great day other than not being able to find her locker at the end of the day. I told her to figure out the classroom number where it is near so she will know where it is. She was all smiles though and happy about how her first day went. The boys also said that they had a great day! 

As for me, it was full of the emotions of the kids being older, a stupid van that wouldn't start and needed towed, stepping in mud in flipflops as I was taking the boys to school, and just being exhausted. I think that tonight is going to be an early bedtime for everyone! Because my alarm will be going off way too early again tomorrow morning. LOL 

Can we paint like Bob Ross?

So yesterday I mentioned that on Saturday we had stopped at our local craft store to get some canvases and paint for a special project. Well, we decided to have a painting party in our living room. A few months ago, we came across some old Bob Ross shows on Netflix. The kids loved watching them and they brought Bill and I back to simpler times. Ever since then, it kept getting asked what if we followed along on one of his shows? Could we really paint like Bob Ross?

Source

Well, Saturday night we took on the challenge. Bill chose an episode on Netflix. We set out our supplies and got to work. We did not use oil paints like he does as they are expensive. Instead we used acrylics that we had. The boys (Jacob and Ben) used watercolors as I don't trust them yet with acrylics. We told them that they didn't have to follow along if they didn't want to.

It was a fun couple of hours with laughs. It was fun watching the kids really get into the activity.
In the end, we all had a lot of fun and agreed we will have to do this activity again sometime soon!

Jacob and Ben ended up creating their own masterpieces::

Bill, Rebecca and I followed along to Bob Ross::

Here is Bob Ross' finished project...

Here is Bill's finished project...

Here is Rebecca's finished project...

Here is my finished project...

So to answer, can we paint like Bob Ross? I think so. I love that the paintings are similar but different. I absolutely love how they turned out. Now I have to go find a place to hang them all!

Do you like watching old Bob Ross episodes? Have you ever tried painting like Bob Ross?

Last weekend before school starts fun! (photo heavy)

Happy Monday! I can't believe that my kids go back to school this week. We have open houses and first days of school for all 3 kiddos later this week. We spent this past weekend trying to fit in some last minute Summer fun as Bill had both Friday and Saturday off of work. We knew that we didn't just want to stay home. So on Friday we....

• Went to the Library book warehouse. This is a huge warehouse filled with used books for sale. The books come through by donation, through the library, etc. They have thousands, upon thousands of books. You can stuff a bag (Kroger size) for only $5. It is a great place to look for books and I have started donating books to them. All the proceeds go toward paying for community events, youth programs at the library, etc. 
  
• Then we stopped and picked up Burger King for lunch and ate it at the Children's Garden.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• We headed out to Utica and to Velvet Ice Cream for some yummy ice cream cones. I had banana cream pie ice cream and it was so good. We had to eat pretty quickly though as it was so humid and hot outside. The kids loved looking at the ducks.  
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• We stopped at Legend Hill's Orchard to pick up cucumbers for dinner and a small thing of peaches. Honestly, I wasn't impressed with their produce and thought that they had raised their prices. This is usually where we go to pick apples in the fall, so we shall have to see.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• We stopped at a local park for the kids to play. There is major road construction in the area so there was only one other family at the park. It was nice for the kids. Rebecca climbed up higher on the rope ladder than ever before. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We were supposed to have movie night, however I ended up going to bed with a monster headache. 

On Saturday, we decided to just go with the flow and we ended up having another fun day. We started our day off by

• going to the Farmer's Market. There is a big festival on the town square, so they had the market in a different location this week. While there, the kids were given coins worth $5 a piece by the health department that they could spend on fruits and veggies. Jacob picked out tomatoes and zucchini. Ben wanted corn on the cob and cucumbers. Rebecca spent all of hers on green beans! LOL 
  
• The market was at a train depot, and they had their model railroad display open for the public viewing. It is usually only open once a month. Ben LOVED the display and we were there for probably over an hour looking at it. The railroad club that puts this together said that they have been working on this display for 4 years in it's current location. It was really intricate and neat.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• We headed from the train depot over to Ariel-Foundation park for some exercise. I decided the entire family was going to do the tower. Jacob was terrified, however he was a trooper and he made it all the way to the top. He said when we came back down that he was never going to do it again. LOL 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After the park we headed over to Wendy's for some lunch. Then we stopped at Pat Catan's, our local craft store, so that I could pick up some canvases and paints for a special project that we were going to do (which I will share with you tomorrow!). 

On Sunday, Bill had to work. The kids and I went to mass and I let them play on the playground after. The rest of the day was spent puttering around, doing laundry, making zucchini bread and just chilling. 

Today, I need to go to the bank and Aldi this morning. This afternoon I have a tutoring session, then I think I may say that we need another family walk. I am sure Bill and the kids will love that. LOL 

Here's to a great Monday!