Just Pictures...

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Project Runway Recap and Family Movie Night

This is not going to be a great Project Runway recap. I didn't really pay attention last night. I think part of it might be that I'm not a fan of the "team" challenge and it just didn't feel like Thursday so I wasn't prepared. I guess. In fact, I'm pretty much cheating and most of this recap is going to be plagiarized from this article and this blog Although, if I'm citing my source, it's not really plagiarism, right?

Anyway....

The assignment was to create a "fun and fashionable surf wear look" and pair it with the perfect beachy hairstyle. It's also the first team challenge.

These were the winning designs.
Ra'mon (below) was the designer.

The dresses are cute. They don't really seem very "beachy" but like I said, I didn't really pay attention so maybe I just don't get it. This is Michelle's favorite guy, so we were happy.

Mitchell (left) was "out" He and Ra'mon were on a team. Apparently Mitchell did no work. He has also been in the bottom two the past two weeks. It was time to get rid of this guy. From what I could tell, he can't even sew!

Tonight we are starting a bi-weekly (hopefully) Family Movie Night. It is a more grown up version of our previous family nights. I love the family night idea, but I honestly think my kids were too old for most of the things I wanted to do. They had fun and they continue to ask about them, but during the games and crafts they would seem bored or preoccupied. Since they do ask about them and I love them, I decided to take our favorite parts of family nights and create Family Movie Night!

Each week we will choose a movie and theme the night around the movie in some way. Tonight we are going to watch "I Love You, Man"

We've all been wanting to see this movie and it just became available to rent On Demand so that's how I chose the movie.

Our dinner theme is "I Love You, Italian Food" I'm making Chicken Parmesan, garlic bread and salad with homemade creamy Parmesan dressing. For dessert I am serving "I Love You, Cake" and during the movie we will have popcorn (of course!) and "I Love You, Chex Mix"

It seems to be shaping up to be a great night! I'm excited and I'm hoping the kids will be too! I plan on posting some pictures later this weekend.

Family Night #6

Our most recent Family Night was based on a concept by Big Daddy. He suggested we just play some games and the kids could win some party favors as prizes. I asked what kind of games and he suggested just old-fashioned games. So I took the idea and ran with it....

Welcome to Family Night - Classic Games Edition!

Everybody got a score card for the night.

We played Boggle and UNO. Easy but fun and both classics.

Toss Up is a very simple dice game that the kids have played several times since Family Night!

Big Daddy took care of dinner. He picked up Personal Pan Pizzas from Pizza Hut. We don't have a Pizza Hut in our delivery area, so this was a special treat! BD and I tried the new Lasagna they are promoting...yummy!

We also played the classic game Barrel of Monkeys!

No one was really very good, except BD...

He taught us all a lesson!

And the girls really paid attention!

We played Hide and Seek after the board games were done. The kids loved this. I think they would have played all night, but funny how the game isn't as fun when you grow up and start running out of places big enough to hide in! Mr. T is an amazing Hider. He hid in the bathroom cabinet and the dryer. Yes, he's that flexible (and tiny!)

The last game of the night was not as popular with the kids as it was with BD and me.

Bozo's Grand Prize Game!

This is where all the prizes came into play. We just had party favors for prizes. No one got past Bucket #2, but we gave them all the prizes anyway!

As usual, such a great time!

It seems like we've had more Family Nights than this, so I went back and checked the blog. Only 6....

1) Olympics
2) State Fair
3) Game Show
4) Opposite Night
5) Football
6) Classic Games

The Return of Family Night!

Tonight was a Football themed Family Night. I decided on a football theme since next Sunday is Super Bowl and the kids will be with their Mommie Dearest. So we pretty much had a Super Bowl party without that pesky game to distract the men!

Those who had their own jersey wore them...

Mr. T wore his own type of Football gear...

We played a football themed ring toss game

And Charades with football words, like Punt
(which is what I believe I was acting out here!)


The table was decorated with all things football...


And dinner came from the Concession stand!

We ended the night with a football themed movie,
Leatherheads with George Clooney.

It ended up not being a very good movie,
not so great for kids (even teenage ones)
so we cut it off early.

Despite the poor movie choice, we had a lot of fun. I think this was the best Family Night yet!

Family Nights are so easy to plan. Use things you have around the house or things you find on sale (like all the football deco!) and plan a night based around them. I've said it before, but Family Nights work no matter what age your kids are. So many of the moms in the bloggy world have kids 10 years younger than mine, but it doesn't matter how old they are, kids just love the true quality family time this tradition ensures! I am hoping to have one at least one Family Night per month this year! Now, go check out Heather's blog for a lot more Family Night ideas and have one yourself!

A little bit of this, A little bit of that and still no pictures

This...
Here's the response I got from John Deere about a donation for Coleman...
Thank you for taking the time to contact John Deere. Although it is always difficult to learn about the struggles of a young person with serious illness, we were encouraged by the information available describing the strong spirit of Coleman Larson. Deere provides millions of dollars annually through corporate donations and the John Deere Foundation to non-profit organizations that address world hunger, community betterment and education.

Each year, John Deere is asked by hundreds of worthy organizations and individuals to help their cause. While it is clear that nearly each request is worthy, we must decline many of the opportunities. Our charitable-giving guidelines do not allow donations to individuals or to organizations in honor of an individual. In addition, our guidelines do not provide financial support to health care research. Through our considerable tax contributions annually, we believe we help support significant government-funded medical research that someday might find a cure for cancer and other deadly diseases.

We appreciate the well-intended effort to initiate company support for this family and we hope you understand how our guidelines simply do not allow Deere to assist in this way. We encourage you to help where you can and we will remain hopeful for a positive outcome.

John Deere

So, on to Plan B. We won't stop until Team Larson stops and Team Larson Neva Divs Up (never gives up)!

That...

We had a Family Night last night! The theme was Opposite Day.

The night started with an unplanned Disco dance party. I turned the music on (no TV on family nights) while I was starting to cook and the dancing and singing just broke out! That is always fun!

We had breakfast for dinner and played a (homemade) game called He Said, She Said. We had a lot of fun as always, but family nights on school nights, just don't work out as well. We still wanted to play the game Apples to Apples, but it was already 9:00 and Kitty had to finish her homework. There were also baths to be had and bed times to be met, but fun was had by all and we spent some quality time together and that is the real point of Family Nights!

The other...

Migo went back to training. The plan was for him to be home for about a month and then go back for more advanced training. He needs it! He's a working-class dog and really needs a job to do daily (training is considered a job in the dog world, I guess???) If I don't get out to take him for a walk, he drives us all crazy, so we'll see how things work out.

We rearranged all the furniture in our living room. We put the TV over the fireplace. It is much cozier now and we will be able to enjoy the fireplace this winter. We really did not take advantage of it last year.

There are only 41 days until Christmas!

And the end...

My plan is to get my camera synced to this computer over the weekend. I also need to transfer all my pics from my old computer. So, hopefully new pictures will be coming soon.

My mom is having a simple out patient procedure tomorrow morning, so I will be at the hospital keeping my Dad company. Once I see my Mom is well and on her way home, I'll be on my way around town to run some errands.

And Saturday might hold a chance for a date night! What about you? Any fun plans for the weekend?

Catching up...

Wednesday I was planning a "mini" Family night. We haven't had one for a while and we needed to carve pumpkins and watch Charlie Brown, so I thought this would be a great way to sneak a bit of family time in. Unfortunately, this happened....

while I was cleaning up from dinner on Tuesday. It was an easy fix, but (due to BUSY schedules all around) it took Big Daddy a couple of days to get it done, so we had dinner out an Wednesday.

So, sorry no Family Night (again)!

Family Night #3

My kids LOVE family nights. Every Friday they ask if it is a Family Night! Unfortunately, because we're a Busy, Blended family we don't have the time to do family night weekly, but we do get in at least one a month.

Tonight was Game Show Night!
Soooo, Come On Down, your the next guest at Family Night!

Craft - Create game show name tags.

Food - Check out this super-cool "Meal or No Meal" Menu board!

One of the items was peeking through!



Mr. T and Kitty helping with dinner!

Games - The Price is Right.
We got this game a few weeks ago and had not played it yet.
It was the inspiration for tonight's theme.


The excitement of being called to Contestant's Row!


And then we played the Feud!


The classic pre-show generic family pose!



Awww...how sweet!


After Dinner Chatter

Kitty took over as photographer later in the evening.
I think she really captured something in this one!

And, don't forget to check out Jacinda (the cutest Baby night idea!)
and Heather (you gotta see Seanna's banana dog!)

Family Night #2

We didn't make it to the State Fair this year (or in any recent years) so this week's family night theme was State Fair.

We ate fair foods...
Here's RED working the counter!

Nothing healthy! Ever had a deep-fried candy bar?


Played carnival games.
The Duck Pond = 1 ticket to play!
J's excited about his prize at the duck pond! And T wants the line to move faster!

Everyone got tickets and you had to pay for everything
(just like the at the fair!)

We capped off the night by using up our final tickets for popcorn and movie admission.

A quick shout-out to Heather and Jacinda for starting the Family Night trend. I hesitated to start these thinking maybe my kids were too old, but they love it!

Good night everybody!