GO PATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I promise there won't be many sports references in my posts ... but I just had to stick in a word for my favorite football team!

I'm slow to pass along that the kids got their report cards (second marking period) ... Betsy had straight As again, and Brendan had As and one B (again). Both improved on their "work habits" progress report part of it, too. I'm so proud of them both!! Betsy is turning into a bookworm, I think - she tries to read everything that crosses her path. Brendan is starting to appreciate books more but he'd rather do something hands on. He is in Cub Scouts this year - I just started taking him to den meetings and we are BOTH having a blast. They made slime last Wednesday and it is the neatest stuff. Here's the recipe:

This is what you need per recipe made.

Equipment needed:
two bowls or containers (minimum 2 cups for one, and 4 for the other)
2 plastic spoons
1 glass measuring cup with measuring markings (at least 1 cup)
1 cup measuring cup (plastic/dry measure)
1 teaspoon
heavy (freezer weight) ziploc bag, anything bigger than a sandwich bag

Slime ingredients

warm water
elmer's white glue
borax
food coloring

In smaller bowl:
Combine 3/4 cup warm tap water with 1 cup elmer's
Add 2-3 drops of food coloring, and stir with 1 spoon carefully until combined

In larger bowl:
Put 1 1/3 cups warm tap water in bowl. Add 4 teaspoons borax, and stir gently with a clean spoon until borax dissolves completely.

Pour contents of smaller bowl into the larger bowl. DO NOT STIR!! Let stand for at least one minute. Reach in and pull out your slime!!

Store in heavy weight ziploc. Be very careful not to get into clothes, hair, or the rug, and wash hands before and after using.

THIS IS NOT EDIBLE!! Keep away from small children.

Andrew is now wearing a size 10 and a half shoe ... not really noteworthy, except that it is the same size as Betsy's shoes!! I have a feeling that in about six months, he'll be wearing a size larger. We'll have to see. He is finally showing an interest in drawing - he made Mike the neatest picture the other day; one side had people (circles with stick arms and legs) and the other side had rockets. It was really, really neat.

Justin is talking a lot more. He's starting to string words together, and he's been trying to count ("1, 2, tee (3), pi (5), sis (6), 8, 9, 10") - we're missing four and seven (and sometimes "tee" and 8, depending on his mood) but they're always consecutive and this is all in the last 2 weeks - the highest he would count then was two. One, two, two, two, two ... lol. He's very "into" Blue's Clues right now - he carries around a notebook and crayon all the time and searches for "coo-coos" constantly.

I've made a little bit of progress on the filet afghan ... not as much as I would like, I took a few days off when I had a migraine. It's currently measuring 65 1/2 inches long by 19 inches wide - I thought each motif was 6 inches but it's actually only about 4.5 inches. So it looks like it's going to take a bit longer to get it as wide as I wanted than I expect - it's a good thing I started it in plenty of time!

Here it is now - I spent the superbowl doing the fourth motif! This has been a really relaxing project to work on.



Other WIPs:
blanket for Ryan (round ripple, just started)
Goldie's poncho (about 50% finished)
Betsy's poncho (about 15% finished)

I hope you all have a wonderful day!