Christmas Gift lists

So here are some ideas for Christmas gifts if you need them!

Bourbon:
Bakugan (he doesn't have any yet!) Battle Brawlers (not the figurines, but the ones that look like little balls that they play the game with)
Bakurack storage rack or the storage clips for the balls
He wants an easy bake oven, lol.
Arts & crafts kits
Science kits
model kits
remote control cars
Nintendo DS case/ storage/ games/ accessories
Gift certificates for Gamestop
He wears size 12 clothes, and size 5 1/2 shoes.


Roman:
Bakugan Battle Brawlers (really wants preyas)
Bakurack storage or clips for storing the battle brawlers
Build a robot kit
remote control cars
model kits
arts & crafts kits
wooden nutcrackers (he wants to collect them, Santa brought him one last year in his stocking)
Nintendo DS case/storage/games/accessories
gift certificates for build a bear workshop
He wears size 10 clothes and size 3 1/2 shoes

Starla:
Wooden blocks
Baby doll accessories
Dora DVD's
Dora toys
DVD player (my mom is supposed to get her a TV for her room for Christmas, but she won't have a DVD player for it unless someone else gets it!)
Tinkerbell room or bed accessories (she is getting a tinkerbell toddler bed for her room from us!)
elephant figurines (she has a small collection started! She loves elephants)
She wears size 2T and size 7 shoes.

Alan:
Alan wants a CD player for his van, he wants to get his windows tinted, and he needs new clothes, and loves video games (not that he has much time to play them!). So the best bet is to give him cash or gift certificates for places that he can get these things!

Me!
Cast iron skillet
Paula Deen cookbooks
cookbooks in general
Food processor
fun kitchen gadgets
scrapbook accessories or organization stuff
project books (like sewing, arts and crafts, etc)
gift certificates to Cato, Barnes & Noble, Target, Micheals or Hobby Lobby.

Alrighty then! I hope that gives you enough ideas!

Thanksgiving!

The boys pretty much made all 3 pies by themselves! They had a great time. We made a pumpkin pie, a turtle pumpkin pie (you can never have too many varieties of pumpkin pie in my opinion!) and a chocolate pecan pie!

Bourbon poses with the pecan pie!

Bourbon works on the turtle pumpkin pie!

Starla plays in a roasting pan!

We really didn't take any pics of the actual Thanksgiving festivities! My parents, Aunt Theresa, Destiny and Jamie all came over for lunch.

Here is our Little Family on Thanksgiving Day!

My 'Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary grades' class had a project at the Overholser Mansion. We were to dress up in character and give a 'living history' presentation to 4th graders from the local elementary school. We had to research our era and character and be able to interact and discuss what was going on in that time. If we participated in this project, we didn't have to take the final. So of course, I was in! This is the front of the mansion.

I had never been to the mansion before, it was really neat. They give tours Tues-Sat for $3. The mansion isn't restored, it is preserved. The Overholser family kept everything in tact, and didn't even use the bottom floor after a while so they could preserve it, then it was donated to the state. I had to research Overholser and the other men that were instrumental in getting Oklahoma City up and flourishing, which were Classen, Shartel and Colcord. It was pretty interesting!

Here is a side view, from the carriage house.
Here are some pictures of the inside of the house.

Here is my classmate Lori and myself. Our group was from 1915. She was Mrs. Overholser and I was her daughter's nanny. This is before I got my big floppy hat on! This was in the carriage house, where we got ready.

Here we are in front of the parlor,where our group was stationed. We had Mrs. Classen, Mrs. Shartel, Mrs. Overholser and then me, the nanny. Here we are with the girls from the 1940's group. There were 4 groups, 1915, 1920, 1930 and 1940, in the house. Then there were the maids who were doing a stained glass activity, and then girls dressed up as the daughter and her friend that were in the carriage house teaching the charleston and playing games from the 1900's.

Here are the maids

Here are the cooks from the 1930's, and the girls from the 1940's.

Here are the girls fromteh 1940's upstairs in a bedroom where they were supposed to be stationed. The kids were supposed to be there at 9:30 am, and break up into small groups and visit each group for about 15 mins.

Here are the maids, the girls who were teaching the dance & games, and the 1920's group, flappers!

At 9:45, the kids hadn't shown up yet. The lady who ran the place toldus they didn't get their permission slips and couldn't leave the school. So we were going to them instead, about 3 blocks away. Now we no longer had the house and props to help us act, and we now were going to be in an auditorium in front of 60 kids instead of little groups!

Here we are in the library doing the stained glass activity.

Our group went first, since we were 1915. I have my big floppy hat on now. We talked about the husbands of the women and what they did for oklahoma city, oklahoma history, and what was going on in 1915.

We borrowed one of the girls dressed up as the daughter for a prop. She sat on the stage next to me, since I was the nanny. I got to talk about what she was doing as a 10 year old in 1915.

Then the 1920's group went, then 1930's,and last 1940's. After that we broke them up into 2 groups, half went upstairs to the library to do the stained glass activity with the maids, the rest stayed in the gym and learned the charleston and played some games. Then they switched. It was alot of fun. I'm glad I got to take part in it, I learned a lot and had a great time! It sure beats taking a final!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for the new Thanksgiving song Aunt Kim!

My book

So one of the projects in my 'art for elementary teachers' class was a bookmaking project. First we had to write a short little story, then we did a story board to figure out our layout, and then we had to create our book using different types of media (watercolor, tempra paint, collage, drawing, etc). We got our books back today, I got 100%. My teacher liked it so much she asked if she could keep it. I told her no, I worked really hard on it, and I really like it! So instead she said when I get it published I have to send her a copy. :)
So here it is:

Starla & Veruca

The Fairy and The Pixie

Written & Illustrated

by Tonya Little

Starla Harmony is a fairy. She has little colorful wings like a butterfly.

She lives in Sweetbriar Hollow. Lots of other creatures live there too.

Starla's best friend is a pixie named Veruca.

Veruca has long, thin wings like a dragonfly. She also lives in Sweetbriar Hollow.

Starla & Veruca like to sit in the lilygrass next to calliope pond.

They eat roasted sugarbean nuts and make up stories about the old yetti that lives up in archaic mountain.

Sometimes the fairy and the pixie help the willowby bears tend their gardens

Sometimes they go listen to the gnomes tell stories in the forest.

But whatever they do, they do it together, because everything is more fun with your best friend.

The End

Starla likes it alot. :)

Novemeber is National Novel Writing Month. And there is this organization that does this annual writing marathon for it each year. You have to write 50,000 words starting Nov 1st and ending on Nov 30th. I have always wanted to write a book, but thought I would just have to wait until the kids were all grown up and I 'had the time'. This organization is trying to show people that anyone has the time, that writing a novel doesn't have to take a year or more. Their marathon is about quanity, not quality. You are actually not supposed to go back and read anything you have already written, or edit in any way shape or form until after Nov. They just want you to write and write and get the story out there, and then you can take the time to edit, revise, and polish it up. So, here we are, a week left of the month. I am about at 40,000 words! I am bound and determined to do it! You don't 'win' anything. You are considered a winner if you finish. And a bookbinding company has offered everyone who 'wins' a hardbound copy of their story when they are done with it, which is kind of neat. I think I will make it, so I'm pretty excited. Then I will give myself the next semester to polish it up and get it ready to submit for publishing. Maybe I can get a book published. My story actually has all the same characters from the above story, in the same place. But it is for a little older audience. But still young adult. I'd like to write a series. Like the next Harry Potter. :) Wish me luck.

Starla

Daddy, Roman & Starla cuddled up watching Kung Fu Panda. I figure the boys get posts about their hobbies and happening, Starla should get one with her antics in it too!

I love her monkey feety pj's!
She looks deep in thought, :)



Always on stage........


Starla LOVES to paint, and would do it all day every day if I would let her!

Every night before I go to bed, I sneak into Starla's room just to steal a glimpse of her sleeping. It is my favorite part of my day. She usually is sleeping in some odd way, which always makes me smile. About half the time, I can't help but go grab the camera and take a picture. This was one of those times.....

Roman's 1st Bakugan Tournament

Toys-r-us has started holding Bakugan tournaments. We couldn't go to the first one, this was the second one they have had. So at 10:30am we went out there to play. Roman had never actually played the game, and didn't know how, but he learned!

It seemed pretty complicated at first, but we started to get the hang of it. I thought I would get to go and take one of my schoolbooks with me and I could read for the 2 hours of the tournament. No such luck! I had to learn the game with him, and watch over each game to make sure he was doing it correctly and that the other kids weren't taking advantage of him since they were very good and he wasn't! He probably played 6 matches during the tournament, and lost every one of them, but he got some free bakugan prizes just for playing, so he was happy with that.

They had 4 boards set up, and so 4 games could be played simultaneously. They just switched people out and played over and over again until the last 15 minutes, which were the finals. Those that had won the most games (they did keep track of all games!) got to play in the finals. There were probably 15 kids there. They all had WAY more bakugan stuff than Roman. Notice the red thing on his wrist, it is a Bakugan shooter, allowing you to shoot your guy onto the gameboard instead of rolling it. When we walked up to the tournament, 15 mins early, 3 of the 4 kids there were wearing one, so he insisted we had to buy one before the game began. So he spent his birthday money on all bakugan stuff (as if he didn't get enough for his birthday!). And he couldn't use it for the tournament, because he didn't know how!

But now he knows how to play, and is going to practice and teach Bourbon how to play when he gets home from his dads house tomorrow. He is already looking forward to the next tournament.

What fun!

Bourbon's Basketball

Here are a few shots of Bourbon's basketball games. He is number 21. Here is taking a break

He is really good at running up and down the court, but isn't very agressive when it comes to trying to get the ball.

But he does try to block!

I love all the extracuricular things the school has to offer. The sports are only for the 4th & 5th, but they are pretty neat. They get to participate in 4 different sports if they want, 4 weeks of each. First he had flag football, now basketball and next are volleyball and track. He's going to do all of them.

He also joined the "Pod Squad" at school. They make podcasts! Twice a month they meet after school to learn how to, and to actually creat podcasts for the school. Students can come to the library and listen to them. They can choose to do a book talk about books they have read, or they can act out a book, or various other ideas! He's only been once so far, but he really likes it.

They also have book clube every couple of months, where the kids stay after school for 4 days and read the same book and talk about it. He enjoys those clubs as well.

Variety is the spice of life

So I love the fact that the boys get such different and rich experiences in their lives. All in one week they get an outing with dad and an outing with mom with such different aspects!

Last Wednesday Alan took them out to Hooters for wings........

Silly Alan

And then they went to the opening season game of the new OKC Thunder

Nothing like wings & Basketball for the boys to learn how to be men, lol

Looks like it was fun!

And then come sunday the boys get an outing with mom, with a much different theme.......

We went to the "Under the Big top" symphony at the Philharmonic. It is the discovery family series, geared for kids. It was during naptime, so Starla didn't get to go. And Alan was at work, so it was just the boys, Aunt Theresa and myself.

First we played with the clowns....

Then we went over to the instrument playground where they got to try out any and every instrument that they wanted to! They had a blast!!

Roman's hot air is put to some use.....

Then it was time for the show, which was an hour long. They had like 6 songs, and the clowns and other dancers came out and did stuff while the philharmonic played. It was really neat!

The boys kicked back and relaxed!

Yep, all in one week; wings & basketball and The symphony.