Boo!

Here are the eyeball cookies I made for Summer's class. Very easy, just sugar cookies(I cheated and used the Pillsbury ready to bake dough) vanilla frosting, green gummy lifesavers, choc chips for the pupils and red decor gel for the veins(lovely). FYI-I made 40 cookies and required 2 bags of lifesavers and 3 red gels. It also took 3 packages of cookie dough because while I was baking (during dinner) Jason helped himself to a handful. Apparently he thought I was just being nice and baked him cookies.
He made a trip to the store.

So as I am typing, Grady just approached me with a strange red smear on his face. That little bugger used a stool and helped himself to a cookie! Good thing there are 10 extra, just for circumstances like these:) Teagen wants nothing to do with them. She thinks they look gross.

And I leave with a pic of our "Bubba-Dog", Griffin. The night we did pumpkins, he and our other (smaller) dog, Chase, got into it when she tried to take a snack away from him. For one of the 1st times in 9 years, he let her have IT. Totally not his nature at all, ever. He is a gentle giant and just the sweetest. I seriously watched one of Rachael's kids step on his front legs a few weeks ago and he never even budged. he is so good. But Chase has been pushing her luck all over the place and he had had it.We were actually worried that he hurt Chase, but she's got that terrier in her and is tough as nails. Griffin on the other hand is still hurting 3 days later. I think he pulled something in his neck when he lunged at her. He paces, and follows me everywhere. He cant lift his head too high and isn't sleeping well either. He is getting aspirin twice a day and is perking up a bit.

He finally found a cozy spot yesterday on Teagen's bed. I wasn't about to kick him out.

Get better soon, buddy!

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

Self-taught, oh so talented and she gives her creations away bi weekly! If there are any little girls in your life you have to check out this blog. I cannot believe the dress she gave away last week...dreamy:)

How to Carve a Pumpkin-Schultz Style

So almost everyone does the pumpkin thing. When my dear husband came home with 5 giant pumpkins I knew we had to be organized and ready to spend an entire evening on this little project. And this is how we do it.

1st, We have to decided on faces! Jason was super smart a few years ago and saved a newspaper with tons of ideas to get the creative juices flowing. Then we make a rough draft on paper of our creation.

I downloaded a cool new app on my iPod that is a jack-o-lantern that you can mix up his parts. Everyone tried that out to see if there were some parts on there that were fun.

Grady tried too...actually went with that pirate eye patch...

Then we(I) draw on the chosen face. Used washable marker this year. worked great! Better than a sharpie.
Teagen chose a skeleton(I know, weird)

She's cute even when she's blurry!

You must throw a fit. It wouldn't be a family tradition without a good fit(or 3)

Scoop guts just once and pass to Dad.

And after mom and dad carve for hours(for the record, Summer did most of her own) We have 5 masterpieces!

Allow me to introduce...

Teagen's Pumpkin, Ash. No clue where her idea for a skeleton came from or the name either. But she was very sure of herself on both counts.

Grady's, Pirate Peek. Name credit goes to Summer.

Mine is Lydia. 1st name that came to my head. Yeah, I am aware that's weird too.

Summers, Capten Moonlight. her spelling according to the name cards she made up.

And Jason's, David. Because we were referring to him being Michelangelo. He was so into the carving and I was a total grinch. Just not into it. Sorry!

The Gang, 2008.




After its all said and done, take about 20 pictures on the timer to get a family shot. None will turn out so pick the one where everyone looks the least scary. Yes, this is our least scary shot. My hair is out of control and Grady lost his pants. Summer found a winter hat, Teagen kept inching out of the photo, and Jason had been in his PJ's since about 4pm. Its a miracle one of the animals didn't find there way into this shot.

So thats how we do it here at Schultz House.
Happy Halloween!!

Hey all you Mommies

Parents Magizine is giving all these toys away to 1 winner! Go to www.goodyblog.com and leave a comment by next monday. Seriously think of all this under the Christmas tree!

But if any of you happen to win, I would hope you would send a little something our way;) The Bounce Back Racer is on Grady's list...

Good stuff Weekend

Yesterday, we were at my in laws for a fish fry and Jason's brother and his wife and 4 kids were there as well as Alesha and her 2 kids were there. Yeah with us, that makes 9 kids. Yikes. This was a really cute moment: If you didn't already know, me, Laura, Rachael and then Alesha (in that order) had baby boys within 6 months of each other( and Grady,Nick and Reid are all less than 3 months apart). All 4 are sometimes at the birthdays of on of my kids, but Sunday we got to see the 3 Schultz Boys in action. Pretty good for the most part(Grady is going through a trouble maker phase, and Owen, the littlest one, has the most horrible scream I've ever heard) Nick was a pretty good boy, he's grown up a lot. Loving Grady's "gold chains".

I've been on a baking spree. mostly everything containing pumpkin. These are Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I have also made Choco-pumpkin muffins(the cake mix weight watchers recipe)and a Pumpkin Ice cream Dessert. Well, it gives me a reason to use pretty serving plates.

Friday we had our little date night. No plans so we winged it. Favorite mex restaurant for dinner. It was funny because they were so fast that we were like outta there in less than an hour. We were thinking,"now what?" And that jump start on Xmas shopping was irresistible. So what better place than Target. I think we set a record for Jason as far as time spent in that store. We made some decisions on the kids(choosing QUALITY over QUANTITY) the girls are getting American Girl stuff and Grady is getting a train table. That's it. It is so relieving to me.

Anyway, we got done and it was so early that we drove around exploring and talking and listening to music. Finally deciding on Glenside Pub for dessert-Chocolate Fondue(see I always get what I want in some sort of way) But I do want to still go to The Melting Pot, Jason. Consider this a not-so-subtle hint.

So today, Jason is processing his deer. My house is a wreck. I need to wrap up some details on Halloween costumes and decide exactly how to make and transport 28+ eyeball cookies for Summer's class.

And Jason came home yesterday with 5 GIANT pumpkins that need carving. Tuesday, I think. I really thought we only needed 3, but he said he wanted his own and of course I would need one too. So we will be carving pumpkins until dawn. Well, it wouldn't be the first year. I think we started last year at like 8pm. not good. But whatever. You should see the pumpkins my dad carves. Unreal. They are like sculptures. If he does one this year, I'll post pics. And hopeful I'll have some good ones of us carving ours too.

Mom and Dad need time too

So I get to have a suprise date night tonight! Rachael needed a sitter for tomorrow so we are doing a little sitter-swap. The only downer is that we can't go out together!

So what should we do? At first, we were totally going to the Red Wings game. But after really thinking that through, it would cost us more than $300 and thats just silly. I can think of a TON more things to spend $300 on. Like paper. kidding. sorta.

So then I got this idea that I wanted to go to the Melting Pot in GR. Never been, but I love fondue(who doesnt?). However, after spending some time on their website, I realize that we wont get out of there for less than $100. Not sure I can justify that. Even if our dates are "seasonal"(about 4 times a year) thats a lot of $$ for dinner. Again, that equals a lot of paper. OK and other scrapbook and art supplies.

Most likely, we will end up at El Burrito, have a few drinks, and shop for Xmas gifts. I even have free movie tickets, but we cant stop talking long enough to sit through a movie. And there is nothing I really want to see.

Anyway, good luck to Rachael with all the monsters. And thank you Rae-Mae.

And I 'll post tomorrow on what we decided:)

Calgon, take me away...

Just had a few of those moments today. I mean, there is always a few every day, but some days affect me more than others. Today I yelled. A lot.

Summer is so pokey in the morning. It drives me crazy. She gets distracted easily. We get into the car, she's finally buckled(2 carseats and a booster is not conducive to easy buckling) and she forgets to brush her teeth. I still get her to school on time(today, that is) and I get home with the littles and its just one annoyance after another. Grady sits on Teagen. Yes he's younger, but he's bigger. Teagen is refusing to got to the bathroom alone. Come on. It was just irritating to me. She's made because she thinks I dressed her in Summer's clothes. They are not, but she believes that they look like something Summer would wear. What? I buy both of their clothes, and accept NO input from them. So all their clothes look the same because its my taste!

OK, lunch. Chicken Nuggets. We all leave the room for a second(milk fill-ups) and Chase has stolen a plate of nuggets. For the most part, our dogs are very trustworthy with food that is on tables. But in her old age(shes 10) Chase has kinda rewritten the rules and helps herself to whatever she wants if no on is watching. So I wasn't very nice to her. She's spending some time outside today.

The kicker of my day so far(its not even 2pm) is I just left the room for 2 minutes(bathroom) and come back in to find Teagen and Grady having a stompfest on what was a sleeve of ritz crackers. Cracker crumbs everywhere. I have never seen such a mess. Too bad I sent the dogs out!(that's what I get for being such a meanie) I will never get rid of all the crumbs. It was on the hardwood floors, but of course we don't have laminate, or even newer wood floors. Nope, these are the 100 year old cracked and dented floors. With lots of spaces for the crumbs to hide. I'm getting the dogs to lick it up(I'll mop later)...

So writing it all down has put it in perspective for me. I count myself pretty lucky that this is a bad day at my house. I really have it so good. Its fun to actually have it all written in one place. I love blogging. I love my kids. I love my husband, and yes I love my dogs too.


I leave you with a pic of "The Tank" This is from this past summer, but its football season now and he loves to watch it. Calls out"game!game!" when its on TV. I can't wait until he can play.

I am ready for this...

Just to cement my eternal dorky-ness.

My Little "Loser" and As requested

Summer lost both of her bottom front teeth right towards the end of Summer Break. They are coming up nicely, but I was worried that she would lose her top front before school pics and look about as crazy as a 7 year old can look. Not to mention what it would do to her speech. ONe of them has been loose for a while, but I really thought it would be next week. She just wanted it to hold on until Jason got home. So I'm doing laundry this morning and she comes running down all distraught, with that tiny tooth in her hand. The new tooth pushed it right out. So here is her new smile. kinda has a farmer thing going on.
As I am taking this one of both girls, Teagen says quietly, "I like my teeth". Me too, baby. Me too.
************************************************************************************
I am done with self portraits for a while. It can be a pain and the bad shots make me want to puke.

But here are a few with the new specs....
Excuse the 6 O'clock News hairstyle I got goin' on these days. Its either this or about 30 minutes with the flatiron. I picked this today.




The classic self portrait taken from above with arm outstreched, hence the weird shoulder. Gonna move on to the timer.
Cute glasses, huh? They are so comfortable and I can see SO much better. I guess thats the most important thing! Seven years and 3 babies have changed my already horrible vision.

OK, enough. The only thing that keeps me at this is the fact that we have very few pics of my mom in her 30s (even if she only lived to be 33). I can think of maybe 2 pictures. What I would do for a stack of self portraits of her...



Now if I could only get Grady to cooperate:)

Message to Rachael

You call and complain that Reid's hair is out of control. The last haircuts for each of the boys was at the same time. Unless you can produce a worse "bad hair day" photo of Reid, I am keep the $50 that I have for you.

BTW- This is totally natural. Post-nap. He's a Rock Star.

Random-Schmandom

I once read a blog post on what NOT to write in your own blog. He said to never use the word "random". Seriously, its MY blog, dimwit. He said it will be boring to your readers. Honestly, his blog bored the pants off me and I no longer read it. So here are some random bits and pieces.

I was told that ya'll needed a pic to prove how bad the ugly duckling really is....
packaging is just fine. unbelievable.
I had a craving for homemade mac n cheese tonight (the cruddy weather brings that on)so since I needed to get my glasses in town anyway, we went to walmart to get the stuff to make it. I also decided on some new art supplies and this hat...

This is the cutest thing. I have to say that I normally do not EVER buy character clothes EVER. There are no Dora or Diego shoes in my house. I barely allow mickey(thats a hand-me-down above) or princess stuff. Not my style. Nothing against it. I prefer PLAIN. However, I adore Yo Gabba Gabba! It is like watching hip modern art performing. It is colorful.It is weird. I love it. I would wear this hat if they made it big enough for my giant head. For the record, Rachael also bought this hat for Reid. Its reversible and came with matching mittens. He's a true lefty, I am so proud...
Teagen is currently obsessed with these velvet posters. This time is was a whole pack of Tinkerbell ones. They are now hung all over the place here. She is very careful when coloring and spends a time on it.

Summer's hair looks strange but she just has her hood half up with a head band on. She made a beautiful "Peace" poster. Its kinda funny because Summer is always the peacekeeper of the house. She's just trying to get he message out!
More random. Have you seen these?

Are you ready for this? They are Crocs!!!!! I about died. I so want to try a pair. I just don't get it. I need to touch them, because I do not believe they are like regular Crocs. But I guess they are. I admit that I bought a pair of the mary janes in black in September. They are pretty cute. I love them with cropped pants. Good "Mom" shoes for the every day that slip on and off but are more than flipflops and all the "skimmers" that I usually wear all summer long. And I have 2 pair of the original style that I wore when I was preggers and when they first came out, but keep them only as slippers these days. They are just too big and crazy looking. But these, these are pretty sweet.

And one more, the glasses. No diamonds. But they are lovely. I swear they give me a face lift. They are purple and they are made in Denmark. Which is fine because that's where Jason's company is originally from. And his boss. And Jake Bak. And I am pretty sure there are no sweat shops there. So that's good. I may even post a pic later this week.

I am skipping the debate tonight and watched John and Kate+eight and now there is some freakish pageant babies show on that i will not be able to help myself and watch the whole thing.

That's all I got.

Day 7 and counting...

If its any indication of how I am doing, I am on my 2nd diet pepsi of the day and its just 11am. If I wasn't so tired, I would have made coffee. About 2 days ago the kids really started to work my nerves. I did get out last night and Joan watched the kids so I could go and help with a friends baby shower. It was fun and was with all my "We Can Cook" girls. that's just a funny name for a once a month excuse to hang out and make yummy food that our husbands would call girly, and drink wine(or whatever) We did it up baby shower style and it was really fun. Our friend Amy is having a little girl. We haven't had a baby in the group since Grady. So it is of course, exciting.

So anyway, it was fun, but a stressful day, and I was not very nice(here at home) I had to clean the house, make dessert and get the group scrapbook project that Mya and I planned. Cook dinner for the kids and still get myself ready. I also had baby gift drama. I have to share this...

I found this cute little pull along ducky. The package is boasting, "EverEarth" kid safe, ecofriendly, and made from wood from renewable forest. Organic, recycled, and all that "good" stuff. I am thinking,"what a great addition to the outfit! a cute little eco-friendly duck!" Amy is a bit "granola" and I thought she would appreciate a toy like this. So as I go to wrap it, I open the box to double check that its all in one piece. Its so cute! I turn it over and my jaw drops-literally. Stamped permanently HUGE on the wing is MADE IN CHINA. What? Freakin' idiots. I am so writing to that company. There is no reason that it couldn't have been a sticker. I buy a lot of stuff from China. I don't like it, but it is more important to me to make my house payment than to buy all organic food and clothing and toys and clothes that are not made in China. (like Honduras or Indonesia are any better, lets be realistic here) But I certainly don't want to give an earth-friendly gift stamped Made in China! Yuck!

But don't worry too much about me. I will be fine today. I am relaxing, mostly. I got the call that my stinkin glasses are ready, so I am going to see if maybe they have diamonds encrusted in the frames(they were probably made in China....actually at that price, I a sure they were made in the USA!) The kids are watching TV, and I am OK with that. I just wish they wanted to watch"What Not To Wear". Summer has Spanish Class tonight, and we are eating leftovers. Maybe I'll go play with paper. I just miss Jason so much. He could be home early if he gets a deer. That would be nice. He is such a pain, I love him. The kids miss him, the dogs miss him, and I hate taking the garbage out and pumping gas.

I'm in Love

So there is no question that I love all things old and vintage. My house is over 100 years old and the idea of ever moving to a brand new, just built home does nothing for me. But a big favorite of mine is old photos. I have an ancient album full of photos of strangers and I find it so beautiful and magical. So you can imagine how many times my heart has skipped when I found this amazing site that can turn any photo to look as if its 100 years old. I think its Japanese.
This is Summer, taken on the 1st day of school out on my porch. I think its very ghostly. I adore it.

And another self portrait in my kitchen. I was inspired to do some head shots by a new challenge blog I stumbled across(I seem to do a lot of that) http://www.work-your-soul.blogspot.com/ Of course they didn't turn out how I wanted but I am happy with a few.

I would love to see what anyone else does with the photo aging application. The site is http://labs.wanokoto.jp/olds I am over the moon for it. I know its not for everyone, but the right photo...and wow.

EDITED: I forgot to add that Snapfish has their 50 prints for 50 cents going on right now, the code is FALLPENNY08 and ends the 14th. What a deal!

Zoo Pals and a weekend of nothin'

Alright, so everyone raves about the giraffes, but no one ever told me that they have so much slime!!! Gross, yet still somehow cool.
I didn't take squat for photos, my dad took a lot(but mostly of the animals).

This prairie dog reminds me of the YouTube video that went around for a while. They are some funny critters. They kept posing for the cameras.

The girls looking for zebras...

Teagen was not afraid to get a drink...

Vicious giraffe! There was about 5 cars at the zoo so needless to say the animals were not as well fed as they are all summer.

All in all, not as good as I had hoped. John Ball has WAY more animals and exhibits. However, I tend to feel bad for the animals at John Ball because I think some of the conditions are not so hot. I hate to see them pace back and forth all day and the Bald Eagle just makes me really sad. The animals at Binder seem to have better living areas, but there are just not a lot to see. And that was a hellah a drive. Thank goodness my kids sleep in the car(both ways!). And Rocky was a trooper, doing great with the craziness that comes with 3 littles in public.

Sorry about the bad news...

We are going to Binder Park Zoo today. Teagen asked if we would see dinosaurs. I explained that they were extinct, that they were all dead and have been for a very long time. She was very sad. Opps.

Anyway, wish us luck, we are going with my Dad who has never been on an all day adventure with me and my 3. I am actually taking Summer out of school early, and I have the beginnings of a bad cold, so this should be interesting.

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

Quite literally.

I think Jason was feeling a little bad about being gone so much and told the kids that we would go to the candy shop down the street. Can you think of much else that would get kids outragously excited? We may as well told them that we won the lottery. Walking in the door, Grady starts in with the "WOW! Whoa! Oh man!" It is so funny. Jason actually lets each kid get their own basket and get whatever they want. Which really is not as bad as you would guess. They all only pick a few things(with the exception of Grady, but we just kept pulling stuff out of his basket when he wasn't looking)

Its funny because the kids always pick out gummy and sour stuff, then want the homemade fudge and chocolates that Jason and I get. I really like the cooler wall with all the unique drinks (real diet root beer!) and sodas. There is this carbonated orange juice that is so so good.
We adore this place. The owners are really great people. So nice and generous too. Last year I won a $25 gift basket and you should have seen that thing. The kids thought they died and went to Heaven. And they don't even bat an eyelash at crazy kids. I guess that what you sign up for when opening a candy store.
So if you are in the area, stop in there. Such an awesome, fun kid friendly place. I hope more businesses like this open in Lakeside.