CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOG LAYOUTS, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Friday, November 4, 2011

October 2011 Progress

Completed in October: 1/101
Current Total: 53/101

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (21/30).

After we went pumpkin picking, Liam picked out a couple of little pumpkins for our table centerpiece. He painted them blue, then covered them in orange glitter. They actually came out SO cute, they just didn't photograph well.

We also went on a leaf gathering walk and did some leaf rubbings. He enjoyed the walk much more than the rubbing, and again they did not photograph well LOL.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

39. Visit Massachusetts.



Liam and I just got home from a weeklong trip to Massachusetts. We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends and introducing Liam to Boston!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

September 2011 Progress

Completed in September: 1/101
Current Total: 52/101

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (19/30).

Liam was home sick from school one day, so we had some fun with glitter. He told me what to "draw" with glue, then he sprinkled glitter on it:


We also made this train with pom poms glued to paper:

Monday, September 19, 2011

85. Enter a writing contest.

Eek! I entered my first writing contest today, the Emily. Wish me luck. If I'm feeling brave, maybe I'll post the results over on my writing blog. Finalists will be announced December 15th. I don't expect to get that far, but hopefully the feedback will be helpful (and not too harsh!)

Thursday, September 1, 2011

August 2011 Progress

Completed in August: 2/101
Current Total: 51/101

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (17/30).

We were stuck at home one day while Hurricane Irene blew by, so we decided to tackle some arts & crafts. I saw an egg carton in the recycle bin, so we pulled it out and made egg carton ants and an egg carton caterpillar:


Then we cut this airplane out of a USPS box. Liam added the googly eyes so that it would look like Jeremy the Jet plane from Thomas the Train:


We got bored later that day, and there were packing peanuts that had come in the box we cut up to make the plane. I googled packing peanuts, and did you know that if you get them wet, they become sticky? You can stick them together and make all kinds of stuff. We stuck some to paper, and well, the results weren't too impressive. You have to get just the tiniest bit of water on them or they dissolve completely, so our peanut trains melted, but...we will try this again on another rainy day!


3 crafts in one day!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

57. Go whale watching.

While we were in Redondo Beach, we went on a whale watch. This time of year, blue whales migrate past southern California, so we were excited to go see them.

First off, we saw a Mola Mola, which is the largest bony fish in the ocean.


Next, we saw 2 minke whales, likely a mother and calf.


And finally, blue whales! We saw 4. They were lunge feeding, which was very cool. They would shoot up from below with their mouths open to capture plankton, lunge up into the air, then roll onto their sides back into the water. The photos are not that impressive, but here are a pair of blue whales lunging out of the water:


2 whales spouts:

I'm so glad we were able to do this. I have a special fondness for marine mammals!

68. Go to at least 5 concerts (3/5).


While we were in Vegas, I saw Celine perform at Caesar's Palace. I've seen her in concert a few times before (like 10-15 years ago) and while she's not currently in my iPod I am a long time fan, so I was looking forward to the chance to see her in Vegas. The show was good, although in the middle she got a little too show tunes-y for my taste, instead of performing her own songs. But overall I really enjoyed it.

24. Take a vacation without Liam.

Bill and I took a 5 day trip to Vegas and CA for Chrissy and Paul's wedding. We very much enjoyed the getaway time, and Liam was spoiled rotten by grandparents.




Chrissy and Paul's awesome Elvis wedding!

After 3 nights in Vegas, we headed to Redondo Beach for 2 nights.

Monday, August 1, 2011

July 2011 Progress

Completed in July: 3/101
Current Total: 49/101

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (14/30).

2 more crafts with Liam this month. First, we made some pipe cleaner animals one morning when it was too hot to go outside to play. A dino, a spider and a duck:


We also had a playdate at a pottery painting place, and Liam made some tiles. The first small tile he made was for us. I made the mistake of letting him mix his 4 chosen colors (blue, green, red and purple) all together to make a barf worthy brown. After that I split his colors for the 2 larger tiles we were making for the grandmas.


Red and purple:


Blue and green:

Saturday, July 30, 2011

5. Read 101 books (101/101).

Done! And enjoyed every minute of it! :)

Monday, July 18, 2011

#35 Go to a wine tasting, and #50 Date night


This weekend, Liam spent the night at his grandparents' house, and Bill and I took the chance to go out. We drove up to the Rock of Ages Winery for a wine tasting. We bought 3 bottles of wine. Ironically, the ones I liked best were the cheapest, hopefully buying more than 1 bottle makes it still count! :)

We then stopped in Durham on the way home for some tapas at Cuban Revolution. The food was TERRIBLE. Yuck. How I wish we had a Bongo's Cuban Cafe up here. Anyway, it was still nice to get out for a munchkin free date night.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (12/30).

So Liam and I have been busy trying out a few arts and crafts projects this summer. Some have come out well, some not so much.

Here we tried painting with cookie cutters (something he'd done at school). It came out okay, nothing special. Liam chose to use his dino cookie cutters:




Here we tried another variation of a project Liam had done at school. We made a boat. We tried first with a milk jug, but it was a fail, so we tried again with a juice carton. It was the perfect shape for a boat:


We wrapped it in foil, and gave it a sail.


And tried it out in the bath tub (of course). The sail, as I feared, got a little heavy and fell over, but the boat was a lot of good bath tub fun!


After we got home from the beach last month, we made hand print octopuses (octupi?) and accessorized with googly eyes. This one was fun, and I thought they came out super cute!




Finally, we tried some homemade play dough. We didn't have any cream of tartar, so we just used the old school flour/salt/water recipe. Liam enjoyed mixing.


He was pleased with the results, but the play dough was pretty gooey.


We decided it would be better played with inside plastic bags.


Bill was able to firm up the green with some extra flour, and Liam made this play dough train:

36. Go to the movies 5 times (6/5).

Liam and I have been to the movies 3 times in the past month! Regal Cinemas has a summer special for kids movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for only $1 each. Liam has done fantastic sitting in the theater, and we have been enjoying a new way to beat some of the summer heat. We've seen:


Barnyard - just okay. I thought it was a little violent, and I couldn't get past the male cows with udders. For real?


Despicable Me - this was cute, and Liam really enjoyed it too.


The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - A Veggie Tales Movie. We've never watched veggie tales before. It was okay. The plot was cute, but it was something that would have been better as a half hour show and not a 1.5 hour movie, IMO.

I think we are going to catch a couple more movies this summer too!

Friday, July 1, 2011

June 2011 Progress

Completed in June: 2/101
Current Total: 46/101

5. Read 101 books (98/101).
I read 3 books this month, bringing my total to 98.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

50. Date night, and 68. Go to a concert

On Saturday night, Bill and I went to see the Decemberists at the Raleigh Ampitheatre. We met some of his friends for dinner before the show. It was a chance for a child-free date night, and a concert. I'm not familiar with the band, but they were good. Unfortunately, it started raining right when they took the stage. We were on the lawn, and got pretty wet! Still a fun night!

93. Foster an animal in need.

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to cross this one off before March, but meet Moose!

Moose is our new foster puppy. He a 2 month old Boxer/lab mix. He is available for adoption through Carolina Boxer Rescue. We had been wanting to foster for them for a while (we adopted Lacy from CBR 5 years ago) but the right opportunity hadn't come up with a dog we new would be safe around Liam. Moose is adorable, and a total love. We are enjoying having him with us, and hope he finds his forever home soon (with a face like that, who wouldn't want to adopt him?).




Lacy is loving having a playmate in the house!

38. Get Liam his first pet.

Meet Thomas and James, Liam's fish. Despite their names, they are actually female bettas. Thomas is the blue and red one, and James is red. They are named after a couple of Liam's favorite characters on Thomas & Friends. Unfortunately, something went wrong in their new aquarium, and they nearly died the first night. Liam poured in the water conditioner when I wasn't looking, and I think he may have spilled some. I have nursed them back to some semblance of health now, but it remains to be seen if they will last. If not, James II and Thomas II may be arriving during the night LOL!

It is friggin' hard to photograph a fish in a bowl!


Thomas


James

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

19. Complete 30 new arts & crafts projects with Liam (8/30).

I plan to do a lot of arts and crafts with Liam this summer now that school is out. Anyway, we attempted two homemade projects for the Grandmas birthdays this year. The first was some hand painted flower pots. These came out better than expected. I had him stick to a color scheme for each of the gift pots - warm colors for one, and cool for the other. I let him go wild on the pot we kept for ourselves (I feared he'd mix the red and green to make brown, which is pretty much what happened).




We also tried some mug decorating, which was not such a success. It pretty much looks like a 3 year old scribbled on it. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right? :)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

May 2011 Progress

Completed in May: 4/101
Current Total: 44/101

5. Read 101 books (95/101).
I read 1 book this month, bringing my total to 95.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

47. Publish at least 101 blog posts.

This is actually post #104. Busy blog!

95. Go miniature golfing.


We went miniature golfing here in Emerald Isle, and it was so much fun! Liam is finally old enough to enjoy it, and wanted to go again when we finished. We will definitely do this again soon!

73. Fly a kite.


This year, during our beach vacation in Emerald Isle, we finally planned ahead and bought a decent kite to fly on the beach. We all took turns flying it, and it was a lot of fun. Liam loves his "lizard kite". We'll try this again next year!

Friday, May 20, 2011

25. Write a novel from start to finish.

So here's where I jump around and do the happy dance! Technically, this was a book I had started a few years ago, but after taking a few writing classes, I basically ended up rewriting the whole thing. I finished it last night, coming in at 97k words, which is on the high end for romance, but not terrible. Now, I am on a mandatory 2 week break from even peeking at it, and then revisions begin. Then I can pass it on to my writing group for critiques, and then maybe possibly start shopping around for an agent.

I'm not convinced this book will sell, but it's been a great learning experience, and I am already beginning to map out my next project. I am so excited, and also terrified at the prospect of having actual people other than me start to read it! :)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

36. Go to the movies 5 times (3/5).


I went to see Something Borrowed with the girls from Book Club. We had all read this book about 5 years ago and loved it, and were excited to see the movie. There were a lot of changes from the book, but I really enjoyed it. It was cute, and funny!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

April 2011 Progress

Completed in April: 2/101
Current Total: 40/101

5. Read 101 books (94/101).
I read 6 books this month, bringing my total to 94.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

62. Go strawberry picking.

This morning we finally made it strawberry picking. Liam is running a fever this weekend, but we had promised him last night we would go this morning, and he was in a good mood and had his heart set on going, so we went for just a little while. It was a lot of fun. I don't know why it has taken us so long to go do this - I think we may go back next weekend! :)






Having a taste




Our loot. 6 lbs for $8! Tonight we're going to be making strawberry muffins and strawberry ice cream.