Jadyn's Young Authors Story

Every year Jadyn participates in the Young Authors competition at school. Jadyn's story is the following:

The curse of the unknown princess

By Jadyn

Once upon a time there was a graceful kingdom. The King and Queen recently had a beautiful baby girl. When the king and queen were just about to name the baby girl a dark shape popped up in the dining room. The shape was dark, evil, green and bad. It was the Pumpkin Scarecrow Witch!

The Pumpkin Scarecrow Witch wanted to give the baby girl a gift. She said, “Make this baby have the curse of having a dragon head at age 12. Hee! Hee! Hee!”

Up in the clouds there were fairies getting ready for the party. They heard the Pumpkin Scarecrow Witch “Hee! Hee!” and quickly came to the castle. When they got there they discovered that the Pumpkin Scarecrow Witch had disappeared.

The King and Queen asked the fairies to take the curse away. The fairies weren’t able to do that. Out of no where the Fairy Queen and some of her children arrived at the castle. The Fairy Queen asked, “May my children and I give the baby her gifts?” “Not yet” said the Queen. “I want to tell the kingdom her name before you present her with gifts.” The fairy Queen and her babies gathered around. Then the Queen said, “I’m going to name my baby Kayla Ashli Rhodes.”

The Fairy Queen and her children began to twirl their wands and cast a spell for baby Kayla. The Fairy Queen said “Kayla shall fall into a great sleep at age 16. She shall sleep until her prince arrives to give her a kiss to awaken her and they shall fall in love and be together forever.” More fairies soon arrived and granted baby Kayla their gifts of beauty, grace, song, & dance.

As Kayla got older she went to school to learn how to rule the kingdom and other such royal things. On the playground she was really good at crossing the monkey bars. Kayla often played on the playground with her friends Autumn, Bree, Ally, Megan, and Jordan. They did all sorts of things together.

One day on the playground Kayla brought her fairy toys out to play with her friends. Kim, the royal bully, said, “Can I play with you?” Kayla would sometimes have no problem playing with Kim, but this time told her “No”. Kim asked “Why not?” Kayla said, “The toys had cost a lot of money and that she didn’t want the heads popped off her dolls like she had done to her friends dolls.” “Fine,” said Kim. “Then I’ll just take them away from you and hide them where you can’t find them.” “NOOOOOOO!” cried Kayla.

Kayla quickly told her teacher what had happened and Kim had to call her parents and was forced to go to a learning class about how bullying is bad and that being nice is the best way to behave.

When Kayla turned 12 she began to develop her dragon head. School was awful because people started to laugh at her, but her friends never did.

When Kayla turned 16 she became very tired and fell into a great sleep. 2 years passed and then a prince from a nearby kingdom by the name of Brandon arrived and gave her a kiss. Kayla woke up and fell in love with Prince Brandon and they soon got married.

The End.

Bowling Tournament Results

Out of 90 girls 11 and under Jadyn came in 10th place and Taryn came in 17th place. They both did a fabulous job.

Jadyn advances onto the State Finals the first weekend of May.

5 Months Old!

Time sure is flying.....

Don't forget to check out our 365 Crazy Days blog!

365 days of pictures. Posting one picture a day with only a sentence, or two or three beside it. Just a little snippet of what we do and see every day.

http://ourcrazy365days.blogspot.com/

Mommy!!!!!

"Yes, Karis?"

"I want to talk to Ryanne."

"Go in and talk to her then"

"I can't!"

"Why not?"

"Brennan is HOGGING her and won't move!!!!!"

Oh to be able to sleep

wherever the mood strikes!

Prints....

A couple of days ago the younger 3 and I were getting ready to do a drop-off and I noticed these bird prints in the snow. Brennan, Karis and I followed them for a quick little bit to see where they were headed, but a car tire from a neighbor squashed the rest of the prints....

We thought they were pretty neat though....

"Mom, we need a dog....."

"Why Brennan?"

"Because they chase cats!"

Hmmmmmm

Kolin and I took Ryanne with us when we bowled tonight. She had been fed, took a small little nap and was just hanging out and smiling at everyone. We ordered some nachos for a quick snack. Kolin grabbed one once they arrived. Ryanne was staring big time at the chip Kolin had. She kept looking at him and you could tell that she thought she needed some. We didn't let her have any and she got rather upset with both of us and actually tried shifting herself around trying to get closer. If she could have gotten ahold of that chip she would have been one happy camper. Instead she decided to let everyone in the immediate area know that her mommy and daddy are super mean.

This little girl knows what she wants and once she's a little bigger we could be in a lot of trouble.

Bowling Tournament

This morning we headed up to Rockford bright and early. Jadyn and Taryn were in the Pepsi youth bowling tournament. We needed to be up there around 8am and we made it without a problem. With a little incentive (okay, down right bribery) the girls did really well.

This was Taryn's first tournament. She ended up with 62-38-72
Jadyn ended up with 82-101-103

We'll hopefully find out soon if either of the girls end up advancing to the state championships in May.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 bananas, mashed
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
In a mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter. Beat in eggs, vanilla and bananas until thoroughly blended. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and stir just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until the muffins test done with a wooden pick. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 12 muffins

The things they say...

Taryn is trying to get Karis to lay down for a 'nap'. Brennan is bugging Karis and won't leave her alone.

Taryn: "Brennan don't encourage Karis to wake up. She needs to sleep. Just leave her alone. You don't want to hurt her feelings."

Storytime @ the library

Karis, Ryanne and I started story time at the library today. The winter session started last week but we ended up not going due to the weather.

Karis was a little hesitant at first but had so much fun. She keeps coming up to me telling me that she had a very very very fun time at the library today. We've been going just to play and check out books for the last month after dropping Brennan off at school and always have a lot to do.

Karis and I got to sing songs, play with the parachute, listen to a couple of stories and then had a little arts and crafts time.

Fun Fun Fun!

A money tree....

Wouldn't it be kind of neat if a money tree actually existed? I'd love just a small branch of one. Just enough to get us into a house we can call our own. A place where we can all have a little bit of personal space.

We've just been absentmindedly looking online for houses for sale in our area. The prices are great and there is a decent amount that would actually work for our large family.

A historical day indeed

Whether you voted for Barack Obama or John McCain, the inauguration today is quite historic and will be one that millions always remember.

Change!
Change is dancing in my house
Change is dancing in your house
Change is dancing in the White House

Change!
Change is flying over the schools
Change is flying over the hospitals
Change is flying over the White House

Change!
Change is running to IRAQ
Change is running to the banks
Change is running to the White House
Change is saying "Yes We Can!"
Change!

-- 3rd Grade Students of McDowell School of International Studies, Chicago

I lost the battle

I wanted to wait until Ryanne was at least 6 months old before starting solids. She had other plans. I went out and bought her some cereal and new baby spoons.

Still feeling sad I came home got the cereal ready for her with a warm bottle waiting on the side. I was hoping that she'd HATE the cereal, but I was wrong again. She didn't spit it out and kept wanting more, more and you guessed it more.

Doe A Deer, A Female Deer

Kolin saw two deer across the street a couple of hours ago. You couldn't really see them from inside of the house because it was dark, but you could make out their outlines Kolin said they were coming by to see if they could have a council meeting to possibly call a truce. =) I think they need to try someone else....

I don't like them...never will. No matter what anyone tries to tell me it's just NOT going to happen. I probably would think they were great if different ones wouldn't have tried to kill me in the last 10 years.

Up Up Side Side Down Down

Kolin is letting Karis play the wiifit. She's doing the step aerobics and of course needs help.

All you hear is Kolin telling her: Up up, down down side side up up down down side side up up down down etc etc etc. Karis laughs the entire time and is having a lot of fun.

Now she's trying the giant shalom....facing backwards.......

Do you see anything wrong

with this picture?

Baby It's Cold Outside

How cold? The low last night was -30 with a windchill around -45. Right now it's -21 and that's the actual temp. Brrrrrr

The older 3 don't have school today. An extra day off is making for a 5 1/2 day mini vacation for my bunch. Now this wouldn't be soooo bad if they could go outside and play or we could actually leave the house.....neither are happening though.

I think we'll have a movie and popcorn afternoon. Hopefully it'll keep the masses happy. Hopefully.

No school

for the munchkins today. I honestly can't tell if they are excited or not. I have no doubt that Jadyn would have liked to go to school today whereas Taryn would have paid someone off to not have to go. =)

It's artic cold nasty out. Right now with the windchill we're at -36. The furnace is working overtime. Just as it shuts down I swear it's starts right back up again. It's took Kolin quite a while to warm up his van this morning so he could go into work. I'm sure Brennan is going to ask to outside to play at some point and I'm just going to laugh at him.

I just caught Taryn, Brennan and Karis sitting around one of the floor vents. It was cute...not fast enough getting my camera though.

The temps tonight and tomorrow morning are supposed to be even worse.

The 1/2 day that shouldn't have been....

Today was a 1/2 day of school with a teacher institute scheduled for this afternoon. We were positive it was going to be a snow day when we all got up, but we were sorely mistaken. Turns out that EVERY school in the surrounding areas was closed, except our town.

Kolin trudged outside and got the Expedition ready to venture out. I made sure the girls were ready, had their snack and were all bundled up. We had gotten 6-7 inches and it was still snowing when Kolin and the girls left this morning.

It turns out that 2 buses went into ditches this morning. It's unknown at this point if children were on the bus at the time or not. 100+ kids were called in absent from just the k-1st grade school. Jadyn had 6 kids missing in her class and Taryn said 4 were absent in her class.

Pure craziness and I'm sure the superintendents office was swamped with phone calls from irate parents. Now it's time to brace for artic winds and really nasty windchills that should be starting tonight and will last until sometime Friday.

Lots of fun!

Yesterday afternoon we went over to a friends house for a playdate. The mommies made sugar cookies (haven't made them in years) and iced them. They are going to go to school with the boys on Friday. They didn't have school today due to the weather.

Princess Leah & Princess Karis

More of the white crap

It's snowing again. We're supposed to have blizzard like conditions soon. Oh what FUN that will be!

The first picture was taken early this afternoon right as it started snowing again. The second picture was taken about an hour later. The snowflakes were HUGE!

The dictionary of Jadyn

Womanizer ~ Someone who sorts out women.

Mommy....

"Yes, Brennan?"

"What Earth do we live in?"

All you need is....

Lots of talking going on around here

Ryanne loves to talk. She loves people talking to her and for the most part she'll chat back if she's got something to say. Her little face just lights up when one of the bigger kids start chatting with her. It's super cute to watch because you know that she really wants to be able to tell everyone what she's thinking and she just can't.

If I think I'm busy now...

I can only imagine how busy I'm actually going to be once all 5 of these munchkins are in school.

Our first week with both Brennan and Karis in preschool has me wiped out. Not sure that I want to do anything this weekend, but the kids and then Kolin & I both have bowling. Of course other 'fun' stuff is thrown in there as well. Grocery shopping is always a huge highlight. =)

Ryanne is handling it all for the most part really well. She's still thrown off from everyone being home for Christmas break and now of course we're on a new schedule entirely.

Brennan and Karis are only fighting about whose day it is to go to school a couple of times a day. I think I'm going to have to go to the Dollar Tree and buy them a cheapy calendar with some stickers. I'll put B's on Brennan's days and K's on Karis' days and then they can add a sticker to THAT day once they've gone to school. If anyone has any other ideas please let me know. I'm up for just about anything at this point.

Mama..

I wanna cuddle me you.

Karis is a cuddle bug. When the mood strikes her (which is quite often) she'll come up to me and say: "I wanna cuddle me you." I'm sure she's actually meaning I wanna cuddle with you, but I wanna cuddle me you sounds sweeter.

Weally Far Away

Even though Karis says her school (and practically everything else) is Weally Far Away she had a lot of fun at school and with her new friends.

She painted, sang songs, had story time, made snowflakes, went to the bathroom, washed her hands using soap =), had a snack (cookie, bananas and juice) , put her jacket on and came home.

And she's off to school....

Karis started preschool this morning. She was super excited to go and meet her new friends. I think she's really missed her playgroup.

Our Crazy 365 Days

365 days of pictures. Posting one picture a day with only a sentence, or two or three beside it. Just a little snippet of what we do every day. The pictures will be a little bit of everything. I'm sure the 5 little people in our house will be the main focus.

http://ourcrazy365days.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Vtech - Kidizoom Digital Camera

Brennan and Karis received the Vtech Digital Camera for Christmas. Blue for Brennan and pink for Karis. I was able to get them for $20 each through Amazon which is an amazing deal. They've been dropped numerous times already and you'd never know it.

Both of the kids have had a great time roaming around the house taking multiple photos and videos of anything and everything that catches their eye.

I'll be posting some of their pics and videos soon.

Oreo Balls

Thanks for the pic Erin! (Your pic came out better than mine)

1 package oreo cookies

1 8oz package cream cheese

white almond bark

chocolate almond bark

Crush oreos (food processor, blender or put them in a large ziplock bag and smash them to crumbs), mix together with cream cheese.

Roll into balls and put them in the fridge for about an hour to chill.

Melt the white bark, dip the oreo balls in, coating them. Place them on wax paper on a cookie sheet to set. When they are semi set, you can drizzle some chocolate bark on them for decoration.

These are by far a favorite of Kolin's

Jeans, Knees & Boys

I don't know how Brennan does it, but out of close to 10 pairs of jeans I think we've only got one pair left that is hole free in the knees. It doesn't seem to matter what brand we buy either, as the same thing just keeps happening. I think we're going to have to buy stock (haha) in a jeans company and soon. This is getting crazy!

If anyone has any recommendations for boys jeans let me know.

Karis loves her new baby...

Baby still doesn't have a name, but she is well loved!

School is back in session

Tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure we're all ready for our 'normal' to return. Poor Ryanne isn't going to know what hit her. She was pretty confused for the first couple of days due to everyone being home and starting tomorrow we'll be on the run again.

We've stayed up later, slept in, had playdates, mommy had a girls night out, daddy was home for a few days here and there, we had bowling, and lots of fun family time.

But alas it's time for normal (to us anyway) to return. Haircuts this afternoon, backpacks to go through, the girls need to decide if they'll eat lunch at school or need a cold lunch (PLEASE MOM!)

How much fun can one mommy have? =)

Happy New Year!!!!!

We hope everyone has a fantastic and blessed 2009!

New Years Eve

We had a lot of fun yesterday. Kolin came home from work early as usual on New Years Eve. We headed over to the bowling alley at 4. They had a cosmic bowling (bowling in the dark with black lights, music, etc) and other goodies going on for an early family night.

Afterwards we came home and played the Wii. Actually we sang...Disney Sing It! Soooo much fun! Jadyn and Taryn did really well, but Brennan blew them out of the water. Even Karis had a lot of fun and sang some of the songs that she knows. Kolin and I even jumped in and sang some of the songs since we've heard them a million times.

The kids made it until about 10:30 and then it was time for bed. Kolin and I made it to midnight due to a super cute 4 month old waking up for some cuddle time with mommy just at the right time.