Tay loves Little Trees!  Our vehicles always smell super fresh!  She wanted to be a Little Tree for Halloween and we were pretty impressed with her creation!  She loved hearing the neighbors say, “WOW, It smells so fresh out here!” when she would trick or treat at their houses.  Halloween was good times and definitely FRESH!

My blocks used to say Happy Halloween?   Hope everyone has a great trick or treating experience!

Roger is so fun to be married to.  He has always dreamed of taking 2 slip and slides and gluing them together to make a HUGE slide for the children.  Today was the day.  We have the perfect hill for slipping and sliding on.  This is our last hoorah of summer:

We have been feeding the fish in the pond bread and it is amazing to watch them swarm around the bread.  Roger took the boys out on the Inflatable boat to feed the fish.  Grant had a blast watching them and trying to catch them by hand so did Roger!

We finally have the DEED to our new house, it has been a learning experience buying a foreclosure but it is now officially ours and the kids love fishing in the ponds! McKay caught 4 fish in about 20 minutes! They must be really hungry!

We have a TO DO list a mile long but we are loving being here, there are so many new things to explore and learn. If you live close by, come on over!

It is amazing what we come up with when the van is in the shop and we are stranded at home.  Roger had some foam rectangles that came in some collectible cards that he bought.  I had ordered some wallets from www.shutterfly.com and had leftovers so we decided to make the Crooks Family Memory Game.  Taylor is an expert with Modge Podge and we finished making them in no time.  If you want detailed directions on how to make them just let me know.

Grant and Hunter playing with their Dad, they loved seeing pictures of themselves and tried to get those matches first:

Summer is here and I love making stuff with the kids.  I saw these really cool Alphabet and Number Molds on Let’s Explore Blog. The kids had a blast making crayons.  They are really neat, they can also be used for cookies, soaps, ice and brownies.  I highly recommend them!   Find them here:   http://lets-explore.net

McKay is our Mr. Wizard, he loves making concoctions and Goo or Slime is his favorite!  We were home all day because it was rainy and our van was in the shop.   Here’s McKay and his blue Goo:

The recipe:

1 cup water

1/2 cup Borax (laundry booster)

Mix until Borax is dissolved

In a seperate bowl mix:

1/2 cup (4 oz. bottle) of white school glue

1/2 cup water

food coloring of your choice

(we used Neon blue and tons of drops, hence the blue hands!)

Take the glue mixture and pour it into the Borax mixture, stir with plastic spoon or use your hands, the mixture will begin to form a gooey slimy ball!  There will be left over liquid, just throw it out when you have your slime mixed well. Store in a plastic bag when done playing.

We have been super busy!  We found a foreclosure that we fell in love with, are in the process of buying the foreclosure!  We know it will be so worth it once we get in the house but it has taken months to close!  We also finished up school and we now have a rising 7th grader….how did that happen?  My kids are growing way too fast!  Thanks for checking out my blog and I hate that I have not posted in a while. 

The mom bucks and smily chart are back.  I have had tons of people ask for a template.  I will get one up soon.  I really just made it in Microsoft Word.  It was super easy.  Roger has a smily chart that is absolutely wonderful and the kids respond to it well!   Have a great summer and enjoy the special times with your kids.

The slip and slide means summer has arrived!

Our kids love their grandparents and have the best time at their house.  They have the best creek to play in.  Papoo just put in a cool tree swing that everyone loves! 

Taylor loves it….

Landon loves it too…

Hunt Dog would rather get wet and muddy in the creek while making mudpies..