Turkey Cookies...

Turkey Cookies:

Sugar cookies

Candy Corn

Orange Frosting

Mini M&M's

Pipe eyes, legs, and nose onto cookie.

Attach mini m&m's for eyes.

Make 6-8 dots of frosting and attach candy corn for feathers.

Crafty Turkey...

Look what my crafty turkey, Dillon made me in school...

Dillon's Thanksgiving Show...

For the last month, Dillon has come home and sporadically started singing Thanksgiving themed songs. When he realized I was listening, he immediately would stop and say I have to wait to hear the rest at his "show"!

Today was his "show". Parents were to arrive at 2pm. Once parents were seated, the students were brought in class by class. There were a total of 4 kindergarten classes all performing together! Some were dressed as Indians and some as Pilgrims. Each child made their own shirt and hat out of construction paper. They looked adorable! Dillon was a Pilgrim for the show!

The children began singing the cutest of songs. After a couple songs, 8 children from each class would walk to the microphone and say "I am thankful for..." It was fun to hear what they are thankful for at this age! Some sweet ones were family, teacher, house, pets, and toys. The funny ones included clothes he was wearing, stickers, the floor, and homework!

After the performance, a student went up to the microphone and announced "Thank you for coming, we hope you enjoyed the show, light refreshments will now be served behind you"

Students were then dismissed. Dillon ran right over to me and asked if I liked the show. Before I could answer Ava said "Bubba you sang good". It was very sweet! Dillon just smiled and then headed over to the cookie table!

2009 Family Photos Are In...

I am very happy that we finally got around to having nice professional family pictures taken by a very good friend of mine. The last time we had a family picture was back in 2004 after Dillon was born. We also had a group family picture with Marc's brother and sister back in 2008, but that was before I had Garrison. We were long overdue. I am usually really good about pictures but I guess with more kids around these days its gotten past me!

Student Of The Month...

Back on November 9th, I posted an entry about Liliana winning the Town Council Student of the Month Award. Tonight was the "special night". We arrived a few minutes early but that wasn't early enough. Once a month, the mayor gives out the monthly award to over 50 students. 1 student per school in our entire town's district. Add at least 1 parent per kid, plus regular attendees, and some teachers... makes for one very crowded room!

The meeting started right on time. The mayor introduced himself, explained how the award ceremony would play out, and then asked for groups of 10-15 students up at a time to stand up front. Liliana was called up in the second group. She was so funny. She stood there and waited patiently for her name to be called. As her name was called, her AWESOME teacher (which was one of the only teachers in attendance I might add), yelled "WOOOOOOO Liliana way to go!" I would have cheered except I was focused on getting a decent photo while stuck sitting on my knees.

After excepting her award and taking a group photo, the children were dismissed. Liliana's teacher was more than pleased when we asked her to take a picture with Liliana and her plaque! After taking her picture she explained to Liliana why she got the award and how proud of her she is!

(She told Liliana that at her age its very hard for students to adjust to a new school, make new friends, and do well in school. She went on to say that Liliana is an excellent student and friend! She then went on to explain that only 1 student per month in the ENTIRE school gets this award. She instructed Liliana to bring the award to school so that she could show all her classmates what hardwork can sometimes bring!)

Did I mention how awesome her teacher is? At the beginning of this school year, I was very worried that I had made the wrong decision making the children switch schools, but at this point in time I couldn't be happier. The way the teachers and staff treat the students and parents is remarkable! They make the kids feel so special and this is just another great example of if!

If you want to see a live viewing of her receiving the award cut and paste this address into your web browser...

http://gilbert.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=4&clip_id=293

She is in the second group of kids around 11 minutes into the video!

Bendaroos...

Papa and Grandma arrived back from their trip to Texas a couple days ago. The kids were so sad that they were "so far away for so long". The entire time they were gone the kids talked to them over the phone at least 1 time a day. One day, it leaked out that their cousins in Texas were playing with Bendaroos. Bendaroos is all Marc and I hear about. Darn those infomercials!!

As you can see it didn't take long for the kids to get their bendaroos, not to mention it didn't take long for Grandma and Papa to start making some fun animals with the kids!

Almost Time...

In just 20 more days, Marc and I will be renewing our vows. I wanted to stick to a very modest budget. Those that know me well enough, know that I am very "thrifty" with all I do. I can honestly say that if tomorrow, I won the lottery, I would still be a very "thrifty" person! With that being said, I found the perfect fabric for the girls' dresses and decided I would make them each a dress! It would be WAY cheaper for me to make them dresses that had all the colors, fabrics, and accent pieces I wanted, then to buy something in any local store. Besides, the girls LOVE when I make them dresses! With everything that goes into planning a wedding on my plate, the dresses seemed to have taken forever to construct. I am so thrilled that today, I put the finishing touches on both dresses and they are all ready for the ceremony! I think they turned out adorable! Its hard to see in the picture but the fabric has a silver shimmer all over it. The red ribbon has a shimmer as well! The skirt will be very full looking once put on over the underskirt I made. The sleeves and bodice are lined with a white lace like ribbon which has silver beads every 1/2 inch running through it!

Mixed Emotions...

Jason and Family,

Of all the weekends in the month of December, it had to be the SAME weekend as our Vow Renewal?! Figures! I find myself sitting here with mixed emotions! I am very happy and excited for you but then sad that it means there will be 4 less people, whom I LOVE very much, at the ceremony. I know this chance is all you hoped, wished, and dreamed for, so ... Congratulations a million times and more! We will miss you very much on such a special day but understand that you will be having your own special day, hopefully bringing home the final win! Good Luck and bring back a trophy! Have a safe trip!

Love Jillian and Family

UP Movie Deal...

Hi friends and family,

Here is a smoking deal that I thought to share with you all.

Click on this link to print a $10 off coupon for the new movie UP.

http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/up/couponoffer/

Right now the 4 disc combo pack is on sale at Target for $19.99 so with the coupon the movie only costs $9.99!

Hurry and print your coupon and buy your movie by this Saturday November 14 before the sale ends!

Never Fail Pie Crust...

So after making over a dozen pies this last week and trying over a dozen different pie crust recipes.... I found my favorite. Its the "Never Fail Pie Crust" from allrecipes.com

Ingredients
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups butter flavored shortening
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup ice water
1 egg
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

Directions
In a large bowl, mix flour, shortening, sugar and salt.
Add ice water, vinegar and egg. Beat to combine.

I was able to get 3 nice thick crusts from this recipe! Hope some of you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Gilbert Town Council Citizen of the Month Award...

The award goes to.... drum roll please................ our awesomely perfect Liliana Simpson! About a week ago, I dropped Liliana off at school like usual to be stopped by the principal. He always unloads and loads the children but this particular morning he was busy at another vehicle so my children got out and closed the door. Before driving off he flagged me down. "Mrs. Simpson, did you get your letter yet?" as he was talking to me he also called out to Liliana, who was almost in the gated entrance to the school yard. "Liliana congratulations on your award." he said. She looked at him said "Thank you" and ran off to play with her friends. He turned back to me and informed me that the letter would be arriving soon if it hadn't already. I would have asked for more details although the honking cars behind me wishing to drop off their children made it very difficult to sit there and dive deeper into this conversation. Later that afternoon, Liliana still had no clue what the principal was talking about.

Today, I received "the letter". The letter reads

Dear Mr & Mrs. Marc Simpson,

We are pleased to inform you that your child, Liliana Simpson, has been selected as the school recipient of the Gilbert Town Council Citizen of the Month Award for October. This award distinguishes your child as an outstanding student citizen.

The award will be presented to your child at the Council Meeting on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 6:30pm. You are welcome to take photographs during the presentation.

We look forward to seeing you at the presentation.

Signed John W. Lewis

(our town Mayor and it was actually an ink signature not a stamp)

Very cool but sorta sad that Liliana has no clue how or why she "won" this award as she put it!

Pictures to come!

Odd Places To Sleep...

Not really much of a story to go with these pictures. The kids every once in a while are given the opportunity to "slumber" in the loft together. This particular night, they fell asleep early after making a huge mess with their toys. With so many toys in their way, they got very creative with where they fell asleep!

Welcome Ashley Rose...

I am pleased to announce the arrival of our newest neice, Ashley Rose. Denise and Alex welcomed her into the world late Friday night, November 6th. She was a healthy 8 lbs 12 oz. I have been told she looks like a perfect mix between Kaitlyn and Christian ( her older sister and brother). Congrats to the newest addition to the family! We can't wait to meet her!

Lunch Credit...

Ok so this is something new, well sorta... the schools have set up "lunch accounts" for each student. Basically it gives parents a couple options as far as payment methods are concerned. You can either send in money on the day that your child is to pay for lunch or send in a lump sum amount to keep an available balance. A few weeks ago I broke down and sent in a check to go towards Liliana and Dillon's accounts! The check was worth 5 lunches EACH! I kept a running total on the cork board so that I knew exactly how many the kids had before I would need to send in more money! I personally DESPISE school lunches. They are UNhealthy, not to mention they don't give enough food to fill my bottomless pits! Liliana is a very good eater so usually she knows to eat from the salad bar along with her lunch but Dillon I have to worry about! For that reason they get to buy once in a great while! According to my cork board each child still has 1 lunch left on their account! Or so I thought...

Today Dillon brought home a note from school which read



"According to our records your cafeteria account cash balance for the student listed above is -$2.25. Please pay the amount owed as soon as possible and remember to note your child's Customer ID number on your check or to include it with cash in an envelope. Please call if you have any questions."



Ok here is a question... why on earth do you let a 5 yr old boy rack up a "lunch bill" when he has a perfectly healthy and full lunch in his lunchbox?!!



Needless to say, I will be sending in the whole $2.25 so that his account is negative and then having a chat with the person in charge to explain that my child is to NOT "buy" a lunch unless there is a note from me saying he can! CROOKS I tell ya!



Typically in previous years, a child was only allowed to buy if they had 1) money or 2) no lunch in their sack. If there was no money and no lunch (say a parent forgot) then the child was given a basic PB&J sandwich along with a stamp. The stamp was to inform parents that they didn't have their lunch and the next time the parents would be charged for the lunch given out!



I guess with the economy these days... its easier and more profitable to let the children rack up a bill and then send the tab home to the parents as a surprise... we fed your kids even though they had a perfectly healthy lunch in their sacks!!



I shouldn't say that because I really LOVE our school and all the workers but this better NOT happen again! I don't buy school lunches for a reason! Oh and I should note that Dillon is INSISTING that he didn't buy lunch anytime in the last few days!! Go figure!